Empire Games: How it went down

As I noted in a special dispatch yesterday, I achieved one of my major objectives for this season in qualifying for the Empire State Games.

The games pit teams from nine regions of New York State in athletic contests, and cycling is just one of many sports contested. Of course, cycling is the only sport I care about. In order to get to the games, cyclists have to compete in a trial race in their region. In each region, the top ten racers make the team, and get a ticket to the games in late July.

In the Adirondacks, the trials are held in the town of Nassau, on a 9.5 mile course of rolling country roads. A field of about 45 men and a handful of women lined up for the trials under gray skies threatening thunderstorms. With a warning that the race could be shortened if lightning started to strike, we set off on a 75-mile trek.

I've only raced on other ESG qualifier, but both that one and this one had a similar dynamic in that with no money on the line, and the top ten riders all recieving the same prize, the win becomes much less important. The pace was moderate in the beginning of the race as everyone stretched their legs. The pace got suddenly jacked up around mile 5, and we proceeded to rip around the course.

The pace remained high as we started the second lap, and numerous riders tried to fly off the front. Nothing stuck until the right combination of six of the region's strongest riders came together and drilled it to establish a gap.

Justin Lindine, of Target Training; Vinny Scalia; Matt Purdy; Austin McLenithan, of Farm Team Cycling; Nathaniel Ward, also of Target Training; and Dieter Drake, of Battenkill United pulled clear of the field, and with the twisty, hilly nature of the course, the riders were soon out of site of the field, and it seemed that everyone left behind all but gave up.

I did my best to get a train going to pull the move back, but with the exceptions of Mark Sumner, of Battenkill United, James Morrison, of CCB International, and Andy Ruiz of Keltic Cycling, no one seemed to want to race. By that point, the field had been reduced to about half, and only 20 riders were left to slug it out, and about 15 of those riders seemed content to cruise along at group-ride pace, while the gap to the six leaders continued to grow.

Here's proof that such negative racing does not yield results. I got extremely frustrated with three riders from team Placid Planet, who were riding slowly at the front of the peloton. At first I urged them to rotate through, and let others pull. When they didn't, myself and others just rode around them. Later, one apologized, and explained that he would "have normally pulled through," but couldn't because he was abiding by some team strategy.

"Oh, do you have someone up the road?" I asked.

"No," he said. I don't want to make any enemies here, but that has to be the worst team strategy I've ever seen: let a break go up the road without any representation, and then, instead of chasing, riding slowly, so that everyone else in the race gets to rest, saving it up to beat you later. Like I said: Worst. Strategy. Ever.

But enough of that. The race inched its way along, until the sixth lap, when the officials drove up along side us and told us that lightning was immanent and they were cutting a lap out of the race. By this time, the field had been whittled down to about 15 riders. With the race progressing slowly, and nothing of interest seeming likely to happen, I think we were all a little relieved. Besides, 66.5 miles is long enough.

That being said, with the first 6 of 10 qualifying spots gone up the road, only the first four finishers in our group were going to the games, and, with my legs heavy after doing more than their fair share of work during the race, I was worried about being out-gunned in the sprint. And I would have had to have immediately retired if any of the Placid Planet guys beat me. Just as I was thinking about all of that, it started raining.

With about 3 miles left in the race, I rolled off the front of the field going up a moderate incline. I didn't mean to attack, but before I knew it, I had a gap, so I stood up, and attacked. I knew that in ordinary situations, there was only a small chance of such a last-ditch effort coming to fruition. But this race was no ordinary situation. This was was the most negative race ever. Although I didn't see it happen, I'm sure that when I went off the front, everyone looked at each other, with a look that said: "I'm not going to chase, are you?," and let me go.

All of a sudden, after 62.5 miles of moderate riding, I was in the race of my life, a race to dispell all the poor results and bad luck of this season. I put my head down and turned he pedals harder. Coming up the climb to the finish in the last quarter-mile of the race, I had a sizable gap to the field and I knew that I had seventh place finish locked up. There was no cash prize, and there was no tangible prize at all, except an envelope of registration forms for the July games.

Behind me, Andy Ruiz, Mark Sumner and James Morrison took the last three spots on the team.

Dieter says this is one of the strongest teams the Adirondack region has had in recent memory. I don't know much about past teams, but I do know that I'm proud as hell to have made it onto the team, and am look forward to representing my region, along with these fine riders. Finally with a good reason, I'm also hoping that I can figure out a way to get a pair of carbon aero wheels to make me faster in the games' two time trials (team and individual). But I'm still really poor, so we'll see about that.

There was also a women's qualifier, which had the women racing with the men, but finishing after only four laps. Only three women are able to qualify for the games, and it was a North Atlantic Velo sweep of the top three spots.

The unstoppable Beth Miller won, after hanging in with the men until she'd completed her four laps. Behind, her team mates Meredith Ehn and Bryna Nestor took the second and third spots. Great racing ladies!