NY Capital Region Road Race
Written by: Bill
My mom and I met Andy Ross and Wayne at 6 to head down to Albany for the race. We managed to cram everything into Wayne’s car and we departed on our 2 hour journey. We arrived and I went in and registered. After registration I warmed up for around an hour and jumped in with my race group. I was riding with Masters 65+, First Timers, One day license, Juniors 15-18, and Local Police,Fire, and Military. I could tell this race was going to be pretty easy to keep up with. We got read our pre-race instructions and there were a few hilarious questions coming from the first timers. Such questions as “What’s neutral start?”, “What’s a feed zone?”, “What’s Junior gearing and do I need to have it?”, and the best one “What’s a race marshal?” My friend Jordan Strober and I were trying not to burst out into laughter.
The race started and we had a 3 mile neutral start. The car was going at around 15-17 mph and I was drafting it with Jordan right beside me. We told the guy to turn on the radio and we were listening to music for around a mile or two. Then I looked back and saw a huge line of cars behind us which I thought was pretty funny. Jordan and I started singing “What is Love?” by Jimmy Haddaway and there were a few people who joined in. We reached the first hill in the neutral start and we sang all the way up to the finish line dropping half the field in the process before the race even started. As soon as we crossed the start line Jordan and I started to Sprint. Everyone jumped on our wheel and we hammered up every hill we came across. We now had a group of about 8 a few minutes later. We slowed down and a Master took off but I reeled him in. Jordan then came up beside me bobbing his head and we started singing “What is Love?” again while everyone was gasping for air due to our constant attacks going up hills. I think a few people then decided to sit in as much as possible after our singing because I was in the front pulling until “The Wall”. On the downhill section I opened up a gap in order to be first to reach “The Wall”. I dropped it into my little gears in order to respond to any attacks that were launched. Sure enough a kid from Farm Team sped by me up the hill. I jumped on his wheel and let him pull me up “The Wall” we reached the top and I took over in the front in order to keep the 10 second gap we had. I was hammering down the hill and through most of the flat section. When I pulled off the front I looked back and I didn’t see the field. This got me motivated to try and destroy the field. When I took over the front again I got down into a TT position and was doing 33 down hill and 27-28 in the flats. I was dropping the kid I was with on flats and downhills. I asked him how he was doing and he said he was fine. I let him pace for a little bit then I took over again. I would do 27ish for around a minute or two then he would take over and do around 25 or 26. I thought “They are never gunna catch us!”. We came into the finishing hill and he pulled up along side me. It seemed he wasn’t going to play cat and mouse so we chit chatted until the 200M mark. I said “Ready?”, then we both took off side by side. He had acceleration but I eventually pulled in front of him with around 50M to go and won the race.
I headed back down to the school and got rolled out by one of the officials. I then went back up and saw the Cat 3/4s finish. I rode back to the car where I met everyone and we went down to the school to receive the medal I won. We got inside and I went over to the table with all the medals and an official came up to me and asked me for ID. I showed it to him and I received my medal. He also gave me a cycling cap,a water bottle, a shirt, and he told me I should join his club and he would get me a coach. My mom said that would be great but we live in Syracuse and unless I biked there it wouldn’t be possible. He said “Well I hope to see you next year.” and I said “I will see you next year.” We then made the 2 hour car ride back. When we got back we got all my stuff out of the car and I packed it into my car. While we were packing my mom said “at least you didn’t get hurt today” because I was complaining about being tired. Not 2 minutes later I slammed my finger in the door and It was bleeding for at least 5 minutes.
It was a great race and a fun coarse! I plan on doing this race again next year. Also I would like to thank Wayne for allowing us to carpool with him and Andy Ross.
((Side Story- We pulled into a rest stop on the thru-way and we went and got something to eat. I got a BK double stacker (regret it) and Wayne got a smoothie of some sort. We sat down and started to eat. Andy Ross then proceeded to eat a plum in front of me while I was eating my heart attack on a bun. I offered him a fry as a joke and he obviously refused. Then Wayne went over to Dunkin Doughnuts and something strange happened. Andy Ross went over and got a jelly filled Doughnut!!! I think he gave in to the pressure hahah.))
-Bill Golembieski