Another weekend of hard racing in the books, this time at the 2019 CRCA Bear Mountain Classic p/b Jamison Capital and Lucarelli & Castaldi firm. The P/1/2 race featured 6 laps of a ~14mi course (85mi total distance). The course featured a grueling 3mi climb, long stretches of wind-blown rollers, and a flying descent to the base of the climb (along with a sharp 180deg turn at the bottom to hit the climb!)
The field was supposed to be around 52 riders, including most of the biggest names in the NY-area. Given the course, I figured the race would be a battle of attrition, with the field working hard up the climb, then carrying the momentum along the remainder of the course to keep riders from getting back together. With this in-mind, my teammate Conor and I would try to stay toward the front and watch for any big moves. During the first lap, I was staying in the top-15 to be ready, and then moved with a few strong riders heading through the start/finish around 5th. We bombed the descent with riders jumping into the super-tuck. I was following a Clif-Vinyl rider as we approached the hairpin at the base, and unfortunately followed him into the grass as we over-shot the corner, so instead of staying in the lead of the field, we were now at the back. Since I had just spent the first lap up-front, I sat in for the 2nd climb and let Conor watch the lead. During the climb a Foundation rider managed to escape and shortly thereafter a Jamison rider jumped across as well.
As the field worked to bring back the leaders, we continued to shed some riders, and I noticed that it looked like another rider had escaped (later to learn it was actually 3 more riders, bringing the lead group to 5). As the field turned onto Lake Welch road (final 3.5mi of the lap), Bill Ash (Foundation) leapt off the front. The field, tired from the last bit of full-gas as we chased the leaders, seemed content to let him go as they recovered. I realized he was likely strong enough to bridge, and so I decided to risk it and jumped full-gas to try to bridge to Bill, figuring we could then work together to join the leaders. I spent the next 2.5mi in full time-trial and caught Bill as we hit the start/finish, and we worked together on the descent before being joined by another strong Cat1 (Keystone-Lupine) who had also jumped across. Our group of 3 worked together up the climb and had a serious gap forming, but kept the pace up to work toward the leaders (again thinking it was only 3 riders). We finally caught them at 1k from the start of lap 4. At this point we realized the new group: 2 Jamison riders including Geno (super strong rider), 2 Foundation (Bill and Baris who was the original escapee), 1 CS Velo racer, the Keystone-Lupine racer, 1 racer from Strangers, and myself. However, moments later, Baris' saddle clamp exploded and he was forced to stop. We were now 7 racers with 3 laps to go.
Our group was working together pretty well and as we finished lap 4, we were told we now had a 3min lead of the peloton. Things started to sour after we finished the 5th climb though, because we were now alerted that a group of 2 riders were 45sec behind us. Our group continued to work hard, however the 2nd Jamison rider was just hanging on the back (I originally assumed he was trying to save himself for the finale). As we turned onto Lake Welch road, we were now alerted that the chase was only 20sec back! This was the final nail in the coffin for our break, and moments later the CS Velo rider attacked. The Keystone-Lupine rider and Geno were able to jump across, I was ready to try but found that the legs were feeling pretty cooked, and as I looked at Bill he said he was toast. I noticed at this point the other Jamison rider was gone and the Strangers racer was also struggling. I managed to drag our group of 3 to the descent before the other riders helped again to get us to the start of the climb. At this point Bill and the Strangers rider were fully cooked and just barely hanging on as I worked up the climb.
As we approached the final 1/4 of the final climb, one of the chasing riders caught us - a CCB-Foundation racer. As he flew by I tried to hang on his wheel for a few moments before falling back to my controlled pace. Brief as it was, this was the end of Bill and the Strangers rider, and I was now solo in 5th place. I worked to keep the CCB racer in view as I continued to push along the back stretch of the course. My legs were definitely starting to rebel from the effort of the day, but I knew I was in a good place and forced myself to keep the pace up to get to the finish. As I turned onto Lake Welch for the final time, I was passed by the other member of the chase group - another CS Velo racer. He powered past me, and at this point my legs had nothing left to jump onto his wheel - now 6th place. I worked to the top of the big climb on Lake Welch and was then passed by Mike Margarite, again with nothing to chase him - 7th (uggh, losing spots!). Only 2mi to go of false-flat - keep moving legs!! Moments later I was caught by yet another rider (Unattached as far as I could tell) - I was able to hang onto him for a few moments before my legs reverted to jelly - and now I was 8th. Finally, I crested the hill and it was less than 1k to the finish line, mostly downhill. I jumped up a few cogs and turned over as big a gear as I could still push, worried that with all these single riders coming by that the field would catch me at any moment, and the work of being away all day would be erased in a moment. I actually made ground on the racer in front of me, however I still crossed the line in 8th place. Exhausted, aching, but done - now I just had to find out if any of those other racers were Cat2. In the end, I was 8th place in a difficult field, and my hard work
resulted in winning the Cat2 field! Another weekend on the top of the
podium!
Photos by Ron Short (https://www.instagram.com/shortcycles/) and Mike Tan (https://www.instagram.com/the_michaeltan/)
