Balderdash for April 2, 2010
NYC race weekend No. 5 coming up.
So who’s foregoing Easter with the family to race both days? Or can you swing both and hang with the peeps and eat Peeps?
Me, no, I can’t, so I will loiter in Prospect Park with my Cat. 3/4 brethren Saturday and skip Sunday, when I’ll venture to Long Island for R&R and rifle shooting.
I’m telling myself it’s good to rest Sunday in light of Battenkill being a week from tomorrow.
Yes! Battenkill! Yes!
Well, I say that with great excitement today. We’ll see how I feel after the race.
Last week I felt like hell during training but managed to enjoy myself tremendously at Floyd and Prospect Park, trying to start breaks, chasing breaks, blocking for breaks, powering breaks. Well, it was one of those kind of weekends.
At Floyd, Leszek once again forced a selection early and took along a BVF and a teammate of mine from Kissena. So lots of chasing down bridge attempts for me. Later in the race I got onto a Columbia U rider and we worked well together for a few laps, then he tired and I decided to leave the teammate to battle the Pole and Brooklyn rider. He got third for his efforts. Another Kissena got away toward the end, as did I, and so we had three Kissenas in the top 10, so not too shabby. Though that elusive Kissena Cat. 3/4 Victory is still … elusive.
Meanwhile, AXA once again dominated the Pro-1-2-3 race. Looking lean and mean, those lads.
At Prospect I was off the front from lap 1 (it was the cold and coffee that made that a necessary thing to do) and helped get a break going, thank you very much. Leszek helped, along with some Luzzo’s riders and a few others, including two Kissenas, eventually. We rode a nice paceline the nine of us, and put near two minutes on the field. Then we passed the masters riders, then passed the masters breakaway, and at some point had to argue for a full lap with the guy driving the white minivan “pace car” to get the fook out of the way. He seemed, eh, pace-car challenged. Probably didn’t help that he had his stereo blaring.
As for the end, I made a dumb mistake by pulling like a mad man as we started the bell lap, and paid for it last go up the hill, where I watched the remnants of our glorious break ride slowly away from me. Teammate Al B. ended up third after a controversial sprint with a second-placed Luzzo’s rider. But it didn’t matter really: The Pole, aka the Organic Green Giant, beat everyone handily by several bike lengths in the sprint. Still, we had we three Kissenas top 10 again, so a good day out.
It was the first good break of the year for me, and how nice it was to not be riding in the pack.
Otherwise, Battenkill looms large on the race horizon.
Being a Battenkill virgin, I’m just all giddy.
