This is the way the racing season ends….

The last race at the Oval was canceled due to a lack of riders. I will say the crowd that gathered put us right on the cusp, numbers-wise, but honestly, I’m glad we didn’t race. The group included the full spectrum of abilities, and I sensed that as it was, the race might be a bit on the slow side, and not terribly interesting. On the bright side, the road racing season ended on a high note with a good finish at Strongland.

As I’ve mentioned before, it’s hard to see this season as anything but a success. I progressed from a punter who was lucky to stay in the group for a few laps, to a rider who could sit in and maybe score a top ten finish, to someone who was active during the race at the front. Certainly I would have liked to score more points during the season, but seven was seven more than I thought I’d score. And even more surprising, I’ve been invited to join a team for next season (this is crazy). Steel City Endurance will be fielding a men’s squad, and I’m one of three or four riders picked from the C race. This should make season a bit more interesting, and fun, given that there were only two or three teams (at most) in any given C race, so there was very little in the way of tactics.

As for next season, the biggest goal is performing better outside of the Oval. Strongland was a good start, but the competition wasn’t as hard as, say, Mingo Creek. I’d like to be able to walk away from Mingo or Fort Cherry with a top fifteen finish. I don’t really have much of a training plan, besides “ride lots,” so we’ll see where that gets me.

Only six months to Mingo!

Posted on 9 September 2008