It's been a bit quiet here on the blog lately. It must be the result of what I refer to as the "mid-summer doldrums." It feels like the racing season has been going on for years, but there's a few more important events on the horizon to gear up for. After Pawling, I stayed off the bike for 4 whole days (!) and got going again to race the Tour of the Hilltowns on July 24th (sprinted for 4th out of a final group of 6, we went downhill, we went uphill, it poured so hard we couldn't see, it was fun), and then spent a few days on the Cape, where Rob and I conduct our annual "cross bike rail trail training camp" which consists of hammering down the Cape Cod Rail Trail at 23 mph, sprinting out of every road crossing, and terrorizing nuclear families out for some sweaty fun in the blazing sun. I felt sorry for every parent bravely struggling to stay upraight and pedal their rusty hybrid up and over the bridge over Route 6 while their 5-year old son/daughter is totally leaned over on the kid hauler attached to the back of their bike and dragging their blue/pink crocs on the ground. Hours of joy.
At any rate, now I need to get going on round 2 for the season and prepare for the 4-day Green Mountain Stage Race up in Vermont over Labor Day. Day 1 is a TT (road bike only) which starts uphill then levels out and finishes with a nasty little kicker with 500m to go, day 2 is a circuit race with one long but not too steep climb, Day 3 is the 75 mile road race which, after beating you up over things called "baby gaps" and dirt roads, sends you up to finish on the severely long and steep and painfil App Gap, and Day 4 is a downtown L-shaped crit in Burlington, where the course clings to the side of the slope down to Lake Champlain and you hit 45+ mph at the bottom before sprinting back uphill through the start finish. I got a great kick start over the weekend with the "A" group on the Saturday morning group ride which was a good, aggressive training ride by all and where again, my good friends the Tanzi (aka "Schleck") brothers put in repeated attacks and in the end Colin Martin surprised those of us remaining with a well timed jump on Didell Road and put us all in the red chasing. It's good to have teammates who make you fast. Just for fun (ha) Don and I followed that up with another hour and a half on my "climbing loop" from the shop which goes up and over Cramer Road, Rombout Road, Mountain Road, and Downing Road. This was to get ready for this weekend's Capital Region Road Race, where the course consists basically of long flat roads punctuated with some really nasty steep but short(ish) climbs. I believe Justin will be joining me - anyone else?
Also coming up this weekend is the Blistered Butt Road race down in Prospect Park early Saturday morning, and Tim Schopen's mountain bike race at the Taconic 909 park on Sunday, and two events down at Harriman. Check out the Upcoming Events for more. Also, good luck to our featured athlete Lukas Siska who has packed up his bike and crossed the pond to compete in the Slovak national triathlon championship on Saturday.
On the results front:
This past Sunday was the Northern Columbia Triathlon, where Michelle Stathers put in another great race to finish 10th overall and 2nd female behind only Erica Ruge of Rhinebeck, who set the female course record. Also, Shawn Jackson did as he promised, going head to head with the evergreen (and also course record holder) Mark McGovern, pushing to within a minute of him to finish 2nd overall. Right behind was Adam Ritter, 4th overall, and I saw that Peter Oxenholm came in with a solid 24th overall.
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