Yes, finally, at the CRCA Central Park road race, I managed to get into a break in a Cat 1/2/3 field. This has been a big goal for me, and it finally worked!
My experience has been that these Cat 1/2/3 fields often have winning breaks, and if you miss them, you are out of contention for a podium spot and left racing for honor in the field sprint. To get into a break, I was previously either racing too aggressively and chasing after everything, which burned too many matches, like in the Branchbrook race last Saturday, or I tried staying more tucked in to conserve energy but ended up missing the breaks, like in last Sunday’s Prospect Park race. Today, I found a good middle ground.
The Break
Our race was 5 laps for nearly 50km, and today I got into the break by following one rider who attacked on the final lap on Harlem Hill. We worked together for about 8km and, with 1km to go, we even managed to catch the two riders who had gone off the front earlier in the race.
I was near my limit by the time we caught them, but I tried to pass them with the momentum I had because I wanted to avoid the field catching us. That backfired, and I ended up leading out the sprint and finishing 4th out of 32. In the meantime, the field caught up, and I crossed the finish line just 4 seconds ahead of it.
You can also watch the GoPro recording of the race on our YouTube channel.
I have always aspired to be a breakaway rider because of the strength it takes to ride hard for dozens of kilometers, so I finally proved to myself that becoming one is possible. Granted, this breakaway was only 8km long, the field was rather small, and I am sure there was also a good amount of luck involved, but at least this one succeeded.
Max’s Race
Max raced the Cat 3/4 field in Central Park for the first time and had a fantastic race. His race was 4 laps for nearly 40km. He went solo for about 2km to try to catch a break that formed near the start of the third lap, but he just missed it.
So for him, it came down to the field sprint, and he finished 18th out of 44.
So Nice to Race Central Park Again
This was also my first CRCA Club Race of the year, and it felt really special to race in Central Park again and catch up with the CRCA community and the Star Track riders who were also racing today: Ian, Ilai, Logan, Viv, and Zara.
