Cross is Coming? The Rockleigh Crit Continues
It has been a memorable first race series at the Rockleigh Mile. From a solo win in week one, to a series of unfortunate incidents in week three to another solo win last week, each Thursday night the squad has shown up to race aggressively and been well rewarded with either good results or at a minimum good stories.
All of which meant we were probably overdue to a bit of a down week - it's not easy to keep tossing up solo wins or to walk away with tales of racing crits on a two-speed bike. Indeed in some ways the most memorable part of last night's race was not the actual racing - where we managed to walk home with another good result - but the hike-a-bike over the North side of the GWB. As the kids say - cross is coming?
As for portion of the evening spent riding in circles at twenty-six or twenty-seven miles per hour: the pace was quick from the gun as a few non-threatening moves snuck away in the first twenty or so minutes. Daghan and I worked hard on the front - going with moves and bringing back anything that looked dangerous.
After some aggressive early racing there was a small group including Lupus and Foundation dangling off the front. Scudney appeared and immediately went to bridge with some additional riders, sending Daghan and myself into defense mode - looking for opportunities to bridge but making sure not to take up the chase with a teammate up the road.
As a result the rest of the race was fairly dull - for a while it looked like the pack may come back together but in the last third of the race the impetus went out of the chase and the closest we came to the break was recollecting a few riders spit out of the lead group. Scudney stayed in the break through he was a climber in a group of sprinters so he rolled across the line in 7th position while Daghan took second or third in the field sprint.
A New York City based cyclist and sometimes photographer. Part adventure rider, part crit racer, and fully obsessed with an English bulldog named Winifred.
Instagram: @photorhetoric
E-mail: matthew@tobedetermined.cc