Back on the Road Again

My name is Jonathan Suite, I'm one of the new members of the Dynamic Physical Therapy Cycling Team powered by Pathfinder of West Virginia. I'm really excited to race as part of a team this season, and I would like to thank all of our wonderful sponsors, who make the team possible. This year will be my second season of road and cyclocross racing. I currently race in the junior division (18 and under) but this season will be my last in that category.

This past Sunday marked the first race that I participated in as part of the Dynamic Physical Therapy Cycling Team powered by Pathfinder of West Virginia. I went into the race with high hopes, but those all diminished as soon as I realized that I, as well as teammates Jeff Gernert and Mike Vanderberg had missed the start while taking an ill-timed bathroom brake.

Other than missing the start, the race went well. I'm not nearly as adept at riding in criteriums as I am road races though, so some of the technical areas gave me a little bit of trouble, I think it was a great learning experience, it was a training race after all.

After we realized that we had missed the start, Jeff, Mike and I started really hauling to try to catch the pack, but every time we would take a technical corner, I'd loose some ground to them and would have to catch back up. That's when I realized that my technical skills were just straight-up bad. I slowed down and prepared to finish the race a lap down.

Looking back at the race, I think I could have done reasonably well if I hadn't missed the start, the pace was fast, but I didn't have much problem maintaining it. I can't wait for the next criterium, the Clarksburg Grand Prix, but I'm going to do a lot of work on my cornering technique before then!

Thank you all for reading my post.

-Jonathan