Omnium: Stump Farm WEMS, Wolf River Packrafting, Diablo Criterium and more

Lucky to get out of work a little early Friday night!  Still no way to drive, sleep, eat etc. and get to Suamico in time to race more than the 30 mile race.

Suamico...

And a really nice trailhead parking lot that I didn't take a picture of.

I barely got my clothes on and had to line up for a le mans start...

I probably shouldn't have leaked those government documents...  but never thought they'd be so obvious with the drones.

Luckily they couldn't keep up in the singletrack.

Actually, the the singletrack wasn't my strong suit here.  I had never ridden it.  I could get some gaps but I'd always sort of lose my ground again as soon as I start enjoying myself at all and not taking huge risks.  After a few miles it was clear that the field was strong!  2 or 3 other riders in particular were going to be very tough to get rid of!  I tried a few attacks on lap 2 and always was reeled back in.  By the final lap it was down to just 3...  Dan Teaters, Kurt Schweisow and myself, we had each tried hard to drop the others with no success.  The pace even went down to  conversational for the first half of the lap.  Then it picked up as each of the other riders tried moves.  I could see they were tiring a bit and decided I liked my chances on the final 1/2 mile section of gravel.  As we hit that final gravel/doubletrack no one wanted to take the lead and it almost seemed like we would track stand... I had to open up the sprint from the front and from about 60 seconds from the finish line but created a sufficient gap to cross the line first despite totally hitting the wall the last couple hundred yards.  

BOTH hands up for Ted...  no podium here, but went for the full on podium form.

Scrambled back to Wausau area and hit up the 9 mile forest-  which makes 3 weekends in a row for me at 9 mile.  Definitely have ridden 9 mile more than Eastwood recently.

Kim at 9 mile.

Sunday am was packrafting bright and early!  Off to the Wolf River.

Too big for us...

still too big?

Found a section that looked right and headed up the road on rollerblades (no bashing bikes into boulders!)

Eventually the road turned to converted railroad that was converted to fatbike only sized gravel.

Then even that ended but no river?  We bushwacked a while with the sound of rapids leading the way. Here are some more river pictures.

Dophin trainer style kim at the Subway...  grabbing food on the go with no time to get to the crit in Menasha.

My legs were shot.  As much as anything I think from the lack of sleep and just plain running around.  I warmed up though and they felt a lot better.  Was thinking I might be able to have a good race.  Long story short...  I attacked at the beginning of a prime lap and got clear, clear enough that I felt like I had to make it stick.  Take your opportunities when you get them right?  I still can hardly believe I did win a prime with that field, but certainly mostly chalk it up to being opportunistic.  After the prime I was shot but hung in for a while.  The field was super, super strong and eventually I was out (along with roughly half the field?).  I'd love to make it to more of the Wisconsin crits in the future though-  great atmosphere and even faster riders?  than I've seen much of this year.  I know I can at least hang around long enough to try something late if I come with fresher legs.

Today I got in some rest and relaxation.  Hoping to feel good enough for the Eastwood Tuesday night race tomorrow.