Finally, a weekend on the bike

Battenkill training DVD is now available here
I got a press copy today, and will be posting a review later this week
More information and web store here

First of all, sorry for the omission of Thursday's post. I have no excuse, except that I'm really tired when I get home from work these days, and Thursday being the end of last week, I just didn't have any motivation to write. It happens. Forgive me.

Anyhow, this was a great weekend, jam-packed with riding and fun.

The riding fun started on Saturday, when I went down to Delmar to meet up with some of my cycling brothers and sisters from the Albany area. It was warm -- probably in the low 40s at points -- and sunny, so about 20 people showed up for a group ride down to Coxsackie.

It was great to ride with a group, and to catch up with a few people I don't see too often. Matt, a former team mate of mine, was even courteous enough to take me out for an hour before we met the group, so that I could meet Coach Scott's prescribed hours for the weekend.

In thanks, I up-ed the pace at every opportunity and left Matt thoroughly whipped by ride's end. I'm such a good friend. At least he still let me shower at his place after... thanks buddy!

The Albany crew takes their town line sprints pretty seriously, and I proved to myself that my pre-season training is going well by taking one of the early sprint. Connie whispered in my ear that we'd go down a hill, then up the other side of a gully, and then the line was two ks out. So, despite not having any idea where the line actually was I did my favorite thing, which is to channel my inner Fabian Cancellara and launch an audacious attack.

I got a gap on the climb, and then was able to turn over my 14 fast enough to see red, but also to hold off a charging chase group of Andy Ruiz, Dieter, and Kevin Mosher. I impressed myself, anyway. No matter, I didn't win another sprint all day.

So that was fun. After spending the afternoon in Albany (and thanks to Connie for lunch!), I met with some of the other NYCross.com promoters in the evening, and we worked to hammer out a schedule for next year's series. It's looking like Spa 'Cross will be a few weeks earlier in 2010, which I'm excited about. Hopefully, we won't be up against any UCI races this year either. The date isn't firm yet, but look for an announcement soon.

Then it was off to not one, but a series of wine bars -- I'm so classy.

Earlier today, I went out for a group ride with the Saratoga crew, where I filled John in from the previous night's meeting, and checked out the status of Corinth Mountain Rd. (it's still scary, sand doesn't help). It wasn't quite as warm today as it was yesterday, but we still had a solid crew for January, and it was great to catch up with Andy, Graber, and a few others. I went for a few town lines, but the sprints weren't quite as closely contested as they were in Albany. I bumbled into Team Stoneyfield on the way home, and got to ride a little with them as well. All in all, it was a great weekend on the bike. Unfortunately, it was not a great weekend for getting adequate rest, so I'm going to crash now. Goodnight.