The Shaving...

The season has officially begun. Legs have been shorn and them pedals have been turned in anger for the first time this year. This is by far the latest start to any season that I can remember as I'm not allowed to race the collegiate stuff any longer.

The season opened with a bang and a crash at the Jefferson Cup race in lovely Charlottesville, VA (the location of the University of Virginia). The weather was perfect and the 1/2/3 field was filled up at 125 riders. Things got started off fairly quickly with some attacks going on the first climb. Strong headwinds/tailwinds and oddly enough little cross wind kept most of the field together. Our guys had some digs but it was pretty clear that nothing was getting away. That was till late in the race when a group of four slipped away. We held them within striking distance with the plan to reel them in so that Jeff and Jacob could mix it up in the sprint. With about 2 miles to go they "mixed it up" in a bad way and got into a huge stack with several other riders. It happened just in front of me to my left and I swear that Fuentes from Harley was flying through the air level with my head. The pace let up as teams tried to figure out who was left in the pack after the crash and we never got as organized as we should have. I didn't see the finish but apparently the sprint caught two of the four off the front and was ~50 yards behind the other two.

All in all it was a fast tough race and while we didn't come away with the result we wanted, I think we rode fairly well as a team.

In related news, Rick and Lusby went to town on the masters 35+ field with Rick taking the vee.

In the coming days I'll post some pix of my new rides. If you though my road bike last year had a big head tube, you need to see this years frame.

P.S. Thanks to Sophia for getting me off my lazy ass and updating this here blog.