season wrap up


	SEASON WRAP UP

Cyclocross	Cycling 2004	Home

Best finish : 9th-although I'm sure that my finish in one race was better but was placed wrong.

Worst moment :Athens, not even finishing a full lap in the smallest field so far.

Well the season is over for me this year. All in all it was an enjoyable experience. I managed to meet some good people, got challenged in ways that I haven't before, and pushed myself beyond where I had been both mentally and physically.

The season here in Georgia consisted of 7 races this year. They were spread out all over northern Georgia in what seemed to never be a location that was easy to get to by me. This a stomach virus and a cold were a couple of the reasons for me not racing the last race. I just didn't feel like another 1.5-2 hour drive.

I had to look at this year as a learning experience, as I came into this only ever seeing one race live last year. I came away from that thinking that this is something I could do. The races were only a little over 30 minutes long and I had a mountain bike that I could piece together.

My riding club GTC, was a bit more enthused about putting together a team this year. Although I must say that the term "team" was used loosely. Dan ,the club president managed to put together some sponsorship for the team. This included a new bike shop, ADDICTIVE CYCLES. They would offer discounts on parts and maintenance and try to be at the races to offer support. This I thought was a great benefit as it made me feel like being on a real team.

My only grip was that like I said, team was a loose term, as the only thing we did as a team was wear the same jerseys and raced for team points. Other than that, not much. But at this level I guess you can't expect too much. It was ok.

My hat does go off to Woytec(sp) for his support during my races. He was always at the hard parts yelling advise and support. Many thanks to him.

I wasn't sure what to expect after seeing only one race. I didn't realize that the barriers and obstacles would be so varied. But it made it more fun in the long run.

I also came into this year not in as good a shape as I would have liked. I didn't get the opportunity to ride as much as I would have liked. And I really wasn't sure if I would be able to ride until about two weeks before the season. Thanks to a stroke of genius on my part and some generous individuals I was able to race. Having personnel sponsorship goes a long way to motivating you to do better.

Racing I found out was not so much going out as hard as you can and finishing where you can. One problem with that for me, was if I burned myself out before the race was over and had nothing left to finish. This was mostly a problem at the beginning of the series, when my strength was still building. As the races went on I got stronger and could go out faster. I was also building skills to get over barriers and obstacles.

Still, next year I plan on working toward building my training around Cyclocross racing. I would like to see about getting a Cyclocross bike, and building a bit more personnel sponsorship. From some of the talk around the club web site, it looks like the team may be bigger next year. This would be nice.

But in the next couple of months, personally I have to concentrate on some family matters, get some things done around the house over the holidays, and then concentrate on finding a way to better support my family. With any luck I'll get a promotion at work that I am shooting for.