Cat 4 field is up to 89 riders now.  8 guys from Foundation including Charles Altchek.  They seem to have the most riders so far.  The next largest teams are RBNY and Siggis (both with 5 guys).  

road-results just is not a legit way of predicting the outcome of a road race. Not in the way it works for cross racing. Until ALL promoters, start submitting results that include ALL participants, we can't even begin to trust those rankings.

Marc Bertucco said:

road-results just is not a legit way of predicting the outcome of a road race. Not in the way it works for cross racing. Until ALL promoters, start submitting results that include ALL participants, we can't even begin to trust those rankings.

Road Results suck not because the fields are incomplete (if they're all submitting the "best" of their races it would seem to even out) but because ALL RACES ARE EQUIVALENT.

FWIW, tonight at Rockleigh, Mattie was riding very well, against a small but disgustingly stacked field that ensured that it was almost exclusively strung out for 50 minutes.

What happened to Ryan McGarrity? He won every sprint preme and sprint finish for like three straight months in 2011 and then vanished. Looks like his comeback hasn't gone as planned: http://www.usacycling.org/results/?compid=243436.

@Jeff I talked to him at Propsect recently; he had some kind of hip surgery last year - he didn't offer and I didn't ask.  Hopefully he's mellowed from his days of screaming "too easy" while he finishes ahead of everyone in the 4's...

Anyone riding out from Brooklyn tomorrow? Wanna meet up at the BB?

McGarrity got collarboned also.

I hear Rene got first in the 3 field ..

John Malcolmson said:

McGarrity got collarboned also.

Today?!?

Rene 1st in the 3's! 

Congrats Rene and John... well done!

I love the podium shot.  no one else in the picture!

sounds like a messy finish! CONGATS RENE! very happy for u.

If the bell rings, then you have 1 lap to go - no matter what.

This was my opinion when we heard the bell at 2 laps to go (it said 1, but everyone knew we had 2).
What to do? Impossible to develop a consensus in the field?

I got to the front at the bottom of cat's paw hill and had delusions of a leadout. I think Rene may have been on my wheel, but I couldn't hold the pace up the hill and just tried to get out of the way. I was excited to see Rene win, but then totally deflated to see the pace car beckon us on for another lap. This 6th lap started out  a bit of a parade, Axis took advantage of people who burnt their matches to form a group of 6. Jeff Condon did an excellent job of pulling us closer as we went past the Tavern. John put in a mighty jump at the bottom of cat's paw hill and bridged, but I think a small group of others went with him as the original break shreaded and went backwards.

In the immediate aftermath, both sets of finishers were upset. Lap 5 finishers because they didn't think it counted and didn't come down to the podium area. Lap 6 finishers because they learned that the officials were awarding the prizes to the Lap 5 bunch. They were firm in their reading of the rule book:

If the bell rings, then you have 1 lap to go - no matter what.

Congrats @Rene!  Awesome!

Congrats to Rene. It's CP's very own team bus finish line fiasco.

Congrats Rene!!!!

Rene big ups! A big win for you was just a matter of time.

Cat 1/2/3s?

did any 4s race? curious what happened in that field

Harry and I were in the 4s. Nothing to write home about. We finished safely in the pack. Since there were no primes on each lap, it was a pretty civilized race, no surges, one or two attacks, etc. A couple of times a few people had a small gap but no one stayed away. Foundation did same pace setting early on, but they weren't as organized nor potent as in Prospect Park. No one team controlled overall. Even on the bell lap, by cats paw, it seemed the field slowed down, which I thought was odd since I would think that people would keep the pace high to set up for the finish. But maybe people just didn't care or were just tired

Having said, the official speed was 26.4 for 5 laps, 31 miles. I think that's about the same as the last L&C race, but this didn't feel nearly as hard as that one. I've always found that the Mengoni race is never as hard as the Lou Maltese too.

@Brendan - the last race in central park for the season is in two weeks, the masters throwdown, the 3/4 field is open. Come join the fun now that you're closer.

Central Park is very much a momentum course, and very hard, if not impossible to control. Winding, weaving rising and falling roads ensure that.

You're lucky if you can control things from the exit of Horseshit Alley to the bottom of Cat's Paw. Really, the key to success here, is being in the top 10 at the base of Cat's Paw, let guys start their sprints too early, and you jump halfway up the hill.

(or getting in a breakaway, but...those are few and far between on this course.)

By-the-by, if it's not too early to talk about Battenkill 2014, then maybe it's not too early to mention, that I'll plan on doing another Central Park course recon/breakdown like I did this year, one or two weeks before the first Central Park race.

dstokes said:

1. @Marc: note that for Mengoni grand Prix, the finish was at engineers gate. that changed the finishing strategy a lot.

Oh, that's interesting...that definitely would change things a lot.

The 1/2/3's had myself and Keith representing.  Eric the Red was MIA.