Red Tail Cyclist: 2010

Greetings race fans. It has been a very long time since I posted on here. I have enjoyed reading others blogs and race recaps. I can't believe the 2010 Road/Crit season is over. For most of the readers here if any, you probably already know of any success or failures that I may have had this season. The single most thing I will take away from this year is I LOVE THE TRACK!! Big thanks to Robert for really putting the word out there about the track. If it weren't for his enthusiasm I may not have ever even tried it out. For those that don't know I did pretty well on the track, so much that I bought a premo bike. Another thanks goes out to Devin for letting me borrow his brand new bike to ride on the track for pretty much 5 weeks straight. I'm also greatful for the new faces I met out on the track to name a few Joe, PJ, Ruben, Devlin, and so many more that I look forward to seeing next year. What did I learn out on the track? Well I can sprint and sprint I did!! I really enjoy how quickly we get to the sprint unlike in criterium racing. I can see now I really like crits with lots of turns to keep my mind busy versus just the 4 corner crits that I am now bored with. My focus next year will be on the track and criteriums. Initially I was thinking I would try to vastly improve my road racing palmeres but that won't be an A priorty now. So back to this season though, I'm pretty pleased with the way this season has gone for me. In pretty much all the crits I lined up for I was competitive in. My goals coming into the season were Tulsa Tough, Webster Crit, and Gateway Cup. Webster is the only crit I wasn't pleased with at all because I flatted in the last few laps. Other than that I went to Tulsa and placed top 15 two of three days there and Gateway Cup I placed in the money 3 of 4 days. I do feel for Gateway I could have been top 10 every race but that is racing for you. The biggest issue to me at the Cat 3 level is you have a larger percentage of guys that can go out and win so tactics and luck on your side are a bigger part of the equation. I didn't have good luck the first 3 days of GWC but at the Benton Park Crit things worked out well for me. What else from this year...........well Mid Town Alley Crit I was able to give Devin a leadout which is alot easier said than done. He finished 2nd in that race, it is a great feeling to help a teammate to a good finish. Racing with Devin is such an honor, not sure I have ever met I more humble champion than himself. This blogging is pretty hard to stay focused at! I have just taken several phone calls and seemed to have forgotten my thoughts for this posting. In the coming months I plan to pick up the blog more often. For now its about a month lay off from any cycling due to my travels for work. I'm going to Korea for a week and then to Japan for 3 weeks. I leave this Saturday and return October 7. Next up is also the rebirth of my cyclocross career. This year I feel hungrier, in past seasons I have been burnt out heading into the off season for the road bike. I still won't enjoy riding in the cold but I'm really hoping to turn a good result on the cyclocross bike. I picked up a TCX frame/fork off the message board for a pretty good deal. I would like to make a short film next year as well using a macbook I plan on purchasing when I get from my trip. The film will be about the local cycling scene. I figure it will give me something to do with the new laptop and iphone i have!