Staffo Unshackled

Johnnycake #3
I was in Utica last Friday visiting my father so Saturday I decided to drive out to Albany to race the final Johnny cake series race. The race was 9 laps for 63 miles which included the hill referred to as the "Koppenberg" . There was an early split of about 15 riders which included all the big guns such as Cory Burns (fiordifrutta), Roger Aspholm (westwoodvelo), Justin Lindine (target training) and Aiden Charles (nerac) just to name a few. I saw this split but was boxed in as I was riding alittle cautious do to not knowing the course along with being alittle nervous racing in a large group for the first time this season. The field did start to chase and got the gap to within 20 seconds but that was about it. With 2 laps to go a group of 7 of us went clear from the pack. Then with 1 to go Alec Donahue (team Nerac) got a gap on our group and I was able to bridge to him on the Koppenberg and the two of us finished 8th and 9th as the the break
of 15 was blown to bits. Other than the mistake of not being in good position early in the race I was happy the way I rode and feel the form is on the right track for Battenkill and the rest of the spring races. Finished up the weekend with a great 5 hr ride up and around Canadaigua lake with my teammate Rob Dietrick.