no marmo is a cat 3

yes Steve may be a bagger of sand and other debris, who plans to upgrade to Cat 2 after Battenkill, but we should expect him to continue to compete in our race.

There are others that will be coming out and will be looking for opportunities, so people should be looking for opportunities to attack and get away and force Steve and his team to chase.

I would venture to guess the early break will be out this week. So its up to us to wear down the pack then counter with a break later in the race. For me I'm hoping around 1.5 laps to go.

Jeff: Marmo's strong has a super high V02 max and can sustain threshold for a long time, my guess he's going to be looking to sneak away late in the race as well. I would say he and I split the work 55 Marmo / 45 Me last weekend and he still had an edge at the end of the race.

Gideon: I think the countering late is the way to go, if it comes down to a sprint I can hold my own but the late break is where I have the best chance.


Dan & Norm: Have a great time in AZ and enjoy the weather.

Posted By: Dan Reinersyes Steve may be a bagger of sand and other debris, who plans to upgrade to Cat 2 after Battenkill, but we should expect him to continue to compete in our race.

There are others that will be coming out and will be looking for opportunities, so people should be looking for opportunities to attack and get away and force Steve and his team to chase.

The audacity to sign up for a race that includes his category! I think having strong 3's in the 3/4 field is good for racing and practicing tactics. If he can still win, even after everyone knows he is the favored rider...more power to him.

We have 3's who race 3/4 races in town and out of town. Did we call WDC Joaquin and Keith sandbaggers at Housatonic 3/4 race last year?

Hi Guys,

Looking forward to the weekend, immensely! Let the fruitless attacks and hyperventilation begin (on my part anyway).

OK, this is a lot to ask, but....

Is there any chance someone could post a picture of Central Park, with the course outline with some labels? Of course I know the park, however, I seem a bit lost as to where Horse Shit Alley and Harlem \"Hill\" is (although, I should imagine the former will become obvious at some point). The reason I ask is that I think it would be a good resource for us to have. Firstly, as neewbies, knowing what the slang is for separate parts of the course will help, secondly, in the brief time before the race, it might be a bit easier for us to just a have a picture to look at and point at, i.e. I will look to attack here, we should try to get a lead out set up by here if there\'s a bunch finish etc...

I have attached an image that I lifted from another website (he he). There are names on this of some places but not sure if these are what you guys are talking about (Harlem Hill?). Obviously, it should become pretty apparent where different places are after one or two races but a heads up would be good.

Thanks,

Adam

Hi Guys,
Looking forward to be part of the team this Sunday! My first race, though... not an expert in tactics and also don't ride regularly Central Park, so not very familiar with the names as Adam...I'm from Brooklyn...
I hope I can live to some of the good comments out there (thanks very much for them!!). I'll put my best effort to work for the team.
I'll be riding tonight in Prospect Park...hope to see some of you guys there and looking forwad to meeting everyone this Sunday.
Jorge.

Gents, I'm in for Sunday's ride as well.

Rich: Glad to have you aboard. Do you want to mark some of the top finishers from last week.

Tito: was your "im in" volunteering to be the general in the field this weekend? If not is that something you would be interested in?

Yeah, I'm not in good shape. So there's a good possibility that his VO2 min is better than my max. But I'm willing to give it a shot!

Looking forward to meeting and racing with the new guys as well on Sunday. With 9 of us there, hopefully we can get some good results again. In response to your questions Adam, Harlem Hill is also known as the Great Hill on the map you posted (at the north end of the park). It’s a quick 60 sec. climb that isn’t very steep (I think only about 4.5%), but if the pace is fast, can do some damage to the legs. This is followed by a quick descent, and then you get the first “roller” which is maybe only 30 seconds and not as steep as HH, but if legs are tired from HH, can be a good place to attack. This is followed by a short false flat and then the second roller, which again is short and not that steep. If you can carry good momentum from the attack up the first roller, it may be possible to gain some time on the field. This is followed by another quick downhill and then the third roller. It doesn’t really take much effort to get over this one because it is short and you have a lot of momentum from the downhill. This ends at the 86th st. transverse. From there, it’s essentially downhill to the south end of the park, with the exception of a small bump just before Tavern on the green.

Horseshit alley is a short section on the south loop which starts with that hard left turn north on the west end of the south loop, and ends where you take the left turn by the East Green. Cleverly named horseshit alley as this is the route that all the horse & carriages use and there is horseshit everywhere. There was a monsoon last year for the Maltese and after the race, I went to take a drink from my water bottle and it was covered in specks of horseshit. Of course I drank from this same water bottle during the race and I almost vomited everywhere when I saw it.

As John posted earlier, there are a bunch of Asphalt Green riders in the race. I see these knuckleheads training in CP all the time and about 20 of them were their last night doing sprint intervals. Never ridden with them, so I have no idea how strong they are as a team. I was on one of their wheels last week and this dude was all over the place, swerving like a 10 year old girl. Immediately changed my position and couldn’t believe he didn’t take down half the field. Anyway, I’m sure they have some strategy for Sunday’s race so we should be on our toes and watch them closely. If one of them attacks, we should always have a guy waiting to jump all over it.

See you all Sunday!!

Myself, Marc, Myles,and William I believe are committed to this race. Anyone joining us?

negatory, my friends

i am going to pennsylvania right after my race at Grant's Tomb

good luck

Actually got a response from AVD. He sent the results from the first race, but not the overall points. I guess it's better than nothing. I'll post the Cat 5 here, and the results for all of the fields in a different thread. Here's what we've got:

1 Joseph Jacobs, Real Estate Rescue
2 McKay Duncan, Kissena
3 John Malcolmson, Kissena
4 Aaron Hegert (no team affiliation listed)

Got a good 1.5-2 blustery hours in the park last night with Jorge and Neil (and also ran into Norm) before the rain started...can't wait till Sunday!

Posted By: josephmuellerRich: Do you want to mark some of the top finishers from last week.

Sure. looks like a Mexico-NY rider, 2 Hudson guys, CRCA and an unattached 3 came in top 5 in the final sprint. I don't know the unattached cat3 rider [ Miguel Angel Blanco] but he may have been the guy in unmarked kit trying to initiate the chase.

this might help....i posted in a separate thread as well. results i got via e-mail from one AVD:

Cat 4:
1 Steven Marmo, Setanta
2 Joe Mueller, Kissena
3 Miguelangel Blanco, (no team listed)
4 Eliazar Torres, Mexico-New York Cycling Team
5 Daniel Crespo, CRCA
6 Antonio Munzo, Hudson Furniture Racing Team
7 Misha Chiporukha, Hudson Furniture Racing Team

Watch out for Hudson. That Misha guy has got a sprint.

Hi everyone,
Looks like we'll have one more Cat 5 guy on Sunday, as I'll be there too. Does that make 10? I'm new to the group and am looking forward to meeting everyone. I don't have my Kissena kit yet, but I'll find you guys. I've done a few road races before and am comfortable in a peloton, so hopefully I can help our pack out. I'm a halfway decent sprinter but am not in great shape yet, so will probably not do any more than stay with the peloton, but will see...

Misha does have a good sprint, but not sure he can hang with a really hard lead-out. In Cat4, both he and Pete from Ride Bklyn can take a disorganized bunch sprint any given Sunday, but put them in difficulty in the run-in and they might not have the legs to get around.

@ Joe - I just meant that I'm racing Sunday, not that I have any desire to be a fearless leader. But I AM down to try a late attack for you to counter - that sounds like a good plan.

Here's a question: if it's late in the game and someone like Jeff attacks off the front with the goal of providing a countering opportunity for Joe, should I (or whoever else is up front) follow Jeff, like it was any other break?

Yeah, he does. As Jeffrey said, he's faltered during organized sprints, when we've had numbers and been able to make it hard at the end for Rene or Yaks. It's much harder to fight your way up and then go around a long leadout without being a good surfer, which he hasn't shown a propensity at.

A thing to do, might be, to string it out really hard with Joe tucked neatly in (easier said). If I'm not cooked from marking Marmo, I will try to take a pull until I puke leading to the incline. I feel like a concrete slab after being sucked into a much longer/harder ride than I had planned yesterday, so we'll see on Sunday. I assume the start/finish is in the same place as usual?

As far as countering, I dunno. It kinda depends on how Joe is feeling. If it's late and it's all together, I assume the leaders would chase and joe could just stay behind them. Someone with more experience might have better ideas.

Hi Cat. Fivers,
I am excited to meet and race with everyone on Sunday. I am not much of a sprinter but want to work to start and cover breaks. See everyone Sunday!

Can we get a fourth? the difference between three teammates and four is pretty tremendous. Any takers? Get ready to ride aggressively.

Arghhhhhh....3 guys only? And two of us are Myles and Me? Holy Craptown. When we're talking numbers this small it's like the Richter scale. Move up a single rider and the destructive power is exponential.

JP, no worries bro. You know we'll shred it for you. You're just going to have to be extra smart this Sunday.

Okay everyone. Exciting. I see 8 registered with Kissenas, I feel like there are one or two others who don't have Kissena next to their name. 8 or 10 that makes for a huge group. Take into account that we have last week's 2nd and 3rd place finishers and I think we can legitimately be called one of the favorites.

Again, let's plan on meeting near the start line, on the opposite side of street of registration at 6:00. It seems this week's race starts a little later at 6:45, but I think it's still a good idea to meet at 6.

As a reminder, we need to decide if you as a team are going to ride to protect our current almost series leaders, or simply ride aggressively to place Kissena in the top 10.

Either way, with say 8-10 racers and 3 laps, I think it's important that everybody gets in the action. For one, we're going to need guys to keep an eye on last week's winner, Joseph Jacobs (Real Estate Rescue). I have no idea what he looks like, but hopefully someone does and can point him out. Let's not let him or any of the other guys poking around last week's top 10 beat our guys, okay?

So, 6am Sunday across the street from registration, I'll be there and we will plan our world domination. In roughly 15 minutes. That's enough time to come up with an evil plot, right?

OK guys, I'm in. See you Sunday.

@tito Yes go with Jeff.

@Jeff Owens When are you thinking of launching your attack? End of the second or third lap?

@Jim Nelson Sweet cant wait to see you Jim, it's been a while

JP what are your plans on tactics for tomorrow?

Jim! Nice. Whew, i'm pretty slow/fat right now, but i can either cling onto marmo like a remora and try to tire him out with some attacks, or go really hard on the third and try to form something...I dunno, i suppose you'll be marking him too, so you could counter if he's repeatedly winded from trying to draw me/tito/gideon/whoever in.....I dunno, someone else with better tactics chime in.

Everyone lets meet at 6:30 by the registration tent to get a head count and finalize the strategy. Don't forget about daylight savings time.

Joe