It has been three months since this newsletter has gone out. I apologize for that. The silence however was only on the surface. You see, for me it was a long racing season that ended for me in August. Needing rest for my body and mind; I still had the Downtown Criterium, and a career change. The day after the crit I shot down to Dallas to give a 7 hour class to 300 people. I was prepping for the class and the race simultaneously. So September was... for me... a bit over whelming.

I am very thankful that Chico Corsa is composed of some outstanding individuals that have been working tirelessly to secure sponsors, get our new kits designed and redo our website. It is the combined effort of the Chico Corsa Board, Rodney Cox, James Plummer, Tom Reddish, Chris Marx, Mark Hendry, Jeff Ochs, Jeff Galland and Linda Zorn that allowed me to survive last September. I thank them for that.

Clothing for the 2009 season will be available to order at the December 5th club meeting at North Rim Adventure Sports. The meeting will start at 6PM and the Voler reps will be there if you need to try on sizes or see the available clothing. There is a new kit design for 2009 and it is being finalized with our new sponsors. Order forms will be available online at the Yahoo site this week. You must pay for your order before December 16th or your order will not be counted. You can also pay your membership dues with your order.

Get out your cowbells and chocolate milk 'cuz we are smack in the middle of cyclocross (CX) season! We've already seen some good results from a few of our dirt ridin' and barrier jumpin' riders. Roy Steves is currently leading the Masters B's category in the Sacramento series. Corsa is also represented well in the Shasta CX series with 8 riders competing last weekend. If you want to try out this type of racing, the Shasta Series is low key and lots of fun.

• As you may have heard already, Sierra Nevada Brewing is our major sponsor for this year. Our new kits will have the Sierra Nevada logo all over it. We also picked up Fifth Sun Apparel and Butte College as sponsors as well. Tri-Counties Bank and Modern Builders are continuing to sponsor Chico Corsa.
• ChicoCorsa.com will be getting a facelift soon. The website is currently being re-designed and should function more interactively for all club members. We hope to have it launched before the New Year.
• 2008 results- All of the Top 10 placings were compiled and are now posted at the Yahoo site under the 'files' link. We had 149 top 10 placings this past year and quite a few of those were wins and podium placings. Check out the list to see who rode well for Corsa

Hi All... Sorry to have missed last month's newsletter. I fried the motherboard on my computer. I just got rest of this article (and all my other data) off my old hard drive, so we're back in business.

In the last few month's "From the Coaches Desk", I talked about my cramping problem and the article I found dealing with cramping issues, prevention and treatment. It's from the "The Science of Sport" journal (part of the Scientific Comment and Analysis of Sports and Sporting Performance website). It's a pretty long article so I broke it into several parts. Below is Part 4 (parts 1, 2 & 3 were in the June, July, and August issues of the Chico Corsa Cycling Club Newsletter, if you're interested).

When I came to Chico there were a lot of cyclists who wore similar jerseys. These matching jerseys suggested they were members of a team, but after watching them ride I got the impression that the team they represented was a team of wardrobes, not riders. They certainly didn't act like a team and when riding as a team they were usually each others worst enemies.

I had been off the bike for 14 years and didn't have much fitness, but thanks to their 'teamwork' I was still able to make the front group on most of the competitive rides. All I had to do was identify which guys chased their 'teammates' down and they would do all the hard work for me...