I drove down to Texas again last night. There are 4 criteriums here the next two weekends. It is pretty weird, but I haven’t ridden a criterium this season yet. That is amazing to me. I would usually have at least 5-10 criteriums under my belt by now. There are lots of reasons for this. The early season training criteriums in Lawrence don’t allow Cat. 1 riders to race anymore. I have no idea what that is all about. Plus, I haven’t been racing as much as some other springs.
Another reason for being here is I have a fence to build. It is much bigger than I had thought. I packed up the van with all the necessary tools, but I’m sure I forgot something.
The riding in Dallas isn’t what the riding in Austin is. I’m a little worried about that. Anytime I get situated in a big city that I’m not familiar with I panic a little. But, every city has its rides. That is the cool thing about cycling. You get to explore the city up close and personal on a bicycle. It is one of the best parts of the non-racing aspect of the sport.
I knew they hadn’t burned enough this Spring in Kansas. Even though I’ve been gone a fair amount, I haven’t talked to anyone at home that was complaining too much about the smoke. That wasn’t the case driving through the Flint Hills toward Wichita yesterday. It was ablaze. And all that smoke was blowing up towards Topeka. So, in that regard, it wasn’t a bad time to left for alittle while.
I’ve been feeling okay riding. I have a bunch of power sitting on my seat, but seem to be missing the standing power, which is normally my forte. I normally don’t do anything to try to consciously screw with my pedal stroke, but I don’t think I’ve been pulling up on the back stroke enough when I’m standing. It’s probably because I’m riding easier gears and spinning a little more as I get older and lose power. It is hard to climb efficiently, pulling up, when you’re pedaling over 90 rpm’s or so. I’ve been riding bigger gears climbing off my seat, concentrating on pulling up. I doubt I’m going to get to do that too much here because it is pretty flat around Dallas. I’d like to make it down to Austin for a couple days next week to train. Hopefully that will work out.
This is the rock that marks the start of the Flint Hills on the Turnpike.
And this is an example of the miles and miles of grass burning they were doing yesterday.
There are three mountain ranges in Oklahoma - Arbuckles, Kiamichis, and the Wichita. Oklahoma actually has a place that has an elevation over 5000 feet. Who woulda thunk it?
I saw this super cool thunderhead driving through Southern Oklahoma.
Glad to have you in Dallas. If you want some hills while you are here you can have as much as you want in the Cedar Hill area just 20 miles south of Dallas. We have a few loops where you can get in as much as 4,000 feet of climbing in 65 miles or so. Email me if you want maps/routes/etc.
they don’t allow cat 1’s to race the training crits? what kind of rule is that? the perry circuit races too?
Wow! Really????
They don’t have a 1/2 category for the last 4-5 years is because there would be days only 1 rider would show up!!! On good days there would be 4 or 5. The promoter chose to offer a masters OPEN category instead. You could have raced that Steve. It’s pretty easy to understand really. Promote a race and for several years have people not show for a particular category and have other people asking for a new category and see what happens. I’m sure if trade wind and Mercy contacted the promoter and said they would guarantee 7 people show per weekend the promoter would add the 1/2/3 category back in. Supply and demand and simple economics. But yea, you could have raced masters Steve. Amazing what you can learn by reading a race flier http://revolution-racing.com/SF2012.pdf don’t mean to sound rude but sick of hearing comments like that from local 1s and 2s who don’t read race fliers. If you don’t like it, promote your own race.
If it doesn’t rain. Starting Thur (tomorrow) you can do 8 days of crits ending next Sunday (4/22) in Dallas. Joe (RBM) rides on Tuesdays down to Cedar Hill for the climbing JLB mentioned above. Call the store.
I could understand a cat 4/5 only training series but I’m surprised USCF would allow a series to exclude cat 1 and cat 2 under 35 from having a race. This just adds for a reason there are too many life time cat 3’s
Come to Austin and do The Driveway next thursday, im sure the guys would love to have you.
Promoters are not obliged to put on mandatory category races, Bruce. Also, there is no longer a “USCF.” It was absorbed by USA Cycling about 10 years ago.
hey Steve I’m in E. Richardson, there’s a Lowe’s at Belt Line and Plano if you need gear.