If I'm starting at the back, I click the lap off as I cross it hte first time.  If I'm starting at the front, I click it at the end of the first lap.

Bummed I couldn't do this race.  

 The right half of the park roadway (racing lane) is the only portion of the road open to racers during the

race

 Racers entering the left half of the roadway (the recreation lane) will be immediately disqualified.

Future participation in CRCA races may be denied dependent on the severity of the violation.

So I just read the race guide for Lou Maltese, and maybe I'm reading these two bullet points wrong but...  are we now limited to just 1/3 of the road way (joggers lane, recreation/slow lane, then racing lane)?  Is it the same in Prospect Park now too?  

Team Invite Report: 

With 2 to go I started the winning break. 

With 1.25 to go I was dropped from the winning break. OOOPS! 

Rene and I were active, holding good positions, making a few moves.  The KoM atop 110berg and the prime at the finish line (tavern, not cat's paw) certainly affected the way the race played out.  There was always a gap over the hill and then there'd be a slight gap at the finish line.  The group going hard over the hill was bigger than the group contesting the sprint.

At about half distance, I got into a move by the finish line.  I closed a gap to the two who sprinted and had some help.  We quickly had a group of 10 or 12, but only a few were willing to commit.  Of course, most were in pretty serious difficulty, but that's what you have to expect to get away.  We had to manage over 27mph to make the break work for the distance, over 28 to make it work for the short term, and that was proving difficult--and having the KoM certainly made it harder.  We got caught just before the bottom of 110berg.  

With three to go, I think, we came across a pretty serious crash at 110th and Lenox.  I don't know what happened, but it looked bad.  A police car and two ambulances were there and we had to slow down and many went into the jogger's lane--kind of scary as it appeared that people were walking over there.  this course hazard probably cut down the average speed of the race some, as my fastest laps all occurred before it (fastest was 12:52).

At two to go, I was pretty close to the guys sprinting at the finish line, and was at the front deciding whether or not I should hammer across the gap.  Just as I was debating with myself, Mike zoomed by.  "Perfect" I thought.  I rode a steady tempo at the front which I figured was slower than what the break could manage.  I saw several jump by, but it was good enough for our purposes.  Rene jumped by, urging me to go as well--it would have been a hard move, as I had been at the front for a few minutes at that point.  But he got blocked by some guy who got in front of him and that allowed Cesar Marte to jump across.

On the last lap, we went pretty slowly past hte remainder of that big crash, slowly up the hill, and then the pace picked up.  Mike and I were delayed by a big crash on the right side of the road.  Rene got by it, got by a second crash at 85th, and another crash just before 72nd.

On the jerky side, the "rudy project" team, which had the winning guy, started riders in at least three different jerseys.  It took me until about halfway through the race to figure it out.  I probably should have said something to the officials.  one of their guys also attacked the neutral rollout--though I guess the Moto official deserves blame for this.

On the cool side, there appeared to be drug testing.  Looked like top three and some randoms.  I did a little happy dance for that.  It will be a hard wait for the results.

stats--my average speed for the 52.74mi was 26.8--after soft-pedalign the final 1.5mi.  Time was 1:57:54.

Great to hear about the doping control.

@ Ryan - That was the one and only move I made all race. I was hurting pretty badly and hiding all race, but even that was hard. When I made the move, JP told me he wasn't sure if it was me or Joe as he hadn't seen me all race. 

I've put on some weight. I could have done without it, as it was on the roller after Harlem Hill where I was popped. Prospect will be better for me. 

oh --- PS

the real story of Maltese was how strong JP and Rene rode. I'd venture to guess the never left the top 30 and were a factor throughout. It is a bummer my one bid for glory did nothing to set them up, as Rene got gapped when Caesar went across.