Team Specialized Racing

This weekend I traveled to Upper State New York to race Battenkill. If you are unfamiliar with Battenkill, it is a one day road race through small 'villages' on both paved and dirt roads. In it's 5th year, it is already the biggest one day race in North America.

We don't have any teammates anywhere near New York, but the Team Specialized Racing influence is still strong there. Many competitors came up to me and asked if I knew different teammates around the country who they had raced against. They were always so positive. They usually said something about how strong our teammates are and then about how they talked to them after the race and how nice they were. They asked asked if I had any teammates at the race, because they knew that when we show up with a team at a race, we race as a team. One 17 year old competitor in particular talked about a race where he almost beat Phillip O'Donnell. He was so excited just to finish close to Phillip.

We have worked hard to form a good image of racing hard and being respectful, while also having fun. It was great to see how the image of Team Specialized Racing has spread around the country.

I went into the race hoping to repeat on last year and win, but I had some bad luck. We started the race with 75 17-18s and 50 15-16s all in the same pack. I rode near the front on the climband felt great. We thinned out the field to around 50 riders after 20 miles, but then I went around a turn and hit four pot holes flatting quickly. I continued to ride with the group while waiting for the follow vehicle, but it too far back. I lost the group once we hit some pavement. The support vehicle finally made its way through the shattered groups of riders to me and about 5 other riders. I got a new wheel, but I was already 5 minutes off the pack. I decided to make the best of it and go as hard as I could to the finish. I pulled a shuffling group of other riders for the next 2 hours as we caught and dropped riders. I was disappointed that I was out of the race, but "it's racing" and I had to make the best of my situation.

Marcus