Hey Kissena,

Is anyone else doing the Gran Fondo New York on May 20th? 

Bobby

Bobby, a friend of mine is ... can connect you over email if you like. Shoot me a DM.

didn't want to start another discussion so I post quickly here...

is anybody thinking of doing GFNJ or GF ConnectiCare in Madison CT?

I am thinking about it... 


https://granfondonj.com/
https://www.bikereg.com/connecticare-gran-fondo

So, sad news today for fondos lovers. GFNY got "postponed" until May 2021 (no refund/transfer option...)

Hopefully not much else will get cancelled, specially since PP races and such are much smaller. Did want to do some of the GF this year, but maybe the best strategy is not to sign up until the week before to not get in this kind of situation.

What are your thoughts on the whole coronavirus stuff when cycling? Should we avoid races and take advantage that cycling can also be a loner sport?

@DiegoSanchez it makes perfect sense that GFNY was suspended since more than 50% of the participants aren’t local. Plus I think anything ride with a rest stop where there’re passing out food and water is going to be cancelled.

Agree w Bobby. The riding is not the problem, is the gathering at the start/finish  and in case of the GFNY all the food stops 

RobertPeras said:

I‘m not a health expert, but from what I have been reading, the Corona Virus is spread through direct contact, meaning as long as you don’t touch the same stuff as the riders around you, you should be good to go. 

That's not entirely accurate. You catch it like the flu, via tiny airborne water droplets or those same droplets that you touch, ie indirect contact. You do not have to have direct contact with an infected person. Also as anyone who has ever ridden in a paceline knows - snot sweat slobber water droplets from one rider to another is very common.

It's airborne... So whenever you're riding subways, you're pretty much hotboxing each other germs. 

Its pretty much almost inevitable that all of nyc will transfer corona virus faster than all of the corona beers drunken every second in the world... 

Not if you commute by bike

@DiegoSanchez et al
Before starting a new thread, can you please do a search for existing subjects to repurpose? It gets kind of overwhelming when we have a multitude of threads on topic of the day. Thanks.  

merged

I don't know if we had any current members at GFNY this year.

I just watched their highlights video.  And an ex-Kissena was ripping it up.



I think the image is of Wheatley-Schaller.

But Connor bridged to the solo leader just past the end of river road and rode with him pretty much to the final mile of Bear Mountain, then faded.  He faded to finish 34th, 8th American, at 4:42:12, about 25 minutes behind the winner.

A guy in my office finished 145 overall and 8th in his age group which I thought was impressive  

Are they still testing the podium?

Jules said:

Are they still testing the podium?

When they announce a positive, we'll know.  

(I haven't heard yet)

So, I drove the "Comm 3" car at the Gran Premio NY yesterday.

That's the car of the third UCI Commissaire.  The first drives immediately behind the pack, and follows the break once it's established.  The second is on a motorcycle.  The third sets up 3-5 cars behind the Comm 1, and floats around.  Thought I was going to be driving Comm 1, but whatever, I'd never done it before, so it was all new.

While I didn't see nearly as much of the race as I would have driving Comm 1, the third car is in the scrum with all the team cars and the dropped racers.  It might have been more chaotic.

The answer is very.

Staging was on a side street in Fort Lee 4km into the race to jump behind the pack.   The pack went by at 50kph, and I had to floor it once onto Bruce Reynolds Blvd.  0-80kph, and then slow a bit.  Then more like 90kph to get into better position down the hill to the River Road entrance.  

I was expecting crashes and flats on River Road, but I think there weren't any.  But, as expected, gaps started to open climbing back up to 9W at the end.  The commissaire, as part of his job, directs me to be in certain places at certain times.  lots of 'wait!'  'close that gap!' 'Get around that rider!'

Riders seemed to be almost constantly coming off the back and chasing back on.  More complicated was that there was supposed to be 100% road closure and there wasn't.  many cars were driving toward the race.  On more than a few occasions, I was on the left side of the road passing a rider and a team car as a car was coming the otehr way.  

In order to get around cars and riders, even on flat roads, I was going close to 80k an hour and then slowing down to 40k.  I think I went close to 90k through downtown Haverstraw and close to 120k on 9W on the way back.  On a fwe of the bigger downhills, I was taking the left side of the road on a right-hand curve passing another car and a racer.  

Lots of racers started falling off the back once they forked off of 9W to go to Cedar Flats.  The radios weren't working well ,and were off at that moment.  So, I had to drive around racers, team cars, weave through commissaire and photo motos to pull alongside Comm 1 so my guy could talk (yell) with the chief official).  It was one of the few times I had a moment to say 'hi' to Marco Quezada, who was on a moto as the race's photographer.

The position of 3rd Commissaire is to make sure that the racers are safe and the caravan is following the rules--service on the right side of the road, minimal motorpacing, no sticky bottles for more than a few seconds.  And to replace the Comm 1, if that car has to go somehwere else, like up to the break.  When we're in the caravan, the commissaire is 'passive,' observing what's going on, taking notes on who's dropped, who takes an illegal service (left side of the road is a fineable offense).  When Comm 1 drives away, Comm 3 takes that position and is 'active,' which in our case meant the guy taking off his seatbelt, opening the sunroof and climbing halfway out the car to direct the team cars.  

Weird bit of advice for driving in the caravan.  The commissaire told me I should take a bad line through the turns, so racers and motorcycles can take the good line.  Kind of hard to get used to that, and, like a crit, you have to pretty much floor the pedal coming out of turns.  

Also hard: having someone driving on my left as the passenger in that car yells at the passenger on my right.  It's hard not to look left and then right to feel part of the conversation.  

The pack was directed off course at 303/Western Highway.  We went straight when we should ahve gone right to ride to 9W.  The pack (and cars) had to turn around to go back. Oy!

The pack started to break up as it climbed back up stateline.  With the road clear of cars and the pack on the left side, I was struck by how pretty the climb was when I didn't ahve to worry about cars, other htan the cars behind mine, coming in both directions.  

As a chase of 10 guys started to roll away on 9W, the Team Skyline car drove up to us and asked for permission to follow the chase, as their only rider was up there and they wanted a result.  The Commissaire told him he couldn't do it unless we went first.  he wasn't sure, so he unbelted, climbed up, looked back at the team cars and riders behind us, sat down and told me to bridge to the chase, which meant flooring it up to 120k (I think) for a few seconds to make the bridge.  The skyline car came with, but no other car did, which is what the commissaire wanted, as he was afraid a caravan would give a slipstream ot the pack to bridge.  

The rest of the race was easy, as we watched that chase ride River Road back.  

I should have gotten more pics before the start.  I wasn't going to be futzing with my phone during the race.  I was still waking up and couldn't quite figure out what was going on with the Vini Fantini's team socks.  I did eventually.  And those shrubs?  At the last moment, almost all the folks in the follow cars saw it as an outdoor urinal.  As one of the team directors said, 'you go to the bathroom when you can.'

BTW, did I mention the car was a rental?  Glad it wasn't a GM.

I was on 9W Saturday and really appreciated the Vibe , Lots of kits i have not seen before pre riding , Definitely felt like a "festival " of cycling , chuffed to see the Fantini team coming over the GWB .

I saw 5 Lotto Dstny riders going north on 9W when I was on the way back, was pretty cool! Not long after, I was in a recovery section in between my tempo efforts and a huge group of Good Guys + a few others flew passed. Nice to see so many people out in the pre-ride as Mark said. 

That's pretty cool!

I ventured out midday on Sunday hoping the worst of the disruptions would be over with.  Apart from up the wrong way on an exit ramp at the bridge and not being able to go North on 9w after Alpine, it wasn't too bad.  I did stop and give a directions back to the course - she said the signage was pretty bad.

If you haven't done it already, find the Strava segments the Gran Premio hit.  The pro field, a weak pro field, obliterated all the KoMs.

Here's river road up to 9W.  the best rider averaged 19mph: https://www.strava.com/segments/20518289?filter=overall

Here's Gate Hill.  Again, the best rider averaged 19mph:
https://www.strava.com/segments/647080?filter=overall

The Four Horseman effort on 9W, which starts on stateline hill:
https://www.strava.com/segments/4222628?filter=overall

Wow

mugwump said:

  The pro field, a weak pro field, obliterated all the KoMs.

A weak *doped to the gills* pro field :^) 

GCN Presenters were here for the GFNY -- I don't know that the video provides any real insights, but fun to watch specially if you have done the event.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG0HSgDdGcQ

I wonder how many variations on the theme “are pro’s better than amateurs?” GCN has made over the past years. Fun vid though

LennartZandbergen said:

I wonder how many variations on the theme “are pro’s better than amateurs?” GCN has made over the past years. Fun vid though

As long as the sponsors are paying (thank you GFNY and Colnago), they'd be happy to do one every week.

JohnMalcolmson said:

mugwump said:

  The pro field, a weak pro field, obliterated all the KoMs.

A weak *doped to the gills* pro field :^) 

It's hard to hear anything about GFNY without remembering all the past participants who have tested positive.

Jules said:

JohnMalcolmson said:

mugwump said:

  The pro field, a weak pro field, obliterated all the KoMs.

A weak *doped to the gills* pro field :^) 

It's hard to hear anything about GFNY without remembering all the past participants who have tested positive.

I was thinking of this, too.  Uli seemed almost to have a perverse pride in catching dopers.  It's better than not catching them, but it's worse having them not start.