Robo the Crit Hater

Well, Robo Brokaw, self professed crit hater has won the crit at Joe Martin and took 3rd overall in the 40+! Way to go Robo!!!! Great job by many other Mackers these last few weeks, Uncle Gary included, who also has the report:

Road:

Congratulations to Robert “Robo” Brokaw for winning the final stage at Joe Martin and taking 3rd overall. Gina Champion brings home 5th in the Women Open at Monsters and Congratulations to Lindsey Marr for finishing a fine 33rd place in her first race ever, the women 4/5. Justin Armstead is staying consistent with top five placing over the weekend. Mark Shea came close to winning Fox River with a fine 2nd place. Darren Steiner and Mark O’Banion great results. Way to go Don and Neil on a fine 3rd in the two-man TT at Garden Prairie and Frank Brummer 3rd at the 40K TT in Tolono, IL.. A special thanks to Jack Hurley for helping get Gary to the last turn a Midway for the sprint.

And Big Congrats for the WIN at Penrose on the Track for Darrell Bratton!!!

As of today Team MACK is in 2nd place 4 points back in the Illinois Cup Team Standings.

Congrats also to Dave Neis for taking 5th down at McMinnville in the 3’s! Berto was along for fun and spirits and also did a bang up job in the 4’s.

I’ll be in Champaign helping out for the team!

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Timber!!!

Crotalus Horridus--and sucky photography to boot

Yes, it’s snake season! My riding buddies are already suffering. I took out Rev. Dale last week in a successful effort to bag an Eastern Black Racer. We were coming into New Jackoffs on 127 and the a pretty good sized (4ft) racer crossed in front. I swerved to try to cut it off, and I yelled “snake” but it was windy. Dale didn’t know what the fuck was going on, and plowed into my rear wheel when I dismounted–sending him sprawling onto 127….good thing it wasn’t busy….

Today I was doing the long figure 8 on the wine trail. That’s a nice 55 miler with very serious hills. And, best of all it double swings along Hickory Ridge, where there is one of the heaviest concentrations of Timber Rattlers in Illinois. Nice ones, too. This one was about 4ft, but very young despite the girth. I came on it crossing Hickory Ridge about 600 meters South of Pomona Winery. My pictures suck. I hope Ted MacRae doesn’t see this, he’ll demand that I sell my TT bike and buy a real camera. But, what do you expect from a broken cell phone?

Cranking the Pine Hills

Heading down the Mississippi Levee into the Hills....

Dave was very sick yesterday so we took off early to do the Muddy Levee Pine Hills Double. Beautiful day! 79 degrees, tailwinds the entire way. You can’t beat that! We saw a good-sized stand of Sandhill Cranes in the swamps off of the levee.  Though we also had to stop so I could torque down my crank every hour or so, and Dave had a couple of flats…Still, we made it to New Jackoffs well before our projected time…..Notably, the Levee is running fine, and despite the rain and the reported flood-levels at Cape, Scatters road is NOT under water. Indeed, the Muddy has receded from last week when Molteni and I did it.

No racing for me for a few weeks. I’ll be watching kids next weekend while some will go to McMinnville for Highland Rim. Good results last weekend for Mack,  with Darrell, Frank, and Steve all putting up fine performances in Belleville. Some pretty nice results for Carbondalians, with young Dan taking second to Ron Bridal in the 3’s, and Rob posting a podium in the 40+,4-5. Gary and Molteni were also fighting it out, and I think Berto also showed. Dave duked it out in the 1-2-3–which I should have tried to make. But, alas. Too much travel the week before. Next up, Champaign!

Athens and Beyond

Wow, what a couple of weeks in racing! The rain has been quite a trip. I managed to get over to Athens for the Twilight festivities, and I have to say that Athens Twilight is one of the best racing events in the USA! Wow!!! The entire town is behind it, and they’ve transformed the University calendar to make sure it’s as strong and cool as possible. I tooled in from my conference in Atlanta in the late afternoon on Friday. After settling in at the very cool and very inexpensive Georgia Center, I dressed up to spin out my legs and pick up my race numbers at Party Central in downtown Athens. I was a bit lost, but there were plenty of enthusiastic fans with helpful directions. When a pool full of bikini-clad sorority girls rush up to give you directions, you know you are not just in a typical event. It is way better than the usual “fuck you, you goddamn faggot! Get out of our town!” which one normally experiences.

Unfortunately, the beautiful weather and scenery of Friday devolved into thunderstorms on Saturday…..As I made my way over, I seriously thought about bailing out, and I was certainly NOT going to use my Cat-3 number. My spirits were lifted a bit when I got back from a natural break and saw that Tom Gates and Robert Gregory from Nashville had parked next to me. They’re both total badasses and great guys, racing for Lynn Greer’s Gran Fondo squad. Nobody was really thrilled by the conditions, and the ledger had 33 starters in the 45+–not exactly a large turnout for an NRC race! I didn’t flinch, started on the front line, and made certain that the first lap was fast going up the big hill on the finish line. The qualifier races don’t use the flat downtown course familiar to spectators, and this year they put it on a really nice course near the riverfront. It suited me, and I was stoked after a few laps. A lot of guys tried to make breaks happen, and I bridged up to two of them in the early going–but nothing was going anywhere. There were no teams, and lots of strong guys.  Coming into five laps to go I was thinking “holy shit, I could win this”, the lead pack was down to about 20 guys.  But, with 2 to go, I started cramping a bit after chasing up to a late attempt. And, right after that someone took a flyer and held it for the win. I recovered and had a pretty good line in the sprint, but I slowed trying to follow Tom Gates, but didn’t have the kick to surge past him as the cramps kicked back in and my sprint didn’t. Ah, well. I finished a respectable 12th, and I was right up there in the end of an NRC race.

Great job by Justin, Darrell, and Mark Shea and all the rest who were up in STL racing the TDSTL!!! Lots of Heckawee and Carbondalians in action in that one as well! Diamond Dave Neis took 3rd overall and 2nd in Carondolet. Chief Reimbold finished the TT in Mikey Weiss’ van, after Mikey picked him up at the porta potty….I’m not sure what is up with that…..

FROM UNCLE GARY:

A SUPER BIG Congratulations to Justin Armstead for finishing 3rd Overall and WINNING the Time Trial at the Tour of St Louis Cat 1/2/3/ event. Also, Joshua, Ryan and Nathan Mittelberg for the great results at St Louis and Iowa City last weekend. Way to go kids!! One more..Darrell Bratton held the masters up at St Louis with a 2nd Overall in the 40+ Masters.

Iowa City Criterium, IA  4/25/2010

Junior 13-14

2——Nathan Mittelberg

Junior 15-16

4———Joshua Mittelberg

5———Ryan Mittelberg

Tour of St Louis, Carondelett 4/24/2010

Men Category 1/2

8——-Justin Armstead

Masters 40+

3——-Darrell Bratton

12——Mark Shea

14——Steve Hall

15——Don Lowe

29——-Gary Doering

31——-Frank Brummer

34——–Robert Brokaw

38——-Jeff Williams

Junior Open

2——–Joshua Mittelberg

5——–Ryan Mittelberg

14——-Nathan Mittelberg

Category 4/5

18——–Ray Caruso

Tour of St Louis, Time Trial 4/24/2010

Men Category 1/2/3

1——-Justin Armstead

Masters 40+ (TT results may not be accurate)

2——-Robert Brokaw

5——-Mark Shea

7——-Don Lowe

10——Frank Brummer

11——Darrell Bratton

13——Mark O’Banion

Tour of St Louis, Delmar Criterium 4/25/2010

Men Category 1/2/3

7——-Justin Armstead

Masters 40+

3——-Darrell Bratton

6——-Gary Doering

7——-Mark Shea

9——-Don Lowe

10——Robert Brokaw

16——Mark O’Banion

Category 3

9——–Jeff Williams

Tour of St Louis  Masters 40+ OVERALL

2———Darrell Bratton

4———Mark Shea

5———-Don Lowe

Tour of St Louis  Category 1/2/3 OVERALL

3———Justin Armstead