A few final thoughts on Killington: Most of the results, the communiques calling out those that transgressed the rules, and a whole bunch of pictures are at the Killington Stage Race web page. The time trial results, which were not correctly linked at the Killington page last I checked can be found at BikeReg.com. My mother and Stephen, who hosted me for the weekend, found me in a number of the pictures. A big thank you to both of them and their kitties for putting up with me and my spandex for the weekend. The food and company were very good and the cats quite affectionate.
June is here and it is time to think about my June schedule. I intially had Connecticut Stage race down as a possibility for this weekend, however, with only two women registered as of last week, the promotors had no choice but to cancel the women's field. That makes my decisions easier. Another weekend of travel would be difficult to swing given the situation at work (2/3 of my 3-person lab are out on disability). Instead I will do the Empire State Games qualifier in Binghamtom on Sunday the 6th. Empire State Games are modelled after the Olypics with both summer and winter games covering a large number of events. For cycling the state is broken into 6 regions and each region may field a team (up to 10 men and 3 women per region). In order to be on the regional team a rider needs to have a USAC license, be a resident of the region they are trying out for, and my complete (and place high enough) in a qualifying race. Things then all come to a head in Buffalo NY from the 21-25 July when those who qualify compete for personal and regional glory in the games. Each person on the regional team will be issued a jersey for their region and a sweat suit for opening and closing ceremonies. For the cyclists our compition comes down to a 4 day stage race with an individual time trial, a road race, a crit (stop snickering Chris!), and a team time trial. The games are heavily subsidized so the total cost of the games is a $10 registration fee for the qualifiers, and an additional $25 if you use the provided housing for the 4 days of the games. An almost free stage race... not bad. So I figure I might as well see if I can manage to qualfiy for the games.
The weekend of the 12th and 13th is an Adirondack cycling weekend with the NY State road race championship on Saturday and the state crit championships on Sunday. There is the possibility of housing available while up there (Thank you Chris' parents!) with the minor stipulation that I have to try the crit too (:::whimper:::).
The weekend of the 20th is the Owego Strawberry festival and the weekend of the 26th there are two options - the Owasco flier and a circuit race on the Watkins Glen speedway race course. I initially highlighted the Owasco Flier, but have since learned that it is a non-USAC race where they start some 400 riders all at once - mountain bikes, crusiers, race bikes, etc, leading to a white knuckle experience for the first 5 or 6 miles. The course, I am told, is absolutely gorgeous. The mixing it up with 350 people who have never ridden in a pack before and 50 who have pack experience does not interest me that much. I do think it would be fun to ride the Watkins Glen speedway though... so most likely I will just do that race that weekend. That cover the month of June pretty well.
So with the exception of a trip to the 'dacks all the events are pretty close to home - a definite bonus!
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