Soldier Field 4/5 A

On 8/17 the Soldier Field Cycling Series held its makeup from the June rainout. A bit of rain was in the forecast, but aside from a few drops it missed us for the 4/5 races. The A race, which was the later of two scheduled 4/5 heats, included me and two other Iron Cycles teammates: Chase Negley and Ken Dorado.

I talked to Chase before the race and we had the same plan, ride near the front 5-10 positions to avoid any crashes and react to moves if they occurred. Chase being the stronger and more experienced rider, I hoped to help him out if possible.

Chase and I lined up in the first row next to each other. The first few laps were fast and I was anywhere from 3rd to 6th wheel. During the 5th lap, which was a prime lap, I sat in second wheel going into the back straightaway. This was into a headwind and as the guy pulling peeled off, I attacked and brought a couple other riders with me. Coming around the last turn I was passed by a Cutting Crew rider (who had won the first 4/5 race), who took the prime. He eased up across the line and me, a XXXer and another rider passed him. As we made the second turn, one of the guys said "we've got a gap, let's go" and they began pushing a bigger gear to see if they could make the break stick.

I went with them through that 6th lap. As we went onto the 7th, I lost their wheels and looked over my shoulder, finding the CC rider. He came around me and took a pull, where I sat on his wheel about 30 seconds but I couldn't hold that either. Meanwhile a chase group of about 5-10 riders caught me. Part of that group shot ahead, while about 5 of us stayed grouped together.

After maybe another 5 laps I was cooked and couldn't hang onto their wheels. I ended up soloing the last 7 laps by myself and averaged 24.4mph. The leaders finished were half a lap ahead of me, while we all had lapped the back 1/3 of the field twice.

My legs definitely were still hurting from racing at Glencoe on Saturday and doing 76 miles on Sunday.

Lesson learned: the tactic worked, as the prime lap attack I made created a split in the field, but I didn't have the legs to stick on a wheel and recover enough to stay up in the breakaway or the second group.

The race came down to the small break, with a 3-man sprint to the line. Chase said he basically just ran out of road and had to settle for second, still a great finish for Iron Cycles. Here's a pic of the 4/5 podium from our race.

-Henry Heisler