Congratulations Rene.  Great win.

1st AWWWWEEEEESSSSOOOOOMMMMMEEEE WIN 4 RENE& 3's (johnM/Mattie&daveS)!!!!!!!!

...this race is NO joke, big prize&prestige!:-)

re: 4's Phillip looked good in (5lap/no prime) race, pretty high pace for 1st two laps with Foundation's effort to split the pack, i was just hanging on w/sharp rib pain each time up 110berg...hung-in; managed to race a bit from Tavern to Engineers Gate on Laps 3&4 off th front &into attempted breaks of 3-8, after final hill climb there was a small break of 3-4 off 110th which had 12sec by 3rd of 3sisters per teams blocking pack slowed; and group managed to re-capture break by Horses Alley, stayed with the group over Cats Paw Hill and up to south end of the reservoir where the Bunch Sprint commenced...i opted out having spent too much time on the mat this summer, 57th. love CPk ;-)

Harry....I thought crashing was how you marked your territory

Well here we are again. 2014 Mengoni Grand Prix. Big money for most categories. $4000 grand for the Pro 1/2 field. JP and I are going to get PAID. Anyone else joining us.

Cat 3s have a nice group of KCC riders. Women's field is huge payout too $2200. Yikes. Sign up, race the other park!

I'm looking in to it.  I hope to be out there.

I just signed up for the 3's

I'm in for the 3's as well. Going to try and track down Marc's unlocking CP posts

Going to reg for the 3s, I love the EG finish. Better for fatties. 

I'm in...for the 4s.

Just me an Phil in the 4s with < 10 spots left... 

on the fence. its sooooooo early

I thought the field max was 100 for the 4s?  I see 52 signed up.

I think Niall saw the waitlist cap, but yeah, not many people signed up so far. It must be the 5:45 am start time.. ugh!

@jeff trick is not to go to sleep

Jeff Apruzzese said:

on the fence. its sooooooo early

this

I'm in, @Mattie what's the EG finish?  I prefer finishes that are worse for fatties.

90th and 5th avenue.  Just past the Guggenheim.  It's a decent one for fatties.  You have to hold over cat's paw, then open up as the road swings left past 86th street.

EG = Engineer's gate

Related...I used to live by "Strangers Gate."

Take it from this fatty, Central Park is a very FF (fatty friendly) course. It swishes and swoops, dips and dives. Momentum and position is your friend. CP races like more like a crit than a circuit race.

Any theories as to why the pro race hasn't sold out? This is the first time in years that registration hasn't been closed like 2 weeks or more out.

Theories:

Ragot, Perlberg...interested in joining the "racing since downtube shifters club" with JP, Dale and I in the Mengoni GP? With the addition of your firepower I think we could have more than a decent shot at placing someone in the top 10.

@marc bertucco - Out of town, out of town. I'll sleep in that day too...

In for the 4s.

I'm concerned that there are going to be too many fields on the course at the same time. 5 is just asking for trouble. The CRCA is fucking this one up.

We ran into issues with this during the Lou Maltese race. Lead motos got confused and allowed the fields to momentarily combine. With primes on every lap at Harlem Hill, the way it's supposed to work is that if you are about to overtake another field, your field is neutralized until the one ahead of you has gotten their prime. Your prime is taken away.

Everyone always attacks when overlapping fields, which makes it chaotic (and dangerous) for those not at the front. That combined with the increased vehicle and pedestrian traffic as the park comes to life during the race makes it interesting. Keep your heads up everyone.

Lame.

Vlad u should attack from the gun. Freakin Tony Martin of Cat 3 jersey guys.

Ragot, bummer. Well, that just means more money for Dale, JP and I! Bring it on next Niki Terpstra. Bring. It. On.

Andrew Da Silva said:

Vlad u should attack from the gun. Freakin Tony Martin of Cat 3 jersey guys.

Don't dare him, he'll do it. He crushed that shit at Watermelon with that tactic. He just needs the team to follow through as well as Ragot did on that day.

Marc Bertucco said:

Andrew Da Silva said:

Vlad u should attack from the gun. Freakin Tony Martin of Cat 3 jersey guys.

Don't dare him, he'll do it. He crushed that shit at Watermelon with that tactic. He just needs the team to follow through as well as Ragot did on that day.

AGREED

I'm out. Heading to Chicago.

Damn. I was going to reg and got caught out. Anyone know how the wait list works? Looks like you gotta pay to get on it. Do you have to show up day of to see if you can race?