Chicago was host to the National Criterium Championships this weekend. There are two races with the pro/am race on the Saturday night and the big day of nationals on Sunday. The Pro/Am is always a fast race with some guys going crazy and some just warming up there legs for the following days racing. I took the warming up approach and rolled with the field all day in what was a high speed 50km hit out. There were some unnecessary crashes and all the standard stuff. No one from Inferno had a particularly great day.
Sunday the Inferno Team started the amateur race and all the non US riders on Inferno got a start in the pro race since we cant race the armature race. Marco had a really solid race and ended up 2nd in the amateur race.
The Pro race rolled off at a leisurely pace for the first few laps but once the pace started coming on it never come off again. Approaching half way in the 100 kilometer race I was sniffing around for some action and managed to attack and get a good break with three other guys. Everyone was rolling really well except one dude who thought he was too cool to work. We come around and the half way preme come up. My eyes lit up for and easy $1000 but coming around the last turn though the dude who had been sitting on lit it up for the sprint and I had to work pretty hard to put him away but ended up winning easily. After that I had some words with the sit on slacker and our group stopped working all together and the break fell to pieces and the main bunch caught us back. Joe Cooper arrived across to the break just as we all decided no one wanted to be there. Still it was a good effort to see Cooper make it across and get in the mix. The rest of the race was pretty hard and I think I committed to much energy to the break so ended up becoming a passenger for the rest of the race. Josh ended up the best placed Inferno rider with 25th so it was not the greatest race for inferno. The only consolation prize was the half way preme.
Next week is Madison Cup and Chris Thater Criterium. Lots of driving!!!

Photos of Inferno http://edwinhadi.com/inferno_critchamps/

Elk Grove just keeps on treating me to a rough run when in today’s 170km road race I made the group sprinting for the win. Everything was looking sweet for a top result and I felt really good but some dude crashed in the last turn with 400 meters to go. I was in about 7th spot and come to a complete standstill. Disappointing to say the least. Hopefully tomorrow’s final stage Criterium will bring me some more luck!

The Tour of Elk Grove is on this weekend and the first stage I learned yet another cycling lesson which you would have thought I would have picked up a long time ago! I took the wrong way in the prologue missing out just over 1km of the course. The problem was when we scouted the course we took the wrong way. Unfortunately they didn’t put any fencing or cones to block off the short cut and the three of Chicago’s finest standing there were to busy eating Twinkes to point out my mistake. I was pretty disappointed but that’s racing and it was my mistake for not reading the race bible properly. I look forward to hopefully redeeming my mistake over the next two days.

Sunday Remi took us out rafting with his buddy who is a rafting guide. It was very very fun and we had a great time. Here is some photos of some of the rapids we went down.

I flew out to Boise on Friday for the Saturday nights Boise Criterium. My inferno team mate Remi McManus is from Boise and did a great job making sure the weekend ran smoothly. The race was a sweet four corner 90 min Criterium. Toyota Cycling Team had what seemed like 10 guys so they really had the race under control from start to finish. Sure enough Inferno's curse of missing the break continues and three guys lapped the field without Inferno. I had very good legs and it was unfortunate that at the end I was kind of left to do my own thing, managing to scrap in for 9th in a messy but fast sprint. Ok but not the best result for the team.

I did this race last year and it was so hot I struggled to do any good. Well this year was no different with sweltering conditions really putting stress on the bodies. The race was 1.30hrs long and that was well and truly enough to have me with a full case of heat stroke. My team mate Matt Winstead made the break and they lapped the field. I had a flat tyre around the time the break escaped which didn’t help the cause so ended up working to try and help lead him out at the end of the race. The lead-out didn’t go so flash and he ended up 4th. Bit disappointing but I just had a week off the bike walking around DC being a tourist so that may not have helped the legs!

Iron Hill Criterium is one of those twilight Criteriums that has huge crowds and a great atmosphere. The Inferno Team had a full squad and the field was over 100. The race started off very fast and just stayed fast. I had pretty good legs but not good enough to follow the eventual winner Mark Heckman who lapped the field solo! Dam strong dude. Only 30 or so guys finished so I guess the race was harder then usual.
The Inferno Team raced ok but no results to write home about. I finished 14th and Bennet C finished 8th.

After driving back from Allentown six hours on Saturday I was feeling pretty average for Sunday's Grandview Criterium. The race is not an easy one as the circuit has a long 600 meter hill that seems even longer at the end of the race. Team Inferno started with seven guys and the other regular Ohio teams, Texas Roadhouse, RFG were present plus some out of towners so the field was pretty strong.
Inferno was well placed in all the moves and I had a pretty quiet first half of the race. Then after some smack went down fellow Kiwi team mate Joe Cooper and I got away with one Texas guy. The field panicked and it really got the ball rolling. After they caught us another group went away. I jumped across and with all the major teams present we cleared out from the field.
The race started dragging out and the heat and humidity was pretty bad so some guys started to crack. Josh England and Jim Boldizar made the break from Inferno so we were best represented. Coming into the last two laps Paul Martin attacked a couple of times but The Inferno Team was on top of him. He ended up leading out his team mate with me in the middle but I was able to hold him off to the line to win the race.
So it was a happy ending to the weekend be it a bit tired from all the travel. Next weekend we have another race out in Pennsylvania so lots more driving! Also my parents turn up tomorrow from NZ for four weeks holiday so it will be good to catch up with them.