Last Tuesday I had my first race in NYC. In transitioning from OBRA to USAC I had to get a new race license and with no history I was relegated to cat 5. Though to be fair I was barely a road 4 in PDX and never really had good results to contest moving up here. Combined with the fact that I have no idea how different the racing scene is here. All I knew was the Zipp rims per capita is way higher here than in OR.
So anyways, we lined up, got briefed and were off. Now Floyd Bennett is a retired air field, perfect for a bike race, no? Well it is okay, but its a retired airfield because it is the most pot hole ridden POS I can think of. So race is under way, the pace is high, big ring the whole time. The pack seems happy to chase down anyone who attacks, and there were many pretty weak attacks contributing to the high pace. I did a couple pulls, at one point into a headwind where everyone was quite content letting me do all the work. SOBs. But eventually I found my way to the back, on the last lap. I was not real happy as we were still at least 20 riders strong, and didnt want to be trying a bunch sprint much less from behind, but I needed to conserve going into the wind. So I made my way around tucked tightly against my opponents as possible.
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Thanks for post up Amanda. It felt good to have a good first race. Of course next week, it was hot as hell, I wanted to puke curry after making a big bridge to the leaders. Then promptly lost them and got like 8th. Oh well, better luck tomorrow at prospect park!
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