Two Saturday’s ago the TBD squad rolled up to Riverside Drive for one of our favorite days on the NYC calendar: the Grant's Tomb Crit. If you read our race preview, you'll know the course well by now — 0.9 miles, five corners, two punchy rises, and the most fun corner in New York City to bring it all home. The forecast delivered as promised too, with dry roads for the morning races before the rain arrived to make things interesting in the afternoon.

It turned out to be quite the day for the team. Annie sprinted to victory in the Women's 4/5 with Steph right behind her in third, Simon took his first ever road win in the Men's Cat 4 before backing it up with third in the Cat 3/4, and Hannah made the front split in the Women's 3/4/5 to take third in her field and keep the team's podium streak alive. Race reports from the whole crew are below.

Morning at the Grant’s Tomb Criterium (photo by Elbert Mets)

Women’s 4/5 Race (Annie)

I raced Grant’s for the first time last year and I was excited to line up again this year. Last year it was one of the first crit races I had ever done and I was excited this year to see how far my confidence and cornering had come. Advance warning: excessive use of the word corner to follow.

My hazy memory of last year is hanging on the back and getting gapped a bit on every corner. It makes for a hard race when you’re hustling back on 4 or 5 times in a ~2-3 minute lap. I still enjoyed the course last year despite this, but I didn’t realize until this year with some much improved confidence how much fun the course really is. As Simon coined in his race preview, the sweeping 180 degree turn really may well be the “most fun corner in New York City”.

Before the race I hadn’t gotten the chance to ride the course since last year save for one warm up lap. First impression was that I felt good taking the corners at speed, even like I wanted to push the pace a little. From there, I stayed in the top couple of wheels for most of the race. We were riding mostly single file which made the corners feel stress free and flowy. There was one corner I remember where we were a bit more bunched up and there was a little bit of jockeying for positioning. I could feel someone trying to test their chances of being able to come up through the inside. I stayed calm, held the right line and the rider naturally got pinched back. A small and fairly inconsequential moment, but I came through that corner feeling in control and that kind of stuck with me. I still have lots of room to grow, but here I was actually having fun on features of the course that had caused me pain the year before! A win in and of itself.

Enough talk of cornering - a few words on the finish. I love a very slight and gradual incline. Just enough resistance that you can generate good power but the pedals turn smoothly. You’re going fast but you feel steady. Dreamy.

When we came around the final curve I was near the front. The field was on the smaller side so there weren’t many places to really tuck in but that also meant there was far less fighting for positioning. About half (?) way up it felt a little on the early side but I was already on the front, so it was a bit like - well I guess now is as good of a time as any. I was in the drops and ramped up the pace but wasn’t quite sprinting. I felt two people to either side of me and my chain did a couple of heart wrenching skips, but thankfully found its way into place. I started to pull ahead and got out of the saddle at the traffic light. I questioned for a moment if I could hold it to the line but I had one gritting of teeth left in me to get there first. A deep breath followed by elation when I realized Steph was right there with me for a very close 3rd place finish!!

Annie and Steph on the podium at the Grant’s Tomb Criterium (photo by Elbert Mets)

Women’s 3/4/5 Race (Hannah)

After catching up with Annie, Steph, Simon and Elbert on the AM races, I felt stoked to keep the good momentum going. There was some sunshine peaking through the clouds on my commute to Grant’s and I convinced myself that we were out of hot water (pun intended), with the iffy weather forecast going into the weekend. Then the rain started. I questioned my life decisions as I remained huddled under the tent instead of doing a warm-up (I’ll tell my coach that I opted for a mental warm-up).

We finally lined up, and were quickly off. I heard murmurs of a few racers wanting to get a break going and was on alert to stay near the front for the first few laps. The pace was strong and 10mins in, I turned around and found that the field had split on the finishing straight. Five of us had made the front group. We worked together reasonably well and established a gap over the next 20 or so minutes. I remember at this point hearing someone on the sideline yelling to keep the pulls reasonable and think about the finish (thank you random person!). Everyone seemed pretty committed to a sprint finish as no one attacked our small group. Last lap, we geared up for the sprint and I positioned myself a little away from the group to try to give myself a clear shot to the finish. I stood to sprint and didn’t have much to give, but enough to roll in for 4th overall and 3rd in my field to keep the podium streak going.

Men’s 4 and 3/4 (Simon)

A double race day for me, starting with the Cat 4 race in the morning. I was excited as we lined up to be racing alongside Elbert, since a teammate on the start line puts you in a good mood regardless of what happens. The only other team properly represented was Major Taylor, with five riders in the field.

The start of the race was relatively tame, so I used the early laps to focus on positioning and properly learning how to take every corner at speed while things were still manageable. I found it fairly easy to move up whenever I needed to, especially on the descent, where the field was mostly coasting rather than keeping the pressure on.

Elbert then decided to light things up with an attack about halfway through, and the pace stayed high for the rest of the race. With the field properly working, the cornering lessons from the first half suddenly became very useful. With around three laps to go Elbert went again with another flyer (legend), which took a few riders about a lap of chasing to bring back.

In those final laps the only thing on my mind was positioning, and it was going well: I came into the last lap around second wheel with the field strung out. Nothing changed until the descent, where a Major Taylor rider dove down the outside. I hopped out and grabbed his wheel through the hairpin, and by now the whole field was single file. Shortly after the corner another rider came flying up the outside and I jumped across to his wheel, holding it until the plateau halfway along the finishing straight.

That's where I launched. It was a long way out, but duration power is where I hold my own best, and with everyone in one long line only the single rider behind me could realistically follow. As long as I could open a gap on him, it should stick. Thankfully it did, and I was able to pull away and take my first ever road win.

There wasn't long to celebrate before lining up again for the Cat 3/4, and it was a very different race. This one was super hard from the off. Where the morning had been about finding free places, here I was fighting just to stay with the front group. Any time I clawed my way into the top 5-7 wheels, I'd get churned back to mid-pack within half a lap and have to start all over again. Attacks kept coming the whole time, so the pressure never let off.

Coming into the final lap I was maybe tenth wheel, and stayed around there until the hairpin. Right after the turn I started putting the power down to gain ground. I honestly couldn't tell you where I started sprinting, I just went when everyone else did, and managed to bring it home in third.

A win and a podium from a single day at Grant's Tomb, especially having been dropped from the 3/4 field after seven laps last year, is far more than I could have asked for. Incredibly happy, and very grateful for all the support this team has shown me on the way here.