So my last two training rides of 2008 are in the books, and in under twelve hours we'll start the new year. Soon thereafter we'll start another racing season. Number 39, I guess. Back in the early years, I remember thinking that the big difference between bike racing in the U.S. and bike racing in Europe was that in the U.S. we didn't have any of those old ex-racer guys who kept things organized, coached the new riders, and took long rides on the weekends that started at coffee shops and included long stops for lunch over glasses of cheap wine. I have a feeling we're finally starting to close that gap, though. If only there was a nice little French cafe' in Enon.....
I suppose my nostalgia today stems from an email I got from Mitzi saying she'd be in town for a few days in January. She was a grad student in Psychology at Tulane back in the early 80s when she raced with the NOBC, and was part of the team that went to the 1980 nationals in Bisbee, AZ back in the Beth Heiden and Wayne Stetina days when Glenn Gulotta finished 11th in the time trial and the rest of us pretty much got our lunches eaten in the road races. If you look at this photo from the Tour de La., she's the one in the NOBC (Betat) jersey. She ended up getting her Ph.D. in Psychology and is a faculty member at the School of Social Work at U. Wyoming. Coincidentally, I just added a jersey archive to the NOBC website.
So back to the last two rides of the year. Man, Tuesday's ride seemed hard. I got there maybe a minute late and as I was riding up the levee the group was rolling out. I could see Rob at the front, or more accurately off the front, and could tell this would be a fast one. It was kind of cold, and I would have thought we'd have a smooth tempo ride, but in fact there seemed to be a few people like Rob and Diego at the front pushing the pace the whole time. Don't get me wrong. It never went critical or anything, but it was definitely a notch faster than we'd been going lately. Since my legs were still trying to recover from the weekend, I guess it felt a little harder for me than it might have otherwise.
I still seem to be playing catch-up with both work and LAMBRA stuff. I'm theoretically supposed to be "off" from work, but of course that's never really possible and I ended up at the office for a couple of rather unproductive hours in the afternoon. I moved the road championships date so we could avoid the conflict with Masters Nationals, and still have a few unresolved issues to attend to on that front.
This morning it was warmer, despite a pretty significant wind, and we had a good group up on the levee for the last ride of 2008. Everyone was on the same page today and the pace was steady with lots of double paceline riding and conversation. It looks like tomorrow morning's ride will be pushed back to the remarkably civilized hour of 8 am. I wish I was planning to be partying all night so I could appropriately justify the late start. If you need someone to drink your champagne, give me a call!
So back to the last two rides of the year. Man, Tuesday's ride seemed hard. I got there maybe a minute late and as I was riding up the levee the group was rolling out. I could see Rob at the front, or more accurately off the front, and could tell this would be a fast one. It was kind of cold, and I would have thought we'd have a smooth tempo ride, but in fact there seemed to be a few people like Rob and Diego at the front pushing the pace the whole time. Don't get me wrong. It never went critical or anything, but it was definitely a notch faster than we'd been going lately. Since my legs were still trying to recover from the weekend, I guess it felt a little harder for me than it might have otherwise.I still seem to be playing catch-up with both work and LAMBRA stuff. I'm theoretically supposed to be "off" from work, but of course that's never really possible and I ended up at the office for a couple of rather unproductive hours in the afternoon. I moved the road championships date so we could avoid the conflict with Masters Nationals, and still have a few unresolved issues to attend to on that front.
This morning it was warmer, despite a pretty significant wind, and we had a good group up on the levee for the last ride of 2008. Everyone was on the same page today and the pace was steady with lots of double paceline riding and conversation. It looks like tomorrow morning's ride will be pushed back to the remarkably civilized hour of 8 am. I wish I was planning to be partying all night so I could appropriately justify the late start. If you need someone to drink your champagne, give me a call!
No comments:
Post a Comment