CRCA Twofers, TT on the way

Last weekend there were two crca races in one weekend. a scratch race followed by a points race. I was interested to see what the dynamic would be with two CRCA races in two days. Would the same people show up? Would i have enough juice left for the points race? What was our team strategy going to be? Would i end up crashing and further adding to Campagnolo's profit margin for 2007?

photo by team organic

The first race was your typical CRCA B/C field scratch race. slightly sketchy, kind of humid, but still fun. A few of our guys tried to get into a few breaks but non of them pulled through, including Kyle, who was in a few of them. I'd be lying if i said it didn't make me happy that it came to a field sprint. Organic had a good lead-out going and took 1 and 2- with my buddy Gustavo taking 2nd. I managed to not hit any orange road work barrels this time and came in 7th, while Chris price got third. I heard he just got his upgrade to cat 3- good job Price, it's well deserved!

The points race the next day was probably one of the most entertaining CRCA races of the season. We had a plan, everyone was making moves, and it paid off. We had some of our guys push the pace right off the first lap. No warm-up lap this time. noooo noo. I believe the B field managed at least one sub-13 minute lap, which was pretty great- it was a super fast race. Pushing the pace on the first lap in the B/C field ripped a good number of riders off the back right off the front, and it kept people on their toes. I did my best to sit in, hang on, and mix it up in the sprint points.

The lap 2 sprint ended up getting neutralized because we came across the women's field RIGHT at the top of the hill. Not good. Given the circumstances (no one crashes), it went as well as it could have. my buddy chad had worked really hard to get me a good position for that sprint point and it was to no avail. ah well. back into the pack.

after the 2nd lap, attacks started to happen. I believe we had at least one guy in every break, which was great. I think everyone had alot of fun with that.

photo courtesy of Andy Shen @ velocitynation.com

The man of the hour for NYVC was Kyle Peppo. Sandbagger! Again! He's a crazy man and is quickly becoming our breakaway specialist. He got away with a few laps to go and they were able to stay away. It must be nice to have the energy to attack all the time. That must be pretty painful. I much more enjoy the sit-my-fat-ass-in-the-pack-till-the-field-sprint sort of deal, but hey- whatever floats his boat. two B field wins in two weeks- If he wins another he just may get upgraded to the A's!

photo courtesy of Andy Shen @ velocitynation.com

Price was able to rock 3rd on the points race- again, justifying the upgrade. have fun in the A field bro- it's time for a new level of pain!

I wasn't able to get any points at the hill sprints, but managed 5th at the final field sprint, which got me 6th place. All in all, a great and exciting race weekend.

After my painful cannibal TT experience @ owasco, i got it in my head to build up a TT rig.

I'm not turning into a tri geek. promise.

If you see me wearing sleeve-less jerseys and a mankini, kindly stick a frame pump in my front wheel. I'll deserve it.


Sure, bike racing isn't about the bike. You'll hear lancey-pants and all the purists spout that off. And while it's true, I think in some way it is about the bike. A beautiful race bike, TT rig, or cyclocross setup is a gorgeous thing. Form meets function. Style meets speed. I'm not saying that justifies riding a $12K Derosa just for Rides up the runcible spoon, but I think that there's no problem with getting a beautiful bike to race on if you can afford it.



So i decided to build up a TT rig to dabble in TTing for the next few seasons. See if I like it. I managed to nab a Hed Aerolab for a great deal on Ebay. I built it up with nice new campy stuff and an oval A-700. All in all it cost me $1500 without wheels. I'd say that's a pretty good deal.



The saddle that came with this thing is obscene. All it is is a Sliver of carbon fiber. The leading edges of this thing were SHARP. As pretty and as light as it is (122 Grams to be exact). There's no way I'm putting my Grundle through that every time i race a time trial. I figure I'll be in enough pain as it is. Fizik Arione It is!



I tweaked my TT fit over the week and think I'm in good shape for tomorrow. hell, I can only improve after the cannibal suffer-fest at wasco, right?

Off to bed, TT in the morning. Good luck to everyone!

look back- Harlem and CRCA race

The last two weeks were a whirlwind- Last Sunday was the Harlem crit, and today was a CRCA race.

Harlem:

I was so stoked for Harlem. I was finally going to try out a crit and give it a shot. it was a combined 4/5 field. it was a beautiful day, hot and sunny.


Our team lined our trainers together for the warm up for the pro effect, and we started spinning- our warm up was cut short since we thought our race was started before it actually did, but no worries.



As the race starts, we go into our first turn. Already someone doesn't hold their line and the go into me. I held my line and didn't give an inch- the guy went down and we kept going. first lesson- hold your line.



There were alot of short accelerations in the race, after pretty much every turn, but I enjoy that sort of effort profile- quick effort, quick recovery. it gets brutal but it keeps the race exciting.



With two laps to go, the crap hit the fan. coming out of turn 4, some guy in front of me (don't know who) just fell. we were going straight, why'd he fall!??!!?

took me and 2 of my teammates down. with two laps to go. ugh.

I guess that's the name of the game in crits- they're aggressive and they're tough. people get tired near the end and they get sloppy. Luckily, I was barely scratched. I didnt let go of the drops when I fell, and my shifters took the blow. Unluckily for me, both of my chorus shifters where totalled, and i snapped a front spoke. ah well. I walked back to the start and watched the rest of the races.



Big ups to my boy Bill$$ for taking such awesome Pictures. especially of me. way to encourage a narcissist, bro. I didn't even care that I crashed since he had gotten some great shots of me!

Since I refuse to pay $340 for a new set of shifters, I ordered them for $200 new @ totalcycling.com; downside is I have to wait for them to get here. I've been on my 'cross bike all week (although it was a rest week, and a much appreciated one).

Today was a long CRCA race. I realized it was my 10th cat 5/C race, so i figured I'd have some fun with it- try some tactics I'd never tried, be a little crazy. It was a 6 lap race- I rolled up with my obnoxiously green cross bike and off we went.

Our team kept it aggressive at the beginning to thin out the herd. there were a couple of sketchy riders out there, and I wanted to avoid them. two and a half laps into the race, I see one of my teammates and on of the Juniors, Liam, break off. I followed suite, along with a few other guys. we kept the pace up, and once we got into a good rotating paceline, it was just the three of us.

I was worried about staying in a 3 man break for 3 and a half laps- I've never pulled something like that before (Especially not on a cross bike). I'm usually more of a hang-in-the-peloton-and-do-no-work-until-the-sprint sort of guy, but I figured why not.

It was a hard, hard effort. we kept the pulls short and sweet, and Kyle and Liam were strong and smooth (much like the drinks i'll be having tonight). I was losing track of the laps again -

"is this the last lap?!?"
"2 to go!"
"shit...."

we stayed away and built a pretty good lap- about 1 minutes 30 from what I was told.



As we came around horseshit alley, I heard two dogs on the road- unleashed. I screamed and let out a fury of expletives and the dogs and the owner- mostly to scare the dogs off the road, but also cause I was LIVID. this new leash rule in central park is the dumbest thing I've ever seen. It's a liability to both dogs and cyclists to let them run free like that with an active roadway right in the park! I'm all for dogs running and having a good time, but it needs to be a fenced in area. I heard that one of the female racers had an accident this morning because of a dog as well. Dog owners- please. If you care about your dog, leash them when near the road.

As we got to the boathouse, kyle asked for a lead-out for the win. why the hell not- he had been super strong all day. I pushed up the hill and off he went. I saw Liam ahead of me- we lined up side by side, I shook his hand, and we sprinted for second.



I nipped him at the line, but it was close. He's a strong kid, a class act, and only 16- I scared to see what he'll be riding like in 3 or 4 yrs...

We had a great break and it stuck- I'd be lying if i said it wasn't the most exciting (and painful) experience I've had in a while. Awesome.

ok, time to drink!

weekend recap: brooklyn racing, training, gimbel's murder, and HAM!

yet another action packed episode of Alliwannadoisbicycle!

Let's try a blog bullet form. Hopefully it'll make things clean and easy. Although that's what they said about oxy clean, and that was a piece on as-seen-on-tv garbage. Billy Mayes, you should be ashamed of yourself.

-Raced in the Spring series race in prospect park on Saturday. it was the first time I've ridden, let alone raced in prospect, so it was quite an experience. I think the course suits me better than Central park, since it's flatter. However, I'm super familiar with central park, and have raced more there. PP is a bit narrow at times, and I really should go and scope out the strategic sprint locations 2 or 300 meters before the finish. it was SUPER cold Saturday morning- around 34 degrees, which is about as low as i'll go for road racing (cyclocross is a different story). Thank god for Greyhound juice. I decided to lay low for most of the race, but ended up wasting a bit of energy here and there. a 3 man break got away and stayed away. ah, well. I managed to come in the top 15 or so in a field of about 40. satisfactory. next PP race will be better, especially if we have more teammates out.



-Chad and I then went on a post-race training/suffering ride. Why we keep doing these, i don't know. We went up to Nyack and had our customary Muffins. by the way, the muffins are even better if you ask them to toast them on the pannini press first. Paris thinks that's hot.

-we met up with some of the NYVelocity Ladies and rode back with them. a sweet tailwind made our pace-lining all the swifter. it also warmed up a bit at the end of the ride, which was awesome.

-Sunday was quite the humbling experience. Chad and I met up with a few other hearty teammates and we went to go do the Gimbel's ride. Well, not to make excuses (ok, to totally make excuses), Saturday was rough on my legs, and Chad was even worse off after also having raced Sunday morning (crazy man). the gimbel's ride is a fast, fast ride. it starts in Yonkers and rolls through Greenwhich CT. I have no idea where it ends. it was all fine in the flats, but the ex pros and the cat 1's generally decide on the pace. the minute the short, punchy hills started, i knew i was in trouble. Chad and I ended up getting dropped. We courageously chased back the pack with 2 other guys, but the minute another hill hit, they were gone. we wasted so much energy catching up that we had nothing left once another climb hit. Ah, well.

-once we got dropped, we realized we were stuck in Greenwhich. and had no idea where we were. Then we both bonked. I bonked pretty hard, which was majorly sucky. we eventually found a Panera in Portchester and stuffed ourselves stupid. Then we took the metro north back. Ha.

-Proceeded to go home, pass out, and eat tons of Easter Ham. Salvatore Commesso would be proud.


-Big race is coming up next weekend. The Battenkill-Roubaix. the Hell of the North(east). Jay might be there as well. It's going to be huge. and epic. and I'm going to die.

-55 miles, half of which is unpaved. about 4,700 feet of vertical climbing.
I'm bringing my 13-26 cassette, my hincapie sunglasses, and a sixer of Chimay (as a post race reward/celebration/consolation prize), and holding on for dear life. I'll probably get dropped like Michael Jackson's baby. Ah well. Time to suffer!


Save as Draft

here's the elevation profile:



Oye Vei. Happy Passover. That's just not Kosher!

Victory is mine!

(photo courtesy of Andy Shen @ NYVelocity.com)

I won.

I won?

I totally did!

I've never won a bike race before. I keep repeating the final seconds in my head. Pure awesome.

I had a good feeling yesterday before the race started. we had over 11 people in the C field, and we had two different strategies for the win.

Our first strategy was to try and get a break off with three of our guys. if that failed, I was going to try and take it in a field sprint.

The latter happened. :)

The race was supposed to be a 5 lap race of central park (at 6 miles per lap). the strategy my coach gave me was simple- stay in the middle of the pack, do NO work, and then get a lead out and sprint for the finish (should the break away fail)

The first three laps of this race were the most relaxing race laps I've ever done- I was in my endurance and tempo zones for most of the race- It was much smarter racing, and it left me with a ton of juice for the finish.

on the second to last lap, we heard the bell. There was some confusion at first, but then we realized they were cutting the race down by a lap - it had become the final lap. Our Guys, Rob, Ted, and Steve- made a break at the base of harlem hill. it stuck for a little while, but a few problems arose and cause the break to fall apart: rob got a flat, Steve cramped, and they weren't able to regroup very well in enough time to organize the break. The peloton was also freaking out since the race had been cut by a lap, so they were in a hurry.

i stayed near the front for the rest of the final lap- last time i was hard pressed to position myself well for the sprint. I also didnt have a good lead out, and had to sprint up cat's paw before the actual sprint, leaving me spent. This time, I made sure to be in the top 5 or 6 coming through horse-shit alley, and stuck onto my teammates Clay, and then Ultimately Nate, before i started to sprint. Nate made for a great lead-out- i started my sprint after the crest, and was able to fire on all cylinders- i came right up the front, and it was between me and two other guys. right before i hit the finish, i threw my bike towards the line, and instantly heard cheers from some of the female teammates that were spectating.


(photo courtesy of Andy Shen @ NYVelocity.com)

Did I just win?

oh man. I did.


(photo courtesy of Andy Shen @ NYVelocity.com)

I've never felt that before. going against a slew of people like that in physical competition and coming out as numero uno.

I keep replaying it in my head. I love it. That's what its about.

I'm going to keep working on my sprinting- my legs are definitely more built for sprinting than for climbing, so we'll see how well i can develop it.

I can't wait to do it again. This gives me all the more incentive to keep pushing myself.


This is Evan and I. Evan's a junior rider- 17 yrs old- he came in third today. fast SOB.

After the race, we had ANOTHER post-race training ride to Nyack. it was a fun ride, but i was definitely hurting by the end. We were all riding really well as a team, though, and that was great to see. Had a celebratory muffin at the 'spoon. hoo-ha. 90 miles total yesterday. I was beat. I went home andpassed out for 4 hrs.

Today is a hill repeat day. oye vei. Looking forward to tomorrow's rest day.

Here's the obligatory victory pose (post-humously)

Ah, the sweet sweet goodness of an indian summer (or Global warming)

Today made me happy for two reasons:

1) I got out of work early since no one was around and it was the day after thanksgiving,

2) It was a beautiful, sunny, 50 degree day.


Well, after last night's culinary binge, I'd been itching to get out and put some base mileage on. So off i went to the park wearing a short sleeve jersey and some knickers. I may have been pushing it, but I love sunny 50-degree days. its the perfect temperature once you get your heart rate up.



I went out and went for a spin around Manhattan's backyard, aka Central Park. Brought the camera so I could share with internetland. People must've thought i was batty taking pictures while on the bike, but hey, I'm an ARTIST, DAMMIT.

Oh, how I love central park. Regardless of how many stupid, blind, jaywalking pedestrians there are, it's always a good experience for me. Sure, there are the leash less dogs and crazy mothers pushing their SUV-like baby carriages into oncoming traffic, but I think it adds to the charm of it all, and it definitely helps with your handling skills. In all honestly, I'd go batty without that park being as close as it is. As a New York city cyclist, it's my bread and butter.

I try to get out there two or three times during the weekday at about 6 in the morning to get the training in before work. it's a pretty loop, with some nice rollers and what passes for a hill (Harlem Hill) if you do enough repeats of it (like 5-10).

In the CRCA, we use the 6 mile loop for a bunch of our weekly races. it makes for a good circuit race, with most of the finish lines being at the top or right after the top of a steep little rise called "Cat's paw."



Biking around the park is a great way to see a random sample of the city. Next to the subway, its the greatest place for people watching. Even the cyclists are a motley crew:


The Bike Racers in training:

The Freds (Oh yes, Fanny Pack and all):

and, of course, Crazy old dude:

On a beautiful day in the park, you simultaneously forget and remember that you're smack-dab in the middle of the greatest city on earth. A little green in a concrete jungle, the New Yorker's sandbox, the cyclist's respite. It's even better early in the morning, when you can catch the sun rising and hitting the buildings on central park west. It's a vivid and refreshing sight.

Without this strip of land in the middle of Manhattan, cyclists would have a much, much harder time training and riding in the city. I think about that every time I almost get killed by a runaway child, dog, raccoon, or homeless person. This park is so many things to so many people, and for me, it's my escape from the drudgery of life. I just follow those double lines until I'm ready to attack the world again.

Bike Party in NY

For any fellow NYC cyclists. this should be fun.