Race Ave. & Philly

I went to the Race Avenue crit in Lancaster on Saturday. Wasn't originally planning on racing, but I wanted to do something before Giro di Jersey and I'm not racing this weekend. It was a small but strong field, with a number of pros that were racing Philly on Sunday coming out to open up. The legs felt great and I read the race well, making it into the winning break with Johhny "the punk" Sundt and one other Kelly guy, ex crack fiend Chad Gerlach, A Jittery Joe, Jeremy Grimm and Jamil Kayin. After I pulled through a couple times it was clear that I was having the same breathing problems that always affect me in early June. The last 2 years at the Reading crit the same damn thing happened. As soon as I start to redline I feel like I am wheezing and can't get any oxygen... which of course means that my ability to recover is severely impaired. I started to sit on but when the second Kelly guy got popped I got caught behind and couldn't close the gap. Apparently Jamil sat on the entire time and then sprinted at the end, taking third. Jamil... hope you enjoyed it because you can now consider yourself blacklisted. Elliot did well to take 2nd in the field sprint for 7th.

Sunday was a long day, but fun. Did the fun ride around the course with some of our VIPs, then had a catered breakfast, then took a shuttle down to the Kelly Benefits tent at the start/finish line and watched the rest of the race. My boy Francois looked great, and delivered a nice 1K leadout for Kevin Lacombe, who took 6th, but the race wasn't fast enough for him to get a good result himself. It was kind of a weird vibe all day at the race. No TV coverage. Fans were sparse, except on the Wall and Lemon Hill. No money. No lead up races at Lancaster, Reading or Allentown. Not much publicity. I think that it wasn't until yesterday that the reality of the recession really hit me. Hopefully we can find a way to bring this race back to it's former glory.