Race report for the Pioneer Tri
Petersburg is a cozy little town north of Springfield, very hilly by Champaign standards.  The annual Pioneer Tri is a 300 yard swim, 13 mile bike ride, and 5 kilometer run - a one hour intense effort.  Aubrey and Martin headed west for this warm-up race, one of the first in the spring.  Aubrey sliced through the swim and run to transition in 4:04 (the swim was probably ~3:45!), the fifth fastest of the day, kept the heat up on the bike at 20 mph in wind and over hills, and kept the legs rolling for a 23:59 run off the bike. The run and bike went well despite having crippled an ankle while winning a trail running race two weeks previous, and having not run since. She finished in 1:08:14, second in the 25-29 age group.  To see if he could PR again over last year’s 1:02:36 despite advancing decrepitude, Martin adopted a novel strategy: he lost 6 lb. of fat just before the race (we know that sounds scary).  It worked!  Bike, swim and run were all faster, with almost 20 seconds/mile gain over last year on the hilly run.  Martin finished more thanr 2-1/2 minutes faster than last year, 6th in a field of 149, 1st in the 45-49 age group.  The 40 year old overall winner ripped through the course in under 56 minutes.  Overall, there was stronger competition this year than in past years at this race.  Missed you Scott, the weather was perfect!
Martin Gruebele

Great Day for racing, 75 racers showed up for the Inaugural Patriot CX race.

More photos here. http://www.flickr.com/photos/_epon_/sets/72157627650022172/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stonepicts/sets/72157627650448124/

Well attended and organized, this event has become a highlight of my cycling calendar. Perfect weather and lingering cloud coverage really helped the 12 hour riders. Big Jay took 1st with 237, Paul C and Martin with slightly less. Lady rider from up north did 12 hours and 200 I think, impressive.
Paul

First up was Masters 4/5 30+ (old and slow). There were only 14 riders in the field, which featured 6 Wild Cards (Dan Shunk, Art Hess, Karl Crapse, John Sturmanis, Jim Pirzyk, and me). I tried to get away early, but it wasn’t an overly ambitious attack. I was mostly just trying to open up my legs and test the other teams and I was brought back after 1/2 lap or so. At that point, there were only 7 left in the lead pack, but two teammates were still around: Jim and John. I went to the back to rest. A few laps later, 2 riders jumped off the front (Frank from Team Mack and Jon from Bloomington Cycle). Jim was in a position to follow and I paused a bit to see how he would respond. He tried initially, but didn’t have the legs to stay with it. I had mostly recovered, so I bridged up. Frank and Jon welcomed a third set of legs because they were a little tired. With 3 of us pulling, all would be guaranteed a podium as long as nobody quit. We worked well together and did about equal work, but I was tiring toward the end and my pulls didn’t feel particularly strong. In the end, they were good enough to keep us in front. I pulled the 2nd to last lap, then dropped to the back. I came around the last corner in third wheel, facing a headwind sprint. I came around Jon and was able to nip him, but Frank was a bike length or so ahead of me. Ironically, we finished from oldest to youngest. (I thought young guys made better sprinters, but maybe I will get faster with age.) I was my first podium in a crit (or anything other than TT and tri), so I was pretty happy. Scott Dahman

Triathlon season begins!
The weather was nearly ideal for high intensity sprint racing in Petersburg: 50 F and a 10 mph west wind.  The Wild Cards were represented by Scott and Martin in this 1 hour race, the Pioneer Triathlon in the Abe Lincoln Triathlon series.  The race was chip-timed, and 144 athletes plunged into the PORTA High School pool for the short 300 m swim.  Martin and Scott had to do maneuvering in the narrow lanes, as some contestants did not understand the meaning of ‘line yourself up in the order of estimated swim time.’ We had to swim around them – with two sets of swimmers in both directions in each lane causing massive interference.
We emerged wet into the 10 mph 50 F wind, but in the heat of race, you don’t notice.  Hopping onto the bike, the second leg took Scott and Martin out into the wind, over a hilly course.  As expected, we passed a lot of people, and were not passed.  Scott maintained a 0.2 mph lead: was it the disc wheel, or he’s just in better shape?
The 5 k run to finish of the race was uneventful, but very hilly.  Petersburg is northwest of Springfield, where the ice age actually left some hills standing.  With Schadenfreude, the organizers even named the last long climb of the run “just for you.” Scott finished in 1:02:04 (3d overall), Martin in 1:02:36 (5th overall), beating his previous course record from 2008 by half a minute.  Gotta bring the disc wheel next time!  The overall winner did 00:58:23, with a bike ride 0.4 mph faster than Scott (0.6 mph faster than Martin), but hey, he was a 30 year old baby.
The event was well organized, with plenty of food and swag afterwards, including First Place awards in their age groups (40-44 and 45-49) for Scott and Martin.  Note the exhausted look on Martin’s face in the finisher photo – I sprinted up to 189 beats per minute in the finishing chute (didn’t even know I could reach that any more).
-race reported by Martin