I had the pleasure of being asked to motorpace a young, rising cycling professional this morning. We met on the street near the Scholars Inn Bakehouse as I was leaving last night and we struck up a conversation about his visit here, how long he was staying, mostly small talk.  But I could tell that he was eager to talk about performance as well, the same way you might imagine the thoughts of a caged leopard, pacing back and forth, all the time staring at you.  You would like this guy, courteous, unassuming and  humble even, despite recent success at the national level.  He knew that I had to take the morning off from work and adjust my schedule to get the motorcycle ready so he was incredibly grateful.  Even though I excitedly jumped at the chance to do it.

So it begins.  We are suddenly racing again.  It’s mid March, just 78 days into the year.  That’s how much time we’ve had to prepare for this.  Has it been enough time?  Are you ready to race or are you still planning your first event, not quite ready to get to the line just yet?

I counted 35 riders snaking their way to 446 and Knightridge tonight for the opener of the 2012 edition of the Bloomington Wednesday Worlds!  It was a large group for a spring break evening and time was short as the clocks just switched.  We hoped for 6 laps but a quick math check indicated that we’d be riding home in the dark if that was attempted.  So we elected to complete 5 laps of the notorious 4 mile clockwise circuit with two big ring rises on the front side.