Posts Tagged ‘Virginia bike racing’

Bike Wheels on a Gravel Road

Thursday, January 27th, 2011

It’s cold here in Central Virginia.  Now I know those of you living up north may scoff at our idea of cold, but it was 20 degrees last Saturday morning when we headed out for our ride.  Yes, you read that right, I actually got myself out for a ride well below my usual cutoff of 32 degrees and dry.  And yes, I did come back with all my digits and other body parts neither frozen nor frostbitten (though it was touch and go for a bit there with the toes and nose). In all seriousness,though, I was quite comfortable, especially by the end of the ride when it warmed to a balmy 25, mainly because the ride was mostly on gravel roads. (more…)

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Racing with your coach

Friday, August 20th, 2010

I‘ve written before about the value of a coach having a coach him or herself (here), but I want to expand on that a bit today by thinking about the advantages (and potential disadvantages) about being able to race with your coach.

Last Tuesday, my coach (Gary Hoffman) and I drove down to the weekly Bryan Park training crit in Richmond, VA.  Since I moved up to the “A” category (Pro, 1,2,3), this has always been a tough race for me.  In fact, for a long time I considered just finishing with the bunch as a strong result.  Because this is a training race, I often race it “stupid” and jump after early breaks, try to bridge up to breaks made, and generally burn my entire matchbook by midway through the race.  This week the goal was simple – don’t get dropped and if at all possible mix it up in the sprint.

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Race Report 6/6 Ride Sally Ride

Monday, June 8th, 2009

The Ride Sally Ride cat 4 crit was marred by a serious crash, involving Charlottesville’s own Jake King.  I neither heard nor saw the crash, but it left Jake with severe facial lacerations and potentially a broken jaw.  The accident happened fairly early in the race, and we went past the scene several times, until with 17 laps to go, a bell was ringing and the chief ref was shouting 1 lap to go; they had to bring an ambulance in for poor Jake…

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Race Report 5/31 A moments inattention…

Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009

Not much to report from Sunday’s Bryant Park Circuit Race, and what there is, isn’t good.  My race started well; I snagged a front row starting spot, stayed in the top 10 at all times, and marked the guys who’d been winning all of the races recently.  Unfortunately, after just one such move, I found myself on the front and in an effort to get out of the wind, moved to the left following a wheel.  Unbeknowst to me, someone had overlapped on my left, but must have been far enough back that my peripheral vision didn’t catch him.  Apparently my move hooked his front wheel, his skewer ripped most of the spokes out of my powertap, and even worse, he went down.  Thankfully, he was ok beyond the usual road rash symptoms.

The one positive is that my form is coming around; now all I have to do is put the tactical pieces together.

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