Battenkill Belgian prep

Hincapie Sunglasses- Check.
Gloves- Check.

Post Race Belgian Beer- Check.


Tomorrow's going to be a sufferfest.

Wish me luck. Battenkill in the morning. Hoo-rah.

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!

Victory is mine!

(photo courtesy of Andy Shen @ NYVelocity.com)

I won.

I won?

I totally did!

I've never won a bike race before. I keep repeating the final seconds in my head. Pure awesome.

I had a good feeling yesterday before the race started. we had over 11 people in the C field, and we had two different strategies for the win.

Our first strategy was to try and get a break off with three of our guys. if that failed, I was going to try and take it in a field sprint.

The latter happened. :)

The race was supposed to be a 5 lap race of central park (at 6 miles per lap). the strategy my coach gave me was simple- stay in the middle of the pack, do NO work, and then get a lead out and sprint for the finish (should the break away fail)

The first three laps of this race were the most relaxing race laps I've ever done- I was in my endurance and tempo zones for most of the race- It was much smarter racing, and it left me with a ton of juice for the finish.

on the second to last lap, we heard the bell. There was some confusion at first, but then we realized they were cutting the race down by a lap - it had become the final lap. Our Guys, Rob, Ted, and Steve- made a break at the base of harlem hill. it stuck for a little while, but a few problems arose and cause the break to fall apart: rob got a flat, Steve cramped, and they weren't able to regroup very well in enough time to organize the break. The peloton was also freaking out since the race had been cut by a lap, so they were in a hurry.

i stayed near the front for the rest of the final lap- last time i was hard pressed to position myself well for the sprint. I also didnt have a good lead out, and had to sprint up cat's paw before the actual sprint, leaving me spent. This time, I made sure to be in the top 5 or 6 coming through horse-shit alley, and stuck onto my teammates Clay, and then Ultimately Nate, before i started to sprint. Nate made for a great lead-out- i started my sprint after the crest, and was able to fire on all cylinders- i came right up the front, and it was between me and two other guys. right before i hit the finish, i threw my bike towards the line, and instantly heard cheers from some of the female teammates that were spectating.


(photo courtesy of Andy Shen @ NYVelocity.com)

Did I just win?

oh man. I did.


(photo courtesy of Andy Shen @ NYVelocity.com)

I've never felt that before. going against a slew of people like that in physical competition and coming out as numero uno.

I keep replaying it in my head. I love it. That's what its about.

I'm going to keep working on my sprinting- my legs are definitely more built for sprinting than for climbing, so we'll see how well i can develop it.

I can't wait to do it again. This gives me all the more incentive to keep pushing myself.


This is Evan and I. Evan's a junior rider- 17 yrs old- he came in third today. fast SOB.

After the race, we had ANOTHER post-race training ride to Nyack. it was a fun ride, but i was definitely hurting by the end. We were all riding really well as a team, though, and that was great to see. Had a celebratory muffin at the 'spoon. hoo-ha. 90 miles total yesterday. I was beat. I went home andpassed out for 4 hrs.

Today is a hill repeat day. oye vei. Looking forward to tomorrow's rest day.

Here's the obligatory victory pose (post-humously)

Race Recap: Park race followed by a training ride. dood!

Yesterday I took part in the CRCA club race in central park. 4 lap race.



Our team, fashionably sporting the new kits (sans bibs, they're on the way) make a really strong showing. We had 1 lady in the woman's field, 5 guys in the b field, and 9 guys in the C field (myself inclusive).

Results?

We won the B race (great job Ethan!)

we controlled the pace of the C race and brought the hurt to the peloton (we didn't win it though). I think i managed to get top ten in the C race, but won't know till the results are up on the CRCA website. Judging from the photos on NYVelocity.com , it looks like i did.


(photo by of Andy Shen @ nyvelocity.com)

We were super aggressive in the C race, chasing down anyone that went off the front. we attacked a whole lot (myself inclusive), and we were able to split the field apart. However, our extreme aggressiveness early in the race turned out to be a waste of energy. there's no point in chasing down a one man break in the first lap of a c race- he's not going to be able to stay away for 4 laps. for the next race I'll be holding back for the first half of the race, conserving my energy, and either leading someone out or sprinting for a better placement.

I got pretty tired by the end of the race (being aggressive and sticking in the front for the bulk of the race will do that), so by the time the last lap came around, i was feeling it. my handling was getting a little squirrelly and i was fatigued.

Either way, I'm still happy with a top ten placement (if i in fact got it).


After the race, we all celebrated a job well done (especially Ethan's rockstar performance in the B race), and went on a training ride.



a training ride after a race? yikes.



we ended up riding to Nyack and doing some hills in the middle. an additional 50 miles tacked onto the 25 we had already done at the race. I ended up doing about 80 miles total. The highlight of the ride was definitely the celebratory Banana chocolate chip muffin and the latte' from the Runcible spoon.



on the way back my front tire met its demise at the hands of a sharp rock. it cut a pretty big hole in my sidewall, but we managed to patch it with a five dollar bill. looks like i've got to order a new set of conti attack/force tires!

Anyway, I was beat.



I need to buy myself one of those massage rollers that Jay was raving about...

Today we had hill repeats on the agenda. 6 repeats of the river road hill leading up to the alpine police station. I met up with Chad and eventually Cassie, and we rocked those repeats like a hurricane. During the repeats, Chad just had to one up my and also hit a rock which ripped an even bigger hole in his sidewall. he managed to patch it with a Clif bar wrapper (MacGuyvery!) and we made it to Piermont without a hitch. We celebrated with more fantastic muffins and coffee. This time it was a double chocolate chip muffin for yours truly. Hoo-rah.

It was a bike-heavy week. I'm happy with how I did, learned some important lessons, and managed to not die. Hooray!

Tomorrow's a much-welcomed rest day. I'm so excited. No biking for one whole day!!!!!!!

oh, and Congrats to Emma on placing Third in her race at OSU this weekend! Great job!

time to pass out.

New Kits in time for the first race

Hoo rah- just picked up our jersey (bibs coming later)

They're hot.

This is pretty much the only reason i joined a team! (half joking!)



the inside collar says this:



I'm sure Fatmarc would disagree...

I'll probably develop an eating disorder now...


These kits are going to get wrecked come cyclocross season.

Racing tomorrow morning. off to bed in a few. We have 9 people in the C race. we are going to (hopefully) dominate it.

My TT time for the 6 mile loop of the park was 17:04. respectable, but i'm not satisfied. Let's see how low it can go...

the arm wamers and collar say "None shall Pass." Let's hope no one does.