Peloton Star: Old Capitol, LaCrosse, Goshen, Cone Azalia, Champaign-Urbana

Photo: IowaBicycleRacing.Org

IOWA: Iowa City - Old Capitol Criterium - RESULTS PHOTOS - Featuring a time trial and road race on Saturday, then in the heart of downtown Iowa City, the Chris Lillig Memorial Cup Criterium on Sunday this has been a staple in area racing for 35 years.

Brandon Krawczyk (Revolution Cycle and Ski) took both Saturday's Cat 1/2 road race and the final criterium (and probably the overall omnium) this year over a hard working Brian Eppen and Matias Perret. Krawczyk said of the race:
“The Iowa City cycling team, they’re a great group of guys and they’re real strong and they were doing their best to ride me off their wheel,” Krawczyk said. “So I had to be on the defensive the entire day. So if it looked like I was doing nothing, it’s only because I was hanging on. “Brian Eppen is riding really well, so is Matias. I just tried to keep breathing, ride smart and stay sheltered and do as much work as I had to, but not too much.”

Men - Pro/Cat 1/2
	Place	Name	City, State	USAC #	Team
	1	Brandon Krawczyk (1 - Cat1)	Waukesha, WI	232232	Revolution Cycle and Ski
	2	Matias Perret (1 - Cat2)	Iowa City, IA	292569	Iowa City Cycling Club
	3	Brian Eppen (2 - Cat1)	Iowa City, IA	121702	Iowa City Cycling Club

WISCONSIN: LaCrosse - LaCrosse Fitness Festival Omnium - RESULTS PHOTOS - Incomplete results and just scattered stories coming out of this three day omnium held just up the river from the Iowa City races on the same weekend. It featured a road race Saturday morning over in Minnesota which had one huge climb, followed later that evening by a 2.4 mile uphill TT going up Grand Dad's Bluff in Lacrosse. Then on Sunday, it was the criterium on the banks of the Mississippi in downtown Lacrosse. The Pro 1/2 road race was won by IS Corp's main sprinter Josh Gillingham who podiumed down at the Joe Martin Stage Race in Arkansas last week. Second was Alexander Meyer (Grand Performance) who also races for the University of Wisconsin and recently won the Purdue Collegiate "A" race in April, followed by Maxwell Anderson (LAPT) who got third again last year in the criterium and who also podiumed last year in the USA Collegiate National's road race.

Photo: East Hills Velo

INDIANA: Goshen - I Love Goshen Criterium - RESULTS PHOTOS - This second annual Friday night , twilight criterium, appears to be a well represented race associated with the city's weekly Friday night "First Friday's Celebration" which included food vendors and live music. Team Upland Brewing Company gives us a blow by blow of the final laps:

"Then, with two to go, Kyle got taken out in a crash… on a straightaway. What, dudes? I was a few riders back and was able to get around the crash without losing any momentum. Then I realized I was the only Upland guy near Ryan and we had 2.5 laps to go. So I would be stuck trying to lead him out.
With a lap to go I was a few riders behind Ryan and fighting to move up as a team at the front - either Bissel/Nuvo or Bissel’s masters’ team - had things strung out over 30mph. On the backstretch, a gap was opening a rider in front of Ryan. I gritted my teeth and slid out into the wind, shouted “SHEAN, GET ON MY WHEEL” and closed the gap. By the 2nd to last corner, I was in 9th wheel and Ryan was right behind me.

150 meter straightaway. No time to move up unless I’m going to chop the last corner. I don’t know if I want to do that with Ryan on my wheel. Too late to re-consider, we hit the finishing straight.
300 meters to go. I get out of the saddle. I try to accelerate to give Ryan some kind of springboard to catch a few guys ahead and maybe hit the top 5. No doing. I have nothing left. I swing off, he sprints in for 9th. I finish 11th, nobody else behind us for a few seconds. The 20 guys left in the pack after the crash were strung out over the course, the last lap was that fast.
Still, both of us were in the money. As a team, we did everything we wanted to and only had some bad luck with Kyle’s crash."

I Love Goshen Criterium
Goshen, IN
May 4, 2012

Men - 1/2/3
Place	Rider		Team	Hometown
1	Matthew	Light	Alderfer Bergen	WARSAW	IN
2	Jeffrey	Pendlebury	Cleveland Clinic	FREDERICKSBURG	OH
3	Derek	Witte	ABG-NUVO	GRAND RAPIDS	MI
4	Jeremy	Grimm	CLEVELAND CLINIC SPORTS HEALTH / RGF PB FELT	ORRVILLE	OH
5	randall	rodd	Wolverine Sports Club	WEST BLOOMFIELD	MI

More war stories from the Cat 3 race HERE.

Photo: Kroske Archives

MICHIGAN: Milan - Cone-Azalia Road Race - RESULTS PHOTOS - The self proclaimed "Paris Roubaix of the Midwest" or "Michigan's Gravel Road Race" held near Ann Arbor. One rider from Lead Out Racing describes it: The Cone Azalia Road Race is a race that truly exemplifies Michigan; a grid of flat, notoriously horrible roads, and farmland all around. WSI-Team Active describes it: Cone-Azalia is a part rough pavement, part dirt road, all wind exposed box of madness. Nowhere to hide. No gain - all pain.

A 10 mile loop that's 40% gravel with the likes of Panther's Paul Martin hitting the pedals hard on each gravel section. Dan Korienik gives us the blow by blow:

Lap 7- Paul Martin flex’s his muscle’s a little and hits the gravel super hard. I’m not sure about everyone else, but I was just about at my limit. Thankfully the pace slows a little and everyone settles in for the finish sprint. The group has about 12 guys and I’m not sure if anyone is a sprinter. So, rather than wait for the sprint I start it. In my normal fashion it is probably a little early, but it almost worked. I am sitting almost dead last and decide to go with 300 meters left. I think I caught a lot of guys by surprise as I was able to get a pretty good gap. I am sprinting strong and can see one wheel coming up. I try to hold them off but my legs aren’t working with me and I am caught by Derek Graham at the line. Just finishing the race without mechanical troubles is good, but finishing 4th is awesome."

Mac Brennan, freshly back from Joe Martin, who also raced at Menomonee Falls, GDVC #2, took the win at Hillsboro - Roubaix, get's the win again.

Men - CAT 1/2 MEN
	Place	Name	City, State	Time	USAC #	Team
	1	MAC BRENNAN	East Jordan, MI	02:56:57	243416	BISSELL-ABG-NUVO/INDIANAPOLIS CYCLING CLUB
	2	ROB THOMPSON	Lakewood, OH	02:59:46	311256	SPIN
	3	DEREK GRAHAM	Lake Ann, MI	03:00:52	102695	BISSELL-ABG-NUVO/INDIANAPOLIS CYCLING CLUB
	4	DAN KORIENEK	Grandville, MI	03:00:53	288930	LEADOUT RACING
	5	SVEN BAUMANN	Lake Orion, MI	03:00:53	378155	WOLVERINE SPORTS CLUB

ILLINOIS: Champaign/Urbana - CU Weekend - RESULTS RESULTS PHOTOS - A two day weekend of racing in central Illinois featuring two criteriums that are quite popular with the Windy City folks. Since Chris Uberti and Team Panther were instrumental in both wins, Saturday and Sunday, let's let him tell the story:

Saturday returned to the traditional 4 corner flat wide open campus crit. Things played out exactly how you'd expect such a course to play out, nothing got more than a 10 second advantage. Going into the closing laps Aitchenson and I were arguing about who felt crappier and would sprint. I eventually won, pulling seniority and American-ness and lead him out for the sprint, which turend out pretty well since he won.

Sunday:

By 15 or so laps to go (around 20 minutes left in the race) I was seriously hurting. I was doing my own threshold to stay on JJ's wheel and we'd go about 5 mph slower every time I'd pull through then have a pretty hard time getting back on the wheel. The 90 degree heat and humidity (the first hot race of the season) also amplified my deteriorating ability to ride fast. Knowing the rest of the team behind was putting in work to cover attacks and keep things locked down I decided to sit on to try and recover a bit. I also heard over the speaker that another Panther rider was chasing in a 2 man group at 20 odd seconds behind us (we were also 20-30 seconds off lapping the field, but small group sprints are kinda my thing and I didn't want to be involved in any last lap nonsense).

With some 4 odd laps I tried my hand at pulling through again with some pretty painful results.

JJ attacked on the back side of the course just as I pulled off but I was able to catch his wheel. As we came onto the finishing straight I jumped and took the Win.