Pinecone Road Race

First race of the year! Weather Forecast three days out, Sunny with a high of 62 degrees. Day of weather, Pouring rain and a high of 45 degrees. Oh well, I'm racing anyway. I was racing in the Cat 3 field at the Pinecone Road Race in Hammonton, NJ. The course is a typical Hammonton course of flat roads, 4 turns, and long straights. The loop was 6.3 miles long and the Cat 3 field would be doing a total of 7 laps. The field is slim at only 35 +/- riders. Bruce and Dan also lined up with me. We start and take a gentle pace for the first lap, just feeling things out a bit. The second lap featured more of the same, until someone decided to liven things up a bit with a slight attack. Naturally he didn't get far as with most attacks from a slow peleton don't. As we reeled him in I countered and got a gap. I pushed it out and was hoping that someone would come and join me. After a few minutes and with no one even attempting to chase and still having a long way to go I sat up. That took care of the second lap. The third lap I countered an attack on the finishing straight and again found myself all alone with a decent gap on the field. Still I'm a long way off and I really don't feel like being out there all alone. So I set a decent tempo pace and just cruise. It took the field around an entire lap to pull me back. The next lap went by fairly uneventful. On the 5th lap Bruce took a flyer into the finishing straight, no one went with him. People started to chase and I would just sit on every single persons wheel. No one really aggressively fought me to stop messing things up. Bruce stayed away for half of that lap until we made the catch into the second corner on the course. Coming out of the corner Bruce was about 15 yards of the front still but had sat up. I punched it out of the corner, this time I took another rider with me. We started working together immediately, the field had a little more motivation to chase now. We stayed away through that entire stretch, coming out of the next corner we were joined by a Keswick Cycles (Temple University) rider. It was a nice addition to the break. For the remainder of that lap we worked together pretty well. The field was definitely a little more interested in racing now though. We got one to go and headed onto the first straight away. As we came around the second corner a group of 5 chasers caught on. There were two more collegiate riders, Toby from Johns Hopkins who used to race with Beacon and another rider who races for Drexel. They join up and at first some of them start looking around. My thoughts are great you bridge up here, congratulate yourself later before we get caught by the field. I'm still good with doing work even if some people are not working entirely. There were about two riders who were not doing their fair share, one because he physically could not and was only slowing things down when he tried to work, and the other was deliberately not working. Oh well thats racing. We hit the final straight with around 30 seconds gap on the field. Then disaster almost strikes, Toby and I touched wheels, his front to my back. Luckily neither one of us goes down, unfortunately I broke a spoke. My wheel is rubbing on the brake a little and the spoke is ticking on my frame every revolution. Toby faired a little worse as his wheel was rubbing a little harder on his brake. While all this was happening one of the other riders had launched an attack. He was dangling around 15 meters of the front. We hit around 800m to go and the I'm coming to my turn in the rotation, this is where I am forced to make a tough decision. Pull through and I might get stuck leading things out, or go now and try and get away. I have a good sprint but I also have junior gears as well. I decide not to leave it to chance, I attack. I punch it from the center line over to the right side of the road and then full steam ahead. I quickly catch and pass the rider who was already away, and I just keep on as much power as I can. I established a solid gap from the initial burst. On my way to the line I took a few glances back just to keep tabs on the other riders. One rider was coming on strong but I had timed it right and would finish with about 5 bike lengths lead. I was so pumped, what a way to start the season.



I was able to grab another 10 points towards my Cat 2 upgrade. A huge thanks goes out to my teammates for blocking back in the field, and also for my mom for driving me there and taking some cool video.
Dan and I post race.

Peace and Love,
Patrick