I spent the weekend off the mountain bike and on the road bike. There were a couple of road races scheduled over the weekend, and I new that they would be very good events.

First up on Saturday was the NY Capital Region Road Race (CRRR) that is put on by the Capital Bicycle Racing Club (CBRC) in Albany, NY. CBRC puts on some great events: Capital Region Road Race, Johnny Cake Lane Spring Series, Uncle Sam Cyclocross Gran Prix and Bethlehem Cup CX. They do a great job with their races and the events are a lot of fun. The CRRR is always a big event for the area and this year drew about 400 racers. The race is a difficult race if you are not a quality road racer. There are several very steep climbs over each 20 mile lap. For me the climbs hurt, but I rode them and finished the race in 41st position. Sure it might be last but I had two goals going into the race; finish and a time of 2:45:00 or less. I did both.

Second on the weekend was the Annual Altamont Criterium promoted bu Anthem Sports (Tour of the Battenkill, Tour of the Catskills). I’ve never races a Crit, this was close to home and it was a 25 minute race for Cat 5. I can do this right? Well, I did a little research on crit racing and decided…yeah, I can do this. The course was a .7 mile course with a slight uphill to the finish. I new it was going to be fast, just how fast I didn’t know yet. The first 2 laps I was able to stay with the lead group until the attacks started. So I just settled in with about 5 other riders for the next 10 minutes or so until the field was really broken up. I was a little nervous about my “crit skills”, but I’m a pretty good bike handler, so after a few laps I was taking turns 1, 2 and 4 with little braking and turn 3 for the last few laps with little braking. I was much more comfortable racing in a group then I thought I would be. My overall finish was a mid-pack 15th place -1 lap with an average speed of 21+ mph. I’m good with that, I was lapped with only two laps to go. Overall, I did much better that I had expected I would do, and I think there will be more crit racing in my future.