Another weekend of racing at Prospect Park brought another 9 laps of swerving riders, potholes, and a sketchy sprint finish. Joe and I headed into NYC at just after 5 a.m. again for the Big Apple Bicycle Classic which is part of the NYC Cycling Series. The fields filled up very quickly, and luckily the race director from Kissena held me a number so I could race. Joe got to join the top guys in the P-1-2-3 field and as he will write soon, he had a very painful experience! The Cat. 4 race started out pretty standard for a Prospect Park race. Pretty solid speeds the first few laps kept it from bunching up too much through the sketchy pothole filled sections on the last mile of the loop. I didn't contest the first prime because I was way too far back in the pack still trying to move up from starting at the back of the field. ( I almost missed the start of the race again this week because Joe and I once again had our patented last minute arrival)
When the 2nd prime came around, a large group of about 15 guys formed about 10 seconds up the road. It looked dangerous so I bridged up to it and knew we could make something stick. I immediately got to the front and drilled it, and when I turned around I saw only one Kissena guy decided to go with me. We got a huge gap on the field and started getting a little too tactical with the sprint(50 bucks is big for me right now!). I sat on Kissena's wheel for as long as possible as he was going about 15 mph not wanting to put out too much energy. Just as I was about to sprint by him about 50 meters from the line, a NYVelocity rider flew by us to take his 2nd prime of the day.
The rest of the race was very uneventful until the last half mile. I was sitting about 5th wheel when we went through the pothole section of the course. As the field was jockeying for position, the rider next to me must've hit wheels and fell right into me. I somehow swerved to my left and avoided falling, but the crash sounded real nasty behind me. I quickly moved up to about 3rd wheel and followed the NYvelocity rider who had won both primes. I started my sprint a bit too late and wound up getting 3rd, missing 2nd by about half a wheel length. My sprint felt great, I still have to learn when to start it though. Hopefully this 3rd place will give me enough points to upgrade to Cat. 3! Hopefully everyone involved in the crash is ok and will be back racing in Prospect soon enough.
PJ
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