CRCA Points Race July 28, 2013

The CRCA has gone on a points racing binge as of late, and this latest points race was the loaf in their olive loaf sandwich of Central Park circumnavigations. On offer behind the athletic deli counter was 8.2 laps of the park with sprints on every pass of Engineer’s Gate. We contested the first two laps, a break with most teams represented (teammate Chaz did a great job of hanging in that nasty mix up front) got away, yadda, yadda, yadda, somebody won, the field got pulled over with one lap to go for being slow, points racing sucks. The end.

FBF Race July 29, 2014

Last week, I hedged my bike bet and went for a ride instead of heading to FBF, as I believed it was going to be rained out, and that bet turned out to be terrifically wrong. I then satisfied my weeknight bike racing cravings with a Thursday night race at Rockleigh. It was a fast and painful experience, and since I am a crazy bike racer, I enjoyed the experience quite a bit. I have been racing rather timidly as of late because my midseason jaunt to Sausage Acres (you may know this place as "Iowa") had dulled the speedy edge on my bike racing butter knife, so I resolved to ride aggressively tonight because bike racing.

I drove to the race in the company of fellow Jersey carpooler Mike B and may or may not have needed to do an "emergency drop" in a secluded area of airfield grass (Neil B will probably never be the same—and thank God for baby wipes). Team BH/Comedy Central had a good turnout for the night’s race with teammates Mike, Kevin, Jim and Soren in attendance, so that meant we’d be able to cover the race pretty well.

We lined up, shoved off and then set about doing the usual sort of murderous efforts that FBF races are known for. There were attacks on attacks and them some more attacks added to those. We BH-ers were able to take turns getting into moves, and we had representation in almost all of the race surges. This endless series of jumps continued for about 8 or 9 laps. (I can never remember when things happen because I’m too busy trying to get the other openings in my body to somehow take in oxygen to help my desperate lungs carry the load.) On or about lap 10, a split got off the front that included Neil B from Foundation, Chris S from FGX, Al B from Mengoni, my teammate Jim and two others I couldn’t see. And because of the aggressiveness resolution listed above, I went with Robert L when he jumped to bridge.

We started our move at about turn one, and between turns one and two, we passed teammate Jim, I yelped at Jim to join us; but Robert jumped and I followed, leaving Jim behind. We were about 50-100 yards behind the front group at this point, but Robert and I were at the red line. I saw Neil go to the front of the lead group, turn around to look at us and he then poured on the speed necessary to crush our dreams. For a lap after that it was Bob and I trying to bridge the gap to the front group in a game of five on two. The five won. I ended my quest for that group at the bell due, no doubt, to my body’s inability to employ my ears or other openings in the respiratory process.

There was some furious jumping going on behind me, and teammates Mike and Kevin got off the front of the chasing pack. The lead group was caught by a charging Jermaine B who took the win.