Looking ahead - who's doing this? I'm asking now because this looks to be the last big race of the season for me (can't do Catskills, Tokeneke, or GMSR), I'm in pretty good climbing shape right now, and I am planning a bike tour with the wife for August as well, so I need to plan it all out.

I'd probably have to leave same-morning, which would mean 6am departure from the city. I'd do lots o' driving, tell jokes, hold the pee bottle for the driver, whatevs. Let's do this.

I am registered in the 55+.

Tito I'd say I'm likely for this one. We were a great duo at Pawling, too bad we haven't been able to race together more this year!

Yeah, dawg - that's what I'm talking about. A repeat of Pawling with a better sprint finish.

:cool:

Sprint finish? Yes, but don't forget the last kilometer is uphill. Since there will be two loops, have a good look at it at the start and the first time around to sprint well. One must climb fast enough to be among the contenders, but keep enough stamina (or whatever you want to call it) to be able to outsprint the others... I think River Road is a good place to train for that one, but you have to be ready for the 16% short climb too (I was fine on my 39 x 27 there, you might just need a 25).

Thanks Stephane - good tip. I'll look at the course profile.

Anyone else done this race before?

Tito,
Deceptively brutal. Starts off kind of nice and gentle, then theres a climb that ramps up to get you breathing hard followed by a descent, a turn, and a wall that just kills. Make it over the wall and you have a fast little descent, another rise, another slow turn and it gets gentle for the rest of the lap.

I went out today and felt surprisingly decent. My right ankle is much more swollen than I initially noticed, but I was able to pedal kind of hard today.

Upshot is, I'm considering going this weekend.

This race often sees Stephane and Marc. Stephane is already in.

anyone else?

JP

After all these descents where you didn't need brakes (Pawling, Catskills, Tokeneke, etc.), just a reminder: you have to use them at Capital Region RR if you want to stay on the road. Don't waste time at the feed zone, it climbs before the descent and a group may go then (I had to chase a group till the short steep climb last year, it made me angry which was useful for the wall:).

I want to do this. I need a ride.

A racer should race the best race available - if he wants to be a 3 he should be competitive against them, or what is the point of upgrading?

ALL,
going to Capitol Region good Luck!
-h

Question: how to beat guys who can climb the last k at NYCRRR faster than you? (Why don't they have a few rollers before!)

two ways to beat guys who are better than you in the last kilometer.

1. Hang on their wheel and let them drag you to 100 meters to go, and then pop around them with everything you've got.

2. Or, if you know you can't hang on their wheel, then you got go earlier, get a gap and hold it to the end.

Point in case, if I let JP grind me down a longer climb, he will crush me, so I will often, find the steepest part of the climb, use my snap and acceleration to get a gap and try my best to hold it. Sometimes this works on two levels, I make sure my acceleration is so sharp and hard that I beat him mentally so he doesn't want to even try to bring me back.

Naturally, in a race situation, guys won't have "the next climb" as a reason to "save their legs," but you can still win out mentally. Especially against guys who have been racing a long time. They already have a lot of preconceived notions of what they can and cannot do. And if you get them thinking that they cannot follow that kind of acceleration, then they won't even try.

Good luck tomorrow. I'll be up there too. Hopefully not another 5 hour solo ride for me...

Good luck guys - and yes, go early - as Jens says, a small chance is better than no chance.

@Jules: Early? I went with the first break at Tokeneke, which killed me! This time, I'll wait for the second hill, the steep one... if I can get some sleep, I'm still in the office... then 45' of commuting on my bike, I'll have time to think about what Jens would do in the race while I'm avoiding all the bad drivers on Queens bld service roads.

Your last attack. If you commit to going early or late or whatever, if this is your last match, then let it flame hot and bright. You know, if you've decided to go with say, 3k to go, you are going to have to use a lot of energy to get away, then what's the point of slowing up if you decide you don't have what it takes to finish it? Because honestly, you've used 1/2 of that "burn time" already, I doubt that the second 1/2 of the burn is going to be strong enough when the field catches you and guys who have been sitting in still have all of their last matches. You know what I'm saying? You may blow up spectacularly, but if you keep your head down and the power on, you may just stay away.

I just think those closing kilometer attacks need to be all or nothing. Whether you are waiting for the final 200 or 2000 meters, you have to go all in. No halfway doubting yourself. That, is what Jens does. He believes in himself. He knows himself. No bullshit attacks. He attacks and he means it. If you decide you need to attack, fully commit and go. Because that is your best chance. You may fail, but at least you gave it your all.

@Marc

These are wise words. Hope to apply them tomorrow

Short report : tired (had slept four hours), guess the others were tired too, because I finished second.

Long boring report: Neutralized climb: my legs are tired, they are sending messages like '"why are you doing this to us?" You know what I tell them... Still, I'm already thinking about the steep climb, tell a guy I know from GMSR (he races in the fifty + with his team mates and stays at the same inn as Marc B. and I do, which makes them near team mates when I don't race with other Kissenas) that I don't have my legs so will work for him if I can. I move forward to be near the front at the start of the steep climb, I can keep the strongest juniors within reach, get to them after the top, there are two or three other old guys (one will stay with us for a whole lap with Chuck and me) and that's it, we push on the following rollers and we are gone. Chuck Litty and I tell some juniors what to do to work well together. They often want to relax, we don't and prod them. After the steep climb on the second lap before the descent that will take us to the straight road, a rider right behind me has a flat, I think it's me, I stop pedalling, there's a crash behind me, two guys are down (the one who had the flat and the following one), ahead of me Chuck and one or two juniors are gone. I chase them in the descent, see them catching dropped cat 4s, passing some (I do the same). Before the turn, I see them with a group of cat 4s, I'm riding alone, as if it's a TT, catch some cars, try to do what I saw on the Internet, get to the pace car, the driver accelerates... it's our pace car! The guy does not know a junior and a fifty plus (my five key does not work) are ahead... he makes signs to prevent me to get closer, I accelerate, tell him in which cat I am and catch the others with the cat 4s... they are riding next to them, not in their wheels...We go to the front and hammer... at the five hundred meter sign I have to let Chuck go, my TT has taken a lot from me (fifteen/twenty minutes? After the race the pace car driver told me I reached 38 miles an hour on that straight road to catch the leader) and I finish second several minutes before the third guy and about 8 minutes before the following group (including Bruce Townend who nipped me on the line last year for second place)... A couple racers were upset because I had said I didn't have my legs today, but I was sincere.

Yeh! Stéphane&co! -h

Way to go dude!

Racing against Stéphane, one must get the feeling of being rammed by Verne's Nautilus... as in "what the Hell just attacked us?!"

Stéphane: his legs follow his heart.

Chapeau!
Nicely done Stephane!
Picture?

Stephane, you're as tough as a wet knot. Awesome result.

woot woot!!!!

Congrats Stephane! People who have never done this course might be fooled into thinking that there is just one hard climb. When in fact there are a series of hard climbs leading up to the short steepy (think Ash/Tweed/Old Mountain roads) that everyone frets about. Plus today, when you get through the climbs the "flats" and descents had plenty of wind to make solo riding lots and lots of fun. At one point, I'm putting the power down, only to see that I"m going a whopping 17 mph. Yes, I am that awesome.

Stéphane, as I have learned riding with you, you are a relentless badger. Nice work!

Stephane
Nice work my friend.

Stephane does not stop. Hammerhead. Excellent result, hombre!

Excellent job Stephane!

It's funny that I started this thread and then ended up not being able to race :/
I had been thinking about this race for months, since it seemed suited to my strengths in some places and I've been feeling good race-wise lately, but my wife and I had been planning a small bike tour (which just ended yesterday!) for a long time around the same time and it looked like the two events were not compatible. I tried all kinds of finagling (sp?), including delivering my race bike to my buddy Al's apartment for him to bring up to Albany for me, but it just wasn't in the cards.

Next year. :wink:

Thank you all for your kind comments.
You're all racing as cat.4, 3 or 2. I'm racing in categories defined by age, I can be very happy with some of my races although the results don't show much, like last week at Tokeneke where I was racing in the fifty plus with really strong racers or Tour of the Hilltowns, till I exploded three miles before the end. I don't want to say that yesterday was a piece of cake, I gave everything to catch the leader with the cat: 4 group, but the competition was not as strong as in Tokeneke or Tour of the Hilltowns, or the coming GMSR... For those of you racing in the 4s, it's the difference between racing in the 4s or the 3/4s... Most of the old racers I talked to are not even going to GMSR, you have to be exceptional like Hank Pfeifle to place at sixty. Since I don't have to be with the strongest to have fun, I'll be there.

Stephane, with your never-say-day-always-say-ATTACK attitude, it's hard for the rest of us not to have fun when you are racing too :)

Great job!