Local Weekend

Even with the distraction of illness, the race in El Salvador served to identify strengths and weaknesses. Now is a chance to take this feedback, stay local, and prepare for some of the big races coming up. We race a one-day circuit race in Richmond, VA this Saturday, then will race locally until a series of criteriums in the Southeast starting April 28th. After this we are pretty much off-and-running with the season. For me now is also a time to be uber-organized at school, to finish off the semester strongly and train and recovery effectively. Did the Yale ride on Saturday, the first real spring day, and I can't say how lucky I am to have this great group: Curtis with his horsepower, steady wheel, and masterful knowledge of roads, Pete for instigation, Stefan for his perpetual smoothness and climbing fortitude, Hiroko finally recovering from illness, Vermonter Katie about to launch a great season, Brigette new to racing and soaking it all in so fast, Kristie super-strong as always in spite of dissertation, and even Chris Jones hot off a top-20 at Redlands, everyone full of stories and conversation. Sunday my team raced Bethel and I ended up off the front again. It wasn't exactly the plan - the purpose of Bethel is not to bully, the repetition is not so useful as a learning tool for the team - but I responded on the chance to counter. It's pretty lame when you work hard in a break, get caught, and then no one on your team counters, so I did. And while silly, because I have ridden off the front in past races (something enabled by our having a huge numbers advantage), and maybe because I have this series leader's jersey, I think people think I am stronger than I am and have some resignation. Whatever works. A highlight of the race was Mandy doing a fantastic lead-out for Hiroko, who took the field sprint, in her first-ever sprint win! After that I raced masters 40+, sitting in but still enjoying the chance to race with Targetraining's masters men's team, including Curtis. Started the 1/2/3 race but I was dead and freezing by then and probably it wasn't a good idea. Here is a photo from a recent Bethel (3/11 I think), (MJStuart.com, copyrighted), as well as one from Juneau, Alaska, where my brother is and where I am glad I am not living and trying to train.