tnr, 1/25

We had a great turnout for today's TNR. Nine riders total. Last week's special Thursday edition of the TNR drew eight. And since not everyone who came last week was there this week, we've actually had a total of 12 unique riders at the TNR so far. That's something approaching critical mass.

And that's awesome.

So this is how it went down... A warm-up lap, then a lap of trying to ride a tight pace line. And then, on the third lap, we randomly picked a couple of guys to play rabbit, gave them a 30 second head start, and gave the rest of us about four miles of undulating terrain to catch them. (The terrain element is important, because if the road were a straight shot, flat number, all bets would be on the chasing hoard. But as the terrain is varied, keeping the chase organized and tight is more of a challenge.)

On the fourth lap we did the same thing, with two new rabbits. Three of the four rabbits beat everyone else to the line over the two tries.

Anyway, some pics...

Zach, Brian, Aaron, Tom, Jon, Garrett, & Conroy
(Courtney and I are missing from this picture...me, because I'm taking it,
and Courtney because she had headed home by this point.)

Time to start getting psyched

So here we are moving quickly toward the end of January with another semester of quality education ahead. That can only mean one thing; road racing season is almost among us. Since I am so excited, I spent some quality time at work on Tuesday before my night class checking out each race and trying to decide what a good schedule for our team might look like. This year a lot of the races in the ECCC are pretty far away and I am up for some driving, but some of the races in the ACCC look really good too. So here is what I came up as far as some ideas for hitting as many races as possible this season.

Feb. 26 - ACCC Navy Crit. - Ship to Annapolis, MD 2hrs. 23 min or 133 miles

March 5 & 6 - ECCC Rutgers Circuit race and Crit. - Ship to Piscataway, NU 3hrs 29 min or 190 miles

March 12 & 13
Option 1: ECCC Columbian and Stevens in NY City and Northern NJ - I am not really excited to drive to this area because of traffic, tolls, pain in my butt drivers, etc.

Option 2: ACCC George Washington U. - Ship to DC 2hrs. or 110 miles - my first choice of races for this weekend.

March 19 & 20 - ECCC Philly Road race and Crit. - Ship to Philly 2hrs 37 min or 146 miles

March 26 & 27 - ECCC RPI Circuit race and Crit. - Ship to Troy, NY 5hrs. 48 min. or 339 miles -Iam feeling a road trip for this weekend plus the nine turn crit. looks rediculous.

April 2 & 3 -
Option 1 - ECCC Boston U Road race and Crit. - Ship to Boston 7hrs. 42min. or 435 miles - Not feeling the road trip on this one plus the two races are 66 miles apart once you get there.

Option 2 - ACCC James Madison University - Ship to Harrisionburg, VA 2hrs 22 min. or 144 miles - sounds like a winner to me

April 9 & 10 -

Option 1 - ECCC Yale Road Race and Crit. - Ship to New Haven, CT 5hrs. 21 min or 297 miles - I am feeling this road trip as well because the road race looks like a lot of fun, or pain, depending on what you are into.

Option 2 - ACCC WVU - Ship to Morgantown, WV 2hrs 54 min. or 170 min.

April 16 & 17

Option 1 - ECCC Dartmouth Crit and UNH Road Race - Ship to F-ing far away 8hrs 24 min or 769 miles - The crit and road race are 92 miles apart on top of that.

Option 2 - ACCC Virginia Tech - Ship to Blacksburg, VA 4hrs 38 min or 283 miles - Half the driving, holla. This option sounds good to me.

April 23 & 24 - ECCC Regionals Penn State - Ship to State College 2hrs 5min orf 84 miles - Definitely excited for regionals this year. The crit is on frat row so I am if I have a mechanical or get lapped I am stopping for an adult beverage.

So that is my thoughts on the schedule. We are allowed to race in other conferences which is nice for us since we are basically the southern most ECCC school. The only downside is that we won't be scoring points if we place out of conference. This should not be a problem unless we suddenly get a team that is going to have a bunch of people racing who are also going to be competitive and scoring points in A & B races.

If you are on the team and plan on races put in your input. Also, I assume that the schedule will be discussed tonite at the meeting.