New Developments

Alright, alright I know. I said my racing season was over...and it was...until this week.

I had been going about my business, just riding for fun and less for training this week when I received an email back from one of the guys on the Thursday night ride mailing list. I knew that this guy was touted as being the fastest road guy in Marietta or Parkersburg and that he raced for a team out of Athens, Ohio. He invited me to come over to Parkersburg for a group ride sometime this week and we eventually got it worked out to do a ride on Friday night after work.

I arrived in the Park n Ride parking lot in time to get my bike and bottles ready and to get a short warm up in before my riding partner showed up. He arrived in full race kit and we took off, heading out Rt.50 trying to dodge the rain. We chatted as we clipped along around 22mph and to my astonishment he knew as much if not more of my stats than I did. He had raced at the New Martinsville race and was in the front breakaway all day (he races in the Cat.1/2/3 class). He knew I had placed second there and had seen me take second place at the Phillipi race as well. He had also heard from numerous sources (apparently guys I had ridden with on the Thursday night rides) that I was fast and a specialized climber. The route we took on Friday was a fairly hilly climbing route that he normally did a few times a week. We averaged 20mph over 23 miles without really putting down to tough of a pace.

Towards the end of our ride he mentioned he raced for Team Athens and they were looking for new members for the upcoming race season. He said that I would be a strong addition to the team if I was interested (to which I replied something like, "Uh, well heck yeah!").

So in short, I am now in the process of becoming the newest member of Team Athens, an amateur level cycling team out of Athens, Ohio. We are around 20 riders strong with a few Cat.2 riders, a handful of Cat. 3s, and numerous Cat. 4s (me!) and Cat. 5s. We have racers in a race nearly every weekend through the summer (the guy I rode with Friday just placed 21st overall in the State of Ohio Criterium Championship today, having forged a 5 lap solo effort off the front before being swallowed up by the peloton). We race time trials, criteriums, road races, and some cyclocross events. Our sponsors include GU, Ritchey, Fluid, Polar, Kenda Tires, and KT Prototypes Ltd.

I am back in training again as I now will be attending the Smith Valley Road Race in Orrville, OH ; The Cheat Mountain Challenge in Snowshoe, WV ; and the Valley City Street Fair Road Race in Valley City, Oh (all Team events).

I just got word back that I will be able to upgrade to Cat 4 following the completion of the Smith Valley Road Race, so I will be applying for my UCI racing license in mid-August. I will, as always, try to update this blog on my progress in this new cycling journey!

For more info on the team go here: http://www.teamathenscycling.com/

and for a picture of our Team Kit go here: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3HDtZX2qnd9j5TOD_xfiAzKLhzGxNS7zTe6KTfsEJgNh3Rlu1XdF7vK0tl5bRDAGFrz2aRBw8MmJLWeqNpmH3S99VrLQnfzll0gNkvYcM5GCg1XO3qRG4PZvv7zHy84nnt7uD4Y3Y2Bem/s1600-h/TA-Jersey-Final.jpg