Race Report: Tour de Fair Haven

On Sunday, September 20 the Tour de Fair Haven took place in Fair Haven, NJ. This would be the final race of the New Jersey cycling season.

I awoke at 4:30am to the sweet sound of my alarm chiming over and over. I reached for my phone to check the time and as expected, hit the snooze button, which would give me 5 more minutes of precious sleep. One might laugh that 5 minutes isn’t enough time to actually fall asleep and then wake up again. I can assure you that I was asleep again in less the 5 seconds and waking 5 minutes later, which felt like a full nights sleep.

I had been battling either a minor cold or seasonal allergy symptoms for the past few days. Each morning would bring on a sore throat, stuffy nose and swollen eyes. I sat up in bed and turned so that my feet hung off, and held my face in my hands. I was thankful that today would be my final sub-5am rising for the year (as far as cycling is concerned). It took much effort to rise completely out of bed and stumble into the bathroom for a ritual brushing of the teeth. I stared into the mirror and witnessed eyes completely full of red. Maybe those evening beers weren’t the best of ideas? Nah! A few drops of Visine and I was good as new. I had laid my clothes out and packed the prior evening, so getting ready was a breeze. Another “Bye honey, I’ll call you later,” and I was heading for the door. As usual, Diesel tried to follow me.

Considering that last week the temperature was 85 degrees, this morning felt cold. I packed up the car and hopped in. The temperature gauge on the dashboard read 50 degrees. “Damn,” I thought, this was going to be a cold race. I headed for my normal Dunkin’ Donuts stop of coffee and a veggie flat bread sandwich. After grabbing my on-the-go breakfast, I was back on the highway. It wasn’t even 5am yet, the sky was pitch black and I was still half asleep. I tried to type out a quick, “On the road!” message to Mark, but quickly realized that I was swerving all over. Whatever I felt compelled to share with my teammates could surely wait. At 5am, there’s barely a soul on the road. I made excellent time and arrived at Fair Haven in less than an hour.

Pulling into the parking lot, I witnessed everyone in his or her cold weather gear. Both leg and arm warmers, hats, vest and even a few jackets were in full effect. Thanks to the caffeine, which was now pumping through my body, I was fully awake. I tossed on my gear and headed for the registration tent. Thankfully, I had pre-registered, because the registration had closed. This meant that all 80 spots in the cat 4/5 race were filled. Anarchy would ensue. With only 20 minutes left till start time, we headed out for a warm up.

Team Propeller would be a force on this day. Seven of us took the line waiting for the whistle to let us off. Aleksey, Paul, Mark, Mike, Kurt, Travis and me sat patiently. Everyone knew who we were and it felt like they were all out to get us.

The whistle blew and we shot off the line, completely out of the saddle, like a rocket. Our team positioned itself perfectly in the lead, so that during a breakaway, no teammates would be dropped.

The first lap, like any, was twitchy. Nerves were still settling in, legs were warming up and nobody truly knew the course. In fact, even the pace car didn’t know the course, because they took us the wrong way. Instead of fixing the course, we continued to race the wrong layout.

The pace stayed very high, which caused the 80-person pack to quickly split into 2 groups. Our team did an excellent job of either leading attacks or chasing them down. I was feeling fantastic and my legs felt strong. Probably the strongest they had felt all season. I had no problem keeping up or even pulling at one point or another, which caused Aleksey to yell at me.

Despite being longer than a normal crit, the 22 mile, 5 lap, 4.4 mile course was technical and consisted of 10 90-degree turns.

On the 3rd lap, a small pileup occurred. Like most races, riders get too close to each other during corners, flats or inclines. The sound of tires touching tires was the immediate signal that someone was about to crash. A split second later and the sounds of crunching carbon rang through the streets. Fortunately, Paul, Aleksey and I were ahead of the crash and kept our pace as if nothing happened.

On the final lap, Aleksey moved into time-trial mode. He sat in the number 1 spot and I was directly on his wheel. I watched him reposition himself so that his elbows were placed on the bars, making him more aerodynamic. Coming past the crowds, our speeds increased to 30 mph. You could hear the cowbells ringing and the people cheering.

We were approaching the final turns and still leading the pack. After a couple rights, we ventured into a descent, where many would attack and overtake us. Paul jumped on their wheels, but I continued to sit on Aleksey’s. We pulled out into the final straight and I slipped into the drops. Aleksey was about to lay down the hammer and I was doing my best to hold on. His speed reached close to 38mph and it took everything in me to hold on. Aleksey pulled me past riders one by one until the finish line appeared. We were slightly far behind for a podium, but Paul was up and finishing in the front. Paul crossed the line in 4th and within a second behind him, Aleksey in 9th and me in 10th. Seconds after, the rest of our teammates would cross in respectable positions.

After the race, we celebrated by filling our water bottles with beer. There was nothing quite like consuming a cold beer out of your water bottle before 9am. We hung around, shared some laughs and said goodbye. It was the perfect ending to a fantastic season.