Velochallenge

Happy New Year!

With the 2008 season behind, I’m looking forward to begin a new season of road and track racing. Being a first time parent did not leave me much time for racing, so I am definitely looking toward 2009.  My goals for the coming year are rather basic:

• Ride 100-150 miles a week
• Minimum mid-pack at races
• Cat 2 on the track
• Compete in Alpenrose Velodrome Challenge (AVC)

Hope everyone has a Happy New Year.  Now go out and ride!

Pain is the name of the game when it comes to Time Trials. So I decided to volunteer my legs to my 4/5 teammates and head down toward Corvallis for the OBRA Team Time Trail Championships.

The team component is a huge challenge with learning to ride cleanly with no brakes in a pace line, signaling, pacing efficiently and effectively. These items are key things we worked on, but with only one practice run two days prior to the race, not much improvement could be made. But, team time trialling is a discipline which requires a lot work and time comment to be effective. Even though the four of us were under-prepared our main goal was to have fun and enjoy the race.

On race day, we meet up at the staging area in Tagent early since both Jay and Alex’s had sons racing in the Junior race. So while the two dads assisted their kids, I set up my trainer to warm-up. We were scheduled as the 1st 4/5 team to go out of 11, going off at 12:46pm. Each team thereafter would start in one-minute intervals.

Walking around the parking lot gave you a good idea who the dedicated Time Trialist (TTs) were….all the latest go-fast gear was on display as people unloaded their cars and set up their warm-up areas.

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I can’t believe it, road racing season’s only three months away. What better way to start it off then the “Tour of California.” This years tour looks to add some additional climbing pain to the mix with a couple of new 4000 ft climbs.

The 2008 Tour of California will highlight 12 cities during its eight-day, 650-mile race. Slated to start on Feb. 17 with the prologue at Stanford University, in Palo Alto, and ending a week later in Pasadena.

My favorite will be Stages 1 and 2 of the race, which are the same as last years. Both are again likely to end in mass sprints. Wow, mass sprints! You don’t get that in cyclocross.

Earlier this month I mentioned some odd news with Lance hooking up with one of the Olsen twins. Well, its hard to picture it but here’s George Hincapie checking out his new feather weight Giant.

Check out some of the news related to George’s move over to the T-Mobile Squad.

• Hincapie to Mentor Younger T-Mobile Riders
• Giant: Clear Team and Individual Goals
• Velonews: Change is Good

And just for remembrance sake here’s George in the now disbanded Discovery Team kit.