Spring Racing Continues: Branchbrook #3

In my eyes, after CRCA in Central Park and the L&C and Verge Series in Prospect Park, the trifecta of early season local road races is rounded out by the Branchbrook Park Spring Series in Newark, NJ. This 2.1 mile flat hot dog shaped loop almost has a crit-like feel given the short fast laps and single corner but does more decisively land in the “circuit park race” category. The women’s team lined up for action in the Women’s Open Field this past Saturday.

All photos through this report are by Eric Osterberg, who you can follow at: @therickernj

The Race

We had an awesome squad out at Branchbrook this week including Lucia, Aimee, Shane, Megan, and me. Most of us raced at Branchbrook two weeks back so we were tuned in to the course and the new start/finish area which was moved closer to the turn. 

There wasn’t a formal team strategy outside of trying to line up Lucia, Megan, and Amy heading into the last lap if it looked like it was going to be a sprint finish (which it frequently is in the Branchbrook Women’s Open Field). A few of us had some individual goals we were planning to work on during the race. My goal was to get in a break off the front. I tried this at the last Branchbrook race with my attacks being more of a whimper than a bang. With two more weeks of training under my belt, I was antsy to test my fitness. 

The race started off unsustainably quick with the field strung out single file for the first lap or so. The pace eased up a bit through the start finish where shortly after I launched an attack, blew myself up getting away, and quickly slinked back to the field.

I was excited that TBD was animating the field with Shane, Aimee, and I all launching a few additional attacks and counter attacks throughout the race and keeping the group chasing. I zoned out for a bit at the back of the field but found out later that Megan took full sprint points on the prime lap and we think moved into first place for the green jersey (myraceresult plz post the updated results). 

With about two laps to go, we lined up a series of attacks between Shane, Aimee, and I that allowed me to get away from the field and ride off the front for a lap which was awesome! Things came back together right as we turned onto the backside of the last lap and as I was shuffled to the back the field I was relieved to see Aimee and Lucia sync up towards the front. Given the new finish line location, being in the second half of the field coming into the corner meant my race was kaput. At the front of the field, Lucia and Aimee worked together in the sprint to launch Aimee into 4th!  

After the race, we did a cool down ride over to 23 Skidoo Cafe where we were rewarded with sunshine, coffee, and post-race treats.