Final Road Season Wrap-up

Our road racing season is now officially over and in the books. We punctuated the season with the last race in the Lowes Time Trial series on Wednesday, September 22nd. With the series championship for Cat 4 women virtually in the bag, Amy scared off all competitors and was the only Cat 4 to clip in. She sealed her second-straight series title with a new PR of 25 minutes, 0.74 seconds. I broke out my fixed-gear bike after competing all year on my geared bike, setting my own PR in the process with a time of 24 minutes, 55 seconds. My time was good enough for 7th in the fixed-gear division.

Getting ready for the last time trial of 2010.


Working it with her medals for the series championship and for a new PR.

This past Wednesday, we partied down at my team's end-of-the-year Ring of Fire awards dinner. At the dinner, Amy was recognized as the series winner of the women's division, scoring a sweet set of Continental tires.

Amy posing on the top step of the gi-normous Velosports end-of-year podium.

So when it was all said and done, Amy raced in a whopping 42 races in her first full season, and the finals stats were most impressive: 17 top-three finishes, including 7 wins, and 2 season-series championships (Ring of Fire women and Lowes TT Cat 4 women). As a measure of her consistency, she finished the season ranked in the top ten among NC Cat 4 women in road racing (tie for 7th), time trials (4th), and criteriums (3rd), and was the 16th-ranked Cat 4 woman in criteriums nationally (out of 741 women!). She also snagged 2 age-group podiums (1 win) and one overall podium (2nd) in the three multi-sport events she entered.

As for me, I did 49 races across three disciplines (road, cross, mtn). As for my results, well...

(crickets chirping)

I got the satisfaction of a job somewhat well-done, more or less. My fitness did improve throughout the year, with some better results toward the end. In the words of many a Chicago Cubs fan: just wait 'til next year.

Of course, now that road season is over, our attention turns to cyclocross. So grab your cowbells and your thermals and get ready for cyclocross season later this month.