I'll am probably in for the 4s. If so, I am racing to get @Adam Fabian in the top 5 

Craig London said:

I'm doing the 1/2/3 race this Saturday. Anyone else going?

Thinking about it.  Trying to make sense of my next few weeks.

Out for Silvermine

Floyd on Sunday tho

May be in for a group ride Sunday. Scheduling now
M

Hah - @eloy you were reading my mind. Was going to day-of, but just reg'd to be safe and buy myself a little extra time in the a.m.

I'm registered for the 1/2/3 along with Craig,

82 pre-reg, with Foundation bringing 9.  Rockstar has 6, Brands 5, Weather Channel 4. Jordan 4, Sommerville 4, Champ-Sys pro team has 2. No Mengoni's on the list, but they should be there.

Foundation's Alex Sanborn leads the series by one point over Mengoni's Sanchez.  Foundation will want a break with Sanborn in it with teammates.  Not sure who the teammates will be, but the break will probably include a Weather Channel (chase), a Champ-Sys (gavi), and an assorted rest.  Dioslaki is way down on the sprint and KoM this year, but he loves those competitions.  Sanborn almost has the KoM locked.  And Stalin, the sprint leader, probably won't have much competition, though Foundation's Guzman is second.  

I'm thinking another long one will take it.  

FWIW, I'm the 15th master, and if I get max points (and the guys ahead don't do much), could move into 6th.

I may reg day of, depending on how late my Friday night family plans go. 

I'm a day of...been sick

Massive showing in the cat 4s for Foundation, Lucarelli, Mineola, and Dave Jordan. Anywhere from 7 to 11 guys in each team.

They all have lots of guys, but they'd have to be organized. I'm betting that this will be one of the last races for lots of these park racers. 

On L&C, they have few guys who are sandbagging (they have like 29 upgrade points), but a smaller group. On Foundation, I don't recognize any of the names, but do know that their strongest men have all upgraded at this point. Mineola will be there at the end, but at Capital Region they tried to organize a chase and then ALL promptly got dropped on the next climb. In most of the races I've done this year, DJ is at the line but that's about it.

My biggest concern with these large teams is them setting up leadouts at the end. But as we know, that requires such execution, that I doubt that anyone will really succeed.

The other is that one of the teams will try a break with just a rider or two, and the rest of the squad will block. Again, I'm not sure that a lot of the guys on these teams have the motors to make it stick. The ones who did earlier in the year are all now crushing in the 3s or above.

My plan is to be ready to follow anything that looks promising, but otherwise I'm going to do what I did at Cap Region -- I MUST be in the top 10 wheels coming up the hill. I will go hard, but it will not be all out, just a slow ramp up. I have to make sure to follow wheels, and unless I think I can get a serious gap, not sniff the wind until the last 200 meters. 

Eloy, Craig, and anyone else -- I just need to be there at the end, and if there's a break and I'm not in it, then we can't let it get away. I've always sucked at park races, but if I'm going to upgrade I have to crack the code. I think I have it, I just have to do it.

Actually, I take some of that back. There are so many sandbaggers at this point, and a few guys from each team to keep an eye on:

Brauer from Foundation
Britvan and Lombardi from L&C
Isola and Gamarra from Mineola 

Plus the other usual Prospect Park suspects. Anyway - I still think this will play out like Every. Other. Park race.

Foundation will be working for Nathan. He's not that strong, smart as heck though.

I remember a time when Kissena used to field 10-14 guys per race in the Cat4s.. Ah the good old days.

Phillip Maronilla said:

I remember a time when Kissena used to field 10-14 guys per race in the Cat4s.. Ah the good old days.

#lastyear

I wonder if Foundation is currently having an e-argument about how they shouldn't all be racing.

Adam, if I were you I would PRAY for an organized leadout by another team. This way you just slot in near the back of the train, let them burn off the weaker riders, and do your thing when it counts.

Same goes for the break. If you know who their good guys are, then be sure to jump on those moves, then pray that they do block "for you." You know? Alternatively, if you are somewhat of a marked man, it might be worth trying a couple of times to get your own break going.

Either way, good luck!

@eloy - I'm honestly not too sure what most of these guys look like. I've spent most of my year racing out of town, and with the exception of Isola, these guys primarily stay in Prospect. 

I think you're right, though - "sprint" finish almost for sure. 

Nathan from Foundation is in yellow. Edikson Pena was second but he upgraded. Neil from Mineola is now second overall, 6 points down. Daryl Rogers is in polka dots. He's got a kick at the end and places high. He's now in 3rd.

Ah right, the jersey competition. That should help, but it also explains the massive showing from Foundation and Mineloa.

Makes me wonder if a break could work, as long as it didn't include anyone in competition for the yellow. At any rate, I know what wheels to follow.

Also, at Lou Maltese, a Lucarelli guy attacked from a break and stayed away solo for a couple of laps to win. And at Mengoni, Lucarelli had a train and two of their guys came in 2nd and 3rd. All of them named Michael, but I honestly have never met them or would recognize them. They seem to have strong guys this year.

@Adam Fabian

I would suggest going to some of the Foundation guys before the race and let them know you're not interested in the yellow jersey and you are willing to get in a break with one or more of their guys in order to take points off the table for other teams.

Since it is so much easier to race negatively, giving them a chance to think about doing some positive racing before going into some kind of O2 debt, might increase the chances they let you go away with one or two of their guys. They would let a break go away rather than chasing having them it down like a bunch of knuckleheads because they can only think of one tactical contingency at any one time.

they may still be only able to contain a single tactical contingency between their collective ears and they may decline your offer to make their jobs easier, but it doesn't hurt to ask beforehand.

I love this idea, Dan. And I could always do the same with Mineola if Foundation passes, though I don't think Mineola really has anyone capable of staying away. 

Yack = out of the I II III's...on anti biotics for a week...now have a stomach bug. 

Quick Cat 4 race report:

Big, fast field. 90 were pre-reg'd, results show that 77 finished, and we averaged over 25 mph, which is faster than any park race I've done this year.

I rode pretty aggressively, staying toward the front and trying a few moves -- none of which worked because, duh, this is a cat 4 park race. In one, I followed a dude from Cycleworks who won Cap Region in a 2 man break that lasted almost the entire race, knowing that this guy has the motor to make it work. It didn't.

In another, Craig followed two Dave Jordan riders and got a nice little gap. I initially let it go, but realized the field wasn't following and I was in between. So, I jumped on, they split off, and I decided to give it a 2 min effort to see what happened. I had a nice gap, and Eloy was doing his best to block back in the pack, but with so many big teams there, I stood no chance.

From that point on I just stayed in the mix, never really sniffing the wind again. For the last two laps I sat between 2nd and 10th wheel -- mostly second -- following a Foundation rider. I was in the same spot coming up the final climb and was feeling good. If the race shook out this way, I wanted to be in the top 10 coming up the hill. But! With such big teams racing for the jersey, it didn't matter where I was as we came across the top -- here came the sprinters. I was right at my 2 min power record coming across the top of the hill, but I didn't have another 900 watt effort to get me across the line. Came in 24th, which is fine, but unfortunately no muffin money to share with Craig and Eloy for their efforts.

In retrospect, I could have been more conservative, but as Lt. Dan said when I bumped into him last night -- this isn't an A race for me. I want upgrade points, but I also need to stay focused on the big events over the next month. In general, I felt a lot more confident in the circuit-style race. Next week is (maybe) the Jersey Devil, and also Tokeneke. I'm torn on doing the former, as I have ambitions to win Tokeneke as it looks like it suits my strengths, but I also have GMSR on the horizon, and doubling up would be great prep for that weekend.

tl;dr: rode too aggressively, fucked up my awesome positioning, came in ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

Will this be the 2nd week in a row of no 1/2/3 race report?

I got caught in a last lap crash before the hill nullifying any chances of a good finish in the 123 this morning. It's too bad- I was feeling good and peppered in some attacks and rode aggressively all morning. Unfortunately at crunch time I was too far back to get into the right move that looks to have stuck (looking at the results sheet). 

JP and Jeff were riding good as well. Seems everyone finished in the pack. I marked Mike perlberg and followed him wherever he went. He ended up 7th. Not sure I could have pulled that off but it's a reminder to be at the front the last 2 laps. If you're not moving up you're moving back. Next week I'm back to do a 3s race which I'm sure will seem slow and easy compared to the racing today. 

If you scroll up, you'll see my predictions for yesterday's race.  Seems that Foundation, Mengoni, and several others also had the same thing in mind.  The race was a bevy of attacks, and only settled down towards the end.

We had but Craig, Condon, and myself.  I think the field was full, or nearly full (110 riders)

We rolled out slowly, but once we got to the hill before the first lap was over, the throw down began.  There were several attacks and the field seemed on the verge of splitting up.  I put in a 560w 1m effort to make it across to the front.  

And the attacks kept on coming.  Nothing got far.  The routine was someone or two would attack, there'd be a pause for a few seconds and then the front of the field would explode to chase it down. Lots of single file action. But we always seemed to have one guy in the top ten when it mattered.

We did a pretty good job of covering moves--if a break went, it was going to be because the field tired of the routine.

At the end of the second or third lap, we were strung out going through the start/finish line and a Foundation guy right in front of me (we were 30 riders back), seemed to simply sit up.  And this sort of thing was happening many times to many people--there was a point when Perlberg was worried he was going to get dropped, and had to chase from the back to get on.

With four to go, there were three guys off the front and I worked to get a chase going on the flats.  I think we had eight guys, none of whom were from Foundation or Mengoni.  It wasn't a particularly strong group, but several experienced riders, and I thought it could be good.  With 11 guys or more off the front and no Mengoni, I thought Foundation might just let us go--no points for Mengoni to pick up and dislodge Foundation's race leader.

We closed the gap to the three and kept working.  But by the time we hit the hill with three to go, the field had caught us.  And a Mengoni (Alanzo Greaves) jumped away with two others (Jermaine Burrowes and Benigno Delacruz). Don't know why Greaves wasn't supporting Sanchez.  

I figured Foundation would chase it down and set up a sprint.  But right before the bell lap, a group sped away taking all the remaining places.  This was our only mistake of the day.

On the last lap, the field was setting up for the sprint on the flats, and Points Leader Stalin Quiterio awkwardly crossed wheels and caused a big crash.  I was between him and the curb, and his bike bounced off me and my bike.  Had to unclip both feet.  I got back, but that was my remaining match.  

Greaves won, Jermaine second, and Gavi Epstein third. 

Foundation lost the race lead to Sanchez, who finished sixth. 

I was 41, Condon 42, and Craig not listed as a finisher.

The race time was 1:38:38 for the winner.  

Not as fast as last race, but definitely harder--my normalized power was over 300w for the first 25 minutes of the race.  

I'll just add a few things to Adam's description of the 4s race. First - just in case people thought otherwise, the pavement sucks in a number of spots. On the 2nd or 3rd lap I hit a pothole a hundred meters or so past the start finish line and my Garmin mount cracked on the band that goes around the bar. It stayed on for the few seconds it took me to reach down and take it off and I shoved it in my jersey pocket, Garmin and mount still connected. At the top of the hill, Charlie posted some cones and made the field fit into a single lane. Apparently, in one of the other fields someone ignored the cones later in the race and hit a pothole and crashed since there was an Ambulance there for a couple of laps tending to someone.

I made a concerted effort to stay near the front the entire race. There were times when I'd slip back and I would usually try and find a spot where I could easily move up because of a bend in the road or when someone was moving up and I would get on their wheel. As Adam mentioned, somewhere around lap 4 or 5 maybe 6, I got on a DJ rider's wheel as two of them moved to the front near the temple. Someone else slipped in between me and the 2nd of the two DJ riders and before I knew it we were off the front with a nice little gap. Once I looked back and saw the gap we had I was letting the other 3 know we had one and that we should take short pulls and rotate. Just as I'm finished yelling all this, the first DJ rider sits up and pulls over to the left curb and then the 2nd DJ rider sits up and pulls over to the right curb. I look at the both and ask what they were thinking. I wasn't aware that Adam was nearby, but saw him go by us a few seconds after my questioning of the two DJ riders. I still don't understand why they did what they did. 2 DJ riders in a break of 4 seems like pretty good odds to me. 

My race came to an effective end on lap 8 when at the bottom of the hill at the pinch point a truck pulling a trailer of porta potties was inching its way through just as our field was coming through. I had to grab some brakes so as to not run into the back of it and I yelled at the truck driver and marshals as I passed to keep the trucks out of there. The front of the field slowed as it went by the truck but sped up quickly afterwards leaving the rest of the field to have to catch back on. I gave a hard effort but didn't have the will in me and I pulled the rip cord, despite Mark riding by me and shouting some encouragement to get back on. 

Craig, never underestimate other racers ability to engage in behavior that is totally without logic or sense and have that fuck up your day. Still, it sounds like you rode an excellent race controlling what you could and doing all the right things. Keep it up!

Folks, so we have a final one of these this weekend. Lets get a Cat 4 roll call, who's in? Also who has a goal for this race? Gobbling up points to get on a podium? Upgrade points so you can stop racing with the Cat 4 rabble? Survive a PP race with two intact tires and tubes?

I'm in for the cat 4. No goals for myself, I'll help anyone. Cat 4 fo' life!