I like riding bikes: The Pre-Season Comes to a Close

Well the last few weekends have been quite busy! My pre-season racing has come to a close and now it's time for MTB season to officially start.

Here is a quick re-cap of the last two weekends:

(Thanks to Greg for all of the great photos the last 2 weekends!)

Mar 17-19: San Dimas Stage Race. I knew that 3 days of road racing would be good prep for 4 days of racing in a row at Sea Otter. I learned alot from doing these events, which was really only my 2nd time in an official road event (Boulevard being the first). My best event of the weekend was the 3.8 miles up Glendora Mountain Road time trial (19th/54 riders. Cat 3 and 4 combined). I passed three other racers along the way and we had all started at 30 second intervals. I was pretty pleased. However, during the road race I made some critical novice errors that cost me any kind of decent showing. I ended up a rather embarassing 35th place! EEEEK! However it was still great training, since I was in a chase group or on my own for alot of the race! It was definately a fast road race, not meant for climbers (like Boulevard was), so I paid the price. Day three was my first criterium EVER and it went pretty well. Some say it was the fastest crit they have ever done. It was definately fast and never let up! I stayed with the lead pack for the first half, then fell into a chase group. In the end, I finished 28th, but with a gap of only 33 seconds behind the leader. not bad for my first crit! plus NO one crashed and I made it through a 3 day stage race alive and still wanting to get on a bike again! :o) All in all, a great experience and trained me to do solid warm-ups and decent cool downs and to work on nutrition before and after the races.

SDSR Road Race: The joyous KOM climb

Men's 4 crash at the finish (same time my race was finishing! Only good reason I was dropped)

March 25-26: Redlands Classic: I decided to do the Savage Hills Challenge put on by the Rotary Club here in Redlands. We did 60 miles with at least 5,000 feet of climbing (not nearly as much as Breathless Agony, but more than I would have liked to do day before a race). It felt like more than 5,000 feet of climbing... Might need to get someone's GPS results! We did 7 individual *hill climbs* that definatley put us to the test. The hardest being the Smiley Drive climb which was prob 1.5 miles long with grades of 22%. I realized that I probably could have used more gears ! It was certainly a challenge and I would feel very tired the rest of the day. Sore legs all night again.. yuk!

**** NOTE! Just recived confirmation from GPS results that the ride had 6,500 feet of climbing. Yep, I knew it was more than 5,000. Sure felt like it!

Jonathan competed in his first crit today (men's 5s) and dominated nearly the whole race. He made an impressive break from the group with a few laps ago, but unfortuantely was engulfed by the peleton by the finish. In any event, he had a great race and it was fun to be a spectator.

Today was also my women's 3/4 crit as part of the Redlands Classic. Had all sorts of friends, co-workers and some family out there cheering us on. Teri and Joy also joined the crew as well as many of the gals from San Dimas Stage Race. I knew it would be a tough race. The course had some hairy turns which caused a few crashes later in the race. Teri and I managed to stay with the lead pack the WHOLE race which was by far better than I though I would do with my dead legs from all the climbing the day before! Joy worked in a chase group and won a prime as the chase group leader (yay!). I was very very happy with my results for my 2nd crit of my career. Ended up 16th, Teri was 11th. Being in the lead group, we held a steady clip, with an average around 23 mph and all finished very close together. I was definatley pleased with how my legs operated after such a greuling ride the day before. Guess that means the work is paying off and that I will be more ready to handle the multiple race days at Sea Otter. We will see though, as Sea Otter is BIG TIME. Espeically since people like GUNN-RITA DAHLE (3 time World Champion, cover of Velo News multiple times, etc etc) will be racing with us. EEEEK! Exciting, but only makes the competition more intense.