Training to Racing

Well, No One Line has been on vacation for a little bit, but as of yesterday, I'm back. Yesterday, three of us went over the river and through the woods. We rode up to Piermont, team trialing into a strong headwind. On the way back we visited Alpine for some hill repeats, and dragging back down to the bridge, took the opportunity to launch a few sprints.

Five days off the bike - while I was vacationing in Iceland - took a bit of snap out of my legs. But spending a week mixing up some hard rides with some pleasant rides ought to take care of that prior to the Fawn Grove Roubaix. This weekend's race will be a good test: of my strength and fitness, of the ability of our Cat 4 team to work together to augment our individual strengths, and of my assumption that our experience riding rough terrain can give us a leg up in one of the US's many amateur "Roubaix-class" races. It will be very nice to enter road races - a welcome change from early-season crits and park circuit races. Furthermore, the weather is getting warmer, which means that track season is getting closer and closer.

A few links for those who are going to spend their week eager and antsy about this weekend's racing: at the Track World Cup, French riders Gregory Bauge and Kevin Sireau meet in the sprint. Sireau goes down and Bauge, a very talented rider, barely recovers. And here is another amazing Bauge race against Awang. Bauge dances around the boards and maneuvers himself into excellent position to take Awang.

And since the Kissena Velodrome's opening weekend is coming up in a handful of weeks, I might as well lay down some more excellent velodrome links from the glory days of Six-Day Bicycle Racing. The old Inwood Velodrome, and the then-world-famous Newark Velodrome, located in what is now Vailsburg Park in Newark. Included in this post is a picture of Major Taylor - hero of the era, and, if this book is accurate, pretty much the quintessential gentleman's badass.