Just little old me in the 45+ race, playing with boys my own age for once. I have continued to feel better and better the last couple of weeks, and felt as good as I have for years. Had a quick chat with Z. before the race (he was doing 35+) but we realized all the dads had the day off. Although that leaves some of you (Paul) with no excuses but…I digress. A lot of riders must have chickened out based on the weather forecast, since the maxed out field of 125 was about 50 riders short. It seemed half of the metro NYC area was there, however.

After what seemed an eternity sitting on the line waiting for the gun, we started neutral up the big climb but…it was pretty fast! Then with 1k to go, we stopped! I think the pace car drove us a bit fast because we sat there for 5 minutes, waiting.

Once the flag dropped and we hit the big descent, it got a little dicey. Deciding that chasing back a little was better than crashing on the slimy roads, I hung back. I made the right call, since after we took the left on Minor Bridge, a bunch of guys went down. The pack seemed to ease up a bit, and I was safely in the group as we hit the old KOM hill. Felt good all the way to the left turn on 199, and then new detour seemed to really suit me. No super-long drag uphill, just a 5-6 short, sharp pitches that I cruised up with ease. But unfortunately, the you-know-what hit the fan on the KOM and I was hanging on for dear life over the top, then chasing like mad on the descent. When we turned right on 172, I had made it to the tail of the field but once we hit the big hill, it was game over for me. Or was it?

I rode my own tempo up the big climb, and watched what was left of the field (30 riders?), slowly fade away in the distance. Once I crested the top, a group of 4 came up to me, and we worked pretty hard on the descent and into the old KOM hills. But a Deno’s guy and I dumped the rest on the hills, and we set to chasing as a duo. We picked up stragglers here and there and at the 199 turn, we had a group of 10 or so. Once we hit the detour hills, I was feeling good and punched it a little over the top. Lo and behold I looked back and had a big gap; no one in sight. So I hammered for all I was worth but as I turned and hit the KOM hill, a chase group of 10 was closing fast. I managed to stay away a little longer but by the time we hit 172 we had scooped up quite a few dropped Cat. 4’s, and I decided to stay at the back and watch the 20 guys in our group nearly kill each other sprinting for 50th place.

Imagine my surprise when the results today showed me in 26th place with the silver medal for CT 45+. Thanks goes to my training partners and friends Gerry Clapper and Pat Cunningham for racing the 35+. Had they been in the “correct” race, no hardware would have been coming my way. Gerry took an impressive 2nd place, beaten only by Mr. Aspholm.

A special thanks to our blog’s biggest fan, my mom, who puts up with her son going off for 5 hours to do a bike race, when she is here for her annual visit (she lives many, many miles away) and he should be spending quality time with her.  She’s the best.