Hello Georgia!

Sitting in a hotel room, resting legs, A/C blasting and hanging with my teammates....life is good.  Dinner is right around the corner, more chill time, than sleep.  We are here in Augusta, GA participating in the Elite National Championship.  Before I jump to Nats, I'll finish up with Tour of America's Dairyland.  

Dairyland-  Following Grafton on Saturday night, I went and did the Waukesha Crit Sunday night.  Hot, humid weather met us as we started the 6:30pm race.  My legs felt great and overall, I was much more relaxed by having Grafton under my belt.  I rode aggressive and strong staying in the top 20 the entire race.  With 3 to go, I was sitting 7th wheel and was happy with my position.  Moving into the last turn, I got horded in the sprint and had a hard time finding a good line to shoot for.....19th place was the result.  Again, happy with the way my body felt...a bit disappointed with my result.  Big thank you to my loyal fans...mom, dad, Erin and a surprise appearance by long time friend Jeff Fritschler.  A well deserved beer at some local pub followed the race.

A fast Waukesha Crit.  

Monday brought the Greenbush Road Race.  A nice break from the crit world, Greenbush is an 80 mile road race settled within the Kettle Moraine State Park.  Attrition and humid weather would play a big role as lap by lap, fewer riders remained.  Lots of early action, covering breaks and working to get in a break would ultimately keep me in the field as I missed the winning break.  We rode the rest of the day and I ended up finishing 24th.  Safe to say, overall I felt horrible during the entire race.  Today was not my day.  I found myself wanting to quit 30 miles into an 80 mile race....never a good sign.  Sometimes you have to take little victories.... finishing today's race was my victory.  Loyal fans;  mom, dad, Erin, Sarah, Ella bean, baby Em's, Isaac and the Webb family.  Thanks to you all.  

Tuesday would bring a well deserved rest day for me.  I took advantage of my time and spent the day with my dad.  We made our way to his office and I spent the mid morning hours talking and catching up with my dad's colleagues....Wayne, Mark, Brian and more.  Later afternoon would take us to a 'producer' (farmer) visit.  Such a change of pace from my daily life and always a good breath of fresh air to hang with my dad.

Wednesday brought the Ripon Time Trial.  13.1 miles of painful fun.  It was as windy as can be.  La Crosse friend Brian Schaning and I rode to Ripon together, reminisced about old times and soon found ourselves fighting the wind, cursing under our breath and fighting for a top 15 finish.  That we did!!  I ended up taking 11th, while Brian came in a respectable 15th.  Time Trials always hurt.  They never feel good and while riding them, I never feel like I'm doing very well.  Point be said, I was happy with 11th.  While I would love to stick around for more Dairyland, I would soon be jumping on a plane and heading to Augusta for my first taste of Nationals.

Ummmm....the time trial hurt!

Off to Nationals and looking forward to meeting back up with my teammates.  Team director Murray picked me up at the airport Thursday night and Friday morning we are gearing up for the crit to be held at 2:30pm.  It was a 50mile, 4 corner beast in downtown Augusta.  Temps soared into the mid 90's and humidity was......well brutal!  It was hot.  Nationals is the one race where everything is all about 1st place....nothing else.  You are not competing for money; rather it's all about pride and a jersey.  Because we lost our sprinter, Evan Fader to an earlier season crash, we played our realistic card and knew we didn't have a prayer of winning a field sprint, so we opted on trying to get away with 10 or less laps to go.  We attacked and attacked and teammate Jake Tremblay got away with 2 other's midway through the race.  He would hold that for several laps before being scooped up.  Rick Norton was also working a break as well.  Unsuccessful again, I would than launch with 1 other guy with 3 laps to go......nothing to lose and may as well go down swinging.  Well, we got caught with 1/2 a lap to go.  Saddened!?!?!...no.  I was so proud of our team as we were loud and active.  The results will come.

Today is Saturday and it's a rest day.  Tomorrow brings a brutal 105mile road race.  Hot temps and humidity will play a huge factor in this race.  We predict the race will be blown apart.  Tomorrow will be tough.....no doubt.  Not going to be easy, but often times it presents a great opportunity to do well.  I'll update soon after.

After the race tomorrow, it's back to PA.  Been awhile and looking forward to seeing my friends.  The summer continues to fly by and my yearning to get back to Wisconsin grows by the day.  

Giro 'd Grafton

Hello from Cheesetown!  As I sit here typing this up, I'm looking at rain/thunderstorm activity going on here in Sheboygan, WI.  Not sure what tonight's race will bring with this weather.  Cross that bridge when we get there.

Last night, we were blessed with some great racing, weather and fun.  I jumped in the Giro 'd Grafton as part of the Tour of America's Dairyland. This particular race had a solid 10k in cash winnings as it's part of the USA Crit series and brought out the major crit junkies!  That being said, it was a fast race.  140+ men lined up for the start with about 95 of those able to finish.  Several unsuccessful breaks here and there and finally the elastic broke as 7 guys got off the front....it would prove to be the winning break AND.....I wasn't in it. Congrats to my Aussie friend, Clay Murfet on taking 1st place.  I ended up taking a quiet 37th place.  A bit frustrating as my legs are feeling so good, but a good thing as Nationals next week in Augusta, GA is the focus.  I rode aggressive and strong and that's all I can ask for.  Most importantly, I had the best fan base in the world:  my mom and dad, Isaac, Craig and Sarah, Ella bean, and E-Sut's.  So fun to be racing in front of my family.  Great pics below.

A great pre-race kiss from my lovely niece/Godchild Ella held by my mother!

Die hard fans: brother in law (Craig) and Ella Bean.

Little pre-race chatter with 1st place winner Clay Murfet.

   

Oh Wisco!!!!

This is going to be a quick post, but I wanted to give a loud shout out to Wisconsin!!!  I'm currently in St. Germain, WI enjoying a wonderful family vacation with the whole crew.  Anyway, for any friends/family that are interested in seeing some great racing, I'll be at Saturday's (Grafton), Sunday's (Waukesha) and Monday's (Greenbush) races.   Check out the Tour of America's Dairyland website for more details.

Sat- 90min Crit "Giro d' Grafton"  start time- 6:30pm
Sun- 90min Crit "Carl Zach Cycling Classic" Waukesha  start time 6:30pm
Mon- 80 mile Road Race "Greenbush Road Race"  start time- 12:00pm

Give a call if you need more information.

http://www.tourofamericasdairyland.com/

More to come soon.

Mt Joy Road Race/PDMP

Oh what a week!  Today's Sunday and it feels nice to be off the bike relaxing and catching up on a few odds and ends.  A quick recap of the week:

PDMP- (Professional Dairy Managers of Pennsylvania)  So as previously stated, my father was in Harrisburg Wed, Thurs and Friday of this past week.  Together with his client, John Ruedinger and colleague Mark Ludke they flew in from WI to give a brief presentation on the Wisconsin dairy farm model.  To put it lightly, I had no idea what to expect.  Here I come to find out that the Pennsylvania farmers were fully dialed into this meeting as Wisconsin is a leading model for the progressive dairy farmer.  These 3 gentlemen gave a great presentation followed by a 90 minute Q&A session.  The PA folks took full advantage of the time and drilled them with as many questions as possible.  I was very proud of them and took great pride in Wisconsin.  While there is something simple about the farming lifestyle, it is very evident that things are shifting towards big business.  We also had the opportunity to tour a few of the local PA farms in Lancaster County (What up Brubaker Farms!!)  By the end of the visit, I was starting to pick up on the farmer lingo...(dry cows, methane digester, hay stubble, sand settling lanes and more).  I think deep down inside...... I might be a farmer!!!  On a side note, it was so great to see my dad.  We had so much fun hanging with each other and I look forward to seeing him on our family vacation in a few weeks.  Love you dad!!

Sorry for all the pictures, but I had a really good time with these guys!  They are so passionate about the Dairy Industry.

That's my dad in his element. 

The WI experts:  (L-R Mark Ludke, John Ruedinger, Dave Mueller)

PDMP Spokesman Jacob Mueller

Well hello ladies.  Brubaker cows!

Working scene in the Brubaker milking parlor. 

The Brubaker's in Mt. Joy, PA [L-R Mike Brubaker (son), Jacob Mueller (PA transplant), Luke Brubaker (father), Tony Brubaker(son)]

Mt Joy Road Race-  Last minute decision, but myself and a few teammates (Rick Norton, Blair Berbert and Russ Brown) decided to jump into the Mt Joy road race.  This was a 57mile road race that consisted of 10 laps of a 5.7mile loop that contained rolling hills with 1 significant kicker.  Our plan going in was to sit tight for the first half of the race and let attrition work on our behalf.  We would than begin our arsenal of attacks and work to create a small or solo break.  A few early unsuccessful moves and soon Blair and I found ourselves in what would be the winning move of 6 riders.  The break occurred with 7 laps to go.  For the most part, the group worked well together with the exception of 1 rider....won't name anyone specific.  Fast forward to the last lap and the group was breaking apart.  It came down to myself and 1 rider from a Somerville, NJ team.  He edged me at the line by less than half a wheel and I had to settle for 2nd place.  Blair and Rick would roll in for a respective 5th and 6th.  We walked away with tired legs and a little extra cash in our pocket.  A happy footlong sandbo from Subway awaited my arrival as we ended up doing a 90 minute team ride following the race.

This coming weekend, we have our hands full as we head to the Airforce Classic on Saturday and Sunday in DC before I head to Wisco for a much needed family vacation.  I'll post more on that later this week.

Last but not least, here is a brief video from last weekend's Kelly Cup BikeJam.  Some of it is the pro race and some is the master's race.  Enjoy!
http://www.clarkvandergrift.com/blog/  Click on the top video to watch.