Pittsburgh, Jersey, and the start of racing

Road tripping!

This past week I traveled solo to the east coast, making some stops in Chicago, Pittsburgh, and some towns on the Tour of Pennsylvania route. Pittsburgh was one of the coolest cities I've ever visited between the mountains, close-knit towns, and 6 college campuses. It will be a very exciting finish city for the Tour of PA next month.

Right now I'm sitting in Englewood, New Jersey with my teammate Gavi Epstein, chilling out before the Tour of Somerville tomorrow. Yesterday we traveled to Baltimore, Maryland for the Kelly Cup NRC race with my two teammates Nick and Jake Keough. It was a pretty chill race at the start, and I got to the front and floated up there the entire day. Little breaks were going left and right, but nothing really stuck since the finishing climb was long and steady, making breaks easy to pull back.

With around 16 laps to go, I rolled with an attack at the top of the climb and got in a good move with Kelly, Colavita, and Toyota. Unfortunately I was thrown into the barriers during an acceleration and immediately had to try and bridge back to the break. Team Type 1 came up and tried to make it across with me, but we couldn't quite close the gap and the break was gone...

So I sat on near the front and tried to help Jake position himself for the finish. We were a bit disorganized, but Jake still managed 10th, with Gavi 23rd, and me 33rd.

Oh yes, the weirdest part about Jersey--they have the cheapest gas in the country, but it is illegal to pump your own gas. "Self Severe" stations are illegal? What's up with the east coast?

-b-