Both the MABRA and VAcycling 2011 calendars are now up. If you're still logging leisurely base miles, best to click on over to see what the early season has in store for you, and how early you need to bring the Fast this year. Here are a few highlights:
- Our friends at Bike Doctor / Bayside Velo have scheduled a euphemistically titled "Spring Training Series" with 5 weekends of racing all scheduled before spring even officially starts. Perhaps their new March 19 Bike Doctor Crit should be entitled the Mid-Summer Swelterfest.
- 540Cycling's Vint Hill Classic is back on 3/20, allowing for an early season double crit weekend while we're still in the winter - and, importantly, a week before Jefferson Cup (3/27).
- ABRT's Tour of Walkersville moves up a weekend to April 2. In previous years it was part of a heavy-up weekend along with NCVC's Tyson's Corner Circuit Race. This means the miles horses might be more likely to double up at Walkersville, and that hill at Tyson's (4/10 this year) will go by at least 2mph faster each lap.
- April 16 - 17 is another opportunity for lots of early race miles, with Evolution Cycling's Chantilly Criterium on Saturday followed by DC Velo's Carl Dolan Memorial on Sunday.
- The Virginia calendar kicks off with the Snowball Crits on 2/20 and 3/8 (so says the calendar - should it be 3/6?), followed by the VB Wheelmen's Sleepy Hole Smackdown on 3/12.
- Since you're fresh out of all that base building, why not test your LT at the Dismal Dash TT on 3/13?
- Virginians can get in their final tune up for Jeff Cup (3/27) at the Team Natures Path Road Race on 3/20. TNP is book-ending Jeff Cup with another race on 4/3 this year - the Meadows Circuit.
- Finally, Stratton Delaney of Starlight Bicycles has just announced a new race weekend in Roanoke, not yet on the VA calendar. Mark yours for 4/16 and 4/17, especially if a twilight downtown crit, road racing on dirt, and $7K worth of purse is of interest to you.
That's a whole season of racing, all by the middle of April. What's your strategery this year - be ready for for the early season mayhem, or train through all these early spring events to build the speed for later on?
Any word on a location for the spring training series?
Posted by: Mike C | January 09, 2011 at 09:17 PM