Race Report #6: CRCA Race

Between travel and work, I haven't had a chance to do as much bike racing as I would have liked so far this year. But, now that I have my race marshalling requirements out of the way and am more or less settled for the rest of the summer, it's time for me to start doing the Central Park CRCA series races every other weekend.

The Century Road Cycling Association organizes Pro/Cat1/2, Cat3/4 and Cat5 races in Central Park most Saturday mornings throughout the summer. These races are pretty short and are conveniently local so they serve as a good chance to tune racing skills and have some fun.

This past Saturday I raced my first CRCA race of the summer. There were two guys from my team in the C Field and a number of guys from Century, New York Athletic Club and VeloCity.

The race--only 30 miles long--started off quickly with a Velocity and NYAC break. Typically in Cat5 people fail to work together well so I saw zero need to try to catch this break. Well, that was the end of the race. The break took the first lap (6 miles) at about 27mph and opened up a one-minute gap. It was all downhill from there. A few of us (SBR and Century guys) tried to get a paceline going to catch the break but VeloCity (having 2 guys in the break) kept blocking up the peloton. Talk about frustrating. A number of times I tried to get a group going to brdge but it just didn't work out. By the time we hit 3 miles to go, I heard that the break was holding 5 guys strong and was 3:30 ahead. At this point, I knew I might as well screw around and have some fun since the race was over. Now, I'm a bad sprinter but pretty fit for Cat5. So I decided to try to solo for 5th place. Sadly, I took off with 1.5 miles to go and a big hill in the way. I managed to open up about a 200yd gap and dug in hard. Sadly, as I crested the hill with the finish in sight, I got caught. Oh well, proud of myself for throwing it all out there. And people gave me props at the end for being gutsy.

Pushing over Cats Paw Hill on lap #2.

Good learning race. And now I definitely won't let a break get away next time.

Anyway, wrapped up the day with a 70-mile ride. I was shattered from my attacks and solo effort so the endurance paced ride afterward was taxing. Got back, threw down a 7-mile run and then spent the rest of the day sitting on my ass. All in all a great training day!