RACE REPORT
by Scott Demel

Josh rode the A field (1/2/3) along with a collegiate teammate of Andrew.  Adam, Andrew and Scott rode the B field (4/5).

In the B’s, the pace was easily manageable for the first few laps of the 6 mile circuit.  About lap 3, someone got squirrelly, went down, and took out half of the B field.  All three BVF’ers made it through with the remaining front field of 35 riders.  With riders chasing back on, Adam and Andrew went to the front and upped the pace for several miles, deterring any more riders from latching onto the back of the remaining field.  Kudos to both for riding a strong race.  I hid in the field most of the morning, only going to the front once or twice, and only briefly.

After 7 laps and coming into the final miles, I weasled my way up to the front.  Here’s where it gets interesting, and then fell apart, at least for me.

1.)  A guy jumps off the front, solo.  Cooks himself, and goes back into the field.  Another group of 3 gets about 10m ahead.  I ride at the leeward side of the main field, near the front. Less than 1k to go.

2.)  A Spanish guy with yellow sleeves surges up the windward side of the field to the 3 group.  I jump to follow him but dangle just off his wheel.  It is hard to stay on him.  I am #5 in line.

3.)  700m.  Easy right sweep and out of the wind.  No position changes.  The hard left off the circuit is coming up.

4.)  HARD LEFT!   HEADWIND!   400m to go.  The 4 riders ahead of me spray across the road, everyone taking a different line through the turn.  I'm looking for a wheel, just to take me a bit farther up the road.   They're everywhere, and nowhere near me, argh!  The headwind absolutely kills any speed we had coming into the turn.

5.)  The field swarms through the left turn, en mass.  ARGH!  Looks like we went wide, but the field kept it tight and came through on the inside.  A thousand riders blow by.

6.)  Adam is in the pack, about 20 back.  He surges, brakes, surges, brakes, surges... but somehow manages to go through the riders and manages 6^th.

We stayed around to see the A’s finish just after us – their field had 3 riders ride away to build a 6minute lead!  Then we retired to the Pulver estate for burgers, dogs and beer with 3 generations of Josh’s family, some friends, and an eager-to-play-fetch dog.  Ahhh, upstate racing!