Who is going to race Tokeneke?

I am! How could you miss out on this course profile:

https://www.strava.com/segments/739042

Who else is coming? I can take two riders...

I'm not sure we will make it. Jeff's race is at 9am, mine at 1p and mine is 66 miles compared to your 44. Yikes!

Naill - I'm thinking about it... is there still space in your car?

@Brian Miele absolutely. i'm going to head up on Saturday evening though, down for that?  Registration closes tonight at 9pm.

Tokeneke Race Report!

tl;dr Can’t wait to be 40

Tokeneke is one of my favorite races of the year. The pace up the climbs is practically guaranteed to be hard enough to break up the pack (meaning: less risk of going backwards 20 places in a finishing sprint) and long enough that the punchy climbers don’t have too much advantage… in other words, there’s a lot to be said for your willingness to dig in and suffer on this course

My goal was to show up fresh and rested to facilitate said suffering. A combination of my nocturnal upstairs neighbor (*shakes fist at ceiling*) and poor lifestyle decisions meant another day or two rest would have been welcome, but overall I felt willing and able to execute a sensible strategy of staying up the front so I could try and follow the attacks that would inevitably ensue after we had warmed things up on the first climb (some of you may already have spotted the fatal assumption in this strategy).

Pack rolled out of Berg field under blue skies, in the high 70s, not too humid. The first climb starts with a punchy uphill that makes itself known immediately after a hard right turn, about 20 minutes from the start line. I held a steady mid 300s which is usually enough not to totally suck, so I was surprised to be slipping backwards. Looking ahead it was clear the pace had slacked off and we would regroup, so I decided to keep sag climbing and not burn too many matches this early.

We started the second hump of the first climb a couple minutes later, at this point I was mid pack and started drifting back again, holding what I thought was a hard but reasonable pace — then realized about a minute later that someone had a point to make. Tried dialing things up a notch, but after several minutes of watching carnage gradually unfold ahead of me, it was pretty obvious that I’d missed the winning move by a country mile.

Six of us regrouped and worked hard to catch another group a minute or so ahead. This was surprisingly difficult We eventually tacked on by attacking downhill but by this point were probably racing for 15th place at best. Looked down and saw 280NP in the first 50 minutes, scoffed a gel or three, and got excited at the prospect of the remaining three climbs.

We went into the last climb together, I attacked (read: sat in saddle and increased cadence by 10%) looked back and had dropped precisely nobody. Tried again, held it for longer. Just three others on my wheel. Woohoo. Tried again. All still present. Said a prayer for no counterattacks. We played cat and mouse for the last KM, two riders jumped at 500M and took the next two places. I held the wheel of the third rider and lost another place by half a wheel.

Next year I will be in the Cat4 40+ and attacking on the first climb!

Shout out to Konrad who was racing 88 miles and 8K feet in the Cat 1/2 today in some crazy heat and humidity. 

Holy shit Tokeneke is THIS WEEKEND! Is anybody going?

Jules, I was there in the Cat 4 40+.

We had a steady pace with some opportunistic attacks, but the lead group of about 20 riders stayed together to the final climb. I had a good position going in (pretty crucial on this course) and held third wheel to the 3k mark. I was running deep in the red and unfortunately got popped from the front group of six riders just as we crested. Kinda frustrating as it was a strong tempo pace, no attacks, which suits me usually, I just ran out of legs. Went backwards into a chase group but couldn’t catch a wheel, so finished solo for 14th. Overall not bad and I think my best or second best result on this course. The only thing I could have done is train harder

U40 Cat 4 field set a pretty blistering pace and blew apart, the winner finished 8 minutes ahead of our time.

A rider who soloed off the Cat 5 field came in faster than all the above

Ouch that stings. It's a strongman's finish for sure. Every year there is some Cat5 with a monster engine who blows past Cat 4 like it's standing still and winds up on some trade team 18 months later. Often they come from the Kissena ranks!

(Paging Konrad R, Rene H, Neil Bezdek, Chabs... the list goes on)

August 11th

Iconic NY road race.

https://www.bikereg.com/tokeneke-road-race

August 10th

Iconic NY road race.

https://www.bikereg.com/tokeneke-road-race

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/47333057