Waterloo Grit and Gravel

Good afternoon everyone!

Guess whose hopes just got a little bit higher after the first race of the year? You're right, it's me! The legs are feeling super fine, the mental aptitude for suffering is present, I'm having a lot of fun, and I feel very Belgian. The perfect mix for a Spring full of racing!

'How on earth do you make a huge mistake before the race even starts, Charlie?' Well let me tell you how. So of course I'm just wandering around the start area, talking to friends and wasting time (my specialty), and the 100k racers go off. Great, that is fantastic. Little do I know that as soon as the 100k racers are off (the longer of the two races today) the 50k racers immediately push up into the start area to line up for our race. I mean kind of obvious OK? Of course that is what is going to happen. I saw a bunch of TCL racers chatting before the 100k went off and instead of joining them I just kept riding laps around the parking lot to warm up. I make no exaggeration that as soon as the first race went off everyone in the second race began to line up. Darn. Now I am stuck in the very back of the massive pack of people racing the 50k and I have no option but to stay there.

As we all know, I'm not usually one for too much confrontation, like I'll be happy to talk to people but I'm certainly not one who is going to go out of my way to cause issues. So of course I just sit there, thinking, 'I'll just make a quick move as soon as the road widens out and I'll be fine'. Well that didn't happen. The front of the massive group took off very quickly and I was so far behind I would never touch the front racers. I figured this out pretty quickly as we took a corner and I could see pretty well ahead that the front of the group was probably a mile and a half off. That's a total exaggeration but I wasn't going to make up all that ground. So I decided pretty early that my race was going to be a series of catching people ahead of me, passing them, and moving onto the next group ahead and it worked very well!

As I mentioned, the legs felt very nice! There is still some work to be done and that is expected as it is still so early in the season, but the signs are pointing to a good Spring for me! Throughout the entire race and because I started so far in the back, no one ever passed me during the entire ride. I'll take that as a solid positive and look ahead to next week in Vandalia.

I should probably mention the insane mud today. Before the race everyone was talking about, 'Cassidy road' and how bad it is going to be and that hopefully everything is frozen. LOL, it wasn't frozen. I don't really know where 'Cassidy road' is, the entire race was just one big mud pit, ruts in the dirt roads were massive and very quick to catch a wheel and throw you off a nervy bike. Speaking of which, I DIDN'T CRASH TODAY! Another huge positive to take from today is that we stayed on both wheel the entire time! Now let me be clear, there were multiple times where I would have to put a foot down to keep me from falling, but I think this could be a sign of more confidence to come. Overall, I'm very happy with today and I'm very much looking forward to races for the rest of the year! We will look to get a little quicker, I need to stretch and ride. It looks like the weather might be turning for the better this week and I hope that trend sticks for a while (:

3/16 Waterloo G&G, Grass Lake, MI (Gravel) 34th Overall (221) / 4th AG (6)
3/23 Melting Mann, Vandalia, MI (Gravel)
3/30 Dirty 30 Gravel Grinder, Saranac, MI (Gravel)
3/31 Autobahn Spring Criterium, Joliet, IL
4/6 Lowell Classic, Lowell, MI (Gravel)
4/7 Ann Arbor Spring Training Series, Ann Arbor, MI
4/13 Barry Roubaix, Hastings, MI (Gravel)
4/14 Ann Arbor Spring Training Series, Ann Arbor, MI
4/20 Marian Cycling Classic, Indianapolis, IN
4/27 Yankee Springs TT, Gun Lake, MI (Mountain !!)
4/28 Ann Arbor Spring Training Series, Ann Arbor, MI
5/5 Fort Custer Stampede, Battle Creek, MI (Mountain)
5/11 Hammond Region Riot, Hammond, IN
5/18 Weekend at WLSR, Muskegon, MI
5/25 Twilight on the Square, Akron, OH
5/26 Newark Center Classic, Englewood, OH
6/1 Deaconess River City Bicycle Classic, Evansville, IN
6/9 Dirty Donut, Martin, MI (Gravel)
6/16 Vuelta a Porta Sheldon, Grand Haven, MI (?)
6/22 Athens Brick Criterium, Athens, OH
6/29 Port City Crit, Muskegon, MI
6/30 Great Lakes Classic Road Race, Marne, MI
7/13 Detroit Cycling Championship, Detroit, MI
7/14 Corktown Crit, Detroit, MI
7/28 The Divide (Gravel) / Muncie Grand Prix, Muncie, IN
8/10 Rose City Crit, Jackson, MI
8/18 Gaslight Crit, Grand Rapids, MI
8/25 Debaets-Devos Crit, Detroit, MI
9/8 Uncle John's Dirty Ride, St. John's, MI (Gravel)
11/2 Iceman, Traverse City, MI

Tax season is almost becoming a little fun! I'm getting good at preparing returns, the people I work with are super awesome, and I'm really enjoying things! School is weighing on me, but I'll get through it! I have a lot of papers and projects coming due pretty soon that I haven't started, but I'll get everything done I'm sure!

Cheers! CE