Summertime in the city: Castelli Race Series #4
After a short mid-season break, racing was back in Prospect Park with the Castelli Series and we had a great turnout with 8 of us registered and ready to go. The Friday night slack message went out “Castelli Race Strategy, who has ambitions?”, Corey nominated me to be the protected sprinter and I promptly responded in typical Australian fashion “Happy to give it a nudge”.
Tom, Alvaro and Daghan were kept busy all race, getting in breaks, bringing breaks back and launching counter attacks. I had been hiding all race and started to move through the bunch on the downhill. After a fast paced race and the last dangerous break shut down with thanks to Matt before the bottom of the hill the race would come down to a sprint.
The pace stayed high on the hill which kept the swarming to a minimum. In my last race at prospect two riders took a flyer on the hill and managed to hold off the peloton so I was hyper aware to anyone trying it this time. Sure enough, a racer from Bicycle Habitat took a flyer around the outside of the bunch and I promptly latched onto his wheel. We got half way up the hill before he looked under his arm and saw that it wasn’t a team mate on his wheel and pulled off. I was hurting by this stage but wasn’t going to give up the great position I had got into. As the main leadout swung right I managed to get back into the paceline in about 7th spot.
As the sprints opened up I came off Conor’s wheel (2nd) and went to kick but the time in the wind (198bpm for 1 minute) had sapped me of my punch (I only managed 5 seconds @ 836w!) but I managed to hold onto 4th. It was my first result since relocating to NYC and I was stoked for the team after they had worked so hard for me all race. We headed off to Gather with the coffees on me to cap off a fun and successful Saturday morning spent racing bikes in NYC.
Photo Gallery by Matthew Vandivort (@photorhetoric)
Lisa’s ‘I don’t know why we get up this early’ face.
But early morning is often the best time to ride in the city.
First light hit just a few minutes before we hit the Manhattan Bridge.
We couldn’t help but stop and take in this view from above the East River
We found some teammates along the way for the final miles to the race in Brookyln
The usual early morning race scene in New York City.
Post-race: Alvaro congratulating Scott on his result.
Tom did tons of work during the race, but each break was eventually pulled back
Cullen swung by for post race coffee
The man with the most energy in the entire NYC peloton.
Some of our new teammates also ventured out to race.
That post race exhausted / happy face.
After coffee most of the squad headed back to Prospect Park for a few more laps
NYPD keeping busy making sure we didn’t run any read lights along the way.
With a partially finished Moots to transport home from ACME, the morning finished on the subway.
A very early morning, a bike race, and a long train ride.