WKTV New Channel 2's Adam Musyt headlines his morning weather forecast with this question: "A Preview of Autumn?"
Today: Plenty of sun. Less humid and pleasant with a breeze. High 75.
Tonight: Fair and cool. Low in the 40's to lower 50's.
And Weather Underground concurs:
Neither the Yankee nor the Redsox played, last night, and so - in lieu of baseball scores - we bring you a new sports score challenge!
How much do we really know about BICYCLE RACING? It's been in the news a great deal, recently, for both good and bad reasons. The reason that Watervillians should know more about the sport is that there are at least three up-and-coming young racers right here in town! I asked one of their parents to tell me about a race that they competed in on Sunday, and received the following:
(Oh - the first thing to know is what a peloton is: that is a French word for the main group of riders in a race, often riding one behind the other to shelter in each other's draft.) (And it's also the root word for "platoon"!)
Patrick and Alex Meszler, Scott Bancroft (all of Waterville) and Ryan Diehl (cousin of the Bancrofts and co-worker of Patrick's at Guy's Bike shop, of Madison) all participated in the Rome Circuit and Concrete Crit yesterday at the former Griffiss Airforce Base.Alex, Scott and Ryan competed in the cat 5/beginner race. They each performed remarkably well for what was each of their first race! Ryan finished 1st and Alex was 6th in the state one circuit race. This was an 8 mile race.
Alex and Ryan also competed in the stage 2 criterium. This comprised of a .6 mile loop that they had to do 10 times. Ryan finished 3rd and Alex finished 5th. Ryan received the overall award of first place in his division. The amazing thing is that these two 14/15 year olds were competing with adults!Patrick competed with the cat 4/5 racers. In the circuit race he finished right in the front of the pack at 8th. They traversed the same course as the beginners, but they did it 3 times making it a 24 mile race.
Patrick also rode the .6 criterium track 25 loops. Due to low numbers of cat 1/2/3 racers (pros) they combined the fields for all of the Sr. Racers. This no doubt was the reason why the pace was reached an amazing 40mph on the back straights. The pace proved a little too much for the majority of the cat 4/5's and in the end there was less than half the field remaining on the track. (once you are lapped you are out of the race.) Patrick didn't feel too bad about his performance since he was in a pace line with two cat 4's and a cat 3 when they were lapped.
The Meszler boys are headed to the Canal Classic next weekend! (I found this map on the internet: please correct me if I have the wrong "Canal Classic" route! This seems extremely --- well -- um --- "demanding," to say the least!)
(Click to enlarge Photographs.)Other sportsmen out for exercise, this week, are paddlers - aiming for the "orange bridge" in Hubbardsville. Their goal will not be how far they can paddle in what shortened length of time, but how many clusters of Cardinal Flower they'll see along the banks of the Sangerfield River in Nine Mile Swamp.
JPEG file dated 1998. Could be older? 
