a breakaway won the 1/2/3. also rumor has it a dog was injured or killed when it ran out into the road in the beginning of our first lap.

i had fun, i think i succeeded in my goal of finishing more towards the front than towards the back, but no results yet so i don't know.  this was my first time doing the cat's paw uphill finish...it's a bit tricky!  i think I was overgeared.  luckily it's something I can practice as my commute takes me through there

the 7:30 AM start had me excited for the extra sleep but it's definitely a more crowded park than the earlier summer start times.  probably 3-4 vans we had to avoid, citibikers to swerve around.

my garmin would not start before the race.  then it suddenly came to life with a freakish quickness once the race was over.  conspiracy!  i should probably just mount my phone on my handlebars and use that...

didn't see anyone else besides JP once the race was over (warmed up with Giacomo before), dawdled home up the bike path and now heading to Naptown...hope everyone had a good time!

Pretty big fields today in CP. Representative for Kissena with JP, Brendan and myself. 

In my Cat5 the field was full with 75 riders starting; race went pretty smooth for the first 3 laps; a couple of attacks from a super combative Colombian guy, but closed up from the group in both the occasions. Decent average speed, I was feeling good, legs were rolling easy and I was staying in the first 20-25 positions steady and covered. 

Beginning of last lap we slowed down a bit till the downhill at 110th. After the last Harlem Hill I jumped in the very front, staying behind a really gigantic dude, practically without even pedaling for the most.

At 96th street the mess happened. A little behind me, so maybe around the 15th position, a guy started swinging and pulled down, badly, other few riders. The sound of bikes hitting the ground along with "shit, shit shit...!" went on for a good 5 or 6 seconds. (I heard later one of the rider was pretty severly injured... involving ambulance and so on...)

After the 3 Sisters we re-grouped with the rest of the riders that avoided the crash and started accelerating down 72nd and Tavern. At the Horse Shit Climb we started again on a single file, I lost some positions and found myself halfway in the group.
Then the usual happened: everyone trying to spring at the bottom of the boat house, I could find pretty early a corridor on the right and recovered a decent number of positions.
Sprinting up in the hill I tried my best but got passed by 2 or 3 maybe and finished 12th overall. Still pretty happy of my modest result, it is always nice to race in Central Park. 

Awesome day of riding and enjoying autumn all together! A sincere Thank You to the organization.


@SebastianVidal, what happened?

results http://www.usacycling.org/results/index.php?year=2016&id=2979&info_id=

@GiacomoVischi knee has been a little sore for the past couple weeks - taking some time off the bike to let it properly recover. didn't feel too confident over the weekend and thought I'd be more of a liability in the race as I haven't been on a bike in a little while. glad to see the race went well for us though!

Solid results for everyone, well done!

Good to race again.

Disappointing that the race went up the road on the first lap.  I saw the move, thought it looked serious, but I thought it would shortly come back and then go.  Such is the problem.

I expected lots of early attacks.  I didn't expect Lupus, the deepest team in the field, to let it go.  And then, when they started to chase, they chased so poorly.  They might have had eight riders in the field, but only two of them knew how to chase.  

I told Brendan that if the gap was still present with two to go, we should chase.  At three to go it was 1:40, just about the 30-seconds a lap that is easily possible when the field is motivated.  Some guys with some strength were attacking solo.  What a waste.

So I went to the front by Tavern, hoping to help whip things up.  Problem was, the Lupus guys would come through too hard and open up gaps.  Then, some guys with no one in the break attacked and hung in front of us by 5 seconds for a few miles.

Useless.  Guys were sitting in when there were no prizes.  

I let myself get too far back leading up to the sprint.  My fault for not positioning better. I actually started the sprint on Brendan's wheel, but he ended up 15th and me 24th. Alas

Race time: 1:37:29 for 42 miles. Fastest lap was the last.  13:26.  My hardest lap was the second, probably because I started the lap by chasing down a split that looked like it could ride.  Unfortunately, I had the field on my wheel.

That is one of the weirder race stories I've heard in a while. Great you guys are still out there and that Brendan is prepping for his #comeback

About the dog.

I hit it.  We had just started and were about to go over the 84th street transverse.  A little dog, not on leash, ran into the field.  It missed a few riders, then got in front of me.  We were probably going in the high 20's already, and I luckily got my front wheel around the dog but I could feel my rear wheel hit it.  How hard and what part of the dog's body I don't know.  

@JP, if Margarite's in a race, why doesn't everyone just sit on his wheel?

JohnMalcolmson said:

@JP, if Margarite's in a race, why doesn't everyone just sit on his wheel?

Good question.

I've been trying to figure that out myself.  

mugwump said:

About the dog.

I hit it.  We had just started and were about to go over the 84th street transverse.  A little dog, not on leash, ran into the field.  It missed a few riders, then got in front of me.  We were probably going in the high 20's already, and I luckily got my front wheel around the dog but I could feel my rear wheel hit it.  How hard and what part of the dog's body I don't know.  

another reason to ride low pressure....

mugwump said:

JohnMalcolmson said:

@JP, if Margarite's in a race, why doesn't everyone just sit on his wheel?

Good question.

I've been trying to figure that out myself.  

I didn't at the moment because I didn't think he'd quite want to go from that far.  I had also been patrolling the front and blocked in at the moment.  Why other teams didn't sound the alarm at the very moment, I don't know.

I don't understand it, Margarite is a huge breakaway artist and head and shoulders above 99% of local racers... plus he's got a badass team around him.

Sorry about the dog btw, that's not a nice feeling. Unless that dog was trying to bite you. 

has anyone heard if CRCA is going to bring out the turkey again this year? it would be great to get in some action before central park turns into a tundra. 

i assume we would have heard something by this point...

At the CRCA Women's Dev party last week it sounded like it was not happening.