No matter how much you deny it, the dog days of summer are upon us which means another season is drawing to a close. There is no getting around the fact that we’re coming up on the second weekend in August already. Its the point of the year when people are fizzing out: attendance is slowly declining at races; teammates are falling off the face of the earth; and you’re either in denial that there’s only about 5 weeks of racing left or anxiously counting down til your last race. Personally, I’m a little in denial that the season is nearly over.
There’s some obvious signs of the end of season. First is the fact that its getting darker earlier. Gone are the times of daylight til 8:30-9:00. Now its already getting dark around 8:00pm, and you’re probably finding yourself cutting a ride short or busting a move in the dusk.
Next is the always amusing riders dropping off the face of the earth. It could be teammates, could just be dudes that you’ve seen and raced against every weekend of the summer. All of the sudden, they’re no where to be found. Come August, some dudes are ready to hang up the bike for the season. Personally I race through the Pburg Crit. Seeing as how I’m on the committee that puts the race on, its only right I do the race.
And of course, tying into that is the drop-off in race attendance. By the time the end of the month comes around, you’ll be racing against fields of 30 or so. My favorite is always Thu worlds, where the attendance decreases exponentially weekly in Sep and into the first week in Oct.
So, whatever your plans are for the season you still can’t deny its drawing to an end. I’m looking forward to 5 more weekends of good racing (some of my favorite races are still coming up), some good results, and calling it a good successful season. The week after Pburg we’re headed to Spain for a super-chill vacation and kicking off my off season proper. I may rent a bike for a day just to say I rode in Spain, but other than that it’ll be relax and recharge. After that its back home and gearing up for a good fall century ride. Then its time for some off-season training time including, but not limited to, base miles, cross, fixie riding, roller warz, and drinking. Hard to believe another season is almost over.
On another note, we went to see Poison at Musikfest last night. I can’t say it was one of the best concerts I’ve ever seen, or even a great concert. But I went for the pure fact of saying that I saw Poison in concert…much like the fact that I’ve seen Vanilla Ice twice (at Croc Rock in Atown). Now I’m in the mood to see a real concert.
Filed under: cycling
