The Season is Officially Over for Me

The race season is officially over for me! What better way to end it than do a Time Trial (yep, I still suck at these). 21.7 miles and relatively flat. I finished 2nd in the Cat 3 field. I’ll give you a hint on how many people where in the Cat 3 field…I didn’t beat anyone. I had one of my worst times on the out leg. I heard some other racers say the air felt heavy for some reason. I know it was cold at the start. Driving to the TT, my car had 42 degrees! Last Sunday it was in the upper 80s and humid.

The race season by the numbers…

I competed in 48 races. I made the decision to only do races that I wanted to and those that fit my strengths better. With this in mind, thought I would do less than last year. I was surprised that last year I did 48 races as well. Gone are the days that I’ll do ~60 races in a year! Here is the number of races broken down by month;

March 4 races
April 5 races
May 9 races
June 7 races
July 11 races
August 8 races
September 4 races

I managed to get 16 top tens; my best year for top tens in a long time. I think the only other year I did better, was when I got over 25 top tens. This was the year that got enough points to upgrade to a Cat 2. I had my upgrade letter typed up, sealed, and ready to send (back in the old days you had to snail mail your upgrade request to the district rep). I was going to send in my request after I got back from Superweek. Right before I got back, Trish told me she was pregnant with Alex…goodbye Cat 2 dreams! Big difference from last year – I only had 5 top tens in the same number of races.

Time to rest and enjoy some longer easier rides. I know in about 2 weeks, I’ll be eagerly counting down the days until next year’s racing start!

Last Road Race of the Season

At the last minute, I rearranged my last weekend planned racing schedule. I was monitoring the Master’s State Time Trial registration and thought I had until Friday 12:30pm to sign up. Guess what? The pre-registration only dead line was at Friday 12:30am. No big deal as the course was way too hilly for me anyway and I probably subconsciously didn’t sign up on purpose. Only pain in the ass was I put my TT bars on my bike for nothing! I also changed plans and raced in a 44 mile, 35+ circuit race on Sunday vs. a crit.

There were 3 of us in the circuit race. As a team, we were pretty aggressive and covered every move that went up the road. Tom was able to get into the break/split that eventually stayed away. I took 2nd in the ensuing field sprint, but really didn’t care since all the spots were up the road. With 1 lap to go, I told Mike I wasn’t going to sprint. Of course I found myself up front on Mike’s wheel and sprinted for the last time of the 2008 season.

Someone in the race had a helmet camera on. It was pointed backwards and took pictures every 3 seconds. Below are a couple that I’m in. Check out some of the other photos on his site at http://www.hussey.smugmug.com/gallery/5978676_uXP4F#373263683_zBfF3

Hurricane Wreaks my Weekend Plans!

The remnants of Hurricane Hanna messed up all my plans for racing last weekend. They cancelled the Phillipsburg Crit on Thursday. That left me with thinking about doing a TT on Sunday. On Friday, the TT got postponed. The TT was set to go off on Sunday but the fear was there would be too much debris on the roads. That left me with plan C, a hilly ass Road Race. The only good thing about the RR is it was ~ 40 minutes from home. I usually don’t bother showing up to a race where the flyer says there is a 1.5km climb in it and then some rollers. What was I supposed to do? Not race (yeah right). The rains and winds didn't start until late Saturday so at least I got a ride in outside on Saturday!

I line up for the 40+ start and the officials say, at the top there is a KOM sprint. Shit. What the Hell am I doing at a race not only with hills, but a KOM! The was 7 laps of a 10km circuit for a total of 70km. My goal was to make it to the top of the climbs with the pack for the 1st two laps. Guess what? I made my goal and was just gapped off at the top of the second climb on the second lap. I chased like Hell, but 20 feet became 50 feet became 100 feet and so on! I solo for a couple laps and a group of 3 riders catch up to me. I do a few laps with them and that’s that. I guess I’m happy that I made my goal and got a good work out in. Maybe for next year I should work on my climbing (or not).

The Streak Ends...

Going into last weekend's races, I managed to grab 5 top 10's in a row. That streak ended!

I don't know why I raced on Sunday. I've said this before and will say it again, I won't be coming back to that race! Sure the roads are in rough shape, but it is a Crit course and that doesn't really bother me. What really bothers me, is that the Cat 3 race was only 12 miles long! That's what, Cat 5 distance? Races this short, to me, means the promoter is more concerned with getting as many fields as possible to rake in the cash!

Sunday I raced in the 35+ race at Basking Ridge. Another short race; only 15 miles. I like this course though. 1 mile in length with 5 turns including a chicane and a power hill. Unfortunately, the P/1/2/3 field was just before ours and paid out $2,000. That means the 35+ race was stacked with those guys doubling up. I was in the front the 1st 5 laps and even tried to get in a break, but that was it. I went back and played tail gunner for the rest of the race.

I love this coming Saturday's course, but the prediction is for the remnants of Hurricane Hanna should be hitting us. Heavy rain and gusty winds. I heard anywhere from 5 inches of rain with 60 mph gusts...