My last road race was March 8, 2020 (race report), the week before New York City shut down. It was a CRCA Central Park race at an unreasonably early hour in questionable temperatures, but despite all that, it was a lovely last-race-before-the-apocalypse experience. In the 14+ months since then, I’ve gone through various stages of not thinking about racing at all; thinking I’ll probably never race again; slowly starting to ride with people outside my immediate household; larger team rides in the park and on the weekends; and then finally starting to think that maybe I was ready to dip my toe into racing again.

Leah on the start line for the separate, and not so separate, Junior & Women’s field.

I signed up for a Randall’s Island race on a whim after a teammate posted about it on Slack. I noticed that despite the fact that a decent number of women had registered, the women’s field was combined with the junior men’s field. This was a bit of a red flag, but nothing I haven’t seen or experienced before. The options for women’s road racing can feel like such an afterthought that I’ve come to expect very little. The fact that a separately scored field was offered at all, even if it was combined with juniors, felt like enough of a reason to register. (This is not to take away from the real effort that people have put in to promote women’s racing, but until women’s fields are as ubiquitous as master’s fields and we don’t need to worry if or how there will be a race for us, there is still work to be done).

A CRCA/Big Hit Racing rider in the Men’s 1/2/3 race that was won by a solo breakaway rider from CRCA/Foundation

The morning of the race, I felt more than the usual amount of pre-race nerves. What if one of my tires flatted during the race (as they are prone to do)? What if I accidentally forgot my helmet? What if everyone, including myself, had forgotten how to ride with other people? The nerves calmed somewhat as I went through the familiar motions of checking my tire pressure, picking up my race number and chatting with people on the sidelines. I’d never raced on Randall’s before so I did a quick pre-ride of the course, noticing a couple potentially tricky sections: there was a somewhat narrow straightaway along the water followed by two ninety-degree turns in quick succession before the finish line, as well as a turn and narrowing of the course right after the finish.

The Century Road Club Development Foundation junior team on the start line

At the start line, we were notified that the women’s field would start first with two neutral laps, then the junior’s field would start thirty seconds after us. In my experience, teenage boys tend to be more aggressive racers, so it would have made sense to me to let them go off first. But the race was starting — it was too late to say anything. Sure enough, one neutral lap into the race, the juniors came up behind us at race pace and tried to pass our field. We were going through a slightly twisty downhill section, one of the juniors swerved into my wheel and I went down.

Randall’s Island remains a beautiful setting for a backdrop, with the NYC skyline overlooking the East River

I stood up, picked up my bike, put my chain back on, knocked my shifters back into place and tried to catch the field. After a lap and a half of intense effort, I came up on the finish line again and saw Yosef, Matt and Lisa waving at me frantically to pull off to the side. The race organizers let me take a free lap, so I had about a minute to sort myself out then jump back into the field when they came around again. I got on someone’s wheel, went through the turn after the finish line, down to the dreaded site of the crash, through the parking lot and onto the straightaway along the water. I noticed the two women in front of me fading, but by the time I pulled around them the front of the field — containing a good number of juniors and at least two women — was already gone.

The next several laps I was on my own, trying to keep a steady but high pace while watching the tantalizingly close field disappear around every turn. I passed a junior who had crashed in a corner, as well as a woman who seemed to have broken her wrist or arm. Eventually, with a few laps to go, a group of four or five riders caught up with me and we worked together until one lap to go. With a few hundred meters to go, I dropped to the back of the group, knowing that I was giving up positional advantage through the last two corners but hopefully avoiding any potential sketchiness. Coming out of the last turn, one woman was already about fifty meters ahead. I accelerated hard, sprinted around her and crossed the finish line to come in third? Fourth? I actually had no idea.

The final sprint for 3rd, with no one else in the frame.

After waiting around for results, I found out that I’d come in third. By this point, the adrenaline had worn off and the cuts and bruises from the crash were starting to sting. My kit was beyond salvaging but thankfully, I had no broken bones and my bike was fully intact. Still, I couldn’t help wondering: did I return to racing too soon? Should I have waited another month or two? It’s too late to say now, but I think I may take a little break, ride some trails and wait for everyone (including myself) to get their racing legs back.

P.S. I emailed the race director with some feedback on the field structure and he was very receptive to making changes — he mentioned that he’s working on a few potential solutions for splitting up the women’s and junior’s fields for the next few races. This is a great step, but it’s frustrating to have to continually advocate for a safe and separate women’s field. I hope that going forward, all organizers will consider us when initially determining field structure and not as an afterthought.