MaxPowerCycling

I arrived in Rochester and we drove around for a bit until we came across the race. We asked a police officer where registration was and he told us to go park in the parking lot and it was near the food tents somewhere. So we parked and asked around where registration was. We were told it was in the first floor of the library right behind us after wandering around for 10 minutes. I registered and warmed up on the course in between events. It was a real technical course with a bunch of turns, potholes, and what-not. After my 10 minute warm up, I rode down to the staging area and joined in with the master 35+ group. Right after the womens race we were sent out on the course to go to the starting line. Everyone was going pretty fast. There was this one back road I didn’t like because the road was in bad shape and at the end of the road was a 180 degree turn into an uphill finish. We got to the starting line and I positioned myself in the top 15 or so. I was then told to go to the back of the race because the other juniors were there. I was pretty mad but I went back there anyway to meet my two competitors. We were staring with the masters and I didn’t understand why I had to move back because they positioned themselves poorly or whatever happened.

Anyway, the race started off but the pace car didn’t so I almost smashed into it as everyone went around it. We took the first turn pretty fast but I managed to get myself a few spots up. We then hit a downhill and the pace quickly picked up to 35+ mph and I had trouble keeping up with my junior gearing as everyone I overtook at the corner motored past me. I was at the tail end of the main pack and there was another group about 4-5 seconds back containing the other juniors and I thought “Great they will never be able to keep up at these speeds. So I took I took it easy and drafted the guy in front of me. We came through the start and the announcer said “Look at the masters go!! They aren’t wasting any time at all!” He said that because we came flying through the start at around 27mph. Whoever was on the front was really hammering it because the speed didn’t drop at all until we had 10 or so laps to go. Around 15 laps to go our group split in 2 as people off the front attacked. I hammered to bridge it but I couldn’t close the gap until we hit the hill. I took off after them and eventually caught them. Around 7 laps to go I looked back to see if the other juniors were there and there was one. I stopped pedaling and let him pass me. I grabbed his wheel and stayed on it until around 3 laps to go. We both slowed because we didn’t need to race with the masters because we were riding our own race. A little cat and mouse ensued and I attacked as he swerved over on the downhill. He eventually caught up and I was pulling on the front for a lap. I thought about ways to get him attack. I remembered on one of the tour stages were a Team Columbia guy was in the same situation but I didn’t have a jersey to zip up. So I decided to wait a little bit and around half way through the course on the last lap I shifted down a cog and took a drink out of my water bottle. Boom he attacked as I thought he would and I grabbed his wheel as we went down the road I don’t like and started to go to the finish. At 200 meters to go he started sprinting and I grabbed his wheel and moved back to about a bike and a half back. At 150 meters I accelerated into the slipstream and passed him to take 1st.

I got rolled out and rode around for a bit and watched the Mens 3/4 race. Then around 7:50 I went on the course and rode around with the pros that were about to race. I had a nice chat with a few guys from Toyota United and Colavita. I then exited the course and was stuck behind a bunch of spectators. Just then a kid came up to me and asked if I would sign his helmet. Haha. I was like uhhhhhh sure? I then went back to the car and got dressed. I watched the pro race and wow they are FAST! It then started to rain pretty heavily and a bunch of guys crashed. They took they’re free lap and got back in. They had to do 50 laps to complete the Crit. As the last lap came up I went to the finish line where I could’nt see anything because of the number of people there. All I saw was a Toyota United cyclist cross the finish line first. I watched the award ceremony then went home. We arrived back at the house at around 1-1:30 am and I went to sleep to prepare for the race I had to do the next day.

All in all it was a great race and I had a lot of fun doing it! I also was able to keep up with the masters that were hammering it until 7 laps to go.

-Bill Golembieski