Meeting Recap

Y esterday’s meeting went great (albeit pretty quick). Thank you all, for joining us at the shop. Given it was such a great weather weekend (in a very long time) we had a great turnout for what turned out to be a very brief, but important, meeting. I appreciate attendance from everyone and hope you all got value out of putting faces with names.

As acting secretary, I’ll commit to having an open agenda disclosed before the next meeting so we can solicit and cover questions or information that needs to be shared with the group in the meeting setting. Going forward, expect to cover more cross-discipline information such as the following questions and info I got from schmoozing post-meeting:

1) Race reports. It’d be great to get a sense of who just did what and where they’ll be racing/going in the near future; a sort of informal race report from each discipline and a heads up to upcoming races/events.

2) Our U23 team is going hardcore with plans to attend more than a handful of NRC races. Did you know that? We need to know more about this.

3) Road clothing order update. We didn’t go over this, but I think the last word I hear was late March. Will update here or via email soon.

4) Speaking of clothing orders, when will clothing for the MTB team happen?

5) Speaking of MTB, Matt James is looking for 6 (?) volunteers for the upcoming Luau. He’ll be giving me more details asap. Since it’s a conflict with the first criterium, it might be hard to drum up some helpers, but wouldn’t it be nice to knock out your required volunteer work this early in the season?

The major goal for the meeting, aside from, well, meeting everyone, was for Adrienne to “pass the torch”. In doing so, she nominated some people for boards/committees. If you are interested in stepping up into a role (even one that’s not currently listed below, but you see a need for), please don’t hesitate to send me an email.

In the meantime, here are the names/positions as they stand following yesterday’s meeting. Objections (with viable suggestions) are certainly welcome:

President  / Dave Breslin
Secretary /  Chris Roettger
Treasurer  / Laurie Murphy
Sponsorship  / Stacie Tindle (nominated while absent, subject to confirmation)
MOBRA rep + Junior Coach  / Chris Ludwig
U23 Coach / Jim Schnieder
Race Promotion / Matt James,  Jon Farinella
Social Director / Christopher Connolly
Ride Coordinator /  Olivia Bleitz

I also need journalists for the following disciplines or I’ll start hounding you guys on an individual basis for racing and training  reports and updates:

U23
Junior (Julianna has volunteered!)
Womens (I’ll do this with my fellow teammates, we’ll spread the love and the opinions)
MTB
ROAD
CROSS

Whew! Still reading? Great. Thanks. Gold star.

Published:
March 8, 2010 – 11:29 am
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Why Didn’t I find this Sooner?

Does anyone know about this Sufferfest business? “Here’s your freaking motivation” they say. At about $10 bucks a download, with fewer than a handful up for offer right now (um, there are two) I’m wondering how many times I can watch it and not get bored. Of course, it sure beats reruns of Modern Family (as much as I love that show) and likely does more for the mental game than a sitcom.

The previews look remarkably motivating and the music selection enticingly appropriate. The footage looks great. So, I’m wondering how annoying that “detailed workout instruction” is going to be. You want me to read at a 9.5 (out of 10) effort? Hmm.

Let me know if y’all buck up and check it out. I’m too cheap, at least until I’m out of base training. Then, we’ll talk. Check back after the first rainy Tuesday night crit, I’m not racing in the rain with you jokers! I’ll spend my $10 to race the Roubaix instead!

Published:
March 2, 2010 – 11:42 pm
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Hello, Big Ring. How I’ve missed you.

After seemingly endless months of working on my cadence (read: little chain ring), I got to use that shifter on the LEFT side of my bars on Sunday. Yes!

The 2010 racing season is officially underway in Missouri and many of the Mesa Racers rolled up to the start line. Happily the plague of snow had mostly melted and the Columbia roads were relatively clean and kind to bicycle tires this year. The sun was welcome. The winds were brisk and chilly, but not the gusts we saw on Saturday.

I’ll avoid a play-by-play race report (you can get official results here) but I know I’m not alone when I say the cobwebs have been dusted off. We’ve all gotten back into the swing of pre-race jitters, competitive etiquette, and post-race “recovery” drinks. All Mesa racers finished–some showing pre-season fitness, others setting the bar, but everybody got some good race training.

After hitting the racing scene (and seeing a forecast hinting at 50 degree temps), it’s easy to get bitten by that familiar racing bug. Next race? Dogwood! Hello, Arkansas hills, my old friends.

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Published:
March 1, 2010 – 5:41 pm
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Attention Mesa Racers

Hey all, it’s that time of year. Froze Toes is just over a week away and we’re all grinding away in our basements and garages and on the trails to avoid (or enjoy) the snow that apparently can’t leave STL alone. We hope you can take about an hour out of your Sunday afternoon on March 8 to meet your teammates.

We’ll be meeting at the shop at 4pm to discuss the year’s plans for all race teams. We’ll be electing and designating team leadership roles as well as squaring away everyone’s volunteer positions for the race team and various events–so be warned, if you can’t make it you might end up being delegated to flag a corner in 100 degree heat in some rural Missouri bike race.

In all seriousness, it’d be great to have good attendance here to help set the pace for the 2010 Mesa Race Team. Adrienne would like to coast a bit more this year and that means everyone takes a pull in making this year a good one! Please let us know if you’re not going to be able to attend, if we don’t hear from you we’ll assume it’s one of two possibilities: you’re coming or you’ve encountered some unexpected emergency on your way to the shop.

To give you an idea of the agenda, we’re looking to establish committees to help run our events and team smoothly. We’ll need some race team officers, blog writers (hello, under cover journalists!), event planners, promoters, and volunteers, and at least one team MOBRA rep just to name a few. We’re looking forward to getting the racing underway and can’t wait to get everyone acquainted with each other. Come meet the new Mesa faces and reconnect with the “old” ones. See you March 8 (if not sooner at Froze Toes, on the road, or in the woods)!

Published:
February 16, 2010 – 10:33 am
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