Good fun tonight at the Roller Races. I was completely outmatched, came in last out of seventeen racers and risked a fair amount of bodily harm, but it was great to see everyone. The New York City Bicycle Racing community is an interesting group and it was nice to see so many familiar faces in one room. An added bonus was the presence of Christian Vandevelde who came across as a friendly and likable guy. It was nice to make small talk with a guy who has raced in the Tour.

The racing was something else! I knew I was in big trouble when I got a view of the other racers. I half-assumed that tonight’s roller races were going to be CRCA B field indoors. A fun night of friendly competition and smacktalk as we wiled away the winter months. Dead-Fricking-Wrong. Instead it was a roller race all-star match with monster legged balance kings ramping it up to 200 rpms at a moment’s notice. I crashed out after about four seconds on my time qualifying heat. I chalk it up to inexperience with a healthy dose of unathletic grace. The pressure was on for the second go-round at a time seeding and the good news is that I was able to stay upright and was seeded 17th. This gave me the chance to go up against the #1 seed who promptly swept the floor with me and send me packing. At least I survived the round #2 gut check and survived to complete the races. There was a high level of talent there tonight and it was an honor to stand among them. Kudos to my teammate, Jim, who won his first heat and put up a valiant effort in round 2 against one of the kids out of Trexlertown.

Even better though was seeing many of my teammates from Organic and having the chance catch up. We’re a far-flung group and while we exchange many emails back and forth it’s nice when we’re able to get together as a group. That’s the best part of all of this – the ability to find a like minded group of people and share in the fun and competition of bike racing. A lot of good hearty laughs, many at ourselves, and camaraderie. I find it to be a satisfying and rewarding part of my life and consider myself lucky to be able to do it.

Thanks to all who were involved tonight. Good time and good cheering. Earlier in the day I described it as probably being Fight Club + Gladiator + Breaking Away – I think that still fits. It was nice to be able to support the juniors who clearly reveled in being around the older riders from T-Town. Nice stuff.

In other news, the off season training is moving along nicely. December 1st is the beginning of ‘formal’ training which basically means that I attempt to fit in more riding time amongst the various other activities that vie for my time. I was able to get a nice run session (1 hr. steps) and a ride (2 hrs) in on Saturday morning. Sunday and Monday were busy with life/family/work stuff but I rode for an hour this morning and am going to do something tomorrow morning. Hopefully the cold weather won’t be too bitter as it would be nice to get some outside bike time in soon. As I’ve mentioned previously I’m forgoing the Ironman this year so that I can focus more on the bike racing. But I can’t avoid the appeal of the this event and may have to give it a shot. It’s only 30K. I better start running up hills very soon if I want to enjoy the experience.

Best moment of the night – During my final race of the night, while I was getting clipped in I turned to Alan Atwood and asked it I could have a headstart against my opponent. Alan’s completely deadpan reply, “Son, nothing’s gonna help you.” – Alright! Let’s race….

Have a good week everyone.