The fall season of the Thursday night road race series wrapped up tonight with our longest race of the season, 34 miles over three laps of the Suki’s Playground course in Yumezi. This is a good race course, a couple of long flat or downhill sections per lap, and two climbs per lap, first a longer one and then later a shorter one. We had myself, Henry, Melissa, and Zinj racing in the B field, and Michael in the C’s, with all fields racing together.
We all stayed together in the front group in the first few flat miles, and then things broke up as we hit the first climb. I crested the climb with the lead group, but faded just a tiny bit at a crucial point after things flattened at the top, and watched a one-second gap turn into five seconds in the blink of an eye, and then I was on my own. I slowed down to fall into a four-man chase group, but nobody was working, and we were soon caught by a bigger group that included Henry and Zinj. Melissa was a minute or two behind us, alternating between a small group and solo efforts as she periodically dropped the riders with her. Michael ended up on his own for most of the race, an hour-plus solo TT effort aimed at holding off the rider lurking 20 seconds or so behind him. He finished with his signature move, a sprint which appeared to last about 45 minutes, which turned my legs to jelly just watching it on screen, and managed to score a place on the podium in the C’s.
Week ten results:
- Jonathan O’Keeffe (B) – 6 of 16 – 137.5 points
- Michael Bello (C) – 2 of 3 – 133.3 points
- Zinj Guo (B) – 8 of 16 – 112.5 points
- Henry van den Broek (B) – 9 of 16 – 100.0 points
- Melissa Warwick (B) – 14 of 16 – 41.3 points
Final fall series standings after week ten:
- Jonathan O’Keeffe (10 races) – 893.1 points
- Michael Bello (9 races) – 655.1 points
- Zinj Guo (6 races) – 430.6 points
- Dusty King (2 races) – 208.5 points
- Melissa Warwick (5 races) – 204.5 points
- Henry van den Broek (2 races) – 191.1 points
- Tim Downey (1 race) – 120.3 points
- Charlie Bailey (4 races) – 80.0 points
- Patrick Ryan (1 race) – 53.8 points
Here is the NCC Zwift schedule. Note that the Tuesday and Thursday race series wrapped up their fall seasons in the second week of December. They will take a brief hiatus over the holidays, and resume in January.
- Tuesday 6:00 PM – Time Trial / Hill Climb (invite required)
- Wednesday 8:00 PM – Social Ride (invite required)
- Thursday Evenings – Road Race (times will vary between 5 PM and 7 PM EST)
- Sat 9:00 AM – Social Ride (invite required)
Join the NCC Club on Zwift or select the link in the discussion board/calendar for invite-only rides.
Check the NCC calendar for full details on all events. To learn more about the NCC and Zwift rides, please visit our Zwift page.
