This is my first official post as President, so hopefully it’s slightly more successful than Herc riding a mountain bike.
First of all, I’d like to welcome the new members to our little corner of the online world that we call the listserv. I’ve been contacted by several new and current students eager to join the team and are already on the listserv — it looks to be another hugely successful year already!
While perhaps not the life-changing and momentous e-mail that Steve hinted at, there’s still important stuff in here! It may not be a youtube broadcast like the non-plussed Patty-B so desires, but I do have a long-forgotten video of the first year at Camp Eagle.
Now on to business: Lee, Steve, and I attended the Conference meeting in Waco this weekend. I’ll spare you the boring details.
NCCA Road Nationals Report
In all honesty, I have been preparing for today (and tomorrow) since this time last year. All the training and daydreaming….focused on this race. I can only imagine how well school might go for me if I wasn’t a cyclist!
Through multiple Google-chats with Devin and others to plan my strategery, I settled on the simplest of all plans: be defensive yet aggressive, and make the selections. The course had changed this year so that the start would be more mellow than a mile-long 15% grade one mile into the race like last year. I was worried that a break would get away in the opening miles and ruin my chances, but I would have to take that gamble and hope that the brutality of the course would do the selecting. In the pre-ride yesterday I got some good practice for handling the descents at speed, since some of them were actually quite technical and had hay-bales on the outside of the turns. My legs felt great, the weather would be nice, and I knew the course…everything was coming together.
SCCCC Road Championships Report
With our full A-team present for Conference Championships, I was anxious. The point totals were close enough that I could still defend my Conference Champion title with a good weekend. I never thought I’d see the day, but we decided that my best bet for a win was to bring the race to a pack sprint. MSU would never let me get away in a break, so this was a logical conclusion. The tough part, though, would be holding the race together for 70 miles to reach that sprint. Baker, Herc, Tom, and Matt would set the pace at the front to bring back any of MSU’s attacks, with me hanging out at the back to help when needed, sit on attacks with potential, and stay fresh. We were in for a rude awakening.