The crew headed out on the road again yesterday, loading up the machinery (the ol’ trek 2.1 with its proven worn tires and all) into the Curtin & Hadzor big blue battle wagon and took to route 20, heading towards Canandaigua for the Bloomfield Spring Classic. Randy was set to compete in the cat4, ~45mile road race, consisting of four 11 mile loops of quick little hills.

A dismal gray morning vanished as they traveled west towards the race, beautiful blue skies abound in Seneca Falls, only to be consumed once again by a constant gray cloud cover that spat a couple bouts of hail intermittently with its persisting gusty winds. The gear was assembled, and the Mello Velo uni was donned, as well as supplemental tights, shoe covers, and a couple pairs of gloves.

The race cued up in the drop off circle in front of the Bloomfield school and had its controlled start out to the course. During the first bit it was a relaxed pack, getting acclimated to the gusts of the strong cross wind and over all just settling in. One rider in red put in a couple surges on the first lap, perhaps feeling antsy with the excitement of the new cycling season, perhaps trying to make things interesting. On his second surge a mid-pack conversationalist noted that it was always on a downhill the Red guy would make his move off the front and sarcastically remarked ‘maybe this one will stick’. Around that same time Skinny Phil had moved up to the front to shake things up and get people racing. There was a solid Ommegang representation in several fields in Bloomfield that day, and in this race in particular there were a handful of ‘gangsters. Upon seeing Phils move to the front and listening to the pack chatter Randy decided it was as good a time as ever to see what was going on up front.

A space opened up and he joined Phil where they made a pretty clean break from the peleton. Off the front Phil and Randy worked for a bit to get a little separation from the pack to see what would happen, on the hill nearing the start/finish line, almost at the close of the first of the four laps, Phil says “Randy, Go!”. Not thinking about it much Randy hammers off into the wind. Only for a split second did it pass through his mind that this was a move off the front for 36miles remaining, and that that was quite early. The rest of thought process were filled with admiring the terrain and scenery, surging the hills, and thinking of how in other races when people just walk off the front and are never seen again. Perhaps that could be him today, and if worst comes to worst and the pack nears, he could always rejoin and try again later.

The laps ticked by and Randy held the lead open, encouraged by the locals of Bloomfield out for their weekend long runs and zipping through the finish zone and each time the lap counter was less. A simple yet reassuring constant. The 2.1 with it’s silly chain ring size differential were an interesting character to be dealt with as in the second lap the chain decided to drop to the inside, where 2.1 had to be dismounted and with clumsy adrenaline filled fingertips a couple attempts were made to eventually successfully replace the chain, remount and complete the hill. Later it was learned that the strongest rear cog also liked to throw chains, this time to the outside which was slightly more convenient as it was semi-easily set back on while coasting a downhill.

As the final lap wound out, every push and hill mattered, as Randy interpreted every noise and mailbox out of the corner of his eye as the inevitable attacking peleton. Luckily though, the lead was held and victory was claimed for Mello Velo /  BTB / Middle Ages!

Also luckily the weather held off entirely for the cat4 race and until almost the end of the pro/1/2/3 race when the clouds then unleashed the pent up rain, sleet and hail. Only affecting those dudes riding the last bit their race and then worsening and most likely cutting cool downs short, as the riders were last seen shielding their faces with their free hand from the fierce ice shooting winds.

Congrats to all!

– BTB

Randy Hadzor, 1st Overall Cat4

results: [ http://www.yellowjacketracing.com/files/user/cat_4_men_overall.pdf ]