Racing Returns: Kicking off the 2026 season
Put simply, this winter has been a slog. As one snow storm gave way to the next, riding outside increasingly felt more like a distant memory as indoor training sessions added up. And yet, even with snow drifts still piled throughout the city, the race season was somehow getting underway thanks to a race calendar that seems to shift earlier and earlier with each passing year. Thankfully after a bleak January and February, the weather gods finally cut us a break for the start of the Lucarelli & Castaldi Series in Brooklyn this past Saturday. Yes, an unusual fog hung over the city, leaving roads damper than preferred. But temperatures were in the 40’s, which counts as nearly-tropical compared to recent conditions.
And so we found ourselves in Prospect Park before dawn, greeting racers that we had not seen in months and catching up on winter escapades as most of us pinned on numbers for the first time in 2026. Turnout was appropriately large given the weather, while the actual racing involved a fair amount of knocking the cobwebs out of our legs and race strategy. For instance, we severely mistimed launching Simon for the first KOM sprint. But such is the nature of early season racing and we made up for it by winning the second KOM and sneaking in a top 10 on the finish line.
All in all it was a great way to open up the 2026 race season - with some promising early season results, and an excellent edition of post-race coffee and park laps. Shockingly, it is possible to race locally both Saturday and Sunday every single weekend of the month so we look forward to getting back on the start line with the local community, even as we fear the weather will not be as cooperative as it was for this first go around.
