Kicking Off The 2011 Road Season

The Bradford pears are green, Cherry blossoms are Giro pink, and pollen is wreaking havoc on our sinuses - road season is upon us. Actually, road season comes early in North Carolina, as the compulsive adrenaline junkies just south of us hit the late-February Greenville Spring Training Series in mid-season form. Although we entered one of the GSTS races in Fork Shoals, SC to test our building fitness in late February, we were looking at the beginning of April to sink our teeth into the new season. Rock Hill Cycling Classic, April 2-3, 2011 After priming our engines at the first Wild Wing Cafe Ring of Fire the Wednesday before, we headed to Rock Hill, SC for the 31st edition of the Rock Hill Cycling Classic. Amy lined up for Saturday's Winthrop Lake criterium with three teammates from her new 2011 team, Asheville Bicycle Racing Club. Amy was invited to join ABRC after her former team, SpokesWomen Syndicate, lost their primary sponsor, Performance, at the start of the year.

The 0.6-mile course, circling a scenic lake on the campus of Winthrop University, provided a beautiful setting for racing.

The course featured a hill on the back of the circuit, steep enough to make things interesting, but not steep enough to force a selection.

Rolling through the start-finish area near the end of the 15-lap race.

Exquisite dental hygiene in the post-race photo reveals a successful outing. The ABRC women put a large footprint on the Cat 4 crit, with (l-r) Amy taking 7th, Kristin Robertson finishing 5th, and Allison Arensman taking the top step of the podium for 1st.

The full ABRC contingent at Winthrop: Amy, Allison, former SpokesWomen teammate Erica Chard, and Kristin.

On Sunday, I entered the Rock Hill Road Race, a 43-mile loop through the hills of York County. Being well-suited for... well, something, I'm sure, but definitely not climbing, I hung in for almost half the race until the relentless hills got the better of me. I motored to the finish line in 28th with plenty of positives despite the fact that I'm saving myself for cyclocross season. Yeah, that's right... I'm saving myself for cyclocross season. It was a successful day for Velosports Racing, with teammate Alan Brookshire joining me in the Masters 4/5 race, and Frank Obusek, Andy Kimble, Wade Turlington, and Jimm McElroy making themselves a presence in the Cat 3 event.

Heart Of Carolina Weekend, April 9-10

Saturday's race took us to Asheboro, NC, for the first of two criteriums for the weekend. Despite a morning weather forecast that promised a high of 77, we arrived to heavy overcast skies, an occasional fine mist, and very cool temperatures. It was announced just prior to Amy's 2:15pm race that the temperature had just warmed... to 49. Fortunately, my cold-natured wife wears long base layers if it's colder than 75, so she came prepared with various and sundry cold-weather goodies and lined up for the Women's Cat 4 event toasty warm (relatively speaking). Unfortunately for me, the warmest thing I had were the straps on my Tevas, and I shivered through the weekend with nary a shoe, long sleeve, or trouser.

The 1-k circuit through downtown Asheboro included a deceptively nasty hill before the 4th turn into the finishing stretch. Above Amy and teammate Janet Truby (in last year's light blue ABRC kit) power up the last section of the hill early in the race.

Amy leads the field down the start-finish stretch late in the 30-minute contest.

Above, Amy winds up a sprint at the end of the final lap of the race...

... and outgallops the field for 3rd place, her first podium of the season.

Below is a video of the field heading into the hill in turn 3. Amy and Janet were making a move up the right side of the field in an effort to take the cash prime on that lap. Their efforts were successful, as Janet sprinted for the dough while Amy blocked the field from responding to her attack.

I raided Amy's clothing basket and entered the Men's Cat 4 race later that afternoon, glad to be warmer and caring not about the obvious cycling faux pas of racing in a non-matching base layer. As for my result - as previously stated, I'm saving myself for cyclocross season.

Sunday took us a few miles further into the country to Denton, a tiny farm town near the Uwharries that is host to the Tour de Kale, a well-organized and highly competitive charity ride that we competed in last June. Alas, the weather was still cool but more damp than the previous day, with a fine mist falling during the entire 30-minute race.

Carving through turn 1 after the first lap.

Although the course was described by race organizers as "flat," this was mostly relative to the previous day. In actuality, the course gradually climbed along the back stretch of the circuit, and then descended toward a very fast start-finish area. This would prove to be a factor at the end of the race.

The video above shows the final "sprint" at the end of the race. Sprint is in quotation marks, because most of the women were racing with now-common compact chainrings, and the finishing straightaway was steep enough that they spun out in their biggest gears. So it was more of a finishing "coast." A cassette with an 11-tooth cog has already been ordered. Nevertheless, Amy finished a fine 5th in a smaller but overall stronger field than yesterday, capping off a weekend of arguably her most complete race efforts to date.

So after the first two weekends of racing, Amy has netted a 7th, 5th, and 3rd, and there is much to look forward to in her second complete season of racing. As for me... my preparation for cyclocross season is going well!

We would like to dedicate these past two weekends to Aaron, a reader of this blog, for motivating us to keep working hard at the values that are important to us - healthy living, an active lifestyle, striving to be more than just average, and, most importantly, to be good role models for our children. Thanks Aaron!