At the first Lucarelli & Castaldi Prospect Park race of the year, I competed in the Cat 1/2/3 and raced very conservatively. This was in sharp contrast to yesterday’s Branchbrook race, where I chased nearly every attack as part of our Star Track team tactics, but that left me with little energy for the field sprint.
Tried to Conserve Energy but Missed the Break
Today, I stayed mostly mid-pack at the start of the race to conserve energy for a move that would hopefully get me into a break. While sitting mid-pack, I had to deal with the regular shenanigans of shoulder bumping and tire tapping while the winning break of four formed. After I realized the break was going, I swiftly made my way to the front, but it was too late. They were never caught.
Field Sprint Gone Wrong
So I focused on getting a good result in the inevitable field sprint. This started well, and with 1 km to go, I was sitting behind a three-man leadout. But the leadout shattered, and I got swamped, which is kind of my average Prospect Park last-lap experience.
Worse yet, my sprint came to a halt when a crash shortly before the finish line forced me off course and caused me to miss the timing pad. So my last lap didn’t get recorded, and my official result shows me as one lap down, coming in 79th out of 88. Had I made the pad, I guess I would have come in around 25th or so.
But at least one valuable lesson was learned: I need to find a good balance between chasing down attacks, but less than yesterday, and not sitting in as much as I did today. We’ll see how that goes at my CRCA Central Park race tomorrow. And yes, I’ll try to make it over the timing pad whenever possible.
Max’s Cat 3/4 Race
Max got into two breaks, but unfortunately neither lasted. So it came down to the field sprint for him as well, and he finished 41st out of 82.
