Bicycle Races Are Coming Your Way

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  4/10/2008

  
  Holy Crap, the racing season’s been going on for a month now! Time’s really been flying, and I’ve been slacking off in writing about my triumphant mediocrity in the for of big, bad cat 4 racing…

  The Rouge Roubaix was exactly what i needed to kick start the season- it was a bit of a shock to the system to do a race that long, but i think that doing a crazy, big race early in the season is a great way to set the tone for future races and the rest of the year. Sure, it might be a little stupid to have your first race be a 100 mile suffer-fest in a place you’ve never ridden before, but hey, it was fun. Go big or go home .

  Including the roubaix, I’m about 4 races into the season. Here’s a quick rundown of how they’ve gone so far:

  

  Grant’s tomb was a week after I got back from Lousiana so I figured why not. For yours truly, Grant’s tomb was a “try not to die while riding in an early season cat 4 crit” sort of race. I’ve had the fantastic luck of crashing in about half the crits I’ve done- apparently i really love riding right behind that one guy who thinks taking a normal, 90 degree turn involves making out with the pavement.

  That being said, Grant’s tomb turned out to be a fun, intense race. The weather was infinitely better than last year (which was canceled), and it was about 50 degrees outside when we started the race. By the way, racing at 2 pm? Fantastic. races are that much more fun when you can see outside and you aren’t freezing your huevos off…

  my goals for grants tomb were to um, not crash, to stay in the pack, and to get my picture taken as much as possible- here’s a great shot of myself and fellow blogger Brian Gatens (pre-shattered collarbone- more on that later)

  

  The race was definitely tough, and i think everyone was quickly reminded how painful and intense crits are. my HR didn’t go below 185 the whole time. I finished with the pack- happy that i hadn’t been dropped. It definitely pays to stay near the front of the pack in a crit, and i’ll definitely remember that for next time. staying in the middle means you deal with the yo-yo effect every time you come up to a turn. Anyway, the 4 race was fun, and minus a few close calls, it was relatively safe (minus the finish line debacle involving one guy and a whole set of guard rails…

  After GT, the two following races have been CRCA races, which have been a ton of fun. I really enjoy the park races because you start to learn who everyone is and what they tend to do in race situations. We’ve definitely been trying to be more active from a strategy perspective, and I think it’s made for more fun and more dynamic racing.

  

  The race on March 29th was interesting, to say the least. People started attacking, and eventually i goaded one of our newer teammates, Zack, into attacking. It ended up sticking and eventually a 12 man break (including Mr. Gatens), was about 45 seconds ahead of the field. because we had a guy up there, we did our best to control the field. except for the Metro guys and some unattached racers, everyone had someone in the break, so that discouraged the field from attacking too much. That being said, the Metro guys wanted in and were attacking fairly constantly. I was going to sit my ass in the back until the end but decided to help out in chasing those guys down. not sure if that was the smart move, but i figured I’d mix it up and have a little fun.

  By the end of the race, the break started falling apart, because we caught sight of them with less than a mile to go at the finish- the field sprint pretty much overtook the break right before the finish, which made for quite the cluster fuck… I had a decent position going in, and as i started sprinting, i saw bunch of guys (Gatens was one of them) go down right in front of me, and had to swerve around them. I snuck into top 10 with an 8th place finish, and that was that. unfortunately Brian ended up breaking his collarbone in 4 places and breaking a rib or two. Brian, I hope you’re feeling ok and healing quickly!

  photo courtest of andy shen
  

  
  Last week’s race was pretty fun- the weather was 50 degrees and wet- it made for a pretty dirty race experience. I really like racing in crappy conditions, by the way. it makes it all the more satisfying on some level

  during the race, people tried to make moves, and we were making an effort to attack and set up counters- but non of the breaks seemed to stick.. The end was a pretty standard field sprint finish, and I had a good position going in. It was a cat’s paw finish, and I started my sprint too early. I ended up getting 6th, but i think i could have done better if i had tacked on someone’s wheel for a little longer and waited to unleash the fury from my buttery thighs….

  

  Ah well, At least Bill showed up to take awesome pictures and fuel my unfounded narcissism….

  

  Saturday is a Points race- I’m looking forward to it- it’s a fun race format and it’ll be fun to see how it plays out. All I know is that I’m a month into my Bacon Strike, and i’m really in need of some delicious, crispy, applewood smoked pork product, asap. The minute i win one of these races, I’m running to a deli and ordering an obscene amount of bacon. I’ll stuff it in my back jersey pocket and just eat it on the way up to Piermont. I’ll dip it in my coffee, wrap my bunbury muffin in it, and use it as a boot in my tire if i rip my sidewall… why is bacon so delicious??

  
  After the weekend I’ll be tapering for Battenkill. This is one of my favorite races and I’m hoping to really push it and do well- it’s going to be a big, talented field up there, and it’s going to be an epic race. What’s going to happen? who will win? will adler ride a smart race? will some anonymous Upstate hardman win? Will CJIA every get to eat bacon again? I’m also hoping for nasty weather so that the course favors people who know how to climb up muddy crap (cyclocrossers). I’m also lookin forward to chugging some chimay blue at the end of that.

  Oh, and we just got our new team bikes. They’re pretty hot.

  
  Cyfac and cadence did a bang up job of getting these together, and Ostroy, Matt richards, and David Trumph did a really nice job with the design. so pro! (if by pro you mean being mediocre but owning all the equipment that someone who gets paid to race uses)

  

  

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