NYC Spring Series
Prospect Park
Cat 3/4
March 13, 2005
By Joaquin C de Baca
I found myself counting the shadows on the ceiling over my bed,
lying awake rather than sleeping the night before the last Spring
Series race in Prospect park. The sinking feeling that days of
training would probably be nullified by a serious lack of sleep was
nasty, but I was still in mostly good spirits. I finally drifted
off at about 3:30(!), and according to my girlfriend I gave my alarm
a sort of hockey check when it went off at 5:20 and then 20 minutes
later shot bolt upright all on my own and started to get dressed.
10 minutes and half a sleeve of Fig Newtons later I was out
the door, managing to get to the start line with about 25 minutes to
spare. Right away I was happy to see that we had good Kissena
turnout, hopefully due in some part to our recent cat3/4
organization and communication. Several days before the race we had
already figured out most of our likely line up and had gone over 3
or 4 different race strategies, naming Charlie L. race captain
(Charlie, now you can demand that co-workers and in-laws call you
captain…). Including Charlie and myself we had a total of 8 riders,
with Ian, Noah, Steve, Dave, Victor and Bert all gunning in orange
and blue.
At the line Charlie cleared a spot for me and we went over
our foundation plan to rotate people through the front throughout
the race, springing when a good move goes or bridging when we're not
represented. We rolled off and the immediately Charlie moved to the
front, moving fast enough to get the road uncongested. There had
been a good deal of talk about the controversial blocking techniques
Metro used the previous week, and apparently we weren't the only
club that noticed because right from the line Metro was heavily
marked by all the other teams that had numbers, notably Foundation.
Several times in the first few laps I noticed a Metro rider take a
short flyer, and when other Metro team mates tried to rotate to the
front of the pack they were almost always overtaken by several
riders from behind. Hard to say whether they were aiming for the
same aggressive blocking, but they deserve props for being at the
front for the entire race. We were also doing a good job of
rotating up, according to plan. In the first five or six laps I saw
most every team mate up front marking or waiting to spring. Other
than the marked Metro squad it was racing as usual in Prospect, some
very quick laps with people taking flyers, interspersed with some
very slow laps. At one point we were neutralized for a good third
of a lap while the 123's rolled past and I had to wonder why it was
that they started us off as the first field of the day.
With a little more than 4 to go I started to sense that the
attacks were getting more serious, and saw that the riders in the
lead group were turning over much more quickly. Tony, the only
Merrill rider present, put in a good jump from about 20 riders back
and upped the pace at the front going up the hill. His move
established a pace that strung things out at the front, though no
one seemed to think that getting away was an option yet. Down by
the temple on that same lap there were at least two attacks by
Metro, one tearing off from the right side, and the other countering
off to left. I traded wheels from attacker to attacker and ended up
in front of the pack by the time we got to the start/finish, with an
unattached rider and one of the original Metro attackers out with
me. The Metro guy yelled out that we had a gap, I looked over my
shoulder and saw that we were clear and decided to pin it, hoping
that us three was enough to stay away, especially considering that
Metro would hopefully decide not to chase one of their own. I
didn't give it full gas till the we were at the hill, and when I
crested at GAP I looked back and only saw the unattached rider, who
was wearing a USPS jersey. We seemed to have a pretty good lead so
I yelled at the dude wearing USPS that we could pull this off, then
put my head down and went to work trying to power through what was
suddenly a very visible wind on the west side of the park.
We seemed to work pretty well together and after one full
lap the chasing pack was out of view behind us. It was hard not to
go lactic the second time up the hill but our lead was encouraging,
so we kept up pace over the top and back into the wind. Somewhere
close to the end of our second lap away we started to become a bit
less well oiled, losing speed before the lead rider was relieved of
his pull and then getting back up to speed again, but I still
thought that we had enough of a gap to pull off the win. The third
time up the hill was searing and I had to downshift over the top,
not a good strategy for staying away. Just past the band shell with
about half a lap to go I looked back and saw the pack had made up a
good amount of ground, blue and red jerseys up front. I yelled out
to my breakaway companion and we gave it a good shot down the hill
trying to stay away, taking the curve at the bottom faster than I
figured the pack would with its larger numbers. It was looking
tight but I still figured we could give it a run to the finish over
that last east side straight. With the start/finish visible (two
stop lights away) I was pulling and on the verge of getting out of
the saddle and sending my heart into zone 5c, puke after the finish
zone, to try and seal the deal. But right as I was getting up a
swoosh on my right side and streaking rider let me know that we had
been caught and that the sprint was starting all around me. I tried
for a second to grab a wheel but I had no jump left after the three
lap breakaway, so I conceded and rolled across the line safely with
group I had just been absorbed by.
It was a frustrating end to an otherwise solid race, marked
by much improved team riding and the ill fated break away attempt.
Everyone pitched in, and Ian, Charlie, Dave, Steve, Noah, Victor and
Bert all looked strong. There are still kinks to work out, but I
felt like it was a good start for future teamwork. Hopefully for
the next team outing I can whip any insomnia bouts (as Jon O. says,
listening to the Mets TV announcers is like taking sleeping pills,
so I'll try and get some games on tape…) and be up to speed through
the very end.
-Joaquin C de Baca
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