Sunday Beautiful Weather and a fun Crit.

Ok so when I signed up for the Lower Providence Crit 3/4 race I wasn't to excited. Anyone who knows me is aware that a)I'm not a good sprinter and b)If its a flat crit I have not chance. So my goal was to get some fitness training. When I found out there were over 100 guys in the field I thought this wasn't a good idea.. That would certainly mean a dicey race with crashes. So when Tim and Bryan said lets move to the Cat 1,2,3 Pro race I said hey why not.. At least I know the race will be safe...Wasn't sure how long I would last but what the heck it would be good practice. We were also joined by Joe Hamilton from our team who is a Cat 2 and a very seasoned strong Crit racer.

The best advice got is basically don't use your brakes(at all) and keep your focus. I think the field had 100+ racers and there were several pro racers including Stephan and 5 of his team mates from the Rite Aid Pro team.

Interesting points in the race.

• The Pro team use radios and it was cool to here them talk tactics.
• 35+ mph doesn't feel bad until you find yourself on the front in the wind... Then it gets a little hard
• If you stay up front as I did its not too bad... The guys watching the race told me that people were getting shelled off the back, but I never let myself get that far back in the pack.
• Everything is fairly friendly and people will let you in the line.. Until the last 4 laps.. Then its team against team and if you don't have team mates its going to be tough to stay up front.

So Tim, Bryan and I all finished the race in the pack and considering it was our first big boy crit we were very satisfied with our performance. Joe got 15th in the race and I tell you it was very impressive to watch him work up through the pack. I hope to get as good as him some day. At one point I felt good enough to jump off the front into a break... But I wasn't confident enough to believe that when it was caught I would be to gassed to hang on... so I wimped out.. Maybe Next time.

I finished the day doing the 30+ race which was 20 Miles .. Again a pack finish for me.. but I did feel good even though I had already done 30 miles 2 hours before.. I know this was excellent training for both Body and Mind.. The races and how I felt have really helped boost my confidence.

Secret Training Weapon: Winning Tips

I've been pushing my training up a notch getting read for the Ephrata Stage Race next Weekend...

I think I have a new rig that's going to help me win those tough sprints..

Kirkwood:Cool Pic

Phil Fox just sent me some more pics of the kirkwood race.. I like this one... He's in the lead group...

The cold and wind are sucking the fun out of training

Its been a difficult 2 weeks to be motivated to train. As we all know mother nature has decided to crap all over us with nasty cold weather and gail force winds.. I know it will make you stronger in the end... Well this guy needs some heat. Just as I think I'm starting to ratchet up my fitness I spend a few days in the cold riding for hours and the next thing you know I feel dragged down and pissy. Okay enough whining.

No race last weekend so we did some good team training on the Willowdale training ride on Saturday. Last week was to be a big training week for me so I rode about 15 hours and did hills on my own on Monday and Friday and of course pushed myself on the group training rides on Tuesday and Thursday. This weekend is the Mt Joy race and I hoping to try a couple of offensive moves for the team during the middle laps of the race. The course is very rolling and there is a steep hill(Mt. Joy) right smack in the middle of the circuit. The part that will most likely break the field up is the long descent with the 90 degree turn at the bottom of the hill... Last year there were a few crashes on the 90 degree turn... Needless to say best place to be is up front.

Tonight is the Tuesday night ride and hoping that Trey shows up. He's a local Cat 1 who's extremely strong and always fun to try to match. He can basically crush me in most cases(sprinting, climbing whatever). I spent the last 4 years chasing him on the local group rides and it has done wonders for my fitness. He stopped racing late last year, but I'm hopeful that he will still come out and smack us down and push us.

Kirkwood:The best Offense isn't always a good Defense

Kirkwood was the first race I did in my lengthy 2 year racing career. Thanks to Jay my buddy who told me I should give racing a try, lets just say I really enjoyed it. The first time I did the race I got 7th in the Cat 5 and Jim won the race and got a really nice bike trophy. I've since done about 40 races and I've yet to get a trophy(its one of my goals) . I placed 3rd last year at Mt Nebo and was so excited cause I thought I was going to get a bike trophy only to find out no trophies(Disappointed!) :(.

This years Kirkwood was great weather and I really enjoyed the 42 miles.. I do have to say there's no way I would have wanted to do the 82 miles the Cat 1/2 pro field was doing (Eeek). To summarize as a team we are way to defensive. We spent the whole race covering the breaks and really made no attempt to send out an offensive move. Its something we will need to work on to be more successful. I think offensive moves come with confidence in your fitness. I'm starting to get more confident in my fitness and my goal for Mt Joy will be to force an offensive move.

Here's are some cool pic from Steve D. of our club affiliate WCCC. Congrats to Mike, Marty and Kyle with our best finished for the race(Full Results)

Mike C. in the Cat 5

Cat 3/4 race Pics

Jason Pedeling his bike...

Scott and I folling Kevin F. on the yellow brick road

Kevin enojoying the lovely views

Kyle feeling his Oats ready to sprint

Scott and bustin out and sprinting past the Moter pace official. You go