Category 4: 27 miles

Presented by
Kissena Sports

Prospect Park
Brooklyn, NY
Course Map at prospectpark.org

Confirmed (pre-registered) riders:
http://www.bikereg.com/events/ConfList.asp?EventID=8424

‘Arches in attendance:
– Aaron (8th place)
– Naoufal
– George
– Lorenzo

Cat 4 Summary: (as reported by Aaron)

The Cat 4’s can best be described as “another race, another crash…”. Everyone was clearly there to race which made for a constant churn in the peleton where guys would fight their way towards the front then get stuck in a current out the back, only to repeat.

There were a multitude of breakaway attempts that were *immediately* and aggressively shut down by the pack.

About five laps in there was a huge surge over the top of the hill and it looked like ~15 guys were going to break free (I was hoping anyway, as I was in that group 🙂 ). By the time we were on the way back down the hill the two-wide group had squashed back to the full width of the road.

Due to the constant mixing up of riders I only saw Naoufal a few times during the race, including the final stretch where he was in excellent position to follow an early leadout up the middle of the road (usually these go on the sides). I followed his wheel to the next surge when I heard the crash behind me.

There was still 800 meters to go, a lot of rubbing of wheels and tires so my effort was a mix of pushing forward (I had us clocked at 32mph at the time) and staying upright.

With the sprint starting so early I followed the wheel in front of me to the line and placed 8th.