A New England Masters Cycling Team

Our new team frames from Cannondale came in. Of course Alren was the first to pick-up, build and ride his. All in the span of about 45 minutes! I think he shoved the UPS guy aside to get to his frame which was still up in the truck.

Cannondale did a great job. We kept it pretty simple keeping the matte black we've had the past 2 years but adding the custom decals. With our uniforms being pretty orange we didn't want the bike to be too obnoxious.

Wade

Sunrise on the last day of the season. On the ClifBar Run-up. Laura, Nathaniel and Wade.
Wade, Matt and Paul after Sunday's race. Wade over the barriers.

I heard through the grapevine that people wanted to see more shots of Nathaniel... These are from about two months ago. Thanks for the new diaper Dad. How much longer do we have to do this apple picking thing? And getting ready for my first solid foods.

But I race like crap! I pick Nationals to throw out my worst performance in a cross race in sometime. Oh well. I won't offer up all the same old lame excuses. Wait! I'm a bike racer we ALWAYS offer the excuse or two when things go wrong. I'd guess my cross form peaked back in mid-November and has been slipping since then. The Flu didn't help. That greased the skids of my downward slide. Ted said it best when we were out at dinner a few nights back. When your teetering on form and only training the minimum amount, missing 2 or 3 workouts is all it takes. I did get a mention on the PA as I had a very good start and the mention " Wade Summers is up there too!" came over the wires. I was sitting in the top 15 when the field made the right hand turn onto the grass. But that was it. It went downhill from there as I had NO power and a steady stream of riders went by me for the next 2 laps. The bleeding slowed after that and I cruised home to 71st! I had to put in an effort in the last lap to catch a rider who has no business finishing in front of me at a cross race. It was the only mission I accomplished.

The new clothes look great. Same design basically but with orange, taking the look back to the old Team Horst.

Cheshire Cross -

I missed Sterling last weekend because of the Flu so today was my first really hard effort since getting better. I did some moderate intervals on Thursday so my body wouldn't go into complete shock on Saturday. Cheshire is a new race and now slots in as the second closest race to my house after our team's Southington event -under 10 miles and almost all of it can be done on the highway. My goal was to get a good start and see what my body felt like. Didn't feel good. I got an OK warm-up and a front row start position. By half way through the first lap I was 4th but moving backwards. A very very long run-up was killing me every lap. I could do nothing as one rider after another would catch and pass me. I settled in and did what I could to limit the damage. I couldn't stick around for results but I would guess I was 10th or 11th. Not bad, but the Flu cost me 5 or 6 spots for sure.

Wade