Andrew Da Silva said:

Marc, These aren't the line backers, these are the endurance guys. For example, the German guys last year regulars on the Euro Six Day circuit, which is pretty much like the stage racer equivilent of the track.   Think Cameron Meyer types. Depending on the rider, some of these track guys might even be looking for a break. For example the Dutch rider from two years ago who got in the break with Lea, Chabanov, and Gavi.  The young Kiwi kid I spoke to said last year he surfed the Rudy Project teams train and rolled in 11th.  

JP loves going for breaks in this race. Hopefully, luck will be on his side and he'll get in one that sticks.

Pretty psyched for this one.

vlad said:

Pretty psyched for this one.

Now take that engine of yours that you tuned up at the State Champs and get yourself in a bad-ass break. Despite being a 4-corner crit, the turns are tight enough that you can get and stay away with the right composition.

Eric; I know you don't want to sit in for a sprint. But please, with just 8 or so laps to go, if you aren't working on lapping the field or something equally heroic, just consider saving your last best effort for a final sprint instead of a final flyer off the front.

Good luck to you all, and keep the rubber side down.

Wow look at Foundation going all "Kissena Cat IV" with 11 riders in the elite men's race at Harlem!

A German (?) Dude wins the elite field by staying away by himself for 10 laps or so.

Mixed emotions on the start line.

Congrats Gwynna, were you and Stokes the only entrants?

I forgot to attach the photo of me on the trainer, waiting for Harlem results...

I believe the last German dude with the audacity to try such a thing was Garrigan in CP earlier this year.

Quick run-down as near as I could tell. I didn't see every minute of every race, so this "report" is just to whet the appetite for the real reports.

Overall, lots of crashes. Seemed like 2-4 in each race. Course was narrowed due to illegally parked cars on 4 of 4 sides of the crit. Frustrating, but they did a good job of setting up the barriers so we were gradually led around them in a pretty safe manner.

Grehan and Vladi were riding herd at the front of the Cat 4 field all day long. Lots of KCCs in this race. I think many were derailed by crashes and what-not.  Vladi finishes in 9th.

In the 3/4 race Stokes and Craig. Both were riding strong all day long, but I don't think Craig scored a result this week.

In the 2/3 race we had Vlad, Ragot and Da Silva. Ragot and Da Silva were riding well in the front of the field. Vlad looked comfortable cruising a bit further back. On the last lap, all three rolled in at the back of the field.

In the Women's field we had Gywnna and Kayt. I missed the start of the race but in the final laps, Kayt was still in the mix and was sprinting in the bunch. Not sure where she ended up. 20-something?

In the Elite men's field it was JP and I. And a bunch of German's, all of Foundation, all of Lupus, the usual Uniteds. With about 10 of 40 or so laps to go, last year's German winner gets away with I think Evan Murphy of Foundation on his wheel. This didn't last. Foundation couldn't hang with the bearded German stud and gets dropped. Then when Foundation lined up everyone, like 10 guys, to pull him back with 8 laps to go, they couldn't do it. Yikes.

JP, got a well-deserved call-up on the first line, hung tough, took a stab off the front, and ultimately finished with the field. I was victim to some really bad timing and struggled in the last few laps finishing off the back of the pack.

As far as I could tell, no crashes really in our race. Maybe some near misses on the back stretch. It's all kind of a blur. And frankly, I'm kind of toasty-bonked right now.

Woah...just saw a tweet that in the women's race, one of the top pro cx women, in Gabby Day-Durrin, finished in 2nd. Damn, ladies...extra props for racing with the English cross powerhouse!

At one point, 8 to go,the german had 30 seconds on everyone. Thats when Foundation lined up front and chased. The gap started dropping but stalled with 2 to go it seemed.

First, a big thanks to Bruce who (under duress) lent me his front wheel.

I think the P123 top five was -

Jordan guy has to be Stalin. (Edit: Facebook photos show that Adam Alexander got 4th and Savory got 5th. Last German bro rolling in 6th with his hand up in the air).

I walked the course between 17-10 to go and heard evan getting yelled at by the german around turn 3. 2 laps later and evan was gone.

Quick report for the 3/4's. I got caught behind a crash and quit with 4 laps to go, however, it was a hard day. Avg speed- 25.5 mph, Max spd 38.7 mph (?) Normalized Power of 316 watts. 

Speaking of Foundation...anyone know why we haven't Dan Chabanov in a couple of weeks?

Vlad, I think, if I were to guess, because obviously I didn't see it, that after so many failed attempts at getting away, the field eventually says, "jeesh, not again..." and that is the one that sticks.

I will say too, that the race felt pretty much ON all day long. So much single/double file, punctuated by moments of wall to wall riders. Nothing really "in between" these two extremes. And eventually something has to snap, right? What I don't know is if the Germans were active early, or just sitting pretty letting the other teams flog themselves at the front, and waiting for their opportunity for a well-timed counter attack.

Thanks Marc. I think I saw Dan was at the Dave Jordan race but not at White Plains. The Germans were at the front and active the whole race. There were some moves with them in it before the one that eventually stuck. Somerville and Champ-Sys were active too, but the Germans were just too krafty. They played the shit out of that race after they said they would.

Lessons from the Back: Harlem 2014

Big time pre-race nerves for me. Around 11:30am, 5+ hours before the start of the Pro 1/2/3 race, I couldn't finish my Father's Day breakfast. I left bacon uneaten on the plate for chrissssakes!

Rolled over to the course early and discovered, while riding with Andy in Central Park, that my secret warm-up loop, not good. Too crowded. Still we got in a couple of 1-minute efforts up the hill, and Andy looked solid in his cat 2/3 race, so I'll count that as at least a fair warm-up. For me though, I needed more. Thanks to cars illegally parked (where are the tow trucks when you need them?), the course was narrower than usual, and I was worried about single-file hell.

Fortunately, the warm-up master was nearby. JP and I rolled north on St. Nicholas, detoured up a steep 45 second-ish climb, rolled back past my apartment, dropped down to Riverside, did another effort on the Grant's Tomb course, and got back to the start in plenty of time for me to set up to win the race to the starting line.

Unfortunately, for me, there were call-ups and with that general confusion as to where we were supposed to stage. Ultimately, I was somewhat buried about 3 rows back. Still, this took off the pressure for me to maintain my title of "Hole-shot King." JP gets a well-deserved call-up this year, actual real-life Harlem resident, state points race champ, etc. It felt more legit than Gavi Epstein getting a call-up, for example. For what, for being strong? Great, put the strong guys on the front row please...

And we were off. Reasonably good start and I was pretty quickly in a safe groove. ALL of the previous races were riddled with crashes, and was worried that I would end up on the ground. Fortunately, the field raced well enough to warrant our "Elite" description in the race program, and things felt safe.

Shout out and thanks to Vlad and others who gave me some pre-race advice regarding the course. The stretch between turn one and two, that I'll call "Belgium" was lumpy and crazy, and generally avoided by the peloton, which made it a perfect place for me to move up. Sure it was windy, sure it was bumpy, but it was the single best place on the course to advance your position.

I look up and see 33 laps to go. Lordy. I don't know if I'm going to make it. This race is HOT DAMN fast. (JP please share some numbers so we can impress our teammates.) And the next time I look up, it's 19 to go. Huh...I'm in here, and I might actually finish this thing? With 10 laps to go, I'm thinking about advancing my position to set up for a stab at a top 20. No go. We're either single/double file or it's wall-to-wall approaching turn 1.

I'm frustrated....what to do, what to do...

8 laps to go, I decide, I'm going to drift off the back a bit (I've been pinned to the back for the previous handful of laps), and take turn 1 wide and fast, push hard with a slingshot up through "Belgium" and get back to the middle-ish of the pack.

Wait, what the hell is happening here? I'm gapped, I'm chasing, I'm dropped, I'm riding solo OTB, I'm desperately trying to avoid getting lapped (which almost happens, but not quite. Lapped on turn 2 of the last lap).

I later found out that with 8 laps to go, when I was to execute my plan to perfection, Foundation lined up all their dudes at the front and started chasing like crazy men. (They never consult with me on these things. Jeesh!) And so my plan which I'm confident would have worked to spring me loose from being stuck at the back, ended up backfiring, and had me chasing solo, sort of like Marc from the last two-ish seasons of racing. Damn. Double Damn.

Except last year, my wife was a few minutes late to the start of the race and had already missed watching me getting dropped then getting a flat. So, a less than ideal finish for me today, but I'll take it. I'll take the past few weeks of solid, but annoynmous racing, the confidence it has instilled and be fully prepared to crush it at ToAD next week. I can hardly wait!

Word on the street is that the P123 race averaged 28.7 mph while the 2/3 had a measly 27.6 mph average.

Results are up.

hard race, realized i could not corner for the life of me

Results put me at 52 but I definitely DNF'd.  Creative counting!

One of the Rudy Project Team guys 

Chi said:

hard race, realized i could not corner for the life of me

Don't be discouraged.  I think you've only done park races so far and criteriums are completely different animals.  The only way to get better is to keep doing them and learning.