Bicycle Races Are Coming Your Way

• Someone needs a lap counter…

  6/11/2007

  

  You’d think someone that a college graduate working in Finance would be able to count to 5. Well, not being one to follow trends, I someone managed to do just the opposite on Saturday’s Race in Prospect park. All the customary cat 5 sketchiness aside, the race was going really well. I’ve become a fan of the open races put on by Kissena in PP because they’re short, flat, and usually end in pack sprints. that’s a pretty good set up for yours truly. just hang out and sprint for a little action at the end. got me 3rd last time.

  

  The most frustrating part of Saturday was that my legs felt great. I had the legs for a win, and i had even been visualizing it all week. Maybe it’s because I didn’t have any teammates in the field with me this time, but for some reason, I failed to hear the bell on the last lap, and could have sworn there was one more lap left. with less than 1 km to go in the race, i noticed everyone speeding up. I thought out loud, “is this the last lap or something??”

  “yes!”

  “SHIT!”

  i spun up and sprinted as much as i could, and i think i managed top 15. not great, but given that i found out at the last second, I don’t mind. At least I didn’t get caught in the customary cat 5 pre-finish line crash/mechanical. Overall it was a good race- I felt good, and was near the front for most of it.

  There was also a silly fist fight after the B race. from what I gathered, some rider in Green kept going into the rec lane (big no no); one of the Kissena racers screamed at him and told him to get out of the lane after he kept doing it. after the race, Green meanie goes up to the Kissena guy and starts talkin’ tough. Tthen all of a sudden he sucker punches the kissena guy (named Eric I believe- nice guy) then the spandex-clad brawl starts and everyone’s holding someone back. The guy in green ran off, but not before we took his race number down. He’ll probably have his license revoked. good riddance. there’s no place for fighting in amateur bike racing. its stupid and ruins the sport for everyone. I also consider it a general rule that unless you’re a super hero, you should never fight in spandex. or else you end up looking like these two:

  So that was fun. but now, I’ve got my sights set on next week’s big race:

  The Harlem Crit.

  I’ve never done a crit, but I’m hoping i do well in them. I know there’s a ton a speeding up and slowing down. I’m going to do my best to stay near the front, but something tells me that most people are going to have the same Idea. I’ve been that ‘cross and crits are the same in terms of cardio effort, so we’ll see how it compares. a top 10 finish in the combined 4/5 field would be fantastic. Let’s see what happens. At the moment, my current bout of crappy eating makes me think I look like this when i’m being led out for the sprint:

  
  In other news, I had a fantastic BBQ on my rooftop yesterday- complete with teammates and great beer. I think my boot-chalice makes me the Snoop dogg of white people.

  

  For Rizzy.

  .. .. .. ..

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