Think Racing, Inc.

No witty titles, no 70/80’s song references, no well worn cliches for this one - simply ‘wow!’

The reference of course is towards the Team Time Trial that the VisitBritain squad rode on September 11th for the CRCA Championships and Team Cup. Craig Upton (with a performance so reverential I refuse to use nicknames), Mike Henson, Ken Harris (HUGE performance) and Alex Gulla rode the 3 laps of Central Park at an average speed of over 29 miles per hour to destroy both the previous 3 lap record and the opposition with a time of 37.46.

A first lap of 12.26 pretty much signed, sealed and delivered the victory but the domination was underscored by the fact that the VisitBritain team’s slowest lap was a full 20 seconds faster than any other team’s quickest lap ! Make no mistake either, this was no weakened field. CRCA’s premier sole Cat 3 team (I think…) Blue Ribbon put in a Cat One like performance with a time of 39.22 and Sakonnet put their Team Cup back luck behind them by taking over a minute off their corresponding time of last year with a 39.42 showing.

A second VisitBritain team of Leon Moser, Ted Neu, Roger Freidman and Ricky Lowe put up numbers of 41.24 to take 7th overall and be the first B team in the race. A third team was even fielded made up solely of VisitBritain’s remaining Cat 4’s - Andrew Cohen, Ivry Semel, John Kuhn and moi - and they held up their end of the bargain by riding 43.34 and taking 2nd overall in the Team Challenge competition and taking the honors for the first C team from any subteam. Domination underlined in the best possible way.

So from a CRCA Team perspective this leaves only the Club Team Individual Championships on October 2nd, but before then there is Univest next weekend (Smilie’s destiny ?) and the Mengoni Grand Prix on the 26th. Eyes down for a full house ? A long shot but we’ll be going for it.

Phrases you rarely hear:
‘Smilie didn’t bring his “A” Game’

Phrases you seldom hear:
‘Alex just didn’t have it’

Phrases you NEVER hear (till last weekend):
‘Smilie and Alex BOTH had sub-par performances at the same race on the same weekend’

Phrases we (thankfully) have got used to hearing this season:
‘Another rider on the VisitBritain squad rose to the occassion.’

This time at the Green Mountain Stage Race over the hills of Vermont, it was Ted Neu and Roger Freidman who shone in the Cat 4’s and like Alex, Ken and Ricky before them signed off their Cat 4 careers in tremendous style.

The opening stage was a 7 mile uphill prologue, which Ted dominated in fine style - winning solo and with planty in the tank. Roger, had the misfortune to crack his chain stay on the way up - and rode a somewhat subpar performance.

Saturday’s circuit race saw Ted solidify his yellow jersey on General Classification and Roger sneak into the sprinter’s green jersey, thanks to some nippy prime taking.

Sunday was the dreaded mountainous road race - with a finish feared by even the most arduous of climbers. Here, was VisitBritain’s only mishap of the weekend where a solo rider from Vermont, slipped away mid-race and rode a fantastic performance, sweeping up all the King of ther Mountains points as well as the finish bonuses to take the overall from Ted. Our man in red, white and blue, took a commanding second on the stage riding away from the pack up the final climb but the damage had been done and it was a case of all hands on deck for the final Criterium on Labor Day Monday, to see if overall victory could be reclaimed.

For this particular race - “all hands” turned out to a number of other CRCA riders, in particular Craig Goodstein, John Hicks and the pocket rocket Armand Dellamonica, who graciously offered their services to see if the Yellow jersey could come back to New York. As it turned out it was close but not to be. Roger Freidman showed he’s learnt a thing or two from his training partner Ricky Lowe by mopping up enough sprint points along the way to secure the overall sprinters competition and Ted held on comfortably for 2nd overall.

Two superb performances from the 2 riders who have been largely the unsung heros of the Cat 4’s this season.