I've been thinking about my goals for next season. The success I had at the end of this season felt great. And I want to start next season stronger and faster and able to win races. I want to be the one launching the blistering attack in the last miles, riding the other girls off my wheel.

I'd like to compete in a real stage race. Where you have to complete each stage within a time limit to move on to the next. And I'd like to be comfortable with the effort. I hesitate to say I want to be formidable in my first stage race, but its something to shoot for. I definitely want to finish all the stages.

And my big goal for next year: I want to get the points I need to cat up to the 3s. To do that, I'll need 20 points in a 12 month period. I'll have to place in the top 6 in a race with at least 10 racers to get points. If I meet my goal of being good enough to win, I should be able to do this. But more than just catting up, I want to be strong enough to be a viable cat 3 racer. The jump from women's 4 to women's 3 is huge --- the cat 3 women are usually lumped in with the cat 1 and 2 racers, making the races much longer, harder and faster. So I'll need to do a lot of hard work to get there.

I'll have to stop racing master's for the time being. My wins have been in the master's 35+ category, but those points don't count towards the 20. And maybe I should stop racing master's altogether. I don't want to cat up to the 3s and find myself outclassed and end up in the less difficult master's races. If I become a 3, I want to be able to compete at that level.

Another thing I've been thinking about is equipment. I have an awesome bike that I LOVE LOVE LOVE. But I'm not sure I want to subject it to winter riding. It would be very nice to have a secondary bike for training. If something were to happen to my racing bike, I'd have something else to fall back on. Of course, I have two other bikes: a mountain bike that I've had for 10 years [take my advice, don't buy an aluminum hardtail. CRUNCHY!], and a touring bike that I raced on last year. Its not a bad bike, its just not a racing bike and it held me back. The geometry is wrong, it has several "comfort" features that aren't right for racing, its a little big for me, and its a bit heavy. My experience racing it has left me not liking it. Its a perfectly fine touring bike . . . but I'd rather have a good "B" bike or a secondhand cross bike for dirty winter riding. And I could race cross next year if I had a bike! I don't have the $$$, but I'm keeping an eye on Craig's list to see what shows up. Can't hurt to look.

I'd also like to get rollers for indoor training and aerobars for time trialing --- better to get them now and practise. A powertap would be awesome too, but they are major bucks, so that's not happening this year. I'd rather have a backup bike. Not that that's happening either. Heh, I can "make due" with my amazing and wonderful racing bike.