Tristan Schouten sez stage racing is the best way to get in shape. I'm inclined to believe him, since he's about ten times better at racing then me. As is happens though, I already set up my training in blocks, so its like doing a mini stage race each week. I learned all about it by reading Dave Morris' Performance Cycling. This week I did the race at Afton on Sunday, intervals on Monday, the Summit Crit today and tomorrow I'll do more intervals. Its just about the best way to whip yourself in shape for mountain biking, but I'm still not convinced for road biking. Road biking requires being able to push yourself really hard for really short amounts of time and training for that requires good recovery. If you're interested, this guy Ashwinearl does a really good job of explaining it. He's a cool guy too, and might send you some of his spreadsheets if you ask real nice.
http://ashwinearl.blogspot.com/2005/11/off-season-training-index-and.html http://ashwinearl.blogspot.com/

The Summit race at Dakota Tech went well. Its a long drive down there, but a ton of Flanders guys showed up and Woell took the win (I think) in a breakaway for the team. I'm learning a little bit about how to fight for a wheel and go for a sprint and maybe one of these days I'll actually win something. Wish me luck!