Another Top-10 finish, so another race report is warranted.
This past Saturday, June 22 2019, was the CRCA-Hincapie Lou Maltese Memorial race, which for the P/1/2 field meant a 9-lap race around Central Park (~55mi). This race is also part of an omnium series with next weekend's CRCA-Trek Mengoni Grand Prix, so doing well in both races could mean overall placing as well (with additional prizes). The P/1/2 field had 94 racers, so this was likely going to be a fast race. Since this was a P/1/2 field and Conor was out of town, it meant my only teammate in the race was Anthony, who is definitely more of a sprinter, leaving me to do my thing and try to get in a break.
From the start, the pace was pretty high, but I was surfing near the front to watch for anything dangerous that was trying to get away. There were a few moves during the opening laps, but generally things were either just a few riders or the wrong mix of teams, meaning that they were pulled back without gaining much distance. I managed to jump into a few of the more promising groups, and we even managed to get a handful of seconds off the front on one of the attempts, but the field wasn't quite ready to give up time.
On the start of lap 5, and with about an hour of hard racing already in the legs, a small group of four or five kept the gas on over the top of cat's paw and up past the Met. Near the top of the Met hill there was a small truck on the far right of the course, and as we approached the truck I looked over to see Anthony was also near the front of the field. He gave me a look that said "that one looks dangerous" and I figured they had established some space without too much chase from the field, so I made the jump. I tucked in and went full TT to catch them just after Engineer's gate, and quickly assessed that there were now six of us, so I am not sure if there had been five or if someone had hung onto my wheel during the bridge. Regardless, our group was looking formidable: Bill (Foundation), Luiz (Benzel), Josh (Rockstar), Dominic (Jamison), Iain (Bicycle Habitat) and myself. Everyone seemed willing to work and we quickly continued to power away from the field.
The next few laps consisted of hard pulls and recovery as our group worked reasonably well together. There were a few skipped pulls or slowing of the pace that would occur, but Bill and Josh continued to rally the group to keep on the gas and not get caught before the finish. I would occasionally check back to see if the field was gaining, but never saw any signs, so figured we were still doing well, but I was disappointed that none of the course marshals or officials were giving us time-gaps. As we were working down the west-side on the final lap, Dominic, Iain and Bill started to skip pulls. Iain was looking like he was suffering, so I figured if we kept the pace up, he might blow up. Josh again pleaded that everyone keep working so we wouldn't get caught on the line.
As we entered Horseshit Alley, I was on the front and figured that someone else might have to do the last bit of work, however as I flicked the elbow no-one was willing to pull through, and I took a peak back to see everyone start to jockey around. Figuring that since I had already been pulling and potentially had a weaker sprint, I decided to roll the dice on a long-range attack. I put my head down and went full-gas, hoping the others would wait too long to chase me down. I managed to pass 72nd with a little gap and hoped I could keep the power on until the line. I worked to carry as much speed as I could through the line into Cat's Paw, but as I made the turn onto the straight and the final run-in to the line, all 5 managed to shoot by me in a sprint. I held onto 6th, feeling pretty worked, but happy with the result. The field ended up finishing in a sprint about 30sec behind us.
I was surprised to learn that Iain took the win, since he had been looking gassed, but I guess he had just played the sprint right and was saving energy for the finish. In hindsight, knowing we had a big gap, I could have tried to play a bit of the sprint game, but I am still happy with the result. Now it is just time to build up for another chance next weekend.
Photos by Bicycle Racing Pictures
