What a way to end the 2025 road season! Today, we raced the Kissena Fall Classic in Prospect Park. We were super excited because this race has been canceled for the past few years due to weather. This was also our first local park road race back from our European debut, and our goal was to race aggressively and test the improvements we’ve made by racing in Europe. What makes the Kissena Fall Classic even more special is that it’s traditionally the last New York City road race of the year. Max raced the Cat 3/4, and I raced the Cat 1/2/3.
Our Races
Max sat mid-pack or in the front half for most of the race, but got pushed back at the end to finish 45th out of 60, 15 seconds behind the winning time of 1:09:04.
I tried to race aggressively, so I made a lot of attacks and stayed toward the front to be able to participate in a breakaway if it had the potential to stay away. There were points during my race where I had opportunities to go solo, but I was too reluctant to commit. Granted, there was a minuscule possibility that I would have actually finished off the front, but I regret not giving it a shot. I was 5th into the final climb (about 2 km from the finish) until I didn’t have enough power or guts to fight to hold my position. The field began to swarm me, and I spent the rest of the race keeping myself upright and dodging a crash right before the line. I finished 36th out of 68.
Not the results we hoped for, but a perfect way to close out the season—and a great reminder to take chances when the race opens up.
Fundraising with Good Guys
The real highlight of today was making this fundraising video with Good Guys Racing to support our Star Track Cycling club. I’ve admired the Good Guys riders for years, so I couldn’t be happier that they wanted to make a video with us. We all messed up countless times, but we ended up finishing after an hour or so, and we had a blast. This was a really great opportunity to make new friends and support Star Track Cycling.
