Road Racer.

Paul had his best result ever in a road race this past weekend. It was really fun and exciting to watch and I just feel like everyone needs to hear about it.

The race was a crit, around a park in Rahway. Just over a mile loop, with two real turns.

I decided to watch the race by walking around the walking path next to the road, walking the opposite way that the race was going so I could see the riders more often.

On lap three, I was at the corner at the top of the map above when the group came through - Paul had been hanging out in the middle of the pack, but on this corner I saw that he had ridden up to the front of the group and was going through the corner first - he later told me this was because it had been sketchy the first two times through and he didn't want to get caught up in any crashes.

His move was a smart one, he went through, and a few elbows were thrown when the group went through knocking some people off balance - no one crashed but it slowed them up a bit - perfect timing for Paul to attack, which he did. Another guy rode off the front with him and then they were joined by two more - a break away of four.

Soon after they first broke away. Paul leading the charge, and the group about 10 seconds behind.

With each lap I timed on my phone to give them idea of how far ahead of the group they were and I'd yell out their spit as they passed. It was amazing - they were gaining more 10-20 seconds each lap. When they were over a minute ahead of the group I knew that the break was going to stick.

On the second to last lap I noticed that they were actually right behind the rest of the field, they'd almost lapped them on a mile long course. When the group came over the finish line, Paul's breakaway was right behind them - unfortunately a slower cyclist was right ahead of Paul when he was sprinting for the finish (after leading the full last lap, meaning he was putting in all the work leading up to the sprint). He still had a great sprint and it was neck and neck on the line where he got third.

It was really cool to see him do so well, and the other rides were really impressed with him (see second place's recap of the race here.)

Go Paul!!!