We are officially half way through August, which mean most people are either done for the season or getting ready to wrap it up for year. Personally I only have 3 more races this summer, all being criteriums, all in the next 3 weeks. My latest race was at the final Cadence Cup this past Saturday. I felt really good during the race, I threw down a mean attack on the final climb of the day. The goal of that move was to soften up the lead out trains from BVF and Kissena. It seems to have worked as going into the sprint there was no organized leadout, with guys fighting tooth and nail for a wheel. I had legs to sprint in the end and was able to grab 11th, just being nipped at the line for the final pay out spot. This was my last race in Brooklyn for the season, and I have to say thank heavens I'm not coming back till next February.
During my tenure at Prospect Park I have noticed several things that are different than most other venues I have raced at:
1) On the downhill why the hell are the guys at the front killing themselves to sprint down the hill at 40mph when they can relax a bit at 37mph and not cause pile ups.
1.a) attacking at the bottleneck only causes carnage, so why do people constantly try it
2) No one attacks at the top of the hill in the cat 4 field, why??? Every time I have attacked there, I have stayed away for at least a lap before realize I can't Time Trial worth a damn
2.a)I should really work on my Time Trial ability
2.c)This means I should actually race a time trial every now again
3) The pace is always high, we seem to avg. around 25-26 every race. In other 4 races, the pace seems much slower
4) Getting up at 4am, for a 6:30am race is never much fun.
With only 3 crits remaining in my season, I hope to grab top 10 in each of them. The most important of them is the NJ Crit Championship. Luckily most of this seasons cat4 sandbaggers have moved up to cat.3, should make the race just a little easier if not more competitive. As I get ready to go back to Stevens, I am relieved I no longer have a Eboard position on the team. Myself and Ray Junkins who have worked tirelessly for two years to bring a collegiate team to Stevens leave the team in capable hands. I can actually focus on training and having some fun during my senior year.
Now this year, along w/ my own training I will be helping to develop our new riders and some of our old as well. I may not be a Pro or even a 3(yet anyway), but I do have two full seasons of racing under my belt. More than most the guys/girls on the team, which will hopefully go a long way. I do look forward to teaching/relating my experience to the younger guys, luckily I have a plan for this:
1.) Crash course on how to suck wheel
1.a) i.e pass/fail racing, which has helped me a few time when I wasn't in shape.
2.)How to drink beer and still race well...assuming I can learn that first so can teach it later
3.)How to sprint like a champ
3.a)How to not crash in sprint
3.b)How to actually sprint in a bunch sprint
4.)Recovery=good timesw/ beer(in moderation)
5.)Racing in the rain = why the hell am I racing in the rain?
Assuming this plan works(why wouldn't it?) we should have riders in D,C,B this coming road season and some women racers as well. Well it looks like I have to get back to work as the boss just asked why I'm blogging at 11am instead for actually working. For the meanwhile, I found this pretty funny(via bikeforums)
Friday, August 14, 2009
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
As the Toto Turns 147
I love this cartoon via NYVelocity...
I will be posting on my remaining races later this week, in the mean enjoy the above article and I hope everyone's summer racing is going welll....
I will be posting on my remaining races later this week, in the mean enjoy the above article and I hope everyone's summer racing is going welll....
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
