Central Park CRCA Club Race-July 30th, 2006

7/30 Team Cup Race

The Central Park roads seemed to have much more horse dung on them than usual. As Alison and I warmed up before the race, we tried to make mental notes as to where it was especially bad. The air was think and the humidity was high...a lovely day for a race.

This was only my second club race, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. The pace was fast and the attacks were plenty. Our plan was for Andrea, Alison and I to try to cover attacks and for Nancy to sprint for points on every lap after the first one. Nancy racked up the points with her sprinting while the rest of us rested up a bit to prepare for chasing more attacks. No attack ever got away and the team maintained a presence toward the front of the field for most of the race.

On our final lap, a CRCA rider took down Nancy with a sudden jerky movement to the left on the descent after Harlem Hill. Nancy was not hurt too bad, but she was annoyed. I was in a breakaway at the time and when the rest of the field caught us we heard that there had been a crash. Someone mentioned that they thought that someone from Bicycle Workshop had gone down. I looked around and only saw Andrea. We were about half-way through the final lap so we did what we could to position ourselves for the final sprint since Nancy was no where to be seen. The pace increased up Cat's Paw. Martha from Sanchez Metro jumped on my wheel and Andrea on hers as we sprinted to the line. Comedy took 1st and 2nd, Elena from Radical took 3rd, I took 4th with Ann Marie from Sanchez Metro in 5th and Andrea in 6th.

Nancy was third in terms of points, I took 6th and as a team we took second with 13 points.

Luckily super woman Nancy is ok. She even stopped to help a racer that had crashed in the men's field on her way to the finish line. She ended up with road rash on her leg and arm and also needed a couple stitches in her knee (yes, she stitched herself up!)

Of course we filled up on caffeine and goodies at Veselka after...