I think I'm finally almost up to date on my race reports...having only raced one day this past weekend makes catching up a much more manageable task.
This past weekend we started spring break, which was great since I could go home and then take the Long Island Rail Road into the city for the race on Saturday. Certainly the strangest way I've ever gone to a race. And since I'm not the "spring break type", racing and lots of riding is pretty much all I do this week.
Being on my own schedule also meant that I finally didn't have to wake up at 6am only to wait around for 8 hours until my own race! I ended up taking a 9:40 train, which meant I got to sleep until almost 9am. Not too bad...
Anthony and I sandwiched our bikes in the handicapped stall of the LIRR train and headed into Penn Station, getting in a little past 11am. Up to this point, I still had not eaten. This was partially my plan, but it was more caused by my morning rush than anything else. I suppose I should have eaten earlier, since it's probably not a good idea to be starving 2 hrs prior to your race. Whatever, I could eat Gu's.
Anthony went to an ATM while I watched the bikes outside an Au Bon Pain, my intended breakfast stop. Before I knew it, I was engaged by one of Penn Station's gregarious beggars, eager for handouts. He began the conversation by asking about the bikes...he knew my weakness! I can't resist a good bicycle chat. This particular fellow was asking for a juice- he said it'd be great if I could get it while I got my food. If I had some spare change, I might have surrendered it...but a juice??? That ain't cheap, guy. Anthony rescued me by feigning urgency to get up to the race...I was temporarily saved, but I couldn't get any of the good looking stuff inside. Dunkin Donuts would have to suffice.
We headed down the corridor to DD, and I got my typical pre-race bagel/muffin/juice...then from out of nowhere, that guy showed up again! He must have followed us on down, at which point he called bullshit on our "rush" and gave us another sob story before we just blew him off and headed on our way. I always feel guilty when these guys beg, but damn...don't be a pest.
Anyway...
We had about 90 blocks to ride to get up to Grant's Tomb, which wouldn't have been so bad if we had gotten any green lights. I wasn't averse to running the lights, but I didn't want to lose Anthony in the fairly heavy traffic. I also didn't want to die en route to the race by being reckless. Save recklessness for the racing! We eventually made it up there, with about an hour to spare. I usually like to get there a little earlier and get settled, but I pretty much had already done a decent warm-up, so that was fine by most accounts.
I quickly downed the bagel and muffin, along with a vanilla Gu chaser (best flavor, hands down) before I set to spinning on the rollers. About 20m away Josh Lipka (FiordiFrutta rider) was warming up with the other UNH folks, which spurred the topic of how he did some computrainer TT at an insane average power of 420W...most people in the A field knew they were in for it whenever he decided to use said power...
The race started out with a relatively small field of 29, which was great since it allowed a fair amount of moving around in the pack. You really couldn't get trapped and be unable to respond to a move. Also, the course was very non-technical, with a long, slightly uphill stretch to the start/finish area where you could make significant progress on the outsides without much difficulty. If there was a crit course for me, this was it.
The first few laps were unremarkable, as small half-hearted attacks came and went pretty quickly. As usual, I stalked the back of the field. On about the 4th or 5th time through the the start/finish, a few of the bigger names of the ECCC got a little antsy and started to make some definitive moves toward the front. There were maybe a handful of riders at about 50m from the field when I began the bridge. Apparently Lipka had the same idea, but his bridging effort was far more impressive as he came by me and closed the gap with all too much ease. I eventually made the jump, but I also brought the entire field with me. Within half a lap, everyone was together again.
The usual cat and mouse/resting ensued, and not much happened for a few laps before two riders made a strong jump that I didn't even see. What I did see, however, was a Columbia rider shoot up the right side, along with a couple UVM riders on the left. Again, I made the effort to get into that break. This time it stuck.
The gap opened fairly quickly and we got into a pretty efficient rotation in only a short amount of time. Our small group was composed of the aforementioned three, plus myself and a UNH rider. I was happy to see the UNH/UVM riders with me, because it meant that neither team would do any significant work to pull us back. This definitely had the makings of the move. We just had a loooooooong way to go. I recall seeing 15 laps to go at one point, but I think that was already several laps into our breakaway. We had to stay smooth and keep working together if we were going to stay away.
Luckily everyone did their part, although the UVM riders shared the responsibility of being dead weight and not pulling through. While one pulled, the other consistently remained last wheel in the group. It was kind of annoying, but that's part of it all. Spectators kept us informed of the gaps...unfortunately the two in front were opening up a little bit on each lap. I guess we could have expected that. We weren't exactly killing ourselves and there didn't seem to be any urgency to make the catch anyway. Oh yeah, and Lipka bridged up to us with a solo effort with probably 10 laps to go. Must be nice to be able to do whatever you want in a race. He provided the group with some additional rest and horsepower, so his company was more than welcome.
Our breakaway- note that I chose the outside line so that pedaling through the turn could make up for my lack of inertia. It also afforded me the risk of clipping a pedal at 30mph...With about 5 laps to go, I got a little paranoid and looked back to see the field ~30 seconds back...they weren't there previously(!). Luckily we were close enough to the finish at this point that we would survive, barring unforeseen tragedy. I think the others realized this as well and we began to ride with a little more purpose. As we headed into the final kilometer, little efforts started to break up the group, and I came out of the final turn with last wheel. I probably should have attempted to maintain more contact with the front, but I didn't want to go too early and blow up. As such, Lipka and the Columbia rider were too far ahead coming into the final sprint. As we rolled up the gentle incline to the finish I shut my eyes and put my head down, hoping that I could pick off at least a few of these guys. I stood up, applied my meager power, and went for it along the right side, passing the two UVM riders and coming just short in the race for 5th. I'd like to think that given a few more meters I could have made it past him. In any case, I was really happy with my 6th place. In a crit, no less! Once I actually start to consistently ride, I feel like good things could happen this season. I should really start working on that...
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