When you tell people you race your bike on Tuesday nights at an old airstrip that’s now a National Park, you get some really weird reactions. Most people think riding bikes in New York City is practically impossible, much less racing! And yet, on the TBD squad, we love Floyd. The ritual of riding down to the race through absolutely crazy traffic, the vibes, the eternal quest to avoid mosquito bites, the strange tactics involved in a circuit race with no elevation and basically no turns. It’s weird, but it’s great.

I came out of semi-retirement due to marathon training for my one of possibly two bike races of the year because I really wanted to support the team. I knew it would be terrible, the actual trying to race and go over 200 watts, on literally no training. But I knew with our sponsorship of not just the event but also a free women’s race would lead to a large and enthusiastic women’s field.

How the actual race went:

• In spite of not being in shape, my old instincts returned and I was able to maintain decent positioning

• We missed the winning break, but the squad ended up with a third place in the Women’s field, which was one of the largest we’ve seen at FBF

• The 1/2/3 men’s squad stayed in the field, had fun, and even found a head unit that launched into the grass. Incredible

• As a team, we had fun, we learned, we drank margaritas after the race, we mostly staved off the killer mosquitoes

• WE FORGOT TO GET SLURPEES this is terrible

If you’re still thinking about checking out a race, I hope you’ll try it. There’s nothing like Floyd.

Photo Credit for the gallery below goes to our own Steph Mangan.