I've done two races since my last post, both with less than desired results but hey, I'm having fun.
I did the Grandville Grand Prix with some of my teammates from Vortex (Katie, a 15 year old junior got 2nd.) The crit was a mile long loop with several sharp turns, including two 45 degree turns, that passed through a development outside of Lancaster (the home of the Pennsylvania Amish). The women started off pretty fast but I found a group to hang with for the race and they helped me with some tactics. I didn't realize that many of the women I'd be racing against in PA would be in their 30s and 40s and racing for several years, so I've got a lot to learn from riding with them.
After the race was the best. My parents are from the area so they took me to this sweet dairy with a restaurant and we got awesome food and fresh ice cream, it was delicious.
My second race was the road race from the Tour of Lancaster County. I originally intended to do the whole thing but I was glad I had changed my mind when it poured the next day for the Time Trial and Crit. Once again I got to do a race with the Amish as traffic directors and spectators. It's amusing to come flying around a turn and see a bunch of amish children sitting by the road waving. One nasty hill in the middle of the 10 mile laps torn up our field each time we went by it. I spent a great deal of time chasing a junior down. I finally caught her when the men's field passed me and I jumped in their draft for a while. Then she and I worked together for a few miles until the aforementioned hill where she flew up like a bird and left me chasing again.
This was the first race my dad attended. He previously had little to no knowledge of cycling and he found it interesting to hang around cyclists for two hours while I was out racing. My dad has a somewhat twisted view of people so our ride home was interesting as he 'dissected' the different types of people he observed.
As for now I'm done racing until the end of the month. My team sponsors a crit in an Industrial Park in Trexlertown that I will be participating in. I have a 10 day vaca with the parentals that seperate me and the race however so I'm just relaxing and not thinking too much about riding. After 7 days in the woods with my dad and 4 days at the beach with my mom, I will most likely spend all my free time on my bike, out of the house, when I return.
As you all know, I've been updating the website and also reconnecting with some incoming members of the team. I'm excited to get back to school and start riding with everyone. I'm planning on doing the Fall Fling with Axie and Will and anyone is welcome to come along, it'll be a blast. NU Cycling 09-10 is going to be awesome.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment