The Lucarelli & Castaldi FBF Summer Fly-By was a lot of fun. There was much excitement and everyone had a great time. Ari, however, sat this one out because he had a pretty hard race the prior day at Prospect Park – his blog post is here. But, Ari joined me to watch the races. Our Star Track teammates Akira, Lily, and Logan came too. We were all racing together because they combined the junior field with the woman’s Cat 4/5. We were a little rushed because Logan got a flat 10 minutes before our race during our warm-up. Thanks to Brands Cycles, it was fixed in no time.
The race
We raced seven laps for a total of about 25 km. The race started right on time and my teammates and I all lined up in the same row. At the beginning, the race was pretty slow and everyone was just chatting. So when we came around to the home stretch on the first lap I made an attack – I felt it was a good one because the field was a little stretched out as we made the turn and this forced everyone to chase on their own. But the field caught up and the pace slowed down again. On the second lap, I tried again to pick up the speed and this worked until Logan I and stopped pulling and then the pace slowed down again. On the third lap, I tried starting another a breakaway but it didn’t stick so I stopped launching attacks. I was just wasting my energy.
On the fourth lap, someone else made an attack and for whatever reason it stuck and I decided to keep the pace high. After the third corner on the fourth lap, Devin from Verge launched his attack and Yair from L&D cycles managed to follow but the rest of us couldn’t and kept a moderate speed. At that time Logan unfortunately got another flat. At the bell on the final lap, the pace picked up again and I launched another attach, working together with another person from L&D Cycles. Akira bridged up and we were all working together; at the finish Akira managed to passed me and I came in fourth overall and third in the junior boys field (behind Devin and Yair who finished earlier).
After the race
After the race we were just hanging out and having fun. When we had podium we got some cool medals and gift cards from Brands Cycles. I was happy with my result but felt bad for Logan because he had to walk back for about a mile and he did this in his socks because we didn’t want to damage his shoes and cleats.
