It’s February…and that means that the racing season is back…as cold as this month has been so far…our first race is coming this weekend…it’s coming and we have some real excitement going on about it! Not only that, but MTFGKC is being recognized by other African-American cycling entities around the country as being a leader in the cause of promoting cycling in the urban core!
I was contacted last week by a guy from Detroit named Brian Cox, who told me that he was the president of an African-americian cycling club there and he was conducting a search for similar organizations and came across our name. He shot me an email and I sent him some info about us. Next thing I know, I start to get emails from Texas, New Jersey, Minnesota, Chicago, Washington, D.C. and other places, all of them from individuals representing their clubs, all wanting to know more about us. And of course I want to know more about them.
There is now an effort to bring all of these AA based clubs together at what we are now fondly calling, the "LDoubleAB Summit" or League of African-American Bicyclists Summit. This is a new name, but keep your eyes open to see what we do.
At the moment, efforts are being made to put together a communication system, and then work begins for us to try and work and help each other in our causes. I am very excited by this prospect and will be very active, as we continue work to become more established here at home.
This coming weekend, my sons Thomas 16 and Christian 15, two of our MTFGKC recruits, Jason Taylor 21 and Josh Saluberry 20, and I will be traveling to attend the MOBRA Road Development Clinic in the St. Louis area on Saturday and on Sunday will be in Columbia,Mo. to compete on our first race of 2006, the 31-mile, Froze Toes Road Race, which is supposed to be a "training" race (but we know better). We had planned to start the season at the Spring Fling in Lawrence, but we never really got to do many races in Missouri last year, and want to try a few, so we thought that with the training we are going to, let’s try something different.
This will be Jason’s very first race, and he is not in shape for it, even tho he has been riding with us on and off, for the last two months. About three weeks ago, he spotted a great Fuji road bike at the pawn shop and bought it for a steal, bought himself some shoes, helmet and pedals, annoucing that he was ready to learn how to ride/race. We fitted him for with some gear and he is on his way, but he may not race this weekend.
Josh has been riding with us all winter, despite his college schedule and his manager’s job at Starbucks. He actually resigned as a manager so that he could have more riding hours and weekends off to race. He has shown me by his actions that he loves riding and wants to get into it more.
Thomas and Christian are boys behaving like boys, don’t like to get up and train, don’t want to go out in the cold, play video games too much and are absolutly confident that they will do great when the time comes to pull up to the line.
And then there is me, paranoid, skeptical, maybe overtraining at times and anxious. I did one race last year, a crit, and I went at it in an unprepared manner, which was not the best way to start out…so I just want to cover my bases, be prepared and just learn something new. My goal for this race year is to learn how to get into and stay in the pack.
The road development clinic consist of consist of classroom and road sessions covering training programs, race prep, tactics, paceline riding, intervals and more. Sessions are held on Feb. 25, March 11, and April 15, from 8:30am-12:30pm. I just feel that all of us could use this training, and we will be able to teach others here what we learn. The best part of this clinic is that it is free of charge and has some very qualified clinic coaches, Mark Rosen, Chirs Hulse, and Jim Schneider.
I’ll tell you all next week what went on this weekend. Wish us luck!!!!!!!