The roll out...

Mitch with an update on my racing so far...

This season I have opted for a late and gradual start to my racing. The idea here is that I'll have more left in my legs later in the season for our time in Belgium and the months to follow. Some days it's been hard seeing the results and finding other peoples names atop the results lists of the early season races I usually do well in, but meanwhile I'm growing increasingly excited for the racing in Europe and jam packed July and August.

So...I casually began the season in March with a criterium in Sacramento in front of home town crowds where I got to lead Ryan into the last corner so he could sprint the rest of the way in for 3rd. Next was the famous Copperopolis Road Race. This was an ambitious first road race at 105 miles of bone-crunching bumpy roads, but as I had planned it served as a good training ride. Although it didn't leave me much strength to show off with towards the end of the day.

Then I had to skip some races in order to move our things from our apartment in San Rafael into storage and into our new and highly affordable(tiny) guest cottage in Novato. Yikes-moving sucks! The reward was a weekend training in Tahoe to whip myself back into shape. Very nice!!!

I finally began a real bike racers schedule May 11th at the Madera County Stage Race. The two time trails at the race went well. I've never been a great time trialist so the middle of the pack finishes were fine with me given that I was just getting rolling. And I felt pretty good after a 4th in the criterium and a 9th in the road race.

Next was the Sea Otter Classic. A very tough Pro race on Monterey's Laguna Seca Raceway. While I had hoped to improve on last years performance where I was one of only a handful of amateur cyclists to reach the finish line, this year I was guilty of some bad pack positioning when the peloton suffered one of it's major fractures. So, despite feeling stronger than ever before going into that race, I got caught out in the wind on my own and as people hung up their bikes everywhere behind me, I would never see the races lead group again. There's always next year?

This weekend is the Wente Classic Road Race and Criterium. I did well at these last year and am looking forward to them now as I continue to build my fitness in preparation for the 5 day Mt Hood Cycling Classic Stage Race against the Pros that takes place in Portland and Hood River Oregon beginning May 13th.

Keep cheering and I'll keep pedaling...

Mitch