The CRCA Bear Mountain Classic is one of our favorite races and what made the event extra special is that it was also the New York State Road Championship. Since we began racing in 2022, only one of us raced at the Bear Mountain Classic each year, until this year – last year Max was sick and the year before Ari because of COVID. Several of our Star Track teammates came too, Desmond, Hanna, Hugo, Ian, Josiah, Lily, Logan, Louis, Viv, and Will.
Ari’s Cat 4 Race
I was debating long and hard about what to race. From the start I knew I wanted to do the 92 km Cat 4 because I like the longer distances and figured it would provide me with some great training. The question therefore was whether to also compete in the Junior race and try to win the State Championship in the 13-14 year-old category. Although competing in the Junior race seemed like a “must” to not appear walking away from a fight, I decided to focus on the Cat 4 race only and to do it as well as I possibly could. I believed that the hilly and technical aspects of the race would suit me well but the race was much tougher than I predicted.
The Cat 4 race had four 23 km laps, for a total of 92 km. I started with 63 other riders and fortunately there was no rain at the time. Although we were supposed to be neutral until the end of the first downhill (about 175 meter drop over a 3 km distance), it didn’t seem neutral as I was hitting a max speed of 80.8 km/h according to my Strava. However, after that downhill we waited for all other riders to catch up. I was staying with the peleton for the first lap but riders started to drop off on the hilly sections of the course.
In the middle of the second lap on an incline, the front group consisted of just 15 or so riders and I could no longer keep up. The group was in sight for about 1 km and I kept fighting hard to get back but just couldn’t. At that time it started raining pretty hard – the odd thing is, rain doesn’t particularly bother me while racing but definitely bothers me once I am done as I get super cold, super quickly.
Fortunately, I was caught by five other riders. They were super nice to let me take fewer pulls than them. They gave me some slack because of my age. We were riding at a steady pace for two laps. But, on lap 4 (on the hilly section where I got dropped initially on lap 2), I got more and more tired and could no longer keep up with them either and thought I was done with the race.
But, things weren’t over yet as another group caught up to me (I fell back to). I was riding with them for the remainder of the race, about half a lap. All were working hard and I put in my fair share of pulls until we passed the 1 km-to-go sign. At that time we slowed down considerably, waiting for someone to start sprinting. With 400 meters to go, one rider launched his finish sprint and we all immediately reacted to his attack. I gave it a 100% effort but couldn’t pass any of the other riders.
I ended up placing 20th out of 50 who finished the race (there were 14 DNFs), 12:24 behind the winner who finished with a time of 2:32:50. Since this was a fairly long course, the 12.5min gap doesn’t seem too bad, or does it?
Looking back, I can’t think of anything I could have done better. I definitely gave it my all, hitting several all-time power highs (5, 10, 20, 60, and 90 minutes) according to my TrainingPeaks. So, while I didn’t get to the podium, mission accomplished, I had an awesome training ride.
I can’t wait to be back next year, perhaps racing the Cat 4 again and hopefully placing a little higher, or perhaps I upgrade in the meantime to Cat 3 and will be struggling in that field.
Max’s Junior Race
My race was supposed to be 12.4 km and my teammates Desmond, Hanna, Louis, Viv, and Will also competed. Fortunately there was no rain and the start of the race went well. Right after we were no longer neutral, Devin from Verge launched an attack which I expected and wasn’t worried about because he’s in an older age category. His teammate Wyatt tried to follow but Viv and I decided not to chase. Just before the turnaround we caught up to Wyatt who was riding solo at the time because he couldn’t catch up to Devin.
But things turned bad at the oval-shaped roundabout which is super large (at least 100 meters in diameter) and you can’t see the other side of it. We were supposed to keep towards the right to make a U-turn to get back on the road we came from. But there were cones towards the left of the roundabout (I heard later that those cones were for riders on the “big course”) and we ended up following those cones which sent us on the “big” course but in opposite directory of the “big” course riders. Although there was a marshal who had the one job of telling us where to go, he didn’t say anything. So, Viv, Wyatt and I rode an extra 3 km until we hit another roundabout, made a U turn, and rode another 3 km back to the roundabout that sent us off the course. So, after riding an extra 6 km we got back on the road we came from.
Until this point we actually didn’t know that we made a mistake but Viv, Wayatt, and I were super confused as we passed again riders we previously passed. At the finish we saw more riders we previously passed and then we realized that something went wrong. Now it also made sense why Devin was riding towards us on the roundabout where we went off course.
Anyway, after all that I still came in second for the state championship in the 11-12 category per the official race results and my teammate Desmond got first. Must admit that I was disappointed but I was also super happy for Desmond because he’s a close friend.
