The course was a .7 mile loop around 4 blocks in a residential neighborhood in Milwaukee. There was a mean but not overly nasty hill coming up to the start-finish, headwinds on all 4 stretches, and lots of potholes, recessed manholes, and other sorts of chop in the turns. Our race was a little over an hour at 40 laps.

I really enjoyed today. It was hard for almost the entire race and there were about 5 laps in the middle where I was riding all-out to close a 3 foot gap that didn't ever seem to get smaller. Our number had been decimated by the time we came into the finish, but I still got smoked in the last 200 meters to finish 21st.

Getting picked apart on the final lap is a good summary of my time at Superweek. I feel like my best ability right now is squeezing into narrow spaces, and, sometimes, going uphill. At least I know where I should be directing my efforts. I'm ending the series short of my goal at 17th overall, a number that should worsen tomorrow when I'm getting on a plane instead of flogging the Pale Horse in Whitefish Bay, but I think that I am, overall, pleased with the way that the series has gone.

That wraps up Superweek '07. I'm a little sad to go back. I've come to enjoy talking strangers into letting me sleep in their homes, though living out of a rental car kind of sucks and with the exception of Lordi, I'm tired of listening to the same stuff everyday.

I stayed in Sheboygan for supper with some friends after yesterdays races. Apparently nobody eats dinner out here, though they make up for it with lots and lots of supper. I left early to start my drive to Pleasant Prairie 2 hours south where I was going to be staying with some surly vegans, and ran into a summer storm along the way. The fastest freeway speed that wasn't utterly reckless was about 15mph and I had to pull over a few times because I couldn't see through all the rain. I thought it was epic weather but some native midwesterners made me feel like a cityslicker when I told them my not very harrowing story this morning.

I don't really have anything constructive to say regarding the race today. I think I did everything right, was 2nd wheel with 2 laps to go, but got hammered anyways and finished with a whimper rather than the bang I had envisioned. I'm California trash.

I'm spending the next 2 nights near Kenosha with some Organic Athlete guys, the surly ones mentioned above. They applied for host housing from the race promoters and are set up in a cavern of a basement with a friendly family upstairs. I'm in the basement right now. Sometimes one of the people upstairs will come down to get something out of a cabinet or do a load of laundry and I feel like I'm in a gang of squatter prostitutes that has infected a decent home. I'm going to go upstairs tonight and see if I can chat them up a little.

Tomorrow! My last race before turning in. Brewers Hill -- I hear it's like Cats Hill back home. I hope to have sunnier news next afternoon.

Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Population 50k, it was one of the largest US cities 70 years ago, though it hasn't grown much since then. It's now a regular in Playboy magazine's list of the 10 worst party cities in America. A native Sheboygan told me that the big things here are chairs, churches, and children. If that makes the place sound too dreary, check out these signs.

The race today was 45 laps on a .7 mile course. 4 corners, some of them a little choppy, and with a slight rise before turn 4. Our race in the 4s was about 80 minutes long.

Things went mostly well. 2 weeks of racing has taken a toll on my tires, and I've started developing bare patches in the rear. I flatted about halfway in, ran across the course and got a nice 404 out of the pit. I got a free lap, a mighty push start from the SRAM guy, and was back in business. On the last lap I thought I'd try something new and went to the front just before turn 1. A little old polish guy bumped and wiggled his way around me on turn 2, and someone swung out from the pack and nearly knocked me over just before turn 3. After that I was mentally out of the race, and threw down an under-powered sprint for 25th.

I found out later that the old polish guy, 50 something years old and something of a hazardous mystery in the 4s races, was the Polish national road champion for 2 years in the early 70s. Since then he's moved to Canada, suffered a heart attack, and now has 3 stents in his chest keeping his pipes open. He's not so hot on the Engrish and he moves around people by bumping them into submission, but I think its pretty cool to have him around and I find it endlessly amusing that a stout little old guy is picking up all the primes and serving all of us youngins in the finish. He probably only pays 25 cents to ride the bus.

I bit the bullet yesterday and got a Motel room in Green Bay. I cranked up the AC, put in my earplugs, and got about 13 hours of sleep. I woke up feeling very 2-point-0 and excited about racing again.

The course de jour was a 1.1 mile loop, totally flat, no shade. With wide roads and clean corners, it was almost exactly like the course used for the Early Birds back home. It was disgustingly humid and a little under 100 in the sun, so I thought it would be a good idea to do my warmup in the nearby supermarket, walking up and down the frozen food aisle pretending that I'd lost something. Not that it helped much, as we sweated for 20 minutes at the starting line while we waited for the course to be cleared.

The pace was apathetic for most of the race, kind of like the really boring part in a road race where everyone is just hanging out waiting for the big guns to start firing. Things started hotting up with 3 to go, and I made sure I was in a decent position coming through the last turn. Finished 11th, which is ok I guess.

Cedarburg, pop. 11k, is a small tourist town on Lake Michigan north of Milwaukee. At the last census it was 98% white and had a median age of 39 years.

Today was a good example of the mild smarminess of Superweek. The race series is run for profit but in getting to a positive cash flow they have to cut a few corners here and there. A heavy dependence on volunteers (course marshals, medical services) is kind of sleazy, and then there are the split days, where the high-volume but low-appeal amateur categories race in an uninteresting part of the city in the morning, the proceeds of which bankroll the more lavish pro race in the historic business district later that evening. I have no legitimate qualm with this. It makes sense and I imagine that it's an economical way to get the public interested in bike racing, but still. Who wouldn't prefer a downtown race to one in the suburbs?

Our race was a .7 mile loop (on paper at least, I'm pretty sure it was closer to a mile) around an elementary school in a burb outside Cedarburg. I knew the day was going to be about cost-cutting when I asked about using the restrooms in the school and I was given a firm no and directed to use one of the 2 (!) portas nearby. The lesson here is that one should never, ever ask before doing anything. The course was really pretty hilly, with what seemed like a long protracted climb up 2 of the 4 legs.

The day went badly for me. I wanted to go on the offensive today, but the race was fast from the gun and my legs were full of a heavy lactic acid tallow that kept reminding me that bike racing was last on the list of things that they'd like to do. Our race was something like 70 minutes long, and I got popped with 2 laps to go. I kept peddling at 5mph for the last lap and finished for 22nd, which speaks more to the attrition rate of our race than it does the attendance.

Tomorrow is more crit racing in Green Bay. Earlier today I was feeling like I had crawled through a wood-chipper, so I decided to drive up early, get a motel, and see about getting 12 or more hours of sleep before the starting whistle on Wednesday.