Melon City Criterium

This race was on Sunday May 25th in Muscatine Iowa. The course was located in beautiful Weed Park. Eric Knox and Travis Jass drove on over from Davenport and myself (Ben Acree) made the trek down from Fort Dodge. The category 4 race was 14 laps of a one mile circuit in the park, which had a very fast downhill with a speed bump at the bottom, yes a speed bump, followed by a nice little climb. There were about 58 to 60 riders to show up for this race. The first picture is of myself, off to the right a bit. Unfortunately, only made it 5 laps before the lungs quit on me. Live to race again.

The second picture is Travis taking a flier off the front on the sweeping downhill. Nice job Travis.

This third picture shows the speed bump we had to jump at 35 mph, can actually see the racer in yellow on the far left is airborne. Check out the mattresses against the post on the other side of the street.

The picture below shows Eric just about to take flight.

To the right, we have Travis actually either crashing into the mattress, taking a nap after two grueling days of racing or hamming it up for the camera.

And finally, we have Travis again with the envelope after finishing 9th. Nice job!! Eric finished in the main pack, which is quite the accomplishment considering the snake alley race was just 24 hours prior. It was a fun weekend, next race looks to be the Johnston Green Days Criterium. Thanks to Diane Jass for the attached pictures.

Snake Alley Criterium

Well, over the Memorial day weekend in eastern Iowa there are a series of bike races, starting Friday and ending Monday. The most well know of the four races is the Snake Alley Criterium. Now for a little bit of history on the snake alley, wikipedia provides the following information "Snake Alley is a street located in Burlington, Iowa, once recognized by Ripley's Believe It or Not as the "Crookedest Alley in the World". Snake Alley consists of five half-curves and two quarter-curves over a distance of 275 feet (83.8 m), rising 58.3 ft (17.8 m), a 21% grade, from Washington Street to Columbia."


Racers from all over the midwest show up and try to win, or survive, this race. Two of Fort Dodge Trisport's own showed up on Saturday to charm the snake. Travis Jass and Eric Knox were brave enough to race this beast. In the top picture you can see the elevation gain on just the bottom part of this hill. Eric is centered in the top picture and again going up the hill on the cobbles. The pictures below show Travis having a go on the cobbles. I believe 58 started the race. 39 ended up finishing with Travis finishing 21st and Eric 33rd. Nice job guys.


check out the video, it will explain it all. You can actually see Travis and Eric in it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJYgAn3UK2c

http://207.177.88.12/bb/results.asp

Finchford Roubaix Road Race

Well, the race was Saturday May 9th in Finchford Iowa, approximately 15 miles north of Waterloo. It was a windy and mostly overcast day, which made for cooler temps to race in. The usual suspects of Eric Knox, Travis Jass and myself (Ben Acree) made the 2 hour drive over for the race, thanks for driving me over Travis, needed that extra hour of sleep to be worth anything on the bike. Just 14 hours earlier I was in Las Vegas where it was 95 degrees. Back in Finchford, the race course was a 5 mile loop, which we did 7 laps of. There were 23 in the category 4 group. Really enjoyed the course, nice short loop, not too hilly, the wind certainly played a role in the race. Eric and Travis both took a couple of fliers during the race but the wind really wasn't going to let any individual really get away for too long. In short, the main group stayed together right up to the end. The last half of the lap finished into a very strong head wind, which seemed to have worsened as the race progressed. In the last 3/4 mile of the race and into the headwind, Travis went to the front and stretched the pack out, dropping some off the back. Travis mentioned that the wind and the finally incline to the finish line really spent him. Eric was able to tuck in behind Travis for a nice lead out to finish 4th and Travis rolling in to finish in 5th place. I came in few minutes back in 12th. Congrats on the top 10 finish Eric and Travis. Check out the pics and yes that is prize money in the envelopes. Eric and Travis are now able to retire comfortably with there winnings. I am sure there is more to come this summer. Click on the pictures to blow them up, better detail.