Race report: Tour de Lake [Hopatcong]

So I had two options for Saturday:
1) Stay home and prepare my lecture for Monday...ughhhhhh
2) Race!

Not much of a choice there...haha. Opted to take part in the 40 mile race starting in Mt Arlington and going through the surrounding (and undulating) areas. Quite a chilly morning but at least it was sunny. A few teamates showed up as well so that was cool. Our field wasn't large at all and the first 15 miles or so were pretty stress-free.

The race became more animated on Edison Road (the big climb of the day). Shortly after the first switchback, a Team Bulldog rider launched an attack that opened the gap. Andreas and myself set a pace...and 3/4 of the way up the climb caught him. In the process everyone else but one rider was dropped. For the next 10 miles it was the four of us taking turns. About 8-10 miles from the finish the Bulldog rider and myself got a slight gap, worked together...and held it to the finish. In the slighty uphill sprint, he got me. I honestly didn't have much more to give. But 2nd place wasn't bad at all.

Now, the real surprise was who the guy was. I looked on their team homepage to realize that he was indeed ranked #1 NJ CAT3 Road racer last year!!! WTF! lol. Anyway, I was glad to hang with him and get complimented for almost dropping him on the last climb. Who knows what form he's been on this year...but for myself I felt it to be a cool accomplishment.

The highlight of the day was the Kamikaze move by Andreas. After getting dropped just before the summit of the climb, he barrelled down the descent and blew by all of us a mile later. Luckily I could sit back and watch the other two chase :-)