7/12/09 Unionvale Masters 35+

Unionvale has always been a good race for me. I have won it once and have gotten a few 2nd and 3rd place finishes over the past several years. This year the field was small with Target Training having the best representation. I hope that this incredible shrinking field syndrome will turn around. Maybe the sketchy economy combined with the travel cost to do these races are partially to blame. Regardless, the field had quite a few of the regular heavy hitters so I knew the race would be fast.

I was feeling particularly good since I had just gotten back from a week long family vacation in the Adirondacks and was well rested since all week I was able to ride, eat and hang out at the beach on Loon Lake making sand castles with my daughter. It was so nice to not be at the shop on my feet for 8-10 hours a day fixing bikes. Oh how I wish that I could live that life all the time. BTW – I highly recommend the Brant/Loon lake region of the Adirondacks for riding. I did some of the best rides that I have ever done up there. It was cathartic riding on remote back roads without a single car passing me for 10 mile stretches.

The race started off pretty mellow. Normally in this race I like to ride a little conservatively and use my climbing ability at the end. However, near the end of the 1st lap I got a little impatient and attacked on the steep little climb just after you make the left turn heading back to the finish. Going up in the big ring at about 22mph I looked back and could see riders thrashing around trying to latch on. Over the top I eased off a little and looked back to see what damage had been done. We had a group of about 6 that contained many of the race favorites and good team representation (Troy Kimball and Dave Freifelder from Westwood, Max Lippolis and Fernando Ferreira from Target Training, John Funk/Cycles Fitness, Erin Korff and maybe Kurt Gustafason from Axis). The moved looked promising but the field was not ready to wave the white flag and we were caught a few miles later. Once caught Dave Freifelder countered with another rider. For much of the next lap the field sat on my wheel. I nearly came to a trackstand and still no one would come around. Finally I got some relief when my teammate Eddie Espitia got in a chase move. Target Training had missed out completely and I was able to sit in while Stephen Badger and Ed Angeli put in an impressive chase for the next lap.

When Eddie’s group was caught with about a lap to go Freifelder still had about a minute gap. I was getting concerned so the last time up the feed zone climb I attacked hoping to get away with someone from Target Training. Unfortunately only Troy came with me and being that his teammate was up the rode he understandably didn’t pull through. The plus side was that my acceleration brought Dave into sight and I knew that once the field smelled blood they would bring him back. After an impressive display of force Dave was eventually caught a little before the left turn up the climb heading back to the finish. It was on this climb that Humberto Cavalheiro from Westwood attacked with Eric Gutbier/CCC/Keltic. No one reacted and they quickly built a 30-40 sec. lead.

Once the final climb started I went to the front and taped out a rhythm that was hard but maintainable. I looked back and started to see some gaps open up so I shifted into a taller gear and accelerated away from the disintegrating field in pursuit of the 2 escapees. About halfway up Joe Regan/Bethel caught up to me and around that time we caught Gutbier. We were slowly reeling in Humberto and when the finish line became visible I shifted into the big ring and accelerated. I was able to out distance Joe and Erich but fell about 8 seconds short of catching Humberto. Hat’s off to Humberto for riding a smart race. I saw him maybe twice the entire time and he was probably well rested when he took a gamble and put in one big move when it counted. I also owe my team mate Eddie for covering that chase move and then contributing to chasing once he was caught.

So this is now my 3rdsecond place at Unionvale. I was a little disappointed to not have won but overall am happy with how I raced. Maybe I could have been a little more conservative but 9 times out of 10 good things happen when i race agressivly.

Mark