are you guys driving up day of?

I'm reg'd for the 40+ race (start at 12:30pm) and will probably have room for at least one, maybe or two depending on what size car they give me*, and how aggressive we want to get with bike packing. Leaving from upper Manhattan.

PS You guys should seriously consider racing Iron Hill the day before too.

*Rental car rates not outstanding this time of year, best I could do was $62/day. Ugh.

If anyone needs a ride, I'm planning on heading up to Hartford from East Village on Saturday around 7pm and staying somewhere cheap near Hartford. I can take two other riders... maybe three at a squeeze (the bike rack only takes two bikes, we might be able to get 1-2 other bikes in the trunk, it's a Jetta wagon)

(sean just texted me to take one seat)

Anyone got any accommodation recs up that way?

not I-95.  Never I-95.  

I'm just driving up morning of. Stoked to hear Sean is in as well. 

Looking forward to it gents. Had to take 7 of 8 days off last week into early this week, so I'm somewhere between fresh and lacking fitness (especially when it comes to ascending) but starting to get back at it these last 3 days so we'll see how it goes. Depending on how/if they combine fields lets get someone on the podium at a minimum

Results, bros:

Niall 7th in 35+. I was 6th in under 35. Sean mechanicaled  

Didn't forget about Marc! 26th in the masters 40+ 1/2/3.

Full results: http://www.road-results.com/race/6659

Adam Fabian said:

Didn't forget about Marc! 26th in the masters 40+ 1/2/3.

Full results: http://www.road-results.com/race/6659

Oh, so that's where I finished. Man I forgot how hard and "miserable" that race is. OVER 6000 feet of climbing in 66 miles. In our field, as usual, Finkraft was all about "thinning the herd" With some blistering attacks on the first climbs. Got dropped by the field no less than 3 times in the course of 90 minutes or about 1-1/2 laps. Fortunately, I wasn't the only one and we chased back. The fourth time though? No such luck. I was done. By my quick count there were about 18 dudes left at that point (35-ish starters).

Rode a lap-ish by myself.* A nice Finkraft guy (he has a couple of kids, and some kind of UK-ish accent) and I kind of rolled the last lap together. In the final few hundred meters, two dudes attached to a Cat 3 leadout guy (totally illegal FWIW), blew by us at the finish.

*Maybe my highlight of the day was doing my own illegal pacing. I had passed two young junior riders that were within site of each other for a long time. I dropped back, pulled up the one guy to the first, then cranked on the front until we caught a third lonesome junior, then I was like, okay boys you have a nice group now, work together, keep it rolling. Nice polite kids, they were like THANK YOU!** And then I pedaled away.


**You know, I'm sort of shocked by the general manners of some racers. I don't expect everyone/anyone to care about my race, but if we are "friends" and/or ex-teammates/training buddies, and I ask you about your race, and I listen to how it went for you, then it would be polite to ask me about my race too. Right? Of course, I remember I got the same/similar reaction after a race last year from some of the same dudes. Guess who I won't be asking about their race anymore.