Bicycle Races Are Coming Your Way

• I can almost taste it…

  6/3/2008

  

  Do you remember when you started training this season? For me it started back in mid January- and i had a solid month and a half of spewing buckets of sweat indoors as i begrudgingly did workouts and dieted to get ready for the season. by the time late February came around, I couldn’t even look at my trainer without wanting to put a steak knife in my eye. I was also a little too willing to endure frostbitten appendages just to ride my bike outside in Feb.

  Fast forward a few months, and the good weather’s finally here! that means two things: not racing in crappy weather, and Barbecues. There’s really nothing better than killing yourself for a few hours on a bike and then heading to someone’s roof to pig out for a few hours. Maybe that’s the main reason i train and race like i do- so i can compensate for the delicious, delicious food that i shovel down my gullet on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. it’s pretty glorious…

  Saturday was a CRCA scratch race in Central park. I’m just glad we didn’t have to do a Super-duper-extreme-ultra-power-points race like the A-field. I heard it was pretty brutal, and I’d like to take this moment to rub in that it’s so much more fun to race when all you have to do is roll out of bed and ride 6 blocks to the start line.

  photo courtesy of bob cowin

  The race was 6 laps, and started out pretty fast. the game plan for this race was pretty loose. a bunch of my teammates were eager to attack, and so were a few other teams. I decided to re-adopt the ever-so intelligent (lazy), and opportunistic strategy of DNWTTFS (do no work till the field sprint) I like that strategy. The only problem with doing that is it’s harder for Andy Shen to get a good photo of you, and really, that’s half the reason why i race. And’ don’t you go and get all indignant about my admitted (unfounded) narcissism- i know that all of you rush home after the race and hit refresh on NYVC.com until the photos are up…

  photo courtesy of bob cowin

  Anyway, there were a bunch of attacks during the race, and the field was definitely not as complacent as past races. I was happy about that, ’cause i was in the mood for a good field sprint. There were a few crashes in the race, a couple of OA guys touched wheels and went down right after cats paw (hope they’re ok)- i was lucky enough to not actually be behind the guys that crash (as i normally am), and kept going- two of our teammates got caught up in it and killed themselves trying to catch back on. i had to do that at the last park race after the massive crash took out the entire B field. not fun.

  photo courtesy of Andy Shen @ velocitynation.com
  

  Mattattack and Alvin both attempted some solo breaks, but nothin stuck. either way, those two are strong as hell, and its only going to get better as the season goes by. As we got into the last lap, i kept a lookout for my teammate greg. he’s been racing smart all season and offered to escort me to the finish line. as we zoomed down the west side just past the reservoir, i noticed i had a pretty crappy position, so i weaved my way to the front and waited for greg to find me. i was alot better about not sucking wind in the last mile and a half of this race, and i think it made a big difference. as the pack sped up cat’s paw for the field sprint, I stuck to greg’s wheel like a frat boy doing an elephant walk (not really). we came up pretty fast along the left side of the road, and went for it with about 500 feet to go.

  photo courtesy of Andy Shen @ velocitynation.com

  photo courtesy of Andy Shen @ velocitynation.com

  Kimani was about a bike length ahead of me and easily took first (nice one!), but the podium was pretty close otherwise- i threw my bike (so pro) and just barely got third. it was a great finish to the race and i don’t think there were any crashes in the finish ( i could be wrong)

  photo courtesy of Andy Shen @ velocitynation.com

  third! third. third…. bacon?

  no.

  well, it’s my best result of the season so far, and i’m pretty happy with it, so i celebrated by shooting cupcakes, drinking some awesome beer, eating some insanely alcoholic rummed-up Watermelon, and laughing with friends at a rooftop BBQ.

  

  I’m getting close. The bacon will be mine. should i start bringing some strips of bacon with me to races or is that a bit presumptuous? It’s gotten to the point where all my wonderful teammates feel the need to rub it in and tell me when they smell, see, or eat bacon. Thanks, a-hole, I’m already drooling…

  

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