Penn State

I got back yesterday from Penn State, and was too tired to make a post so I waited until today. Pace yourself, this could be a long post!

Saturday: Road Race
At about 9:30 Men's D took off to start the scary 21.4 mile road race, including a 5 mile continuous climb up over a mountain. I had an awesome start, and had a first in any races I've been in. About a mile into the race, while I was near the front of the peloton, a few guys took off, breaking away from the peloton and became the leaders. I didn't think much of it, thinking we might catch up to them later on in the race. However, like 10-20 seconds later I saw a line of 3 guys passing by me on the left for the chase against the leaders, and I decided to try my first chase with them, catching on to the back wheel and staying with them to the leaders. There were now 7 or 8 of us in the lead pack with the peloton 5-10 seconds behind. They did, however, catch up to us and it was one large peloton again for a little, until the first climb. This climb was a short, steady climb for like .5 mile, but the peloton exploded into many small groups. I was leading the one small group down the decline after the hill, and then there was a sudden left turn before the second climb. I calculated the left turn wrong, and was looking in the wrong spot around the turn that I ended up riding into the field on the right side of the road I was trying to turn onto. Luckily there wasn't anyone on the right of me, or we would've had a disaster. There were guys behind me that took the turn right and went up the hill while I was throwing my bike into the ground before getting back on the road. What sucked is that when I got back on the course to start back up again, it was at the base of the climb that I was using up energy just to start up my momentum again on a climb. Anyways, so I see these two or three riders behind me and I just focused on keeping my distance from them after I get to the top of the second climb, which I would say was a mile long. Another downhill with some rolling hills, until the 3rd climb, which is five miles of constant climbing, no flat false more than 10 yards or so. The same two guys stayed behind me by 10-20 seconds, and every time I saw the one creeping closer I just did a short sprint effort up the hill to keep my distance. Somehow when I wasn't paying attention to them the one guy caught up, which pissed me off but I made sure I stayed with him. Finally we get near the top with about a mile left of climbing and I see a kid from Penn State about 20 seconds ahead of me, and I kept focusing on him. When I got to the top of the mountain that some rolling hills before the straight downhill descent, I sprinted to get away from the guy I was riding with and to catch up to Penn State. He was not expecting me, as I saw him look back, noticed me, had a "shocked" reaction and tried to sprint to get away from me. I kept sprinting, and on the downhill I was a few seconds behind him. I did not want to pass him, as we had some technical turns and a sharp left turn at the bottom before the final road to the start/finish line. But, as soon as he hit the bottom and made the turn, I went inside and he went outside, still in front of me by a few seconds, I started sprinting with all I had left to pass him and cross the finish line a few seconds before him. I got 63rd out of 69 that finished, there were a few that didn't finish due to flats or crashes. I was impress of my finish, with the sprinting and all, but was disappointed in my cornfield run early in the race, and wish I could've made that turn better.

Sunday: Time Trial
This will be short... I had a bad start, did horrible through the race, and basically bonked. With riders going off at 20 seconds intervals, I got passed 4 times, already being 80 seconds behind. I got 3rd to last, and hated my performance so much that I'm done talking about it.

Sunday: Criterium
This was one of my best crit performances. So I didn't get top 9 or anything, but I've definitely discovered something about myself. First off, at the start I took off and got pretty near the front of the pack before the first turn. I don't know what happened, I'm usually nervous around turns when in a pack, but I was feeling great today, using the brake only when the bikes in front of me would brake (brakes should be illegal in crits, seriously). Anyways, I stayed with the pack for the first lap, coming around the second turn of the second lap, there was a crash right behind me, I don't know what happened but I did a short spring effort for a few yards to make sure no one would hit my back wheel. After that the pack exploded just like in the road race and there were many small groups. I started dropping back because everyone was pushing harder and my legs weren't up for it yet. I got into a group of a few people, the guys in front of me started pulling away and I looked back to see a Princeton buddy and I pulled out to let him through and thought we could work together to catch up. However, when I said "let's go and catch these guys" he went overboard and pushed really hard and got away from me. Then I saw a guy from Kutztown that I just met that morning through a teammate of mine that knew him, and so him and I rode together in an attempt to catch someone. However, because we were too far behind the leading contenders, we were out of contention and the race official said we had one lap to go while there were really like 7 or 8 laps to go. So Kutztown and I rode together to the end, but he stayed on my wheel for most of the final lap and that was pissing me off. Since there were no other riders for like 5 seconds behind us, I did a daring stunt that would usually cause a crash it others were around. Coming around the second-to-last turn, I made it seem like I was going inside the left turn, but as I was coming to the corner of the curb, I quickly shifted my bike to the outside, causing Kutztown to go inside and pass me. Then immediately I grabbed onto his rear wheel and took the last left turn behind him. Then just as we finished the left turn I saw him trying to sprint, and I was about 5 yards behind him when I started sprinting. I made up 5 yards, getting next to him and we just sprinted with all we had left. I got ahead of him just barely, and crossed the finish just before him for the "win". I got 17th out of 23 that finished, one did not finish, I think he might have been in that small crash.

Overall, this was one of my best performing weekends. Yeah, I didn't get impressionable results, but even Kim and Scott both said this was the best they've seen me race, with the amount of effort I was pushing, more than I usually do. They also were impress with the sprint at the end. That "thing" I discovered about myself is my sprinting potential. I now know I can be a really good sprinter, I just need to learn to stay with the peloton until the end to unleash my sprinting power.

Anyways, this was a long post, I'm glad you stuck through it to read this, you should get a medal or something! Next weekend is Army, I'll be posting about that in a few days!

Penn State University Race Weekend

This Friday the four of us (Christina, Kim, Scott and myself) will be traveling to State College, PA for a race weekend hosted by Penn State University. On Saturday is the Black Moshannon Road Race. 21.4 miles loop with 3 climbs totaling 1874 feet of climbing per lap. For this one I will try my best to stay with the peloton, and if it explodes like at Phoenixville I will try to stay with a small group until the sprint at the end. Men's D will only do 1 loop.

On Sunday is the Science Park Time Trial. Originally scheduled to be a Team Time Trial, it has been changed to Individual Time Trial so this will be my chance to make up for missing the Rutgers Time Trial. I can't wait. It's a 4.5 mile, out and back rolling course. I'm going to shoot for about 11 minutes, which I believe would almost guarantee a top 9 spots to bring points to the team.

Later in the morning on Sunday is the Downtown State College Criterium. A flat, 1K long, 6 turn course. Flat is always good, and I plan to stay in with the peloton for this race. For Men's D, the race will be 30 minutes.

I will post results and my opinions afterwards!

Spring's Here... almost

So yesterday was the first day of spring (anyone get their free ice from Rita's?). But yet, it still snowed this morning! Hopefully this will be the last of the snow we see this year, I'm getting sick of it and wish that spring would hurry up and appear already. It did stop snowing before noon, and so early afternoon I went out for a ride for an hour and a half and got about 21 miles in, doing my normal starting route as I used to do all the time over the summer, then some steady climbing and ending with sprint efforts. One lesson I learned today, is not to eat chinese before going out for a ride. Chinese puts me to sleep if I don't eat it with tea of some sort (my favorite is the Chai tea from Sheetz or Starbucks). I wasn't feeling myself today on the rides, just tired and worn out, and I attribute that to not eating enough today, and having that chinese before the ride.

Today there was a time trial this morning near Schuylkill Valley Elementary School. I didn't really plan on doing it, even though in the back of my mind I kept debating if I should. My only interest in this race was the fact that the coach I'm hiring was going to be there so I went to meet him specifically. He's the coach of the team I'm joining, Team Vortex based in Kutztown, PA, and after renewing my license and sending in my dues for the club, I am now officially a Vortex rider (http://www.vortexcycling.com). The time trial ended up being cancelled because of some snow on the route that was dangerous on this downhill, so I went to the coaches house with some of the other teammates to talk to him about my options. He's a pretty cool guy, and very technological. He can get the PowerTap computers cheaper than they go for in stores, and so I will be buying one from him when I get the money. He uses that to keep an eye on our progress, unlike the other coaches I have considered in the last year, that just gives you a training program and then at the end of the month you go for a ride and that how they track your progress. PowerTap is uploadable to the computer, making it easier to let the coach know how my rides are going so far, and he can make adjustments to my training programs accordingly. Pretty cool!

There is a training crit tomorrow, however I highly doubt I'll be motivated enough to do it because it is Easter Sunday and the family does a lot of activities every Easter, including my uncle's annual plastic Easter egg hunt.

Next weekend my collegiate team will be going to Penn State University for a race weekend. So far there's only 4 of us that I know are going. I will post about this race later this week, and then as usual I will post my after-race comments sometimes next weekend. Be on the look out!

Princeton Circuit Race, and Weekend Results

We (Kim, John L. and I) just got back a few minutes ago from our road trip to the Princeton Circuit Race, held at the First Energy Ballpark (home of minor league baseball team Lakewood BlueClaws) located in Lakewood, New Jersey. This has become one of my better rated courses ever. Held half in the parking lot and half on a road, it was 1.2 miles long per lap, relatively flat with some very slow inclines. I liked the course, and think I could have done decent if my helmet didn't fall apart.

The straps on my helmet, that goes through the loopy thing that clicks the helmet in under your chin, came loose, and I knew I would be automatically disqualified when I'd cross the finish line next that I just slowed down and took my time finishing the lap. When I came to the finish line I just said "I'm out" and when they saw my helmet they knew why. So this week I'm heading to the bike shop to see if they could do something about it. I didn't see any cracks or anything on the plastic piece that would allow the straps to come loose.

Men's D, my race, was 25 minutes long, and after the officials timed the first two lap we had 6 to go, for a total of 8 laps. I was out on the 5th lap I believe. I kept up with the peloton for the first 2-3 laps, but then, as usual, I got dropped off the end. There were atleast 7 guys behind me and I was in between them and the peloton, trying to keep my distance from them so they wouldn't finish before me. I just focused on keeping my distance from them while trying to reel myself into the peloton, but the peloton just kept getting further and further away, while several more were getting dropped. Then on the 4th or 5th lap my helmet came apart and I was done.

John L. came in last in the Men's Intro today, but he's doing better and getting more comfortable riding in a pack. Kim got first place in the Women's A race, which is great! She also won $4 when the race officials decided to add the "buck a lap" prize money, and Kim crossed the finish line first on 4 laps!

Results from yesterday were posted; I got 21st and Jon F. got 22nd in the criterium out of about 30-some riders. I'm definitely doing a lot better now, considering my results from last year.

Next weekend the race is in Pittsburgh, but not surprisingly a lot of teams are not doing it because 1) Pittsburgh is very far to drive from for many schools and 2) it is Easter weekend. We're not going to Pittsburgh, but we will be going to Penn State University the following weekend, which I am excited for! I can't wait!!!

Grant's Tomb Criterium at Columbia

I just got back on campus about 20 minutes ago after a long day at Columbia (In NYC). Today at the Grant's Tomb Criterium, what could have gone wrong, probably did for all of us.

First, Scott shows up late for us to leave because he was having problems with his bike rack, so we were risking John L. to miss his Men's Intro race at 8:00. We left at about 5:20 in 2 cars when we originally were supposed to leave at 4:45.

Second, I get a flat tire on my car somewhere in New York City before arriving to the course. This is, seriously, my 3rd flat tire on my car in the last 6 months! I had one last fall, one in January and now today. Anyone want to buy a 98 Ford Taurus SE?

Third, John L. had a bad race and dropped out after a few laps when his knee was hurting badly.

Fourth, during the Men's D race with Jon F. and me, Jon got a flat on his bike and I somehow got dropped off the back of the peloton after the 3rd or 4th lap. I wasn't paying attention to all those that were passing me that I ended up being dropped before I realized it.

I did better than usual, but I'm still pissed about several stuff. First, as usual, the crash last October I still can't bring myself to forgive that lady. Second, I was coming up to my last lap, when the race official told me to slow down and that this is my finish (I was about to cross the finish line before starting my last lap). I didn't even get lapped yet, as I was close to being lapped, but he still told me to stop, and that I'm done. What the heck?! I better not have gotten a DNF (did not finish) for this course, I hope I got a place or something because I deserved it.

Well, that's enough for now, I'm heading to sleep now as I am dead tired. I got a circuit race at Princeton tomorrow, which I'll write about when I get back. Comments please!

Police are supposed to protect us, not kill us

Recently, two cyclists have been killed... but the oddest thing is by who... a Santa Clara County Deputy on duty who claims that he must have fallen asleep.

Link is here

This is absolutely outrageous. I know these things happen, but of all people a member of the police force? That is the LAST person anyone would think would hit a cyclist. And we're supposed to be a democracy where NO ONE is above the law. I understand it was an "accident" that he might have fallen asleep on the wheel, but who's protecting us if the police can't?

My heart and prayers goes out to the family and friends of the two killed and the one still in the hospital with a broken arm and leg.

As always, be careful out there, now you don't know if you can trust the cop cars anymore...

Philly Phlyer Results

Results from this past weekend are posted on http://www.velocityresults.net/

Road Race:
http://www.velocityresults.net/results/135/eccc-week-2-philly-road-race

Team Time Trial:
http://www.velocityresults.net/results/136/eccc-week-2-philly-team-time-trial

Circuit Race:
http://www.velocityresults.net/results/137/eccc-week-2-philly-circuit-race

Philly Phlyer

I got back from a busy race weekend about 2 hours ago. My first race for this season...

SATURDAY ROAD RACE, 15 Miles in Phoenixville, PA:
Friday night into Saturday it rained, and Saturday was bad. However, my race it hardly rained except for the pouring at the very beginning that stopped after a minute, and several light drizzles here and there. The course though, I HATED IT! First, it was totally different from the course description, or the description was at least very vague. I took it that it was just one hill climb at the beginning, then downhills and flats after that. Well, there obviously was a reason why it was mostly flats and downhills after that; because "that" was a long, un-steady climb (grade kept changing), with some false flats that I would sprint on thinking the climb was over. The climbs just kept coming and coming and coming. Also, very many technical turns that were sharp on the downhill, which I absolutely hated because it just didn't seem like a good course.

I got dropped on the 3rd or 4th climb, which I attribute to the crash with a car back in October. I'm sure I could have kept up with some of the riders in the front if I had those 12 weeks back to train. I learned later that the pack blew up later on a climb and there really was no peloton, but just a bunch of small groups.

I didn't think at the time that anyone else dropped before me besides three other guys that got dropped at the same time I did, which I stayed with them for a little until the killed me on a hill. I thought I was in last place, so I basically slowed down and paced myself, since the roads were wet and I wasn't going to risk killing myself. But somewhere about 10 miles into the road race I got caught up by someone from Drexel (who got dropped on the first hill he told me) who shouted out something like "c'mon, keep going!". At first I didn't know if he was Men's D1 or D2, so I asked if he was racing right now, and what category he was. He was the same category I was in (D2), so I made sure I stuck with him the rest of the way. When we were done with the climbs and it was downhills and flats the rest of the way, we had an "unspoken" agreement for a friendly battle to the end. We both started sprinting but he ended up slowing down, I'm guessing his legs were dead from the climbs, and I took off. I ended the race about 10-15 seconds before he did. We both shook hands and said "good race" right after he crossed the finish.

Nick and Sean started their Men's Intro race shortly before I crossed the finish, and they ended up getting pounded on by the rain. Sean finished 7th, Nick 8th. After their race the officials said that it's too dangerous for a road race because of flooding, and turned the rest of the races into a criterium in the middle of town. All the races got pushed back for atleast 2 hours, and Kim decided not do to her Women's A race because by the time they would've went off, it would've been 4:00.

SUNDAY Team Time Trial (8+ miles) and Circuit Race, Philadelphia, PA:
Why was daylight savings time last night? I lost an hour of sleep!!!

I arrived in Philadelphia at about 6:50 this morning. Nick, John and I decided to do the Team Time Trial for Men's Intro. I went down a grade just for the TTT because Nick and John never did one before, and it was their first race weekend as road racers. Anyways, we took off at about 8:30, and had a good start. However, when we turned around and started riding into the wind, John just started freezing up and Nick and I slowed down so he could keep up. He started not feeling well and we stuck with him, knowing that we were getting points for our team since there weren't that many teams racing Men's Intro. When Nick and I got close to the hill climb at the end of the race, I looked back to John and said "we're going, see you at the finish" which he knew we would do since only 2 needed to cross the finish for the timer to stop. He kept telling us to go but we wanted to stay with him until the hill climb, which was our original plan since Nick and I are stronger climbers. We got 2nd.............................................. but there were only two teams. We gained 11 points for the DeSales Cycling team, but I know if it was just Nick and me, we could have beaten the other team. They were ahead of us by about 4 minutes.

Later in the day I was supposed to do the circuit race, however the wind was getting more violent and colder, that I made the difficult decision to opt out of it. My reason, I'm about to finish off a minor cold of just a nose congestion and some coughing that I got earlier this week. I didn't want to risk making it worse when it was REALLY cold out there because the wind was blowing 20+ mph. I want to race next weekend, not have to skip it because of being sick!

Well, that's my race weekend story. Sorry for the long post, but I just love talking about details! For those of you that read my posts, please let me know what you think about my decision to opt out of the circuit race earlier today. I kind of regret doing that, thinking I could have done a good job with it, but I was afraid of getting sicker and having to miss some training time this week and maybe even next weekend's race. Thanks!

Rain, Snow or Shine, I'll ride... but FLOOD?!

It rained worse than I expected it to last night, and some of the roads I like to ride on are flooded. I'm debating now whether to go out riding, since I know there are still some roads flood-free and I can get a decent training ride done. However, I won't be able to do the hill climb to Haven as I described in my last post since Landingville is flooded, and I'm sure the back road to Deer Lake is flooded, so that hill climb behind Deer Lake might be inaccessible. I might just do 3 hours tomorrow, first hour hill climbing, second hour sprinting, and then the last hour work on a steady speed as I would expect to be going while in the peloton. I'll be sure to eat a LOT of stuff tomorrow, since after this 3 hour ride, I will be playing basketball for 2 hours with the guys that I usually play with every thursday when I'm home from school. Friday, probably still just a one hour recovery ride, average less than 13 mph, before heading to my sister's house for the weekend.

Philly Phlyer weekend

I'm trying to fall asleep but can't cause I took a nap earlier that energized me a bit, so I decided to take this time to talk about the next race weekend of the ECCC conference.

Race flyer here if anyone is interested in seeing it

On Saturday is the Phoenixville Fury Road Race, weather: showers and wind, high of 50. One loop is about 15 miles long, and since I'm racing Men's D for the start of this season, I will only be doing one lap. From what I understand, it is diverse with some riding in downtown areas (with traffic unfortunately) and then some mountainous riding in rural areas. Some climbing involved, which I always hate (who likes climbing?) and expect to be dropped on the first or second climb because of my loss of fitness from my my car/bike crash. I am going to try my best to stay with the peloton, so that if there are very few leaders who broke away from the peloton, I will try to place top 15, even though only top 9 or so get points for their team. Because I didn't get a chance to go to Rutgers, this will be my first race of the season, and first race since the car/bike crash so even though I expect to be not good or at the same level as the others, I will strive for my best, plus 10%.

Sunday, weather: sunny, in the 40s. There is a Team Time Trial in the morning, but I doubt we will be doing that. I think there could be 3 of us there that morning that are in either Men's Intro or D (John, Nick and myself) that we could do it, but since John and Nick don't have any race experiences yet (except John did some triathlons) I think we'll pass for this weekend and train for the following weekend for time trialing. This reminds me, I need to send an email out asking if anyone would be up for doing the TTT.

Later in the morning is the Circuit race. This race is a 6.2 miles long loop, and Men's D will be doing 2 laps for a total of 12.4 miles. From the description, I'm only reading just one big climb with a lot of flat, straight roads and a short climb before a few corners just before the start/finish line. I'm going to use that to my advantage, try to keep with the peloton before the last climb, try to attack and break away so that when I hit the hills I don't risk getting dropped, and then fight for the finish line. Let me know what you think of that tactic?

Tomorrow I'm doing a 2 hour ride, first hour will be climbing. I'm going to go to Haven to climb this long dragging climb that is probably a mile or two long. Once I get to the top, I will decide whether to go to the downtown of Haven via a straight, steep downhill that should be fun and allow me to hit 40+ mph, or to go back the way I came up towards Landingville, which will be fun as well but I have to be careful with some blind turns. The only danger I run into with the straight downhill is that there is a drop off the side of the road that goes straight down, so if I were to hit a rock or something that would send me over the edge, I'm not going to Philly. Then the last hour or so I will just focus on steady pace and speed around 15 to 20 mph that I would expect to do to be in the peloton this weekend. Thursday I will be doing some sprints for 1 to 2 hours, using the roads around Landingville and Haven that are pretty flat with some tiny inclines. Friday will just be a recovery ride, no more than 12 mph average, for an hour or so before I pack up and get ready to head to school and then to my sister's place which is close to both race days. Post later this week most likely!

R.I.P. Caleb

A friend of mine's younger brother has been killed in an automobile accident Saturday night. I would like to take a moment to reflect on the Ott family. News article here

I grew up playing soccer with the one of the sons, Luke. The father, Reverend Randy Ott was always involved with the soccer when we were growing up, and was my dad's assistant coach for our local and travel soccer teams for several years. I later met 2 of Luke's 3 brother, Josh who is older and Caleb who is younger, both very athletic themselves. The mother I met when I was young, a very sweet lady.

The timing is bad for this recent death. Mrs. Ott (link to her blog) was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer back in September. It is really a hard time for the Ott family, and I want to express my love and prayers to the Ott family. Mr. and Mrs. Ott, I know this is a difficult time for you, but Caleb is in a better place, and I'm sure he misses all of us down here.

Rest in Peace Caleb, you will be missed.

T-Town Ride

Today, after I had my Orthopedic appointment in Allentown to get my left knee and left ankle x-rayed and observed by the Doc, I headed over to Trexlertown (T-Town) to meet with Kim at the Valley Preferred Cycling Center (formally Lehigh Valley Velodrome) for a 2 hour ride on the road. Today was a great day in the 50s and very sunny. There were times I almost ripped off my leg-warmers just because I was getting hot!

We take off heading towards Old 22 and I kept up with the Pro, Kim, for a while. But then, we hit this HUGE hill climb, and I was able to keep up with her until a quarter to a half way through, when I slowed down and she took off. I finally yelled out "DROP!" to let her know I was dropping back. She slowed down a little while still climbing and I met up with her at the next stop sign after a fun downhill after the climb. I did my usual thing by apologizing (for slowing her down and not keeping up) and she just laughs and says "not a problem". I did a decent job keeping up with her, or staying with 15 feet behind her with multiple catch-up (I go just a tad slower on hills and slow inclines and I play catch-up on flat or downhill roads).

We've passed a few cyclists going in the opposite position, which is different to me since I live in an area that isn't as cyclist-friendly. The pinnacle of my town with cycling is that Jeff Rutter lived here, he was a huge track star (bike, not running), and was supposed to be in the Olympics that one year the U.S. boycotted it. But not many people around her knows about that, which isn't surprising. Back on topic, Kim and I were near Topton (I think) when she heard people talking and shouting behind us... I couldn't hear them but she said that there is a group coming up behind us, let's slow down and catch on to the group. Well............. they were going faster than we had anticipated and when we tried to catch onto the back, we were going too slow (to let them catch up to us) and we got dropped instantly... sorry Kim. However, I felt good when we caught up to a lone-cyclist and passed him. He actually jumped on my wheel I think for a bit, cause I looked back several times and he was like 10 feet behind me. But then after a turn I looked back to see him not there anymore. I thought maybe he took a turn in a different direction.

Kim and I finished the 2 hour ride and got back to the velodrome. I was just cooling down when that guy who we caught up and passed got to the velodrome, like a minute or two after we got there. So I guess he was still behind me and just dropped off at some point.

I'm taking a rest day tomorrow, then Wednesday (in between my scheduled MRI for my knee and my sister's State's second round playoff game) I will be doing a 2 hour ride, thursday I'll do some sprints for an hour or two, and friday I'll be doing a very light ride to recover from the previous two days. Then this weekend is the Philly Phlyer collegiate race weekend. Later this week I will post to talk about that, which I am getting excited for now!

disappointed

So, I wake up at 4:30 this morning very excited for Rutgers. Then I see 2 text messages and 3 missed calls from our club president. I call him back, and I find out the other teammates have decided we shouldn't go. It's not raining outside, it's not snowing... heck, it ain't even that cold right now! "Wet road" was their excuse. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't majority of races "Rain or Shine"? Yes, I know roads are slippery when it rains, but the sun might clear it up, or the races may slow down a little! I've been on training rides when there were wet roads, and I've slipped and scraped up my elbows, legs and knees. But that's part of the risk of being a cyclist. Heck, my car/bike crash back in October was in down pouring rain, and my teammates are afraid of wet roads.

I am really disappointed right now because of this. I spent the last 2 months training and training HARD, I even let me school study slip because I was so determined to place top 9 today in the Time Trial. "Well, you could go by yourself if you really want to race" our president said. I am not going to represent a team by myself when there should be 5 of us on our way to Rutgers right this minute!

If you're going to let rain or wet road stop you, you're in the wrong sport.