We decided to get a hotel for the remainder of Superweek. With the rest of the races in Milwaukee plus a late race on Sunday night with an early morning flight on Monday morning, we got a hotel right by the airport to make things easier. Since it dried up during Heather’s race and I was starting to feel better I decided to attempt another Pro1/2 race. Schlitz Park is one of the more popular Pro Men’s crits. It’s known to be a tough course with a good sized hill in it. Picture a long rectangle and then put it on a slant, lengthwise. That’s the Schiltz Park course. You’re either going up or down. The start/finish stretch is a gradual incline from the last corner through the finish line, then the last 150 meters is steep jammer hill. I’m not sure what percent-grade it was, but during my warm-up laps, I was in my 39×23.

All the Pro/1/2 criteriums during Superweek are 100K in length, so that 62-mile crits! With this hill I knew it would be hard and since I just started feeling better I wasn’t sure how I’d fare. But I figured I could always bail and save it for tomorrow night which has a course that’s more suited to me. So I tried to line-up early and I was one of the first few riders to stage. But there were so many people that showed up from the front and then the riders that get called to the line that I ended up in the middle of the pack for the start.

After some delay, we finally started and it was fast from the gun. The first few laps were hard and it felt like a mountain bike race where you go totally anaerobic on the hill, then try to recover on the downhill only to do it again very quickly. The tight corners at the bottom of the hill also amplified the accordion effect so if you were anywhere but the first 10 riders you had to work your butt off to get up to speed on the slight rise towards the steep part of the uphill. The pace stayed consistent, even though a break was off. I hung in with the pack for a little over 30 minutes, at which point I decided I got my pre-race workout in so I’d be ready for tomorrow’s race. It was a good workout, but I think with a good night’s rest I should feel better tomorrow.