Troupe Racing Co.

Despite our lack of updates, the Troupe has been very busy. We’ve had some fantastic weather for January and many of us have been very focused on base miles and pre-season training.

One big new factor to our off season is the guidance from Lynda Wallenfels we’re getting. She’s been coaching us and getting us to think about training differently then years past, and already we can sense a change. But more on that later…

Part of our plan involves some low priority racing on the weekends, and SoCal’s Cross Fever series fit in perfectly. Michelle and I made it out to two of the final cyclocross races of the season. These low key races are put on by Dorothy Wong and her team at socalcross.org. Michelle and I rode well enough to hang in for some good finishes for being new to – Michelle even took 3rd in the series for category 4 women. We’ll be sure to do more of these events in the official 2010-2011 cyclocross season.

Here’s Michelle’s highlight reel from Cross Fever races 2 and 3.

troupe racing co. : socal cross fever from tim vangilder on Vimeo.

But, as the cx season ends, the xc season starts. First up: this weekend’s (Jan. 23) 12 Hours of Temecula. If you’ve been following us or reading our site, you know that we’re huge fans of the SoCal Endurance series. These 3 events set up over the course of the racing season have becoming a staple to our racing scene. They’ve grown from a small niche event to a priority event that brings in riders from all over the western states.

We’ll be fielding a number of teams and solo riders across the categories. Our women’s team will be riding to defend their overall title from last year. Mykyta, Randy and Jeff go solo. Tom, Roy, Damon and I will take on the 4-man division.

It’s an early race, so most of us are using this as a training / test event. We’ll dial in our nutrition and gauge our fitness as we leave base phase and begin to build into the race season. But with the potential for cold and rain in the weather forecast, it could be a race of attrition.

As usual, we’ll do our best to update throughout the race. So check out our twitter for up-to-the-hour updates.