MAN! KCC is wrecking s**t.

Christian - meetup at reg at 6.15 for a chat?

My 3rd race, CAT5

I took 4th and a wee little trophy.

Harry attacked every.........single...........lap........for 7 laps straight. Pace was low for the first couple of laps so Harrys moves at least got people turning the pedals. I felt the air probably the most ever during a race, wanted to drive the pace up a bit so 3 of the laps I hit the hill a little harder than the peleton had been. My plan was to hold out for a sprint though on the last lap, slightly after the first climb big Paul from Siggis fired off the side. He's a beast and quickly had 10 or 15 seconds, maybe more on the field. No one was taking it up and I thought it could stick having sized him up during the previous laps. We got to the flat rollers before the decent, Harry driving hard on the front and I thought id have a little dig and see if anyone would come with. 12.66 w/kg for 10 seconds, turned around and no one was with me so I thought fuck it try and breach. Settled into 4.93 w/kg for 5 minutes, in hindsight trying to push that out on the decent was foolish.....Finally caught the solo breakaway rider at the bottom of the decent just round the corner, if I'm honest I was toast by the time I got on his wheel. Looked over my shoulder for the first time, we had a good gap but it was closing fast. I sat on his wheel for about 10 seconds, turned around again, pack was breathing down even closer. I knew if I didn't work we would get swallowed and neither of us would get any points let alone 1st and 2nd place, I also knew we were close enough that id risk him then not doing any work. So I pulled through telling him we had to work together if we were going to make it as I passed. I sat on the front for what felt like a lifetime, in reality it was a minute but we should have been doing 10 second pulls each at that point. I was signaling and shouting (probably swearing) at him to come through but he wouldn't, I told him we would get caught and low and behold 2 sprinters fired round us, I tried to keep my wattage up and scraped 4th in the end.

Pretty happy to get my first points and a little trophy, I havnt been feeling great the last 3 or 4 days so pleased to come away with something.

Awesome to see the destruction by Perlberg!

7april2012
cat5 race report, nyc SBRS

YO! YO! YO!
Perlberg truly wrecked it today in the Pro1,2's with a win.

...it is already both a thing of spring beauty and nyc SpringSeries folk-lore; as a Pro1,2 racer inquired of me returning down VanderbiltAv bkNY, 'who was that from Kissena that won today?" ans. MrPerlberg; Pro1,2 racer - 'we were ALL sure he went too soon' (ie. from start/finish w/1togo {v. 'pro' &plenty fan friendly}, ans. MrPerlberg is mighty smart, fit and knows what he can do; Pro1,2 racer - 'wow!'

...&mini-Malcolmson, aka 'V2-Rocket-Kiasser-ChristianRefakis' gave a little crunch in the 3,4's with a 4th/5th finish, Bravo! (note: i roomed w/mr.' v2rkcr' at c2011 Tour of Catskills, b4 he was all famous&such ;>).

cat5's - brief race report; AshleyB to add detail from the front w/his 4th place finish!;>
Conditions: dry, clear skys, massive western full-moonSet over nyHarbour, crisp 41dF, 5-10mph steady NorthWest winds, 7laps 24mi, 52riders.

no real plan other than typical 'keep powder dry till last 2Laps and position Ashley well for his 20sec kiloWatts sprint-finish;
Lap1 quick/uneventful,
Lap2 a few efforts upfront w/Ashley harry @3rd-5th wheel,
Lap3 'Paul' siggis NYCvelocity &TransportationAlternative pres. inquires @base of ppk hill/bump 'how ya feeling harry?' ans. all right figure i have a couple more laps in me...w/that i rode up rightside of ppk hill/bump, over top and bolted 100-200m up road w/a nice gap, kept it up through curves and had an Asphalt green guy bridge up to meet me...suggested we keep up the pace up, gave him a turn, faster-i'll take it@top of rise, go-go!, i did he followed, but w/o enthusiasm, we stayed away past the temple, &were gobbled up again on the flats (lesson: a. good gap, b.MUST go ALL IN and HARDER for LONGER),
Lap4 back in pack, off the front &up hill every other Lap (burning candles/matches, powder ea. time - but LOT of FUN!)
2Laps togo, sat-in 4recovery &final lap...
1Lap togo, Paul breaks after the ppk hill/bump on last Lap, w/a gap of 150m @top of park past bandshell Ashley +1decide to chase him, i'm going no where, so, @head of peleton i block field on the descent, we capture the +1&roll past the temple, Ashley is up the road w/Paul, but insight...pack gobbles me-up then slows &surges to reel Ash&Paul in w/1km togo, by the drum circle, i cant see Ashley, but suspect he is on the right, me on the left behind sammy(nemisis)Torres, i know he will finish strong(he's been out of the wind since Lap1) 'if i can only hold his wheel' ...drats, he slowed i moved ahead of him &then boom! we are off to sprint w/200m togo, i move up fast behind a couple big BMC legs, lost sammy crossed to the right after a bunch pass me@100m out, i reel-in 3 or 4 by the line for 11th/12th finish. sammyT wins, former series leader takes 2nd, &Ashley holds onto 4th, good show ol'boy!

(lesson c. keep your powder dry for final 2-3Laps!)

funDAY!
-h;>

This is a seriously good day for race reports!
Nice work lads!

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=299372996797735&set=a.288010281267340.62182.283393421729026&type=1&theater

To the victor! (Kaiser, where is your race report man?)

It's coming, got busy shooting rifles in the afternoon. Was trying out this new Mauser I got.

Reason #37 why "nobody messes with the Kaiser"

Ok, here is the big report.

Lined up with JP and Marc to race against a pretty small field. Not sure exactly how many but I'd doubt it was over 50. (Edit: according to AVD it was exactly 50)

The early laps were very mellow except a Sommerville bike shop guy going off the front with Matt Cutler, racing in the jersey of the now defunct adler team.

After a few laps and some lame bridge attempts, JP got moving off the front.

http://www.oneimagingphotography.com/Cycling/New-York-Spring-Series-Race47/Pro-123/i-VqJJ7FF/0/M/8O2T0157-copy-M.jpg

I waited and watched until foundation guy Chris made a move to get across. He failed earlier and was getting a bit frustrated. Half way across I was refusing to pull and chase JP, but I told him if he got me there I'd work. He did the right thing and towed me across.

http://www.oneimagingphotography.com/Cycling/New-York-Spring-Series-Race47/Pro-123/i-WGWpNZf/0/M/8O2T0160-copy-M.jpg


With the chase group joining JP's group, we had a pretty solid crew:

http://www.oneimagingphotography.com/Cycling/New-York-Spring-Series-Race47/Pro-123/i-35gkmHZ/0/M/8O2T0233-copy-M.jpg

Unfortunately, this was not a crew of your bread-and-butter breakaway riders. It took much cajoling to get everyone working and rotating. Some folks were in over their heads and others were trying to work as little as possible for a sprint. JP and I estimated that we did 25-30% of the total work in the group. Despite our painfully slow pace, our gap grew over what was left of the main field.

At this point I knew I was pretty strong. JP and I were plotting about how we could shed some dead weight and get both of us away. With maybe 5 laps to go JP followed an Innovation rider (probably one of the strongest guys in the break) off the front on the hill. Nobody reacted and the two of them dangled off the front. I more or less got in the way without pissing anyone off too much and our group set off into a really lackluster chase.

http://www.oneimagingphotography.com/Cycling/New-York-Spring-Series-Race47/Pro-123/i-6DfLMm4/0/M/8O2T0618-copy-M.jpg

After a lap or two off the front I was positioning myself to cover a counter attack on the hill and it went exactly where I expected it. Chris of Foundation made the move, Paul of WS United jumped and I went hard after them. We had a gap over the rest of the group pretty quickly. As I got up to speed over the flat around GAP, I guess Paul and Chris kinda sat up. I flew through and had to swerve a bit to miss Chris. Now I found myself exactly midpoint between JP and the rest of the group. I just finished it off solo but now we had a 2-1 advantage over the Innovation guy, so he's less likely to work. This was my one bad move of the day. I guess I should have sat up halfway and forced more chasing.

....to be continued

So here we are with our big merry breakaway group all back together. Honestly, I'm not sure how the next move happened but I was chomping at the bit to split things up.

I'm not sure how the next move happened but Tad, me, Paul, and Chris got away and started working together. I'm not sure what I'm doing here, maybe telling them how many laps we have to go?

http://www.oneimagingphotography.com/Cycling/New-York-Spring-Series-Race47/Pro-123/i-RVRcbHM/0/M/8O2T0742-copy-M.jpg

Unbeknownst to us, Franklin and Ariel were bridging to JP's group.

http://www.oneimagingphotography.com/Cycling/New-York-Spring-Series-Race47/Pro-123/i-4DqZgw5/0/M/8O2T0625-copy-M.jpg

We worked pretty well together and got a gap, until Chris and Tad started arguing over who was taking fewer pulls. It was really silly, because as far as I could tell, everyone was working OK. I was working the hardest, and knew I was the strongest at this point, but not the best sprinter. Tad asked me, "dude, what did you have for breakfast this morning" (Answer: 3 cups of coffee and a PB&J).

Victor's photos have some great captions. Very true. I'll just pull directly for these shots.

"JP is making sure no one is motivated to chase down the 4 men break up head. 2 to go."
http://www.oneimagingphotography.com/Cycling/New-York-Spring-Series-Race47/Pro-123/i-ptfh9Zn/0/M/8O2T0782-copy-M.jpg

So here we come to the bell lap and the group behind us, with the addition of Ariel and Franklin, closing fast. I hear Paul shout something like "Great, now they are going to catch us" and I decide to dig in and attack. I was hoping to wait until the hill and it was now or never, and frankly I didn't even think about it. The group behind was really close and I didn't have much of a choice. According to JP, and later corroborated by Ariel, Ariel said "He can solo to the line guys."

http://www.oneimagingphotography.com/Cycling/New-York-Spring-Series-Race47/Pro-123/i-4DnQfw2/0/M/8O2T0843-copy-M.jpg

I got a gap and was hurting pretty damn hard. But peaking back on the hill it was staying open. Over the top and across the Park Slope side of the park I couldn't see anything behind me. Into the downhill I hammered away and was feeling OK.

"JP is making sure no one is chasing down his team mate."
http://www.oneimagingphotography.com/Cycling/New-York-Spring-Series-Race47/Pro-123/i-vZd3jtw/0/M/8O2T0745-copy-M.jpg

The stretch from the temple to the finish was pretty grueling but still, nobody in sight. I was so damn tired and in disbelief I didn't have a chance to do a pro as hell victory salute: just managed a dorky little smile.

http://www.oneimagingphotography.com/Cycling/New-York-Spring-Series-Race47/Pro-123/i-5Q739SG/0/M/8O2T0873-copy-M.jpg

http://www.oneimagingphotography.com/Cycling/New-York-Spring-Series-Race47/Pro-123/i-xfw8TnD/0/M/8O2T0885-copy-M.jpg

JP snagged 7th just behind. We got lots of kudos for our teamwork.

http://www.oneimagingphotography.com/Cycling/New-York-Spring-Series-Race47/Pro-123/i-8fDBNJN/0/M/8O2T0893-copy-M.jpg

The old attack-out-of-the-break-before-it-gets-caught move. I've always wondered if that could work.

Congrats fellas.

F'ing spectacular Mike.

I love it. didn't realize I was so obvious. ;)

Hoping Marc has something to add from his perspective.

From mine...there was no question a break was going to take it,and probably from a long way out. So not over-doing it and just staying near the front was important. I think I jumped after the Innovation guy from between 11 and 10 to go by the ampitheatre. (it was also clear that Brian Breach's first responsiblity today was annoy Stalin of Somerville bike shop,the series leader)

The group was big and splitting apart pretty much from the moment it formed. I was talking with Paul Burrowes telling him we couldn't drill it because the break would blow apart. He agreed. The Cyclelife rider was gassing it and sitting on (after sitting on for three laps he took a flyer, got about 15 seconds and we let him stay there. After maybe two miles, he was cooked). Vlad from Speedwell was already dogging it. The Mengoni kid (Pollo junior aka Cesar Marte) wasn't pulling. A number of others were yo-yoing off the back. Mike and I kept communications simple. He asked when, I first said in two laps, then when that came up, told him "next lap". As promised, I went hard over the hill with innovation with six to go. I didn't expect us to stay away. I wanted to get out to a 10+ second advantage so that the break would hesistate chasing and mike would be able to get a free ride from hopefully Paul Burrowes. I figured Paul and Innnovation would accept the two of us there without an issue as we'd finaly be able to ride steady.

I think Mike's move happened just under four or three to go. Innovation and I went semi-hard up the hill on the right, Paul came around ready to go, but everyone was on us. Mike went hard on the left and got Foundation and Tad. I didn't think either guy had enough to go the distance, and while I was debating how I'd get up there, Paul went on the other side of the road from me. Four up. Looked good for us. Figured I'd take my shot if the move failed or if Innovation or the others pulled Mike's group back.

Innovation tried to launch solo. Pollo Junior pulled a move from his dad's playbook and attacked the group through the jogger's lane. Felt bad for Innovation, as Junior was not going to help him.

Ariel and Franklin came up to us at two to go, and honestly, I wondered if the field was with them. They weren't. Ariel asked if The two guys up the road were the lead. I told him there were four guys way up. And then we saw them. He and Franklin were the strongest of the rest. They both understood my position but Franklin was displeased. Considering all the wheelsucking he's done of me in the past, I've got many races to go before his debt is paid. At this point, I want to gum up the works while saving some energy in case someone has been hiding his hand or if the move fails.

Once we were over the hill on the bell, it was pretty clear that Franklin wasn't going to make a real effort to bring the break back. Ariel wanted to, but he got little help.

Tad and Chris getting away was a surprise. They rolled off with what seemed like a weak move with 1.5k to go. I had been betting on Franklin having a great sprint up his sleeve, but with 1k to go, he seemed done. So I went for Ariel's wheel, but Mengoni got there first. Franklin had an ok late move. So another sprint blown.

Didn't really get much work done in my 50 minutes of racing today, so I'm leaning toward racing in CP tomorrow.

I'll be ther ein the 1/2/3s

Today's Report:

Per usual, I drove in with Adam from Huntington, Long Island. We registered late, and had no time to warm up. I was pleased to find Jeff C, Ryan J, Patrick G, and Eric M on the starting line. Six Kissenas in total for the 3/4's in a field of about 40.

Unlike what I've been doing the last few weeks, my FULL intent this weekend was to SIT IN and go for the sprint this time. This led to me dangling off the back (comfortably) for the first seven laps. A few guys tried to get away during those seven laps, but got reeled in. Nothing really lasted for more than 3/4 of a lap. During the seventh lap, a 15-man breakaway including me, Adam, and Ryan materialized. Although my plan was to sit in, I saw the moves being made from the back and said"this could be the break that works." The 15-man break initially started as a 5-man break that was looking quite strong. A chase group formed ahead of the peloton to catch that break, forming a breakaway of its own in the process. Initially, we had Ryan was in the first break, Adam in the chase group, and I was in the peloton.

Like I said, I thought the break was going to work, so I quickly made my way to the front and burned a match doing a solo bridge to Adam's chase group. We then quickly caught the breakaway, totaling about 15 guys. We had a lead of about 200 m, but frustratingly, the breakaway was pathetically disorganized and unmotivated. We were caught in about a lap. I actually wanted to do my fair share and take a pull, but Ryan saw me attempt this and told me not to work, just incase we made it all the way and I was sprinting out for the finish out of the breakaway. I listened. It was good advice, given the relative size of the breakaway.

Once we were caught, I went straight to the back until the last lap. As we crossed the finish line to begin the last lap, I moved to the very front. As we climbed the hill, we had all of our Kissenas in the front, and I yelled, "yea! Kissena sprint train!" other riders weren't amused. We lost Ryan up the hill, but I had Jeff C and Patrick with me at the front while were doing the big descent towards the repaved alley. I really clawed for good position, as this was a weakness I identified in recent races. I was with Jeff C and shouted at him to keep the left side blocked so we wouldn't get swallowed up on our way to the finish.

This worked. By the time I made the sharp left on to the repaved section, I was dead front along with Patrick. Suddenly, with many meters to go to the finish, Patrick makes the move. He shoots out front, gets as low as he can, and begins TTing.

Boom. A lead out.

I get behind him, shouting at him to keep him encouraged. However, this move as a whole was problematic because it started too far away. Nobody would have been able to take me all the way to the finish. So Patrick runs out of gas, but we're still 200 m from the finish!

Oh shit. I'm alone. Do I go all out and TT it by myself, or let the peloton catch me and try to get a second leadout from another rider?

I went with the latter. I soft-pedaled once I lost Patrick, giving myself as much rest as possible while I waited for the others to catch. (Illustrated in the PDF attached).

Right as the peloton reached drafting distance, I began aggressively zig-zagging on the left half of the road. I did this to block half of the would-be sprinters. This forced people to come up on the right side only. (Think about being behind this, shall we say, "overtly competitive" move). Then, right as the guys to my back right began to pass, I got behind the guy I thought was strongest and got a leadout that way.

It worked perfectly, except I got out of the saddle a little late as I thought I jumped too early two-three weeks ago.I'm pretty sure I just got out-sprinted, and virtually positive I got 4th/5th in the sprint. I only saw three guys in front of me as I finished. An Echelon guy won the race in a solo break with a 20 second lead. Animal. Anyway, I confirmed my mid-10 placing with people who saw the finish.

Very frustratingly, AVD's crew accidentally switched the camera OFF when they intended to turn it on. They pressed the power button when the camera was already on. No film of the finish. They tried to get it by eye. I wasn't even included in the top ten. I tried to dispute, but to no avail. AVD personally said it was a big F-up on their part, and he knew of some film someone else took that he would look at. I triple checked with Laura, Adam's girlfriend, who said she was sure I placed top ten. I'm hoping Victor's photos of the finish will make it clear.

I could not understand how they missed me by eye on their top 10 list when I thought I had possibly contended for a top 5 finish. At any rate, I know how I did, and I'm on AVD for an update. I achieved my goal for this race which was to race as smart as possible by not wasting any energy in moves I knew would fail; the 15-man break, well, that was just pathetic. Positioning is what I really wanted to work on, and it looks like I'm making progress. It would just be nice to have those upgrade points, you know? I don't give a shit about the money.

I'm looking forward to hearing everyone else's take.

I drew up a diagram of the finish - why not?

not going

Make that 7 in the 3/4's.....here's my mini and far less heroic race report....I was pack fodder for the most part, but for me that's progress. Still building fitness and understanding how to race, but I think I'm getting the suffering part down!

I probably sat somewhere around 15th-20th wheel for the first 3+ laps - and thought about moving up, but decided to save energy and enjoy the shelter. Considering that last year I was regularly getting spit out the back, it seemed like a good plan.

I could see Jeff C., Ryan, Patrick up ahead, and was tracking most of the moves, and plotting when to try to move up to see if I could help. On the 4th time around up the hill, though, my calf cramped up like a rock, and I found myself compensating by changing my pedal stroke - which had the unfortunate effect of putting a lot of stress on an already weak knee. It didn't feel good, whatever it was, and I didn't want to hurt the knee a week before Battenkill, so I drifted to the back of the pack, soft pedaled around and parked at the start/finish. Watched the pack come around for laps 5 and 6.

I didn't want to waste a 5:15 a.m. wake up call just sitting on my arse, and the calf was feeling better, so I asked AVD if I could rejoin if I promised just to sit in the back and not compete, for the workout. He was cool with that. So I sat at the back for the last 4 laps - really with the goal of just holding the last wheel with every surge. Mission accomplished. Now, to deal with that cramping......

Kitted up and ready to roll but my tire is flat. Back to bed!

1/2/3 Report: From the peloton.

First, htfu you Brooklyn pusses, whining about your 5:15 wake up calls. Us Manhattan bitches have to set our alarms for 4:30 to get to PP in time for all but like 4 park races every year. And still Michael Perlberg manages to be the last of our trio of sweet treats to make it to the starting line. He was probably working on lesson plans for his students, or busy posing in front of his full length mirror kissing his own muscles, telling himself how he's going to go ape-shit on the field.

JP was at the start chatting up the competition like he was at a noon-time speed dating event, where he learned that bh-Garneau was in Cock-sack NY, cherry-picking some flat road race instead of getting ye-olde Kissena beat-down. I was there moaning about how I felt like I was going to throw up on the whole ride over to the course.

In short it was our usual start, complete with some really observant and funny dude asking the peloton aloud if we were on a group ride just because it wasn't ape-shit crazy hard in the first 200 meters of the 14 lap race. I didn't notice any Tatoine restraining bolts on his ankles, so it must have been on his balls, because I don't know any other reason why he couldn't get himself to the front to pick up the pace.

In roughly 201 meters the pace picks up, but nothing outrageous. In the first or second lap an early move escapes. Two guys, Perlberg and some other. A few others go to bridge, I'm at the front, letting them go, hoping the group will grow by a few and stay away for longer than a lap or two. Team We-Stand United in everything but our uniform choice (dark skin guys where blue and grey, white dudes on the team have to wear hideous neon green...coincidence?), has the same idea so he's barking out orders to "let them go."

Tbc...

With a handful of riders now up the road, including a blue and grey We Stand, a neon We Stand, gets to the front and ups the pace to discourage more attacks. "well his kit is ugly and his moustache needs work, but he knows how to race." I slot in behind him as he weaves back and forth across the road. "dude, I'm here for the same reason you are, just ride in a straight line, okay?

A few riders tire of our reindeer games, so they start to jump around us coming into the start finish. Green jumps on the moves and I'm there on his rear like glue. A quick glance back and we now have a gap. Normally I would describe the next few minutes as me getting a "free ride" up to the break, but like Friday's "endurance" group ride where I had to crank out 350-450 watts to hold Perlberg's wheel on the flats of 9w, this latest ride hurt.

No matter, we get to the group free and clear. And I'm in a breakaway with the mighty Mike Perlberg! Except I'm at the back, trying to recover for a minut or two and as luck would have it, we catch right before the climb and mike himself is driving things at the front. Still I'm there, and before I could feel sorry for myself, other riders from the field have flown across.

What follows next is but a blur, but the end result is I see JP and Perlberg off the front in a group of 10 or so. Me likey those odds and I settle into the pack to block and be amused as many of the big name riders from "real" teams flounder uselessly in a group that had no money places to sprint for. I took particular delight in watching gs mengoni's Pollo senior gesticulated wildly to his teammates, to which his "teammate" responded in terrible Spanish, "No bueno."

The big break was dangling out there for a few laps, in sight but just out of reach. By the time we were getting reports that the break was 1:20, up, it was too late for anything but a focused team chase to bring the winning move back. And so I rolled around with the series leaders, the Brian breech's of the world, pleased as punch that I had two of the strongest riders up in a breakaway small enough to virtually guarantee both would earn money.

There was, with about 5 laps to go, a split in our group, and I made sure it came back together, just in case the feisty riders in the split had any ideas about chasing down money. With 3 to go, homestretch crosswinds and a bizarrely too little too late peloton, strung things out single file and that was it for my 260watt pistons, so I rolled into the start finish to watch the finale of kissena's best race in years.

In conclusion, I cannot emphasize enough how HUGE it is to win a pro 1/2/3 park race. To start a race with 3 guys, finish with 2 in the money, get the convincing and dominating win. It's a big fucking deal. Congrats to JP and mike for beating up your breakaway bithces. I don't care if the field was a little smaller than normal, when the series leader, Brian breech, the Stan's No Tubes semi pros are left behind, looking for there balls scratch, this is big.

Ps all these reports typed on an iPad, so please excuse the misspellings and lack of flow...it's a clumsy device for writing.

AWESOME WIN Mike. Love the photo essay race report. We should do them all like that from now on.

Ah you're kidding! Sucks man.

It was so great to see Mike ride in solo.

In retrospect its frustrating that our group in the 4s didn't stay away.

But there just wasn't enough strength in it, and only about 3 out of 10 guys knows how to ride in a break away at all. I know its cliche and every cat 4 loves to bitch about how other Cat 4s can't ride a bike, but there really is a big spectrum of fitness and especially skill in those fields.

I mean, its not just they can't execute a rotation, they don't even know what it means. Hell,they don't really even know how to ride in a single file pace line. I just don't think that other teams get the instruction that we do. I didn't learn that stuff by racing, I learned it by going to the track for our clinics and by coming back south on 9w on rides led by our club's mentors. Some guys were good - the Asphalt Green guys were pretty good and there was one unat who seemed to get it. But the others were awful.

Then there was the Scottos guy who, just past the GAP entrance, brakes and UNCLIPS in the bunch, which elicits a bunch of bitching. The guy gets all pissed that people are yelling at him, so I explain "well if you need to do something like that, just move out clear to the side or go to the back, that's all anyone is saying." To which he of course became belligerent and defensive, and then his teammate yelled at me to quit bitching and race and then threw out the classic "bunch of fucking amateurs." I doubt I need to point out the multiple ironies in some guy calling his fellow Cat 3/4s "amateurs" because they are annoyed that his teammate who rides a bike like its a a bucking bronco decided to slow down and unclip in the middle of the pack.

Other that that....

Christian is right they lost me on the hill last lap. I just exploded. I had initiated the big move and I'd been driving it for 5 laps way more than a guy my size should be because no one else would. Adam and I were on the front talking about trying to bring back the solo break. But no other team would help. I suddenly just didn't have it and dropped mid pack to recover and I never got back to the front.

Broke a bunch of personal records around the 45 minute interval at 270w while in the break.

hmmm. interesting. Franklin Burgos moved into the overall lead of the spring series with his move yesterday:

from AVD's twitter:

Overall Leader for the 2012 NYC Spring Series is Franklin Burgos -Somerville with 236. 2 S Quiterio 231. 3 B Breech 212

"no bueno" for Mengoni.

3/4 pictures are up

http://www.oneimagingphotography.com/Cycling/New-York-Spring-Series-Race47/Cat-3-and-4/22336271_9hGwJ6#!i=1784794078&k=wKVPBBg

8apr2012
cat5 race report: nycSBRS, cpk, 7Laps
conditions: dry, clear, 38dF, sunrise over manhattan

central park - usual suspects, +full compliment of (11)Sigi's Velocity, &(-AsleyB/Ros/JoshC); race plan'A,' 'keep powder dry' &give it a go on last lap top3rd of 'horse alley;' plan'B,' stay to the front &if one of usual(capable) suspects goes off the front, decide to bridge-up for a break(feeling it), or call in the dogs/rabbits to chase-em down.

Lap1 - moderately high pace w/Siggis sending repeated 'half-hearted' attacks up the road@museum mile, 1st hill/bump @110berg, tavern&start/finish, i refrained;

Lap2 - played up&down peleton, test legs a bit, to the front@harlem descent, climb hill/bump 2nd wheel@crest, a few make an effort down the hill w/minor gap 200m, am left out front, so, gradually w/o big effort, pull peleton thru curves @100th ST to w/in 10m &signal for others to pull thru, BIGman Columbia pulls thru w/pace&across flats, @the lake on westside, i go back to the front and pull forcefully upto the Tavern, then allow rabbits to race thru the turn&up horse alley, as Siggi's guy slows at top 3rd of alley, i pull thru to keep pace up, then sit in thru descent, start/finish&museum mile;

Lap3 - BigMan Columbia TT's to final descent(whole pack inTow), nycGreenGlobal(yesterday's break-mate) moves to front at base of bump/hill @110berg, i ride an inside line 12back to the top of hill, 2nd wheel @crest &let nycGreenGlobal go; even block a bit to chagrin of pack, by 175th he has 8sec, still in sight - i fall back in@6-8th wheel& note - 'you are all racing for 2nd' - let group motivate to reel in GreenGlobal by Tavern;

@Tavern, Race-on, sprinters move up, Siggis sends out one more attack ALL follow as group slows in last third of horse alley, i take the front(as usual) then quickly release to a lead out pair in BlackKit w/1big leg lead-out and 1lean follower ramping up speed(too soon!) thru curves, down to Boat House, @base of Cat's Paw hill, Lampre(formerBMC) launches to right(too soon), &many follow, i hold BlackKit sprinter's wheel lose 10m, then i pass to right w/ALL thats left...catch 3 of the 10sprintes that passed us w/50m togo by the line for 7th place finish - 1st?, 2nd sammyT(nemesis), 3rd prison breakKit SeriesLeader.

So, still out of the money; question - did i burn too many matches/powder before finish? ans. doNOT think so, as efforts seem to have opened up soreness from previous day race in PPK. GOOD position for freeLance sprint(for me); Goal - improve, amplitude/POWER, timing of sprint efforts.

funDAY!
...off to Building on Bond(pub/cafe) w/DanRainiers for lesson in Paris-Roubaix +coupleLaps in PPK w/KCC&Speedwell. GREAT DAY! Thanks ALL&Happy easter/passover/spring etc....neXt, 'Battenkill' pink group cat5 +45's
-h;>

MrPerlberg, JP &MarcB, Brilliant!!!!!!!&congrats.

&...the urban nycSpringSeries myth grows as i was dis-robing, oragne&blue, Kissena kit@centralPark toilets for pre-race relief...'Pro' comment was - "yeah, too bad Kissena has'nt made impact on series"...right!

keep it up Team.
-h;>

Harry,
I didn't get the feeling that you were a sprinter. In which case, 7th is a good result. It means you were in good position for the finish.