Back to it

Holy Crap, the racing season's been going on for a month now! Time's really been flying, and I've been slacking off in writing about my triumphant mediocrity in the for of big, bad cat 4 racing...

the Rouge Roubaix was exactly what i needed to kick start the season- it was a bit of a shock to the system to do a race that long, but i think that doing a crazy, big race early in the season is a great way to set the tone for future races and the rest of the year. Sure, it might be a little stupid to have your first race be a 100 mile suffer-fest in a place you've never ridden before, but hey, it was fun. Go big or go home .

Including the roubaix, I'm about 4 races into the season. Here's a quick rundown of how they've gone so far:



Grant's tomb was a week after I got back from Lousiana so I figured why not. For yours truly, Grant's tomb was a "try not to die while riding in an early season cat 4 crit" sort of race. I've had the fantastic luck of crashing in about half the crits I've done- apparently i really love riding right behind that one guy who thinks taking a normal, 90 degree turn involves making out with the pavement.

That being said, Grant's tomb turned out to be a fun, intense race. The weather was infinitely better than last year (which was canceled), and it was about 50 degrees outside when we started the race. By the way, racing at 2 pm? Fantastic. races are that much more fun when you can see outside and you aren't freezing your huevos off...

my goals for grants tomb were to um, not crash, to stay in the pack, and to get my picture taken as much as possible- here's a great shot of myself and fellow blogger Brian Gatens (pre-shattered collarbone- more on that later)



The race was definitely tough, and i think everyone was quickly reminded how painful and intense crits are. my HR didn't go below 185 the whole time. I finished with the pack- happy that i hadn't been dropped. It definitely pays to stay near the front of the pack in a crit, and i'll definitely remember that for next time. staying in the middle means you deal with the yo-yo effect every time you come up to a turn. Anyway, the 4 race was fun, and minus a few close calls, it was relatively safe (minus the finish line debacle involving one guy and a whole set of guard rails...

After GT, the two following races have been CRCA races, which have been a ton of fun. I really enjoy the park races because you start to learn who everyone is and what they tend to do in race situations. We've definitely been trying to be more active from a strategy perspective, and I think it's made for more fun and more dynamic racing.



The race on March 29th was interesting, to say the least. People started attacking, and eventually i goaded one of our newer teammates, Zack, into attacking. It ended up sticking and eventually a 12 man break (including Mr. Gatens), was about 45 seconds ahead of the field. because we had a guy up there, we did our best to control the field. except for the Metro guys and some unattached racers, everyone had someone in the break, so that discouraged the field from attacking too much. That being said, the Metro guys wanted in and were attacking fairly constantly. I was going to sit my ass in the back until the end but decided to help out in chasing those guys down. not sure if that was the smart move, but i figured I'd mix it up and have a little fun.


By the end of the race, the break started falling apart, because we caught sight of them with less than a mile to go at the finish- the field sprint pretty much overtook the break right before the finish, which made for quite the cluster fuck... I had a decent position going in, and as i started sprinting, i saw bunch of guys (Gatens was one of them) go down right in front of me, and had to swerve around them. I snuck into top 10 with an 8th place finish, and that was that. unfortunately Brian ended up breaking his collarbone in 4 places and breaking a rib or two. Brian, I hope you're feeling ok and healing quickly!

photo courtest of andy shen

Last week's race was pretty fun- the weather was 50 degrees and wet- it made for a pretty dirty race experience. I really like racing in crappy conditions, by the way. it makes it all the more satisfying on some level

during the race, people tried to make moves, and we were making an effort to attack and set up counters- but non of the breaks seemed to stick.. The end was a pretty standard field sprint finish, and I had a good position going in. It was a cat's paw finish, and I started my sprint too early. I ended up getting 6th, but i think i could have done better if i had tacked on someone's wheel for a little longer and waited to unleash the fury from my buttery thighs....



Ah well, At least Bill showed up to take awesome pictures and fuel my unfounded narcissism....



Saturday is a Points race- I'm looking forward to it- it's a fun race format and it'll be fun to see how it plays out. All I know is that I'm a month into my Bacon Strike, and i'm really in need of some delicious, crispy, applewood smoked pork product, asap. The minute i win one of these races, I'm running to a deli and ordering an obscene amount of bacon. I'll stuff it in my back jersey pocket and just eat it on the way up to Piermont. I'll dip it in my coffee, wrap my bunbury muffin in it, and use it as a boot in my tire if i rip my sidewall... why is bacon so delicious??


After the weekend I'll be tapering for Battenkill. This is one of my favorite races and I'm hoping to really push it and do well- it's going to be a big, talented field up there, and it's going to be an epic race. What's going to happen? who will win? will adler ride a smart race? will some anonymous Upstate hardman win? Will CJIA every get to eat bacon again? I'm also hoping for nasty weather so that the course favors people who know how to climb up muddy crap (cyclocrossers). I'm also lookin forward to chugging some chimay blue at the end of that.

Oh, and we just got our new team bikes. They're pretty hot.


Cyfac and cadence did a bang up job of getting these together, and Ostroy, Matt richards, and David Trumph did a really nice job with the design. so pro! (if by pro you mean being mediocre but owning all the equipment that someone who gets paid to race uses)

Battenkill Roubaix Race recap! getting dropped, catching up, drinking beer!

What a weekend.

That was the toughest road race I've done to date.

It was also one of the most satisfying one yet.

I was worried about this course- there were 3 or 4 significant climbs, and I hadn't yet raced a real climbing race. Let's face it, I've still got a few lbs to lose before I'm at my ideal cycling weight, and while where' I'm at right now isn't a hindrance on the flats and sprints, it brings the pain train into the station on the climbs. Ah well, something to work on.

Chad, Victoria and I drove 3 hours north on Saturday morning for the race. Props to Victoria's hot new blue Mini Cooper S- we've got the hottest (mini) team car around now! plus, it matches our team kits. bonus.

once we got up to the beautiful town of Salem, we realized that the weather predictions ha been blown Wayyyyy out of proportion. it was in the low 40's when the race started- perfect long sleeve jersey racing weather. Big ups to Greyhound juice for keeping my twin towers of doom hot and toasty under the leg warmers.

The minute we parked, we say familiar faces. Teammates and racing buddies. I missed the cameraderie one has with others at out of town races- i think that's why i liked cross so much; they were all out of town!

Cisco, our coach, was there, hanging out in the Adler RV. they got an RV- so pro!
we were told that the first climb at mile seven was the tipping point of the race- it was steep, and there was going to be some bobblehead attacking off the front. Stay in the pack, they said, and you'll be fine. duly noted.


Got to the starting line a few minutes early and made myself comfortable up front. Always get to the starting line early, I say. A few of my buddies missed their starts yesterday and ended up having to chase the whole time. not fun. btw, the guy next to me in the photo came in second. great job!

The race began with a neutral lap around the town. I was glad we had that, cause it let me legs get nice and warm before the fun started. after that lap, we were off.

Soon the climb came around, and I knew i was in for a suffer-fest. as predicted, some hot head attacked off the front, driving the pace up the hill.

I got dropped on the first hill. Good lord. I went from winning a race two weeks ago to getting dropped on the first hill of this one.

...

but all is not lost! i got over the climb as quickly as possible and started double timing it. I figured i wasn't the only one that was going to get dropped, and maybe I could pick some stragglers up and get a chase group going.

One by one, I caught up with stragglers. I looked at them and said "let's go." I picked up one of my teammates, Michael, on the way. Off we went. we were about 4 strong, although some people came and went- we picked up and lost a few people on the way. However, Michael, Ben (from Brooklyn Velo Force), and myself stuck together during the whole race. New yorker's gotta stick together!

We worked together, we suffered up the ugly, ugly, ugly (Rosie o'donnell ugly) unpaved climbs, and we seriously booked it on the flats- rotating, churning, burning. Little by little, we started picking people off and passing them.

The last ten miles of the race were glorious. it was generally flat/rolling (which was welcome after the brutal climbs), and I decided to put the pressure on. now was the time to catch them while they were tired. We kept the pace hard, and passed a good number of people. We even passed the guy who attacked on the first climb (retribution!)

We had a fun little sprint to the end, and we were done. My lungs wanted to combust, my legs were noodles, and I had a shit-eating-grin on my face.

How'd I do?

14th!

Given that I'm not much of a climber, and that I got dropped on the first climb, I'm really happy with how i did here. Ben, Mike, and I were able to work together, and through our collective suffering we were able to reel them in and finish respectably.

The reward? A big 'ole bottle of Ommegang! Belgian beer for a Belgian race!




The ultimate 8.5% alcohol recovery drink. (i really do recommend it, it's a fantastic beer).



big ups to all of the NYVelocity teammates- awesome job guys! we came out and did our best, and it was a fun and painful experience.


I'd like to give a big thank you to Dieter and the volunteers for putting together such a great race- it was really well organized and a ton of fun. A race is that much better when you've got people screaming and ringing bells when you go by.

as we were watching the other categories enter the finish, two of the kids from the Farm team junior squad (the race is a fundraiser for their team) came up to me and asked me for my autograph.



i didn't have the heart to tell them I was a cat 5 with a few lbs to lose. "Ride hard! -Christophe"

I must be pro, now, right? I mean, kids are asking me for my autograph!

ah well, sweet kids. I wish I had started riding that early. they're going to be fast little SOB's when they're older (especially training on the Battenkill roads!)


the ride back was a snoozefest. a special thank you to Chad's fiance for the pillow sponsorship.


ok, time for more fun with the Massage stick.

weekend recap: brooklyn racing, training, gimbel's murder, and HAM!

yet another action packed episode of Alliwannadoisbicycle!

Let's try a blog bullet form. Hopefully it'll make things clean and easy. Although that's what they said about oxy clean, and that was a piece on as-seen-on-tv garbage. Billy Mayes, you should be ashamed of yourself.

-Raced in the Spring series race in prospect park on Saturday. it was the first time I've ridden, let alone raced in prospect, so it was quite an experience. I think the course suits me better than Central park, since it's flatter. However, I'm super familiar with central park, and have raced more there. PP is a bit narrow at times, and I really should go and scope out the strategic sprint locations 2 or 300 meters before the finish. it was SUPER cold Saturday morning- around 34 degrees, which is about as low as i'll go for road racing (cyclocross is a different story). Thank god for Greyhound juice. I decided to lay low for most of the race, but ended up wasting a bit of energy here and there. a 3 man break got away and stayed away. ah, well. I managed to come in the top 15 or so in a field of about 40. satisfactory. next PP race will be better, especially if we have more teammates out.



-Chad and I then went on a post-race training/suffering ride. Why we keep doing these, i don't know. We went up to Nyack and had our customary Muffins. by the way, the muffins are even better if you ask them to toast them on the pannini press first. Paris thinks that's hot.

-we met up with some of the NYVelocity Ladies and rode back with them. a sweet tailwind made our pace-lining all the swifter. it also warmed up a bit at the end of the ride, which was awesome.

-Sunday was quite the humbling experience. Chad and I met up with a few other hearty teammates and we went to go do the Gimbel's ride. Well, not to make excuses (ok, to totally make excuses), Saturday was rough on my legs, and Chad was even worse off after also having raced Sunday morning (crazy man). the gimbel's ride is a fast, fast ride. it starts in Yonkers and rolls through Greenwhich CT. I have no idea where it ends. it was all fine in the flats, but the ex pros and the cat 1's generally decide on the pace. the minute the short, punchy hills started, i knew i was in trouble. Chad and I ended up getting dropped. We courageously chased back the pack with 2 other guys, but the minute another hill hit, they were gone. we wasted so much energy catching up that we had nothing left once another climb hit. Ah, well.

-once we got dropped, we realized we were stuck in Greenwhich. and had no idea where we were. Then we both bonked. I bonked pretty hard, which was majorly sucky. we eventually found a Panera in Portchester and stuffed ourselves stupid. Then we took the metro north back. Ha.

-Proceeded to go home, pass out, and eat tons of Easter Ham. Salvatore Commesso would be proud.


-Big race is coming up next weekend. The Battenkill-Roubaix. the Hell of the North(east). Jay might be there as well. It's going to be huge. and epic. and I'm going to die.

-55 miles, half of which is unpaved. about 4,700 feet of vertical climbing.
I'm bringing my 13-26 cassette, my hincapie sunglasses, and a sixer of Chimay (as a post race reward/celebration/consolation prize), and holding on for dear life. I'll probably get dropped like Michael Jackson's baby. Ah well. Time to suffer!


Save as Draft

here's the elevation profile:



Oye Vei. Happy Passover. That's just not Kosher!