Late Friday afternoon Joe and I still had no plans of racing this weekend. We had a down week of training plus the weather forecasted for Saturday morning looked absolutely miserable. We were looking through some upcoming races and found the Lucarelli and Castaldi Series in Prospect Park. They offered yellow(overall leader), green(Sprint points), and polka dot(Climbers points) jerseys to the respective leaders each week, plus I am desperate for Cat. 3 upgrade points after my disappointing crash out at Battenkill. So we decided to brave the weather and give it a shot.
Waking up at 4 a.m. to pouring rain, temps in the 30s, and high winds was not the ideal way to start my Saturday morning. After debating with myself whether or not it was worth it to put ourselves through this misery, we forced ourselves out the door and to the race. We arrived at Prospect Park in time to do our usual 5 minute warm up, which is really just getting over to the start as quickly as possible, register, pin on our numbers, and get on the line just in time for the start.
The race was scheduled for 31 miles, which is 9 laps around Prospect Park. For those of you who haven't seen the course, it is a wide open road, with no technical turns. There is one 800 meter big ring hill that averages around 3-4% grade which is where the KOM competition would be fought out. The rest of the course is a gradual downhill followed by a slight rise to the finish line. The first couple of laps were pretty uneventful. Luckily, the rain slowed to a drizzle so I was able to stay a bit warm for the first half hour or so. Kissena had a very large representation in this race. They had about 8 guys in the race, so Joe and I knew we had to mark any potential breaks from them. Fortunately we had some help in Moshe(finally got it right!) from Speedwell Racing. He did a great job breaking up the Kissena train and helping us keep them in check.
The first Sprinter's points were contested by both Joe and I, and we took 1st and 3rd respectively. Joe attempted to lead me out for the first KOM climb, and I was able to pull off a 2nd place with him taking 3rd. It was sometime after that KOM climb that it started pouring on us. My whole body was slowly going numb and I was having trouble getting my legs ready for the second KOM climb. I skipped contesting the 2nd green jersey sprint, which Joe won again, to save my legs. I knew I would have to beat the Kissena rider, Joseph M. on the second KOM climb to be in polka dots at the end of the day. Unfortunately, I could not match his acceleration on the climb, and I got 3rd behind Joe and Joseph M.
The rest of the race was spent marking Kissena and trying to keep my legs warm enough so they would be ready for the sprint. The lead up to the sprint was pretty unorganized, and I just marked a couple of wheels and was able to pull off third place, behind Joe(another win!!). Joseph M. of Kissena finished 4th, virtually crossing the line at the same time as me. Unfortunately, Moshe got a flat right before the sprint and had to roll in with a flat. Unlucky for him as he was looking very strong the last couple laps.
Overall, it was a great race, we got a yellow jersey and some valuable upgrade points out of it. Joe and I both look forward to doing the race again next week.
-PJ
-PJ
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