The road racing season is over till next year and we don't have any cyclo-cross races until November. So, I'm going to spend some time putting together a collection of posts with photos and a paragraph about each race this year. First off is cyclo-cross which began in late November 2007 and went through to the end of January. It was kind of a nice change, after racing on roads all year long, cyclo-cross was what we needed. The courses really varied, from sugar-sand-land in Stuart's Johnathan Dickinson, a muddy retention pond in Largo, single track and open fields in Sarasota, and an old rock quarry in Miami. The races also were different in many ways because of the courses and there were a couple of memorable crashes as well. One weekend in Sarasota, nearly everyone on the team crashed and spent the rest of the day icing parts of their bodies. (Unlucky for me, it was one of the few weekends I actually did well and everyone else is too busy talking about what they hurt to tell me "good job" :P) Speaking of crashing, you might remember the photo below: Mud Man. I'm not sure if I should consider this one of my best photos or not. He was already there and I just took the picture. But either way, it's just great. Too bad I don't know who he is because it would be wonderful for blackmailing :)
P.S. Tell me what your think of this. Am I wasting my time with this "photo album" or do you actually find it kind of interesting?
I don't know where to start when telling about all of the events of this weekend, I think it would take a novel to write everything that happened in those two days. Saturday: There is something poetic about waking up at 4:30am, getting to the race course while it's still dark, and not being able to tell whether what you just stepped in was a cow pie or an ant hill. It was a slightly rolling road race course that day. There was only a small group of juniors, as always. Our group stayed together for most of the race with the exception of Nick rolling off the front a couple of times. With about 3 miles to go Lucas and Jeff attacked and got off the front. Everyone chased and I ended up at the back of our separated groups. I rode into the finish alone and got 5th place. After the road race we had 5 hours to spend before the time trial. I wasted every minute of it. Fast Forward.... The time trial start list had me going off 23rd, at 3:11:03, and the last in my category. The course was part of the road race that morning: A rolling ,2.5 mile out and back from the finish line. Basically I went hard out and went hard back. On the last hill my 30 second man (started 30 seconds before me) was 20 seconds ahead of me. I really wanted to make podium and jammed it up the hill. By the time I was at the top, he was only a few yards before me and I beat him at the line. The results said I had a time of 12:40 in 3rd place. Not too bad... That evening was the award presentations at the Appleton Museum of Art. I got a trophy in the junior 13-14 and women 4s Florida Point Series, as well at $25 in womens. Colavita also got the team points plaques in junior 10-12 and 13-14. I have to say that we did dominate the categories. They last thing on the agenda that night was the special awards including the E.J. Rogut award. It's wasn't much of a surprise, to me at least, that my mom won it. She has done so much at every race this year. From setting up, to junior roll out, to fixing broken bikes. The Blanchard family had also noticed this during the year and decided to have a trophy made for her. It's a laser cut of everyone on the team, placed like we're riding in a pack following my mom. It's really cool and I think she deserved it. Sunday: Well, I fell asleep 2 times on the way to the race... The course on Sunday was a flat, lollipop shaped, out and back. The juniors only did one lap, 15 miles, and I was hoping that it would be just a fun race. I dream way too much. I will admit that it was me who kind of kicked the pace up in the very beginning but it didn't last very long. Nick got off the front a couple of times and after one time, the others didn't chase so I sprinted up to him to maybe work together to get off the front. They didn't follow us very quickly but after a while they developed a chase. A quick glance back told me a couple of things at once. Lucas was on the front pulling them up to us, and when he caught us, we better stand up and match the group's pace because they weren't slowing down. Our group consisted entirely of 13-14s and after a couple attacks it became a staring contest. I couldn't get to the back of the group like I wanted, so I simply went off the front. I don't think it really counted as an attack but after I had a good gap, they all stood up and chased me down. I did the same thing a few times and finally they just didn't chase me. I stayed off the front for a while, a mile at least, picking up the pace more and more as I went. There was no warning they were coming by me until someone shifted their gears and I turned to see the four boys shooting past me. I tried my best to catch on to their train but couldn't. After a while I let the 10-12 juniors catch me and rode with them. They had decided that they had nothing to lose and wanted James to win. With a few miles to go I became his lead out and Justin and Anselm dropped back. As we rounded the corner I sprinted him to the finish and then went to roll out. I got 5th place in the road race and 3rd in the overall omnium. It was a really fun weekend (especially the awards ceremony and watching the cat 4-5 race from the wheel truck) but I can't believe the racing season is already over! I feels like it just started! :( I guess I will see a lot of people at cyclocross but I still can't wait until 2009!
The road racing season is over till next year and we don't have any cyclo-cross races until November. So, I'm going to spend some time putting together a collection of posts with photos and a paragraph about each race this year. First off is cyclo-cross which began in late November 2007 and went through to the end of January. It was kind of a nice change, after racing on roads all year long, cyclo-cross was what we needed. The courses really varied, from sugar-sand-land in Stuart's Johnathan Dickinson, a muddy retention pond in Largo, single track and open fields in Sarasota, and an old rock quarry in Miami. The races also were different in many ways because of the courses and there were a couple of memorable crashes as well. One weekend in Sarasota, nearly everyone on the team crashed and spent the rest of the day icing parts of their bodies. (Unlucky for me, it was one of the few weekends I actually did well and everyone else is too busy talking about what they hurt to tell me "good job" :P) Speaking of crashing, you might remember the photo below: Mud Man. I'm not sure if I should consider this one of my best photos or not. He was already there and I just took the picture. But either way, it's just great. Too bad I don't know who he is because it would be wonderful for blackmailing :)
