Author: Bob Brooks

The Indy World Championship takes place twice a week, same course, same bat time, every Tuesday and Thursday. Speaking of bats, plenty of Bacardi present at last night’s ride, although Hubbell was conspicuous in his “Lilly” jersey with bright red shorts, a fashion faux pau only topped by the former Citgo/PBF kits of red and orange. Nonetheless, with bat wings flapping, dog fish snapping, Mr and Mrs Clark (TxRdhse) drafting, Zipp gasping, and a smattering of other local teams jamming, the Tortuga Armada could not be denied.

The 46th and Central route is timeless, having been utilized since velocipedes first inundated the Circle (velodrome) City in the early 1900s. Traversing the north and near west side, the route demands good bike handling and quick thinking to avoid the rush hour traffic and numerous pot holes. Many riders were observed last night with arms shaking as violently as any seen on the Roubaix pave. Furthermore, the route this year must take a detour thru a sketchy part of town in order to avoid construction on 38th Street. Phil might comment, “Goodness me, Paul, I hope no one flats on Clifton Avenue.” 

“Right you are, Phil. That part of the route is so sketchy, I’m not even going to try an analogy today.”

From the outset, along Riverside Avenue, Tortuga had riders off the front, with Vic Emond leading the way across Kessler, onto Illinois. Again, it was Emond opening a gap thru the Butler University campus. Unaware of the detour this year, Emond rode alone down 38th Street and south on Riverside E. Drive to 30th where he met up with the bunch and promptly rode off the front again.

Turning west onto 18th Street, Hubbell punched the accelerator with Brooks on his wheel. the surge strung out the pack and created a slight separation until the red light on 30th Street. After the light, the group jogs west and then north again on the Riverside W. Drive, toward the infamous Velodrome mole hill.

A Zipp rider charged at the base of the hill, but faded quickly by the midway point. Several others jumped too soon and also faded. Remaining seated, Brooks powered up the climb and jumped at the top, taking teammates Delisle and Riggs with him, opening the first significant gap of the night. A string of slowed traffic put the brakes on what might have been an epic move….

Regrouped again, the bunch was ignited by Hubbell and Doyle, along with Delisle, Abdelkader and Pederson of dog fish. The bunch tempoed thru Leiber Road, across Kessler, before resuming the hot pace, this time set by Riggs of Tortuga. Charging up Hoover Road, the Barcardi’s captured Riggs near 64th, where a general re-grouping occurred. Sensing the group’s hesitation, Brooks broke clear of the pack.

Noone of Bacardi led a small chase group containing Gaerete (Indy Hand Center), Delisle, Pederson and a few others. The red light at 73rd foiled the escape, as it most often does. Hard charges across 75th and south on Pennsylvania set the tone for the final sprint. Mr. Clark finally made his lone appearance on the front as the bunch wound its way along the canal before the final turns onto the infamous College Avenue pave.

The bunch were having none of the solo act and quickly closed, setting up a mass sprint to close out the evening. Turning right (south) onto College Avenue, the course grades up an overpass before descending full speed ahead toward the invisible line near 64th Street.

Led out by teammates Delisle and Emond, King Sprint, Karim Abdelkader made it two Tuesdays in a row (having won in Austin last week) by taking the Tues World’s last night. Nice job K-Man. On his success, the K-man said, “I think it’s the new white helmet and the new white shoes.”

For most, last night was a final prep. before Saturday’s season opener at Ceraland. All teams look strong. This weekend will, no doubt, produce some exciting racing.   

 

Great job to K-Puff on his victory down at the Austin Tuesday Night Trainer.

The first Wed. World’s were a wake up call for many. One rider was overhead saying, “this was like a July Wed. World’s.” About 40 or so showed up for the first event of the season. Among the participants was Dan Daly of the IRS. Sporting new shifters, new chain, new silver hoops, and white shoes, the diesel looked the part. Several Tortugans, a few Bacardi/Nuvos, and a smattering of well-known Bloomingtonians joined the new voice of the Peloton, Geraint Parry, who gave the orders and led us out to the course, a 4-mile loop utilizing old and new 446. Geraint will be announcing at select races this year, sharing his wry, Welsh wit and inside-the-peloton-scoop with the audience. A blend of Chris Boardman and Paul Sherwen, Geraint will add a colorful flair to the weekend races.

The course features two big-ring graded sections and lots of headwind on the new 446, with rough, undulating terrain on the old 446 section of pave. After a tame first lap that saw the Welshman go off the front with Bennet Van der Genugten (BvG) of Bacardi/Nuvo, the peloton came to life on lap 2, by the end of which, the two escapees were caught.

The inevitable counter formed the break of the night, with Kehrberg, Sonneborn, Ballinger, Kroll, Hans ?, Serrier, BvG and myself. A gap of at least 2 minutes was quickly formed despite the protagonists being a little unsteady at times. Surges from the new to the old section of 446 split the front group nearly every lap, but a regrouping occurred the first 4 times as BvG, Kehrberg and Kroll duked it out for ‘primes’ at the Speed Limit 40 finish line and then sat up to recover.

At the beginning of lap 7 ( of 8 ) the elastic snapped for Serrier and myself. Not sure what happened to Serrier, but I continued solo while the break quickly disappeared from view. BvG took the final sprint in addition to the majority of the primes, showing great strength here in the early season. Nice job to BvG and all the members of the break.

Tonight’s avg. speed was about 1 mph faster than previous season-1st Wed. World’s. Although unconfirmed, it was suggested that next week’s event will traverse the Upper Paragon loop, a bastardly hilly course certain to sting the legs.

Thanks to everyone for making it a great workout tonight. Plenty of racing available this weekend with the Pike-Gibson Challenge in SW Indiana. Closer to home,  a 10-mile TT will be held on the main forest road in MMSF Friday night and a 14.6 mile TT will utilize the MMSF loop Saturday morning. Those not racing are encourage to come out and cheer on your TTing teammates who will ride an additional couple of hours after the Saturday event.    

Thanks for stealing a moment from your busy routine to check out the new blog. New teammate, Vic Emond has done a tremendous job in re-vamping the Team Tortuga web site, so my first mention is to thank him profusely. Great job, Vic. We all appreciate your efforts. 

Many changes have taken place within Team Tortuga over the past six months. As most of you know by now, we added several new teammates from the former Duke/Big Brothers squad. Along with the team members, Team Tortuga now proudly represents Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Indiana. The changes have brought a new enthusiasm to the squad, not to mention the return of elite level racing. When Team Tortuga was originally created, the squad consisted of Category 1,2 riders only. Sponsors and team members alike, are excited about the return to elite level racing by the squad.

With representation in all categories, Team Tortuga will step up as the sole team sponsor of the Downtown Bloomington Criterium in early August this season. As I write this post, Team Director, Chris Kroll is meeting with Darren Reno of Truesport to work out the logistics of putting on the race.

Speaking of racing, a handful of Tortugans raced in March. Gary Palmer won the Category 3 St. Peter’s RR in Elizabeth, IN on 3/18. Gary’s win stands out for two reasons. First, he is 49. Secondly, and more impressive, is the fact that he missed all of last season due to a crash that cracked his hip. Many months of re-hab and diligent training have brought Gary back to the top of his game. Congrats on the comeback Gary.

Adam Rodkey has participated in several Category 4 races thus far into the season, placing in the top 10 in some of his events. Adam’s enthusisam is only topped by his top notch mechanical skills, which can be experienced if you take your bike into BikeSmiths, where he wrenches and otherwise holds down the fort.

Although no results worthy of mention were garned by the 1,2 contingent, a few moments are worthy of comment. During the St. Leon RR a group of locals stood at the end of their driveway, which was located approximately 2-3 miles from the finish line. Said locals were every bit as rowdy as anyone you’d encounter in Belgium and equally charged with brew. On lap 2 of the 3 15-mile laps, one of the riders in my group took a beer hand up, sending the driveway revelers into a frenzy. They cheered wildly, banged on trash lids and buckets and generally offered some respite from the otherwise, unpleasant reality of grinding away into a headwind for 14 miles only to face the monster ascent, a climb of approximately 3/4 mile @ a pitch of roughly 10-12%.

Speaking of which, my group included the dry-witted, sarcastic Harry Clark of Texas Roadhouse. His one liners kept us moving toward the finish line, but nearly brought us all to a stop the final time up the beast. As we hit the base of the climb, Harry wryly commented, “It really sucks when you’re in your biggest cog at the very bottom of a climb.” A few pedal strokes later, he added, sarcastically, “If you guys weren’t here, I’d walk this f…in’ thing.” After gasps of laughter, you could feel the hesitation in just about every one of us as we contemplated doing just that, getting off and walking. Needless to say, that hill hurt. But alas, the driveway beer handups beckoned a few short miles away, pulling us up with invisible, liquid strength.

A few flashes of form flickered at the Hueston Woods State Park RR the last weekend of March. Covering what I thought would only be the first of a flurry of attacks, I went away with Patrick O’Donnell of TRH and Oliver Beeson of Bacardi/Nuvo. Another rider initially joined us, but quickly faded. Shortly thereafter, O’Brian Forbes joined us and the suffering was on.  

Knowing full well that at some point my legs would give out for trading pulls with the likes of POD and OBF, I chose to, in Karim’s words, “man-up” and take an equal share of the work load. After 23 miles of effort, the legs gave out. Oliver let up with me and the pack caught us a few miles later. Once the two of us were captured, the flurry of attacks I thought would come at the outset, were launched by the approximately 35 TRH guys in the field. Chris Kroll and Patrick Delisle were in the mix of nearly every move, also showing flashes of form.

Unlike a fellow Diarrehaist, who berates competitors for racing to the very end of a race, even if out of contention for a placing, I’ll compliment the fields we’ve faced this season. Everyone seems to be super fit early in the year. Patrick O’Donnell has won 3 or 4 races in a row and I can attest the young man is still super strong despite his extremely busy schedule that includes wife, Allie, a 9-month old baby, and 12-16 hour days interning at IU Med Center. As for Forbes, he’s a motor. The guy has been racing forever and still has what it takes to land in the winning break almost every time. I was pleased to last 23 miles with these two strong men and look forward to matching them all race long as the season unwinds.

During the Hueston Woods race, a group of six escaped the field with about 15 miles of racing left. Those six gobbled up the remaining places, but it did not prevent the pack from continuing its own race. To the very end, riders were aggressive in their attempts to get away and although no places were available, the sprint up the final climb was hotly contested by the many who still had legs. Again, my compliments to the many who showed good form to the end.

Now that we’ve entered April, racing proper, as in with a full squad, will commence. First up for a few of us, however, is the MMSF TT this Saturday. 14.6 miles of truth. I’m looking forward to stuffing it down Jack Nicholson’s throat this season. TTs have been my achilles heal over the past few seasons. We’ll see if changes to the regimen have produced any improvement.

Chris Kroll holds the course record for Saturday’s TT with a time of 34:52. I’m certain he will break that this weekend. The Badger is looking very strong of late, as many of you will find out tomorrow night at the first Wednesday Night World Championship. 32 miles on the 446 loop. Watch for the Badger to rip some legs off during the opening night.

 Thanks for reading and look for regular posts a couple times a week.