23-24 Jul Michigan Challenge Weekend

With nothing better to do for the weekend, Jessi and I decided to hop in the car and drive 6 hours east to Flint Michigan – for racing of course! On tap, the Michigan Challenge weekend, a road race-criterium pairing for a two day omnium.

Flint, located in southeast Michigan about 100 km northwest of Detroit, is the birthplace in 1908 of US car manufacturing giant General Motors. Once an epicenter for automobile manufacturing, Flint is now a symbol of the decline of the auto industry in the US following the closure of several of Flint’s GM manufacturing plants in the 1980’s. Due primarily to downsizing of GM facilities to just 10% of the 1970’s workforce, Flint’s population has plummeted, falling from nearly 200,000 at its peak in the 1960’s to 102,000 in the 2010 census. The impact of the GM closures on the area was documented by Michael Moore, a Flint area native, in the film Roger and Me. Combined with the current economic downturn in the US, the closures have resulted in extensive urban decay. The signs of abandonment and disrepair were obvious as we encountered numerous boarded-up buildings and bank-owned businesses in our search for somewhere to dine Friday after arriving in town.

Vehicle City arch in downtown Flint

Once in Flint, Jessi and I met up with teammate Sarah, a Michigan native who, in a happy exchange of roles, got to do a race near home for a change rather than making the (often comically ill-fated) trek to faraway places. Saturday’s race was the Maillot Juane (French for ‘yellow jersey’) Road Race, three laps of a semi-rolly 22-km circuit. The course was fairly straightforward—except for the short section of badly weathered asphalt bumpy enough to rattle the teeth out of one’s head. Or the bottle out of one’s bottle cage!

On the first lap, Jessi and I each lost a water bottle through the bumpy section. With the mercury on the rise and headed for uncomfortably hot, we were forced to ride a conservative second lap for fear of running out of water in the heat. One lap three, Hagerty Cycling, with four riders racing, was keen to get something going, putting in several successive attacks. As they lost enthusiasm, Jessi and I took over, countering each other and stringing out the field through the longer rollers. But Priority Health rider Mackenzie Woodring, a World Road and Time Trial Champion on the tandem as pilot for vision-impaired rider Karissa Whitsell, was keen to keep anything from getting off the front.

With Mackenzie showing obvious strength throughout the whole race, I kept a close eye on her. Nearing the finish, Mackenzie followed an escape effort by Jessi with an attack. I was immediately on her wheel. The plan worked perfectly—for Priority. Less than 1000 m to go, my momentum slowing as Mackenzie feigned exhaustion, Mackenzie’s Priority Health teammate Amy Stauffer blasted past with a counter attack, Susan Vigland (Hagerty) a bike length behind. With the finish on a slight downhill slope, Amy had the advantage. I reversed my momentum, stormed around Susan and reeled in Amy, catching her about 3 meters AFTER the line. So it was, Amy (1^st), me (2^nd), Susan (3^rd), with Jessi and Sarah finishing well in 7^th and 8^th.

Me, Sarah, and Jessi the Juicer

After a marathon wait for podium presentations where we enjoyed munching on race-supplied apples and bananas and much-craved refined carbohydrates in the form of French baguettes, we lounged the afternoon away. That is, until it was time to juice.

Jessi, recently having acquired a juicer only months before, had brought with her not only the said instrument of torture (yes, torture) but a variety of myriad mostly green items to juice as well. Jessi the Juicer (official name) took the helm. No vegetable was safe. Broccoli, carrots ,kale, dandelion leaves, who knows what else went into the little compartment at the top and came out liquid on the other end. Lucky as I am, I was granted the privilege of the first glass. Yum. After that, Sarah and Jessi decided some orange segments—perhaps a whole orange—were necessary as well. And two more glasses of green goodness were created and downed. Newly sprouted hair on our chests, we were ready to tear up the road on Sunday.

Sarah off the front in an early attack

Sunday brought us Le Champion Pavé Criterium in historic downtown Flint, pavé referring to the 500-m brick section of the course, the remnants of one of Michigan’s oldest brick paved roads laid down nearly 100 years ago. Keen to take control of the race, Jessi, Sarah, and I put in successive attacks for the first 10-15 minutes of the race, finally launching Jessi with third placed rider Susan. Seeing the threat, omnium leader Amy went on the chase and I caught a ride on her wheel. Jessi and I drove hard to establish the break and, perhaps for relief from further ABD attacks, the bunch was complacent to let us go. The setting was perfect for ABD victory. Until… Count not thy chickens that unhatched be.

Jessi driving the pace through the brick in the break

With the race not yet midway, thoughts focused on preserving the break, I didn’t consider the seemingly remote possibility of lapping the field. But lap the field we did. Still ten laps of the one-mile course to go, and there they were in site in front of us. Perhaps Jessi and I had had too much juice.

Disbelief and then disappointment ran through my head. Disbelief because lapping a field on a long, oblong course such as this usually takes some doing. We were riding hard, but not that hard. The field must have sat up and slowed to an absolute crawl on our departure. And disappointment because lapping the field was not in the best interest for me and Jessi. We had the advantage with Amy and Susan isolated from their teammates. Despite our best efforts to prevent the reunion, Amy had different ideas. We were all back together within four laps.

Not sure what I'm smiling about!

Two things were against us here. One, the slow pace of the field had given Mackenzie, who had worked hard early in the race shutting down our attacks, a chance to recover from her earlier efforts. And two, lapping the field meant that Amy was reunited with her teammates, in particular a very experienced Mackenzie who no doubt would give her a fierce leadout.

Less than 1 km to go in the race, as the field bunched up through the tight 160-degree corner at the bottom of the course, Mackenzie and Amy launched through the chaos clear of the field. I reached Amy’s wheel as we entered the brick. Out of the saddle, finish line in sight, we began our sprint. Funny thing about sprinting on an uneven surface like brick. It can be a bit tricky. At times, spectacular. My sprint ended up being spectacular, but in a bad way—fortunately not bad enough to be head turning, but bad enough to cause concern. Especially mine.

The decisive sprint

Amy stayed low over her saddle, keeping her rear wheel weighted. I, on the other hand, did not. My unweighted rear wheel skipped badly on the uneven surface of the brick and I abandoned my sprint in favor of staying upright. Amy blasted through the finish for the win to secure the Omnium victory. I was lucky to have enough clear road behind me to hold on to second place for second in the Omnium, while Jessi finished not far behind in fourth. Awesome! No doubt lessons learned here will come in handy in three weeks’ time when we return to the bricks, this time in Grand Rapids Michigan, for the Grand Cycling Classic.