The CRCA Club Series Race #6 was a lot of fun, particularly since it didn’t rain. I raced the B group (Cat 3/4) which had 58 riders. There were three other juniors in my field, all from Dave Jordan Racing, namely Daniel, Julian, and Camille who just recently joined that team.
This was my fastest Central Park road race yet. We averaged 41.9 km/h per my Strava. This race was 7.5 laps for a total of 75 km. The half lap was from the start at Cat’s Paw to 91st Street which marked the beginning of all subsequent laps. On each of these laps, points were on offer for the first riders, namely 5,4,3,2,1, respectively. Unlike my last CRCA Club Race (see this blog post), I didn’t try to get any points for the intermediate sprints and just focused on conserving my energy for the finishing sprint.
The race, for the most part, was pretty steady except the parts beginning about 2 km before the end of each lap where sprint points were awarded. At that time Dave Jordan Racing and NYCC Racing had lead-out trains fighting for points. I just went with the flow, sitting in as best as possible to conserve as much energy as I could. I hoped that these intermediate sprints made everyone tired, thereby increasing my chances for success at the final sprint. Outside these sprint segments, I found it easy to move up when necessary, but mostly prioritized sitting in with the bunch.
For the finishing sprint, with 1 km to go, I was at about 20th position in the field and decided to move up. Surprisingly, everyone started to slow down somewhat and I kept my momentum. When I hit the 300-meter-to-go-mark, I found a good line and went all out. I finished fourth in the field sprint, but there was at least one breakaway because I didn’t earn any points.
Overall, I finished 22 out 58 according to the official results. Must admit that I thought I would have scored higher. Nine people were placed higher than me because they earned points either during the intermediate or final sprint which makes perfect sense. But there were a further twelve that placed higher than me and this I don’t fully get. With me coming in fourth in the field sprint, this would mean that there was a breakaway of at least eight riders which I don’t believe happened. Anyway, this was my best field sprint finish yet in a Central Park road race and I am proud of that.
In terms of things I did well, I believe I moved up well when necessary, was good at conserving energy, and sprinted well at the end. However, I missed the winning breakaway and probably should have been more towards the front to be part of it. Next time – hopefully.
