Empire State Games: Day 4 -- PHOTOS!!

Matt Purdy wins the road race!
A late-race solo attack locked it up for the ADK
Photos are from the road race, the text is about the TTT

Early this morning, the Adirondack team clinched the ESG title, accumulating 2563 points. The second-placed Western team had 1876 points. To put it another way, we won 15 medals -- six gold, four silvers, and four bronze, as well as the overall gold.

With a move up the road, the chase gets underway
The blue central team only placed one rider in the break
They tried to chase, but it didn't work well for them

This morning's team time trial was the games' final event. The men fielded two, five-man formations, while the three woman formed our third team. The men had to finish with three riders, the women needed just two at the line. I rode in the B team -- or, as we preferred to be called, the A- team -- and I can honestly say that the 40-mile race against the clock was one of the hardest of my life. James Morrison, Mark Sumner, Tony Fahlte and Andy Ruiz were my team mates.

Vinnie Scalia wears the ADK's yellow jersey
Vinnie rode to tenth place in the road race despite being taken out by an unscrupulous coach
Here he is on the climb to the finish line

The course was an L-shaped affair, with a turn-around at either end. One lap around the course was just a shade over 4 miles, which meant the five-man trains were completing 180-degree turns every two miles. Other than the turns, the course was pretty straight-forward, with smooth pavement on a highway, and plenty of rooms for teams (and our follow vehicles) to pass each other. There was one small rise over a bridge, but not much in the way of elevation gain.

Later in the race, pressure from the ADKs began to whittle the field down
Here Nathaniel and Deiter lead the group
Nate gets ready to ditch a water bottle and pick up a new one from coach Bob

We started off hard, and the pace remained high. I'm not hero; I'm not going to pretend. I suffered during the race. I used all of the tricks in the book: skipping pulls and taking short pulls to try and recover. For several laps in the middle we got tangled up with the western region team that had started us a lap ahead of us. They passed us, we passed them, they passed us, we passed them, so on and so forth. Finally, they dropped one of their riders and we took charge, relegating them to fourth overall.

With speeds averaging around 29 miles per hour, I hung on for the first seven of nine laps. At the end of the seventh lap, I pulled off the front into a headwind and found myself heading to the back of the line much faster than I should have been. I stood to accelerate back into the line, but I was too slow, my team had already gone up the road.

Early in the race, an acceleration sends riders up the road
The rest of us are on our heels
Andy sets the pace on the climb

It was sad to watch them ride away without me, but so it goes. A time trial team is like a train. You get "all aboard," and then the train leaves the station. The train doesn't wait for anyone. I finished the 40 miles and pulled off into the parking lot. Even after riding the last two laps slowly and alone, my computer still registered an average pace of 24 miles per hour.

Tony was a late addition to the team, but proved to be an integral member
Here he races up the feed zone climb in the rode race
He set a punishing pace on the back-side climb on lap three, and sent scores of riders out the back

Our A team was going out on a mission to win the race, and the toughest competition was expected from the Central team. The A team raced their hearts out, to take the win over Central, completing 40 miles in 1:29:25.31. Central's A team in second, 30 seconds back.

A downhill attack (!!) on the third lap sent me up the road with one other rider
Here I am climbing the hill on the penultimate lap
It hurt, but secured my 14th place finish.

Not to be outdone by our team mates, my team finish third, in a time of 1:30:11.7. Only about 46 seconds behind our winning teammates! That's one strong "B" team.

Justin Lindine is a bit faster than me
He finished second, also after a late-race attack
Here he is at the line

The women also put in a strong ride, capping off a week that saw them win the first three stages with a silver medal, completing 22 miles in 57:03.17. Nice.

James was third
He was also third in the 2007 road race
I still say two thirds ain't too shabby!

All in all, it was a great week of fun racing with an incredibly strong team. I am grateful for the opportunity to be a part of the team and participate in the event, and hopefully I'll have many more chances to improve on this year's results!

Thanks to Tony and his family for these photos. Hopefully there will be more to come!