Alright, ill leave at 730 from harlem for whomever is interested or maybe ill take the train who knows but if i dont hear from anyone ill play it by ear.

I'm out dudes. Gotta work.

Cat 4 race: Andy got 3rd and I got 9th. Fast race. I didn't get a podium shot as I was switching out my number but I think Andy did.

3/4 Race: equally fast but more consistent IMO. Pack finishes for Kissenas.

All I can say (let Bertucco fill in the commentary) is that I felt horrible today from riding a track bike late at night and having a cocktail at midnight.

I also had the enviable task of racing solo (Marc was gone early) against champion system and their 5 riders and foundation with Bezdek And Murphy working together. I managed to bridge get caught go with the counter get caught and go with the counter again mid race when the break should have gone .

I moved to the front with 3 to go but was toast and rolled in for the sprint.


Bezdek commented that I'm riding really well. So that's a good sign.

#Exhausted.

Fast race.  Just spent most of the race trying stay near the front. Towards the end Jeff and Wes both did a great job keeping me safe and keeping things nice and fast. Going into the second to last turn I was sitting third wheel sandwiched between two Settana riders. The first one opened up early and got a gap. I was gaining on him and for a moment I thought I was going to pip him at the line when all the sudden his teammate just zoomed  between my self and the curb for the win. Meh. I'm happy with I how i rode and with the great amount of teamwork we displayed.  My girl friend's dad took loads of hot pics. Everyone looked good out there... Between last weeks peyote incident and getting double teamed this week I think I might have a silent beef with Settana.

Hot pics, photo cred. Marc Schreiber

Bromance

"bedroom eyes" category...

@brendan ... your nemesis, sven, took a tumble today.  hit a corner too hard and his bike slid from under him.  the medics patched his knee and elbow whereupon he circled back around the course to wait for and then race the 3/4s.

Good representation out there in White Plains for Kissena. Nice short, but safe four-corner crit with just enough "ouchy" to keep you honest. I think in a lot of ways, this is the perfect "starter" crit because a) it's actually a crit and not a small park-based circuit race masquerading as a crit and b) turns are fast and wide and safe, but challenging.

I caught the end of the 3/4 race and it looked like Alyoshas, Hubbard, Condon, Stokes all were riding comfortably in the pack. Alyoshas made a couple of moves at the end, and was the squad's top finisher. Also, the squad's top "eye roller" as he gave me the look when I told him I was racing the P 1/2/3 event. ;-)

But I had my reasons. I knew the 40+ race would actually be similarly hard, and with the relatively easy corners, and bigger fields, I actually thought I'd have a better shot at lasting longer in the Pro race, and finally I could sleep in an extra hour and that is never a bad thing.

As we started the race, I lined up at the front and nailed the hole shot and the first couple of corners with Ragot on my wheel. If I was fit and fast, I probably wouldn't have minded a sleepy start and working my way through the pack of 60 or so riders like Brian Breech, but you know...I'm neither fit nor fast. By starting this way, I easily lasted 3 or 4 more laps than I likely would have had I had to hammer from the back.

The further back you are, the slower you had to take turn two, which led onto the day's hump of a climb. Those early laps I spun up with relative ease, but the further back I got, the more I had to work. A terrible "I drank too much too late" knot started to fill my gut and that was the beginning of the end. Around this time Ragot rolls up to me talking about how terrible he felt (we all wish we could feel so terrible, right?), and I gave him a hand gesture that was meant to indicate, "keep it calm, don't worry, you'll be fine."

After I got dropped, I found a shady spot or two and watched Foundation and Champ-Sys dudes basically take their turns off the front. This wasn't a breakaway ideal course, but the short .5 mile laps, did leave room for that possibility. Ragot looked rock solid all day long. Well, there were a handful of laps here and there where he was at the back, but by then, the field had dwindled to the 40-ish rider range and "at the back" kind of took on a diff't meaning.

With 9 to go, I started up the hollering machine, and implored Ragot to get to the front. He gave me a look or two, but eventually, with about 3 or 4 to go was at the front of the pack racing for fourth place. Foundations Evan Murphy clung to a 10-ish second lead for those closing laps while a duo of Champ-Sys dudes tried in vain to reel them in. With just a few laps, Greg "Hedge Fund Mouth Guard Check Writing" Olson of Champ-Sys had to be yelled at by his own teammates to stop chasing his guys down. Hi-larious.

I was a little bummed to not see Ragot in the top 15 or so of this race at the end. He's definitely got the legs, to hang with the local big-boys in these types of races, now he's just got to sharpen his "end game." MUCH easier said than done.

Shout out to Vlad, who as near as I can tell, was on course in street clothes with his bionic arm watching races, taking furious mental notes for his eventual return to a kind of world domination befitting his awesome name. (Lord help us all if Vlad Preoteasa and Dusan Strika ever team up) Seriously, it's nice to have that kind of support out there! Thanks Vlad.

Shout out to JP for helping me with directions. On the way back, I took a few pleasant miles of bike paths and rode through fancy-pants towns and neighborhoods before I hit the splendor that is the south Bronx.

End game? My legs were trashed from yesterdays ride, albeit on the easier side, was still 60 miles, followed by the Red Hook Crit debacle to tenderize the legs. I truly felt horrible today - hungover a bit for some reason and just not quick on the bike (unlike yesterday morning when the bike felt like a toy). My legs were just super super super stiff, even in warm-up.

Marc encapsulted the race well, except about 1/2 way through and after the desire to quit had waned, the attacks started. I bridged to a move with all the teacms in it that mattered and Bezdek. I thought it right. The field went crazy and we didn't work that hard either. Buth then I went with the counter. Ugh level rising here.

Then I went with the counter of that move. UGH!!!

It was difficult to race against Champ-sys and Foundation's numbers on my own. I kept at it as long as I could but eventually needed to rest at the back. Recover and back to the pointy end. I tried a few more times and just didn't have the legs to power into the headwind. 

At the end, I saw Evan Murphy go off the front, but I was out of position and just didn't have the oomph to chase or bridge. I moved up to the front with little energy expended with 3 to go, but by that time, I was shot.

Just like at Bound Brook, here is my power spike file. The pink at the top is 500+ watts. Lower NP than other races because of the hills and the coasting, but man, tenderized.

Post race. Am I doing this right?

P.S. Wes, Ragot now has your helmet. I took it out of the box for transport today, but it's still bagged and beautiful.

Brief race report since that's all I got. Lined up second row next to Stokes discussed a bunch of things including if either of us brought spare wheels. Neither of us did. Taking lessons learned from Marc's crit training, I made it a point to get close to the front on the whistle. Manage to slot in 15-20 at turn one, maybe a bit better. First lap feeling out the course since I didn't get to pre-ride. Only corners that are remotely tough are 1 and 2. I found that I could move up on the downhill b/t 2 and 3 and keep the speed going into the stretch between 3 and 4 depending on the line and move up further. I had just about figured out the course when I felt a strange skip from my rear wheel on turn 3. In skiing we'd say the ski was chattering. In this case the wheel skipped a bit sideways through the turn. I thought maybe it was a stone or maybe my tub was rolling. Kept going hard but on the next lap it did the same thing and I figured what ever it was it wasn't safe to continue. I pulled off and sure enough my rear tubular was soft. Guess I should've brought a spare wheel. Only completed 7 laps.  I watched the rest of the race with Vlad until Marc joined us. The guys looked good out there. 

Wes Tillman said:

Post race. Am I doing this right?

Yeah go for it @Wes, you can always work it off at New York Sports Club what with your new 30 day membership and all.

Craig, honestly, you should feel good about the fact that you took the highest speed turn on the course on a flat tire without earning yourself any road rash. You are well on your way to ass-kicking status. Keep up the good work!

PS we've all been there with the "should-I, shouldn't I?" bring spare wheels for the pit. The answer is almost always yes. However, for me laziness always wins out. That's why I like big time crits with neutral support! Because part of me is a lazy, lazy SOB.

Andy....was that the great big tattoo Setanta aka Mongo who beat you this week?  FYI you risk getting a mandatory upgrade and losing the change to secure the green jersey at the Castaldi cup....just saying...

I'm glad someone finally said it.

eragot said:

I truly felt horrible today - hungover a bit for some reason and just not quick on the bike (unlike yesterday morning when the bike felt like a toy). My legs were just super super super stiff, even in warm-up.

It was difficult to race against Champ-sys and Foundation's numbers on my own. I kept at it as long as I could but eventually needed to rest at the back. Recover and back to the pointy end. I tried a few more times and just didn't have the legs to power into the headwind.

At the end, I saw Evan Murphy go off the front, but I was out of position and just didn't have the oomph to chase or bridge. I moved up to the front with little energy expended with 3 to go, but by that time, I was shot.

Must...resist...temptation....to....drone on...about...pre-race...warm-up

Somewhere JP is reading this and saying, "Now you punks know how I've felt for the last 15 years of my life!" Welcome to the road racing cat 2s! Where our motto is, "Not actually as fun as you thought it was going to be."

Seriously though, when you are racing against those kinds of teams with that kind of horsepower, you must put aside your Kyokushin Karate techniques in favor of your inner Akido master. (Google that shit yo, my analogy is mad apropos). You can't out muscle, out block, out strike those guys. They train 15+ hours a week, Inson Wood and Greg Olson and the CRCA write big ass checks to send those guys to race most weekends against United Healthcare, Jamis and Mountain Khakis. You have to play off of them. Use their energies to your benefit.

Ragot absolutely rode a smart race. He made the right tactical moves when he bridged to the move with 2 Champ Sys and 1 Foundation. When I talk of end-game though, I mean, we all have to get better at reading the closing laps of a race, and figuring out how we can place our personal best in the finale.

And the reason why I'm harping on this a little bit more, is because he and many of you in your respective categories are so close to taking it to the next level. And so I really hope you all are visualizing, re-running and analyzing past and future race efforts to the Nth degree, you know?

Also, got mistaken for JP again today during the pre-race fake warm-up zone where we ride up and down the block in slow circles. JP you better get to some of these races, because with my sorry ass getting dropped 10 minutes into races, YOUR reputation is starting to suffer.

Great Scott !  this is good news.

I read the end. I didn't have the legs. I had the legs on Saturday.

@williamdc and @davidyang my boss made a similar comment... @twoyacks if it does start to look like I will be forced to upgrade i could always start working to get someone else in the jersey... Cough Jim Nelson cough. I haven't actually tallied my points for real so I have little idea as to how close or faraway I am.

@twoyacks negative on Mongo... That team seems to have quite a few mongoloids in their ranks.

i got 16th overall and 3rd of cat4s in the 3/4 crit right after superhuman Svenn- I kinda wished i hadn't taken that flyer with 2 dudes with 5 laps to go, got away for a lap and then basically recovered the best i could for final sprint without loosing position too badly.
It was a lot of fun! loved turning at high speeds and always thinking about better position, it's a constant challenge. At one point, Stokes caught me dreaming and told me not to lose concentration as I was slipping back in the bunch, forced me to wake up and keep mixing it up.
I'm not doing Harlem but am looking forward to it as I will definitely be watching and following the action!

i really enjoyed white plains.  close to home, well organized, a safe course... but challenging.  plus, they had free coffee.  and cow bells. 

winner.