It's official. The 2016 season has arrived. And with it the first round of painfully early alarms.

Races that start at first light may be one of those unique elements of racing in NYC but the combination of early morning races and March weather is rarely comfortable - today's Century Road Club Association season opener was certainly on the brisk side. But we still managed to rouse a full squad for seven long laps of racing in Central Park.

It was a shock to the system after a long offseason but the legs felt okayish and the squad was in the mix throughout the race and into the finale - one of those classic ambulance in the finishing straight kind of sprints that, like early mornings, are just part of racing bicycles in NYC.

All things considered with no apparent frostbite and the rubber side down for everyone on the squad it wasn't a bad way to kick things off going into Grant's Tomb Crit next weekend.