I’ve now completed my second weekend of racing in 2022 (the scheduled second week of racing was canceled due to snow and ice and because God obviously hates bike racing in March—there’s been terrible weather now for years, can we all take a hint?). I avoided the Mengoni race on Saturday because there was rain in the forecast, and a morning filled with wet horse dung to my freezing face was not going to tempt me out of my jammies. The rain didn’t arrive as scheduled on Saturday, so I was hoping that the weather forecast would actually be accurate and there would be no rain on Sunday morning. Yes, I race according to the weather. I’ve stated before that I no longer care about proving my toughness by soaking my taint for two hours and then hitting the asphalt after some idiot puts on a spirited battle for 58th place in the field sprint, so I stay home when it rains in the spring.

Where was I? Oh, my second week of racing happened once again at the Branch Brook series. Branch Brook is an easy commute for a “person of Jersey-ness” like me, so I enjoy frequenting the Branch Brook series. My first race success (I was third) meant that I’m within striking distance of winning the series overall. I’ve won the 50+ series in the past (this fulfills my bike racer compulsion to aways slyly mention past results), so I thought I would see how this week went and adjust my plans accordingly. The previous race finished in a field sprint, so being the sneaky pretend bike racer that I am, I wanted to make this week into a “not a field sprint”.

An aside about racing for laundry

All of the “retail” bike racing series (those that are not the closed CRCA club races) have inter-series races for sprint jerseys and the Prospect Park races have a race for a polka dot jersey as well, and this is all well and good for those of us who are still under the delusion that we can mimic professional racers by donning green, yellow and polka dot jerseys. I get it from a promoter’s standpoint, more jerseys mean more enthusiasm for the races, and that means more entries, as racers in contention for the jerseys will beg, harass and cajole their teammates into aiding them in their goal for another piece of cycling clothing. This helps keep the race series active and competitive, and allows for more podium pictures, more opportunities for sponsor visibility and more opportunities for guys to frantically search the internet for a pair of socks that will match their polka dot jersey. Overall, these competition are a good thing. 

But these races within the races make it very difficult for a crabby breakaway racer like me to escape the clutches of team that care about the green laundry competition. In our little 40 minute races, we get about 8 laps (unless we’re lazy, then we get less), and we have 2 green jersey sprints, which usually means that there’s a lot of chasing done by the teammates of the green jersey fellow. And this happens for about 3/4ths of the race, even counter attacks on the sprints have not been successful. It’s been a frustrating time for elderly breakaway person like me. And that’s what it all really comes down to with racers in the end, it’s always “Boo hoo, this race doesn’t exactly fit my specific needs and specialities.” Lord, am I petulant or what? God bless the patience of promoters, I have no idea how they keep from driving their cars over the packs of persnickety racers as they line up every week. It seems like it would be very tempting if I were in their places, but they are much better people than I am (most people are).

So it was another field sprint, I was fifth, which means I’m third in the overall with a gap of 5 points. I’m not sure that I can muster the gumption to contest the yellow shirt for the rest of the series (I have plans Friday night this week, so I may just go out and be a person for a change).

In the 35+ race, a group of 10 got away early. I jumped away at the end to see what would happen. It seemed that no one cared that I was away, so I tried to hold a wattage just above my FTP (and I won’t tell you my FTP because I know it will drive you nuts, you bike racing mental case), and that seemed to be enough to stay away. So I have that going for me.