Thinking about it...
Is 50x14 the right gear?

@marc, @WDC --ja! the beer and cola... up in the north they call it a Diesel. With reasonably tasty beer, it's refreshing and --still tasty. 

Thinking about it...
Is 50x14 the right gear?

Stiffen the sinews, Replace fair nature with hard favor'd rage!

eragot said:

Thinking about it... Is 50x14 the right gear?

with a bike that sexy, gearing is irrelevant. opponents will drop out of respect

@John Sanderson - PM sent. I do need gear advice.

eric DO iT! ...check Mattie/Vollbach&Mueller for gear advice& cornering...Eric this 'RedHook' thing is 'art' not power. U can rock it if only you have the 'Force' behind U... good luck2! -harry;-) ps. @Sterns, Nelson &co will be there too, is there a KCC crew meet up@the Navy Yard, time/place?

This is when we need those kcc polos and sneakers..haha. I'll stop by tonight as well with my bullhorn.

@jim_nelson and crew - I'm out for tonight. unexpected family man duties have me anchored at home tonight. I'll follow the live stream on steephill instead (dreamers can dream).

Anybody want to chip in entry fees? If you do you can have the winnings.

Hi all- I'm going to spectate tonight with my girlfriend. Let me know if KCC is steaking out a spot to watch from. I'll keep an eye for Phil M and his bullhorn. Going to try to get close to finish line I think. 

In registered. My qualifier is at 6.

@eragot, I'll come down to check out your qualifier

I'm out - sorry guys.  Someone have a lobster roll for me.  Someone else please listen close to Vlad's elbow for Bionic noises.

Yo dudes, FYI: There's a bag check at the entrance. The guy looking in mine found my beer and let it slide, but technically no beer allowed. This is of course because they're supposedly selling it inside. The more you know.

Race Report  --

Qualified 10th before the last group went up and was bumped to 44 or so overall going into the final race. Qualifying was kind of tricky considering there were other riders on the the course and some were just cruising around at 20mph taking up the best lines around corners.  I waited until the herd thinned and just did my fastest lap solo.  Even so I still had to slow down for people around corners.  I was going to do a hot lap with Aaron since we'd been training together but he decided to go off on his own right off the bat instead of being temperate :-(   It's cool we both qualified.

The race was delayed about 30 minutes because of a crash in qualifying and the organizers had to wait for a second ambulance to show up.

The Race Itself?  Only thing I can think of is that I've never seen a bike race that so well defines the term
Pyrrhic Victory.  Crashes left and right.  I was feeling good, trying to move up, but around the chicane coming into the start finish -- which is blind as you can't see what's around the corner -- there had been a crash just before we came around.  I snaked past one of the "fallen" but my line lead me into another's front wheel on the ground.  Went down with another rider behind me.   A marshall had run out and was waving people to slow down at the chicane but it was too late for us.

Got back up on the bike, my saddle was twisted but I decided to ride on as Aaron just came by and was shouting battle cries like Henry V.

As I was still adjusting to my new "unintentional" bike fit on the same lap another guy's rear tire blew out on the cobble section right in front of me.  Tried to pass him but his bike decided to merge into my path, I think he actually skidded it out in front me instead of coasting to a stop, but I can't remember 100%.  Anyway, it was pretty gnarly and Jeff was spectating right there.  That was it for me.  Only 4 or so laps in.

So what, only 5 finishers out of 95 starters?  Dave August looked so stressed I can't imagine having to deal with having to worry about all those crashes, especially the one in the qualifier that resulted in hospitalization. 

Not seriously injured, just some bruises.  Bike has some serious battle scars.  Walton Brush (took 3rd at last race) crashed out near same time I did. 

I came upon John after his crash. I kept going. I flatted. Stupid expensive race. Of only 5% of starters are able top finish the race, something is wrong.

I've done it now. I'm never going back. Heck, it wasnt even fun to spectate.

Brest part of the race was the parade lap where I pulled up to Stearns and grabbed his beer. Huge cheers. Hand slapping from everyone on the rest of that straight. That was cool.

Having trouble picturing this event. Why oh why is there a race where only 5% of the field finishes? I've done some crazy ass hard crits where about 30% of the field finishes while everyone else watches what could have been, but those are RARE. What's up with qualifiers? Too many starters for the regular race?

sorry the crit was so violent.  happy that none of you are hospitalized.

Yeah, I was glad John was ok as the pileup was right in front of me and into the metal barriers. Cobbled turn with gravel.  Fun!  Al said the lighting was poor too.

It was kinda neat to watch for a while. Nighttime, lots of folk.  But basically it was decided early and with more than 2/3rds of the race to go it wasn't very interesting. 

I agree with the "only 5 finishers = something wrong" group.

Chatting with a few major taylor guys at white plains earlier. The kid that went down hard in the qualifiers is ok, kind of. He had to have surgery on his face and following the crash suffered a collapsed lung. Kid is only 15 as well. But he's doing well apparently.

Not good PR for the event. 15 yr old seriously injured, 5 racers finish and a multitude of crashes. I cannot imagine it'll be at the navy yards again.

On the positive side I am happy to here we all survived relatively unscathed. And Al B took 4th by the way.

I wonder how the guy who rolled over the side of the barriers fared. Kind of seems like it might have been a brilliant maneuver.

a view from the crowd:
redHook crit - bkNavyYard, inaugural, 8jne2013

1.25km, 11corner, flat course, 26laps, 10:27p start, dry, 70dF, portable lighting.

i am a BiG fan of this event!

...it is highly 'produced' these days &is one in a now series @Red Hook bk USA, milan,IT &Barcelona,ES, bk navyYard, USA of (4)season races round the planet ~ a USA export item!, but it is still edgy and crazy cool w/a bike shop, hipsters, trackie, &messenger culture confluence.

the race&course is still very challenging(my pov)&inFact dangerous as were non-sanctioned 1st races 'round RedHook open course on cold wet cobbles in dark!

so, JSanderson, ABlum& ERagot all qualified w/ John 'artfully' tearing it up @1:46 Lap for 10th fastest after (2)60rider groups of qualifiers, the final group of (60)w/Pro&call-ups pushed JohnS back to 44st w/NBazbeck(x-kissena) the 1st qualifier overall @1:36, ERagot 62nd @1:48, ABlum 85th @1:51.

there was a bloody crash in 1st qualifier @ the 'chacain' quick 30m right/left w/200m togo; rider from chicago very slide-out face plant into barriers.

this chacain turned- out to be super dangerous &deciding factor for riders&groups:
a) blind @entry&exit due to high(1.25m) opaque barriers,
b) super smooth pavement w/crossing stripes,
c) riders hyped for start finish accelerations,
d) riders w/poor cornering skills in front of group into the left turn

...there was a first lap crash of (2), @chacain, i found myself on the out board side against barrier of the chacain's left turn & witnessed another 5-6crashes from single slide-outs to flying multi rider, bicycles flipping calamities - this was the closest i've been to such frightening &dynamic repeated carnage, i suspect this is the twisted appeal of NASCAR....not my cup of tea &not sure is completely avoidable other than improved course design view-lines / marshals communiques up stream to riders entering chacain, marshals clearing course of downed bikes, &medical team placement.

the race - 1st lap was for a prime , by 2nd lap break established with (3) &5-6 chasing @+15sec, & a group3 of(11) +50sec, &1-2 other groups +stragglers...

EricR out early w/flat over cobbles, JohnS riding well into 3rd-4th lap in 3rd group taken out at chacain behind a slider crash...up quickly &back in race; AaronB still in for a couple laps till pulled off back...both Kissenas rode well! - smoothly through corners &in with groups of 4-6.

...by 15to go the break was down to (2)NBazbeck and KMurphy working together w/consistent laps of 1:44& a lead of :44sec, by bell lap, the lead was over 0:29; final lap Neil Bazbeck lead by 10m out chacain &extended it to 30m by finish line 2win!

(5)finishers &al barouh, Ride Bk, took4th!

Big Crowds, strong riders, craZy mix of skills, tough course...fun 2watch! @podium ALL guys had fun w/champagne shower...
-h;-)

ps. in the crowd: VladP, JimN, DaveStearn, JeffO, CraigL, MitchS, AdamF, DaveV.

Brendan Rigby said:

sorry the crit was so violent.  happy that none of you are hospitalized.

i'm with bertucco: wtf happened?   why it was such a shitshow?  was it a faster course than the last one (i didn't go to either...was it the same course)?  filled with more fixie-commuters and less with experienced track-cyclists/bicycle-racers?  that % of finishers is truly absurd.  i bet the organizer feels like a bit sheepish

It is interesting to note the first course Dave put up didn't feature this chicane where most of the crashes occurred (there were several at the 180 turn after the start/finish, though, one where someone hit a cone and led to pileup into the barriers).  The original course was more of a straightaway after the cobbles, but he added the chicane at the behest of Neil Bezdek.  Seems like it was just a little too much to ask for.  It was a very tricky to chicane to navigate on any bike much less a track bike, Aaron can attest to this. 

The lead into it was VERY narrow, so you couldn't go far outside to get a good line into it, so once you made your turn in you were pretty much committed, so there was not stopping for anything around the next bend.  I think there was also a slight rise in the pavement when coming out of the chicane, which may have led to some problems.  I run 175s on my Spectrum so I was def. worried about pedal strikes.  The Red Hook course is much more open to both racers and seeing whats happening ahead -- and it was much more successful a race.

I hope someone got a vid of that guy's tire blowing out in front of me.  Gotta be hilarious. 

I pitch flatted a tubular in that chicane. Stupid.

Didn't realize one could pinch flat tubulars... I just rode my 36h street wheelset, not gonna destroy a set of wheels for RHC.