Inaugural Season

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Eric Brickler playin' it cool at Dunnigan - 1st place!
Eric Brickler playin’ it cool at Dunnigan – 1st place!

The 2013 amateur cycling racing season in NorCal was a great experience and a fun time.  At my advanced age I have the ability to reminisce on the “good ole days” when I could train all day and race.  But this year was truly one of the more enjoyable seasons of racing I’ve had.  The team started the season with several podium placings but no wins.  The early season racing is interesting because the road races are not too difficult and with no real climbing.  When I say “not too difficult” I don’t mean they are a breeze, I just mean that with the winter training I did and the flat course profile, I can get to the finish with the group feeling pretty good.  To prove this point, usually the entire field is coming to the line for a massive sprint too showing further that the race likely wasn’t difficult enough.   The criteriums are much the same as the road races where the routes are fast and quick and no hills to make the race break the riders down and split the fields (those races show up in mid summer).  Therefore the early season racing lent itself to mass sprint finishes and not the lone break-away or climbing terrain our team thrives on (the “team” thrives on, not me). Read the rest of this entry »

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