Saturday September 1, 2012. High Bridge, NJ was once again the scene of one of the hardest 3.3-mile circuits you can ever imagine. I kept thinking how much so many of you FBF hammer-heads would have enjoyed pounding on each other on this course.

50 meters from the start, there is a stair-stepping climb of about 300 meters in length and has a 50 meter stretch that is, I don't know, 18%? I can tell you that it was so steep that I had exactly two speeds on this climb. Forward and reverse. And ask JP, he knows I like the short punchy stuff. It's sort of my strength. After you crest the second step of that climb, it's strung out big ring slog past neighborhood houses for about 1 suburban block. RECOVER, dear Lord, please let me recover.

ACK! 90 degree left turn, another 250 meter ramp, not as steep or devious, but painful all the same. Turn right onto tiny "back country" rolling roads that had me wishing for some of those Paris Roubaix-style bikes and tires. Bouncing all over the place. I remembered my lessons from racing Belgian cobbles back in the day and slammed it in the biggest gear I could turn and drove it hard over the bumps.

I kept waiting for a nice solid descent to recover, but it never came. Up and down, up and down. The field was gone. I lost big time on the rollers. Sarah asked me what my goal was before the race. It started as a "finish" with the group. By the second lap, I was hammering with other lost souls and my goal became "don't finish last." I was racing with 3, but we split on 2nd time up the climb, I couldn't crawl back. Last place was just behind me, hunting me down like the lame dog that I am. I noticed the one time we hit the climb together, he stayed in the big ring. So while he clawed back some serious time on the climbs, once I hit the pave de Belgique, and slammed it in my big ring, I had the advantage of the "extra gear." Mission accomplished. 13th out of 14 starters.

When making up your race calendars for next year. Put away your calculators and ridiculous miles per dollar calculations. Most fields were doing in the neighborhood of 4-6 laps "only." Trust me, by the time you finish this event (if you finish), you'll wish it was one lap shorter.

For families, it was pretty sweet too. String bags with t-shirts, sun screen, lip balm and crayons. Lots of grass to sit out and enjoy the day. Plus a really nice playground that is conveniently located right by the finish line. Plus a few kids bike races. About 1 hour 15 minutes from the GWB by car.

JP lined up for the last race of the day...I look forward to his report. It will be filled with blood and tears no doubt. This course is unforgiving to a fault.

Me and my little guy before the race.

Me and my little guy after the race.

Monday September 3, 2012, Basking Ridge, NJ. The criterium fun continue in the historic and charming city center on a course that was, at first blush terrifying. 1-mile-ish loop that included a long fast descent into a hard left turn, another descending left turn into a 3% drag through a residential neighborhood, a right left combo, then a big ring out of the saddle-ish climb, followed by the screamingly fast finishing stretch. Turns out, I was more intimidated by the course from walking it, rather than racing it. Once the legs were turning, everything was loverly.

For the 35+ race we had Vlad, myself and Craig. Joel de La Garza was on the pre-reg list, but I didn't see another Kissena out there in our field. Given the course, and my fitness, I made sure I was about 5th wheel coming into the fast turns 1 and 2. Craig took the front in the early laps and gave himself a little jump-start into fall/winter training before he called it a day.

Unlike Saturday's slug fest, I was able to use some of the fast/tricky turns to my advantage and found myself feeling quite comfortable for about 9 of 15 laps. Unfortunately, I was a few riders too far behind and for 3 laps in a row, I was jumping around guys who were getting popped and dropped on the 3% fast climbing stretch.

The first dude I had to jump around, by the way, I watched shovel a big deli sandwich into his mouth about 1/2 through the previous race. Who eats a big sandwich, 30 minutes before you are going to race???? The next lap it was his teammate. And then a big (literally) figure in New England Racing, Mike Norton, ruined my plans when while I was drifting off the back to give myself a little breathing room to allow myself to take the turns 1 and 2 at full speed (no breaks), sling-shotting out of turn 2 to catch back onto the strung out field, comes ripping down the hill behind me, hollers, "INSIDE" and takes me off my preferred line. I gave it to him. Grumble.

I should have thrown out a leg, and held my ground, because when he got to turn 2, he hammered the breaks and I lost all my momentum and my last chance of getting back to the field. I continued to hammer solo for the last 3 laps and finished feeling like a mere shadow of my former self (which is better than I felt on Saturday, when I felt like someone else entirely).

Vlad held strong and finished with the field. He'll have to give you his take on how the race played out though.

In the Pro 1/2 race, JP raced extremely well. Mengoni lost two of their dudes (Wilson Vasquez and Pullo--guess his son has taken all his "mojo.") early on (those guys later raced in the 35+ event). A break slips away and stays away for good 1/2 through the race (I think). With 1.5 laps to go I saw JP off the front of the peloton with a bunch of strong guys including Mengoni's Eugene Borronow in a move that looked promising, as they would be sprinting for 6th place. Alas, they were caught and pooped out for the final sprint. I was hoping we'd have a top 10 finish for JP...so close, yet so far...

Another great family day at the races. Adorable town with plenty of outdoor seating for eating and watching. A trick BMX demonstration. JP's boy Oscar took to the blacktop with his roundball and was shooting hoops in a school yard. Add some fun kids races with a ton of kids and you've got another good day for family fun.

In the Cat 5 race, Vlad brought out a new teammate to give crits a try. It was his first race ever. Forgot his name, but he looks "strong like bull," and once he gets used to the rhythm of road racing, does some Ragot prescribed intervals and gets beat on a bit by you studs in group rides for some high intensity work, I'm sure he's going to be a force too.