Watkins Glen race report

You know how most of the time during a race you’re working really hard and hurting and saying to yourself “this sucks, this sucks, this sucks” and then you get done and you’re like “yeah, that was awesome!”? Well imagine a race where you substitute the “this sucks” part for “this is fun, this is fun, this is fun!” For me that’s what the Watkins Glen race was like.

First of all, it was just super cool to get to ride on a famous race track like Watkins Glen International, and a real treat to race on a closed course where we didn’t have to worry about cars and yellow lines and whatnot. Secondly, the Finger Lakes Wine Festival was going on there at the same time, and apparently a crowd of tipsy alcohol enthusiasts makes for an exceptionally lively spectatorship, especially when one of them has a bullhorn and another doesn’t have any pants on. We were cheered, heckled, mooned, cracked and sacked. And it was all hilariously good fun.

Since Josh had scored the win at the previous race in Jasper, we decided that we would share the love and work to bring Jared to a high placing, which would also help in his bid to win the Tri-Fecta. Our general plan was to sit in for the first five laps, then try to make something happen in the last five. It was quite windy, which made the first half of our plan easy to stick to. The second half? Not so easy. After a handful of trips around that twisty, hilly track closing down gaps and following the accelerations it was difficult to find the legs to go on the offensive.

We made a few weak attempts. At one point I stomped it as hard as I could going up the hill out of turn 2, only to look back and see the whole pack rolling easily along in my draft. Worthless. Another time I slowed to let a gap open as Jared scooted up to join Josh and two other guys off the front, but that was quickly shut down too. Crap. None of us Oswalds left in the lead pack are good sprinters, and it was looking more and more like this thing was going to come down to a sprint finish.

Our strongman Josh started coming to the front more, rolling easy (for him) on the flats and downhills and jamming hard on the uphills, and it was helping. I could just barely hang on each time he did it, but whenever I looked back there were fewer riders in our group. By the bell lap, though, Josh was still pulling along ten or twelve of the toughest guys. He led for the last half-lap, with Jared on his wheel. At the final corner, as everyone was winding up for the sprint, Josh was starting to get swamped. He’s crazy strong, but he’s only human. I jumped up there to try and help lead Jared out. The rest is all a big blur now, but I remember looking under my left elbow to see Jared with me, then giving it everything I had as the better sprinters streaked past us. I put my head down and kept going and going, and the next thing I knew I was crossing the finish line.

It turns out I finished 6^th, Jared was 7^th, and Josh was 8^th. Not super impressive, but not altogether awful either. Jared won his bracket in the Tri-Fecta. Jimmy and Eric finished together a few minutes later, then we all went down to visit the rowdy cheering section on the backstretch. They plied us with some of the coldest, best tasting beer I’ve ever had and thanked us for entertaining them. But really we got at least as big a kick out of them as they got out of us. We’ll be back next year for more hot racing and cold beverages.