David Yang said:

Will try to make it. Red eye back from LA that morn so might get home just in time to kit up.

Trooper... 

harry bolick said:

general question: on way back fro FBF last night spoke to a CRCA fellow& he suggested that if i wanted to race in Central Park i join CRCA ie. buy a jersey&membership so that i can participate i their inter-Club races (10-12/yr)...is this kosher ie. acceptable to Kissenas? if not, is their an alternative? -harryB

The rulebook says no. Here is USAC's rule:

Riders are only permitted to be a licensed member of one registered club per discipline, which is shown on the racing license.

Arguably you could be a guest rider at a race, but I can't imagine CRCA opening up like that. The exception could swallow the rule.

1. The shorter, the race, the more important the warm-up. Your legs absolutely have to be ready to go from the gun. Otherwise at best you are keeping your fingers crossed that the early break doesn't stick, because you didn't have the legs to go that soon.
2. Get to the race MINIMUM 1 hour before your start. This will give JUST enough time to register, get dressed, go to the bathroom and get in a 20-minute warm up. BETTER get there 90 minutes before your start!
3. Bring a trainer or rollers...if you aren't comfortable (or can't) warming up on unfamiliar city streets.

We rolled to the course and did a couple of laps of the traditional Rockleigh course follow the leader style, by the second lap, other Kissenas started drifting in from, literally all directions...

Then we went in tiny, tight little circles, working on counter-steering, getting comfortable really leaning the bike over while keeping out weight on the outside, bodies upright. I hope that folks, in this exaggerated scenario, really felt how much their position on the bike can impact the angles at which they lean the bike.

Then more guys uncloaked themselves like Klingon battleships and joined the party. We had at least 21 (not everyone got to "sign in").

From there we worked on taking corner 1 at race pace, over and over and one more time. Guys looked good generally. Here are some thoughts on questions you might have:

1. Should I pedal through the turn? Some guys did, a few didn't. That decision is going to be depending on the situation and may change from lap to lap. What is your entry point? Who's around you? What's your speed? There's no hard and fast answer to this question. Both techniques can work.
2. Can I ride over that grate/gravel/pot-hole/small squished rodent? Again, it depends. Sometimes getting on a crit course before your race can be tough, but you should attempt multiple lines throughout the course of the race (because you know, you may be doing 30 laps or more! You've got some time to figure these things out) to see if that spot the pack is avoiding like it's molten lava is actually your secret portal to the/off the front!

Then it was all about our 3-up, round robin, "Race to/through the first corner" drill. The first of 3 scored events. There were all kinds of styles going on. I recommended starting in an easy to pedal gear, and only allowed one shift from there. This drill was about getting a good start in a crit. Good clip in. Good leg speed. CRITICAL in tight technical crits. If you end up 50 riders back in the early laps of a race. You are going to HURT. Bad. ly.

We had a road rash wipe out here...pause in programing for a little wound care. Thanks everyone for understanding. Keith get big ups for riding to Piermont and beyond to get us supplies. Craig Z for riding our injured guy home. Both RN Marc and Medic/RN in training Owens felt his prognosis was good. I haven't heard back from him, and he's a quiet dude, but I'll update you on his status as soon as I know more (if he's okay with that, natch. HIPAA privacy rules in the house!).

From there we went to the second drill. The "teardrop" A teardrop shaped drill where we worked on taking a 180 degree turn where the choice of racing line was not so obvious. We had some good times, fun watching and competition. Close encounters with top-tubes, some pedal pull-outs, dodgy gravel near misses, etc. Results to follow in a later post. Lessons learned, I hope include:

1. Gearing matters. Like the race to the first corner drill, we saw all manner of gear choices. But in tight technical course, leg speed generally trumps massive torque. There were guys who looked silky smooth, but didn't round the corner as fast as others spinning like crazy men. Ragot came out of the corner is such a ridiculously small gear, I'm guessing he was spinning 140-ish rpm, that even Mr. Smooth was bouncing a bit on his saddle. Still, one of the fastest times!
2. The shortest line around a corner (or in this case giant evergreen tree planter thingy) isn't always the fastest. Especially when racing in a pack, around a tight turn (like the 180 turn at the top of the Fitchburg crit course), unless you are in the top 5-ish guys hammering for the corner, consider taking a wider, sweeping line to allow you to maintain more speed going in and out of the turn. If you are stuck on the inside and more than a handful of riders are in front of you, laws of traffic gridlock rule here and you are going to grab a big old handful of brakes. Congratulations, you just gave yourself another interval to do that lap!

By then, wives were calling, and it was time to get on home to Brooklyn and beyond. It would have been great to have 20+ guys in the intramural crit, but everyone was already so generous with their time today. 7 of us had the super-deluxe hall pass today and managed to also get in a 15 minute crit workout. Thanks everyone, I hope everyone got a little something out of the day even if there were a few bumps in the road.

I'm already looking forward to next year's workshop!

1. Avoid that guy. Not always practical and/or possible, but...it's "step 1." This "solution" reminds me of a Q&A session I once had with a big time, world-traveling Karate fighter when he was asked what the best way to block certain strikes from an opponent. And his answer was, "I'd rather not have to block at all. It kind of hurts. You're still getting hit." And similarly, while it's true in the closing laps of a crit, sometimes riders take desperate lines they haven't tried all race, in general, if you are doing lap after lap after 30+ laps with the same dudes around you, they are going to stick to the same lines. Bad bike handlers will remain bad bike handlers. GET OUT OF THEIR WAY. 
2. Anticipate douchebaggery. What I love most about crit racing is the intense visceral experience that makes your brain fire off all kinds of neurons as you are taking in visual, auditory, tactile input, processing it and making split-second decisions. So if you can't get away from this dude, and you hear him/see him out of your peripheral vision, trying to stuff himself under your armpit at the last second, you might have to back off to avoid conflict to keep it smooth. Best case scenario, you just throttle down the power and Douchey McDouchesAlot takes the turn with no drama. Worst case scenario (not including crashing which obviously is the worse case scenario), you end up getting stuck with some funky line and/or you have to really hammer out of the corner to get back in the group.
3. Pick your corners. Especially if you are at the head of the race (you are at the head of the race, right?), in a pack or a breakaway, there are certain corners that you are going to feel like you OWN. You are Billy Dee smooth through them. "Well, helllloo, who do we have here?" Work your magic and make sure you are first through those turns. As a related side note, get yourself in a rotational pattern that puts you where you want to be. Behind big guys on the windy straightaways, in front through your corners. You've got multiple laps to get the combo right. It's one of the other million things that should be going through your head while racing the crit.
4. Be careful about crossing wheels. Okay, this is a bit of advice that always bugs me when announced generically at the start of any mass start road racing events. It's like, "hellooooo! There are 150 riders packed around me and I can smell what they had for breakfast. I think it's pretty much going to be impossible to avoid crossing wheels here and there...or a lot." BUT, in specific situations, it's actually really sound advice. So if you are taking a left handed turn, and the dude in front of you wipes out, which direction is he going to fall? Well outside of the initial falling down on his own left side, momentum is going to take him and his bike sliding out to the right edge of the turn. So, if my wheels have to be crossed in certain situations, I'd rather be riding on the inside of the dude turning. And sometimes that means I have to work a little harder through a given turn, but that's better than crashing. And then I immediately get to work in trying to make sure that doesn't happen next lap again.
   
5. Protect your line. As both a means of balance and stability (more on this point in another post to address another question I failed to answer adequately yesterday), and as a way to discourage folks coming from behind and sticking their handlebars where they have no business sticking them, I take turns with my inside knee up (to minimize pedal clipping on the pavement as I lean the bike over) and out. Occasionally, if I've got a particularly Douchey dude behind me, I throw my inside elbow out as well (this tactic not that much, because it doesn't also have the more important benefit of improving my balance and center of gravity through the turn).

And if all else fails?