I was in it trying to win it, the Coney Island Crit Cat 3/4. For the past couple of weeks I’ve been racing Cat 1/2/3s to develop my positioning skills, gain fitness, and build confidence. I raced the 3/4s today with the hope of putting all to good use to gun for the win against 16 riders.
This is the second time Alex from Verrazano Team Racing put on this race and Max and I had a great time last year, though Max can’t race right now due to his broken pinky. The course is amazing – about 900 meters long with three sharp turns. It started to rain a few minutes into the race, making the tight corners even trickier. With the rain came the wind and my front wheel even started skidding occasionally in the crosswind.
Over the first 16 laps, I helped chase down attacks and launched a few myself. When I attacked on lap 17 I went off the front for one round and on lap 25 I got a big gap and tried to solo the remaining 13 laps. I treated it like a time trial, but one rider bridged up and caught me on lap 30. We worked together, each taking pulls that were about one lap long. With the final corner in sight, I pulled to the side, hoping to get in his draft, but he didn’t want to have any of it. I sprinted out of the corner with all I had left but he passed me just meters from the line.
What a race! Did I mind coming in second? Not at all! I was super happy to ride a breakaway, gave it my best, and can’t ask for more. You can see all the action on YouTube via my GoPro cameras. My favorite part is at the first turn on lap 27 where you can see a marshal cheering me on.
Afterward, I jumped straight into the junior race with my Star Track teammate Alex. But by the end, I was freezing and immediately changed into dry clothes. This meant that I missed my two podiums. I missed another one at the Gotham Cyclists Crit earlier this year too, so this is definitely something else I need to work on.
Thank you very much Alex for putting on this amazing race and being so generous to juniors.
