It was super windy! This was Max and my third time racing the Floyd Bennet Crit this year and fourth overall but we never raced in so much wind, neither at Floyd nor anywhere else. At the race were our Star Track teammates Akira, Daniel and YoYo and our friend Isaac who we know well from other road and track races — he’s on the left in the above picture. Coach Alan, Sandy, Billy, Mr. Kenji, Claudio Marquez and many others we know were at Floyd too — so nice to be there and see so many friends.
Before our races, Max, YoYo, and I did two warmup laps with Etsu from Veselka who taught us how to stay sheltered in the crosswind. After warmup laps Etsu interviewed YoYo, Max, and me (you can see the Instagram here) but my part was cut short because we needed to rush to our first event, the Junior race.
In the junior race were eleven riders. We raced four laps, about 3.7 km each. Over the first two laps the race was slow and we were mostly talking except when we chased down a few light attacks. On lap three, Devin from Verge launched an attack which Isaac and I chased down and YoYo followed and afterwards most of the field caught on. On the last lap, Devin attacked again but this one stuck; he got a gap which Isaac and I tried to close but I couldn’t keep up and ended up burning a lot of matches. With Devin and Isaac ahead of me, I was in a group with YoYo, Dani, and a Sanba rider. We were working together for about 1/2 lap but I got really tired and was caught by another racer that bridged. At the end, I finished 7th and Max came in 8th. The junior race results are here.
Next time I am going to try to be in more control of the race — rather than letting others attack, I should take the initiative at a time and speed that works best for me. Or perhaps, rather than gunning for 1st place and trying to chase down all the attacks, when 1st place is not in reach I should better pace myself for another podium spot. But then again, I wouldn’t have won road nationals if I had done that.
Dani, Isaac, YoYo, and I also raced the Cat 3/4 and had about 30 minutes to rest up. Crazy thing is that both YoYo and I got a flat, he after 2 laps and I after 5. Was a good race for me while it lasted. I was nicely tucked in the middle of the field staying out of the wind as much as I could but that also led to my downfall; I was forced into a pothole and got a “snake bite” on my tube.
I am still thinking hard how I could have avoided the flat. I knew from my pre-ride the approximate location of the pothole, but then it snuck up on me and I just couldn’t escape. Perhaps I should have “shouldered” myself out of this but that’s not an easy thing at my weight in a Cat 3/4. Or, perhaps I should have left my sheltered position in order to avoid the area with the pothole altogether. Or, I should just yell at riders to make space for me and for that I better brush up on my Spanish! Or, perhaps I should have put more pressure in my tires.
The picture on the bottom left shows Ari & Dani with Claudio Marquez at the Cat 3/4 start line and yes, he flatted too. Claudio has an awesome YouTube channel with tons of race videos and good advice. You can see his channel here.
Finally, our blog posts of the 1 Aug 2023 and 11 Jul 2023 races at Floyd are here and here.
