Max and I had an awesome time at the Lucarelli & Castaldi Floyd Bennett Crit. Max competed in the Cat 5 race which started at 18:30 and I raced the Cat 3/4s at 19:00. This was the first time I could watch Max’s race as mine started later (except when my Coach asked me to sit out the Grant’s Tomb Crit earlier this summer because Jr. Track Nationals were just around the corner).
Max had a 5-lap, 30-minute race – a rather hard 30 minutes. His field was going at a fast pace for the first 3.5 laps and then hammered it with attacks after attacks. With a 3/4 lap to go, Max got dropped with three others but amongst those four he got in second and ranked 32nd out of 43 overall. The below video shows his finish – kid got a good bike throw!
This was my second time in a Cat 3/4 race, though it was surely my fastest! The average speed was 43.1 km/h (according to my Strava) over ten laps for a total of about 36 km and 50 minutes. And, the field was large with 58 riders.
My goal for the race was to mostly observe, learn, and play it safe and so I stayed at the end of the pack for the first seven laps. With three laps to go, however, Zak from Dave Jordan Racing said to me “hop on” and he pulled me to the top 10 – was so awesome for Zak to help me. Afterwards I stayed mid-pack and you can actually see me in this YouTube camera helmet footage between the 41:35 and 42:00 marks . On the 10th and final lap, the field started sprinting on the homestretch and the below video shows me shortly before the finish. I came in 39th out of 58, four second behind the winner, per the race results.
Can’t wait for more Floyd Bennett Crit races this year. It’s an absolutely awesome group of people to race with. The sky during the evening can be stunning too.
My goal for the next Floyd Bennett Crit is to preserve more energy by staying in the middle of the pack and this will hopefully leave me with more energy for the final sprint. Also, we’ll need to bring some mosquito spray as they were eating us when the sun was setting. And, I need to keep my mouth shut during the race as pebbles were flying in it!
