another weekend of races

Lou Maltese Memorial: My first central park race. 70 of us did 36 miles in the park early Saturday morning. I didn't know anybody else in the race, so I had to figure out how to do it on my own. That meant trying to get a gap early in the race. After a few attacks, I found myself away on the back side of Harlem Hill with two other guys. We were working well together for a lap when a group of 6 bridged. Great! An even bigger group to work with, I thought, even though the field was chasing us hard. The problem was, no one wanted to pull through, so we were caught in just a few minutes. I don't get it, if you didn't want to work, why go off the front? It was like they were blocking their own breakaway.

Anyway, the race came down to the sprint. I was feeling good, but the field was huge and I didn't have anyone to work with. People were blowing up left and right on the front and drifting through the pack, so choosing a good wheel was hard. In the end I chose the wrong side and the winning move came from two Metro guys on the right side while I was sitting on the left. I finished 8th, which I was pretty happy about. If I had a teammate to work with, I think I could have used a similar leadout for a good chance at the win.

Who's that guy with his head down?

Its me!


Chris and I after the race.


The next day we loaded up to go to Tboughts's mountain bike race out in New Jersey. It was her first race since she upgraded to sport and also the biggest race on the H2H calendar. Tboughts was trying to keep her podium streak alive from the beginner category, but the longer distance was a bit much for her and she finished mid pack. Mountain biking is tough! As a consolation prize, I lost the keys to the car and made her wait around in the heat as I retraced my steps to find them.

Later that day, I got 2nd place in the Northeast Crit Championship 4/5 race. It was a small field due to some storms, but the guys who bothered to show up were pretty cool to race against. Other than that, Mom always said if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. So I won't.