I will only be sending out a few more weekly updates with the season is quickly drawing to a close, as evidenced by the fact that I had to wear arm warmers for the first time since spring this week for my early AM rides! Where did the season go? My NYU students are back at school and I have a crop of new riders. Myself and Wilson will be doing regular weekend rides with the crew until the weather prevents us from doing so. I will post the details of these rides on FB. We had several friends do the NJ Gran Fondo under very nice conditions and had good things to say about it – especially the waffles served at each rest stop! I will be doing the Putnam Cyclosportif on 10/14th along with some of my NYU riders – details for this ride can be found here:  http://putnamcycling.com/index.html.

– M.H.

(Race Report below!)

Weekend Results

Lancaster YMCA Duathlon, 9/8 – Lancaster, PA (from Mikael H):

My 5th duathlon of the year and I kept my streak of top 4 finishes in tact with 3rd place overall. We missed the really nice fall weather – on race day, humid thick air prevailed in Lancaster. About 300 toed the line for this 5k/40k/5k duathlon, which was held on a far more challenging course than I had anticipated, with nice hills on both the run and bike. I finished the first 5k in about 9th place with 2nd-8th not far in front of me (1st place guy was a local pro and schooled us all). I quickly reeled in the 7 in front even as I struggled to find my comfort zone on the first of 2 laps. By the 2nd lap I hit my stride and began to catch the 2nd place rider and was within 5 seconds of him into T2. I hung with him for the first mile of the 2nd run, but he was a far superior runner and the humidity was beginning to catch up with me. My thoughts quickly shifted to preserving my 3rd place finish as I saw that I had 4 pursuers within 45sec of me. The long hill at mile 2 nearly did me in, but I got over and hit the finish still in 3rd with 4th only 5 seconds back!  Next up the Simply Du It Duathlon in Ridgefield, CT on 9/23rd.  – M.H.

Pine Cone Road Road, 9/9 – Mullica Township, NJ (from Mike N):

The course – 4 Laps of a 10.6 mile loop in Elwood township NJ, 4 right turns per lap. The race: 23 or so lined up. 2 miles in, the pace seemed slow, so I went to the front. That continued past the start/finish of the next lap. By the time the final lap came around, I had been pulling for about 66% of the race. Despite many attempts at breakaways, I and one or two other people had kept the group together after 3 laps. After the first turn in lap 4, I felt a cramp coming on in the my right calf, but luckily it didn’t turn into a fully pulled muscle at any point. The 4th lap had one or two serious attackers that had staying power, and bridged to the lead group of about 7 as we made the last turn. The group seemed out of steam and allowed everyone to regroup before the finish. The pickup to the finish kicked in before the 500m signs with a 31mph pace which only slowed to 28.5 on the slight incline to the line. About 1/3 of the field pulled off as that incline picked up, probably spent from the pace of the 4th lap. I wasn’t positioned for a top 5 finish so I simply held the pace into the finish and came in 14th. – M.N.