I personally think the best meeting spot is right by the start-finish line on the other side of the course. Less crowded. Please, cat 3/4s find each other. Team leader, call the meeting and talk a bit about what you want to do tomorrow. You've got a great team, but with a great big team, comes great big responsibility. Use your powers wisely and often. With 13 or so guys, you can probably afford to have 4 protected riders and still carpet bomb the field with whatever tactics you feel like.

Harry and the Cat 5s. Different story for you. With only 3 guys, look alive and play off the bigger teams. Harry, try to dial down volume a bit. Just go after moves that look promising to you. Don't ride hard at the front, just because everyone else is going so slow. It's not the responsibility of the small team to control the pace and/or rhythm of the race. If you know one team is strong, you want to be in a position to jump on their break. If they've got even half a brain, they'll send the pawns out to battle first. Let them beat up each other. Your race is short though too, so the later "early" moves might stick. If you want, I'll be around by the start finish line on the opposite side of the course to help with a quick pre-race meeting. Look for me, the guy with the insanely bushy beard, long hair and cushy muffin top leaking over the top of my shorts. (I know, keep your ladies away from me, they won't be able to resist.)

Also, I'll be around afterwords for anyone that want's to pre-ride the Grant's Tomb course.

I'll be down to preride Grant's after.

The lineup sounds good and strong. Only thing I'd like to interject is that I've never ridden a lap around Central, let alone raced one. The finish is on a rise? May suit John a little better because he is slimmer then I. I'd happily be the last guy to pull the train to drop you off. Sounds like a full field, should be hectic, so everyone stay alert and smart.

If I can make it, I'll be happy to start the train. Can probably go from the top of HH for quite a long time. Just need the shout "now" as to when/where to wind it up.

marc, jules. jp, team,
thanks for input, totally agree w/you marcB...try to keep powder dry for final rush &will keep a close eye on front for a serious break...in which case will 'practice' effort to bridge!

@ryanJ, last season the rule (per CRCA official) was 10% of 'wait list' gets into Cpk races 14-15% if foul weather. you want to be at table when they open for business :45min abead of race start. be patient...you will likely get to race. if no, then you can do reconsaissance during race for cat4's, ie. call out time away for breaks.

marc will look for you @start/finish...josh&murray if only for moral support! beards tend to have a calming affect before a race. ;>
-harry

Dudes, I am JONESING for a real-life 2012 race report over here. C'mon, hook a brother up!

You don't want to know. . .
Blood all over the road and all fields neutralized.

Posted By: Jeffrey WhiteDudes, I am JONESING for a real-life 2012 race report over here. C'mon, hook a brother up!

3 or 4 crashes in our field alone. They announced the 3/4 field was 150 people, which sounds erroneous at best. First crash was going uphill (ha) on lap 1, another on the south side curve on lap 2, and on the downhill on lap 4. As we came around for the final climb/sprint, evidently the cat 5s had a big crash, and there was an ambulance on course and more then a few still downed riders in bad looking shape. I believe technically the finish was neutralised, but some sprinted anyway. It was a mess. We did a good job keeping a few guys on the pointy end, and getting reasonably amassed at the front leading into the sprint before it went all pear shaped. Dave and a few others helped move me up the left side, but John got stuck on the right side. Hard to say how the cards would have fallen, but I think 1-2 in the top 10, and John in the top 5 was a possibility.

My race was short,

Lap 1, halfway up the climb the middle of the pack got pretty dense and I looked up to see a sids rider and somebody else in black and green on the pavement. I coasted for a second, navigating through the carnage put my head down to accelerate only to look up to see A SECOND CRASH ON THE FIRST CLIMB. I put the head down again and tried accelerating up through the panicked riders, but the ratio of riders behind the crash to riders off the back from the first climb resulted in quite a cluster and there wasnt really anywhere to go quickly. The group I was with kept shedding dead weight and picking up riders ahead of us on the course, I even had a teammate (I am so sorry i completely forgot your name). At our best we were within 15 feet of the field, but it seemed at the moment we all went all-out individually, and then gave up. After a full lap of chasing I through in the towel and soft pedaled around the course till the 3/4 finish.

Malcolmson came in 5th or 6th, and Dave finished a solid 12th, but as the pack had to weave through the carnage of a cat 5 crash at the base of Cat's Paw, the 5s were the only ones with results.

During the grants thomb pre-ride I got a flat.

That was, bar none, the most absurd thing I've ever been a part of. It even exceeded my prediction: we had more crashes than laps, with 5(I know of) to 4.

You name it, we had it. Uphill crashes. Downhill crashes. Cone crashes. First lap crashes. Last lap crashes. Horse shit crashes. Inexplicable, random swerving. Joggers lane riding. Semi-neutralized "sprint" finish due to bloody bodies being back boarded. Garbage truck on course. I just wanted there to be a jailbreak at the zoo so there would be rhinos and monkeys darting around. Actually, monkeys are better bike handlers.

If you made a parody of a cat 4 race this extreme, no one would even think it remotely accurate and would dismiss all bearing to reality. But here we are. I wish I had Jules' camera so you could see verifiable proof of how ridiculous it was. Good news was that everyone was more or less ok. Let us know how you're doing, Aly.

And to think, 3s made up a chunk of that field too.

THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT. Actually, no it's not. These reports are kind of stressing me out. Fingers crossed for Alyosha. I know his wrist was still fragile.

Agree with Jeff 100%, he captures it perfectly. I was a total non-factor in this race after my pre-race captain speech. Almost never saw the front.

Staged up mid pack. Balls out from the gun. Got passed by a bunch of idiots just blatantly riding up the joggers lane. Mind you, this is probably less than 2 min after the pre-race "DON'T USE THE JOGGERS LANE SPEECH."

Then begins a series of crash, chase back, crash, chase back.

Last lap (after yet another crash) I found myself mid pack behind Jeff and Dave. I looked around. "Huh, only 45 or so left. Everyone has either crashed or been dropped." Feeling okay and starting to like my chances to move up on Harlem Hill and may try something, and if not at least get to the front and play helper donkey. And then...

You guessed it! Crash. Two Velocitys and a Hudson (I think?) hit the pavement hard. Jeff and I avoid. I look at Jeff ready to chase back on yet again. He gives me the cutthroat gesture and smiles. I agreed and we cashed it in.

We rode slowly through 3 or 4 guys laying around an ambulance with bloody legs and faces. Then we went and had "squagels" at Cosi in Union Square.

I doubt I will ever do another race in Central Park unless its Masters or I can upgrade. That was just plain stupid.

I saw Aly go down. Asked him if he was OK and he said yes. He was sore but he seemed fine riding home with us.

Aly was complaining about his coccyx, not about his wrist. Kind of hard to put ice on your coccyx. . .
Masters is not a bad option. They can be very hard, or sometimes stupid if a break gets away and a dominant team blocks the field. But the bike handling is MUCH better.
Central Park is nice because there is generally no problem with overlapping fields. And Prospect is just so boring. The squagels are also better in Manhattan!

I was riding next to Jeff and we were just commenting on how sketch all this was. Nevertheless, the mood seemed to lighten up and the riding was becoming more and more fluid with a much diminished pack just when this rider whom I though was a girl on an old eddy merckx bike went over a cone and lost control. I was right behind him or her? and ate shit, i flipped over handlebars and landed on my ass somehow. I'm pretty bruised up, my saddle is a scratched and rear rim a bit out of true, otherwise all is fine luckily!
overall, I'm a bit reticent in participating in more park races although I know the first of the season is usually a gong show. considering my weight and habitus, I think I would strive better in altitude anyway. I think Ryan would agree to that as well!

Not much happened in the 123 field.

I bridged up to a move that looked OK, Diolowski, some AXA guy and a Gorilla guy, Robert I think. cosmic guy bridged next (bright green with a little alien looking guy on the jersey). He and diolowski were strong and actually gaping other riders and accelerating when pulling through.

AXA and Gorilla guy seemed to be hurting. Kept letting gaps open. As quickly as it came together it fell apart. Lasted not even 1/2 a lap.

JP, Joe, and Eric stayed near the front after that, and Rene came up and put in a dig.

Coming into a lap to go we approached the carnage. Field was semi neutralized. Restart saw almost all of us on the back. eek. bad move. should have been ready for that.

I got myself up to the front with a dig up the right side but almost immediately was sketched out by riders flying all over the road. Cruised to the back to chat and finish. We were again neutralized at the same carnage before the finish.

It was ugly. I hope those guys are all ok.

One thing we can work on, as Eric pointed out, is being more attentive on the first lap or so. I took me about a lap to find my bearing and get to the front. Could have been too long.

I also need to ride CP more if I want to do well there.

Holy SHIT!

I was up at 12:30 walking boy wonder around the block trying to get him to sleep, laid my stuff out nonetheless; 4:40 alarm went off and I was sick as a dog; went back to sleep and woke up full of despair at having missed the first race of the season. All that fantastic LA fitness seeping out in a snot-filled steam.

Sounds like I picked a good race to noshow.

REALLY sorry to hear about your arse Aly! If it's any consolation I have about 150 of the 300 or so "best" LA shots uploaded.

wahooo...I miss those days. I wish races would be on climbs like these! there would be so many less crashes. thanks, im gonna be hurting for about a week i expect.

heal-up well and fast Aly... sorry you guys had to navigate all that madness.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PskoqCtRFD4

There are a million stories in the naked peloton...this is only one. I actually had quite the enjoyable race. Once I saw the 3/4 field was over 100, makig the decision to ride masters was an easy one. I've been around long enough to do the math: (big fields + early season) x VanDunk organization = COMPLETE SHIT SHOW! I rode near the front and followed the Axis guys mostly. No Axis riders were getting away without me. I've seen it happen too many times to get snookered by that move. Knowing the the climb to the start finish can be a danger zone for small groups to slip off, I put myself in 3rd wheel or so coming into the hill each lap. I put some digs in on the climbs in hopes an Axis train would come by and I could drop in. Heading into the last lap I actually opened a gap on the field with 2 other guys...who were not Axis. We knew it wouldn't stick but decided to keep it rolling in hopes a chase group would seperate and we could drop in. We were caught by a small field split before the downhill and by the top of Harlem hill it was groupo compacto. Shortly after the decent an Axis guy drilled it and towed about 6 guys with him up the road (I know, I know but I was spent). I don't think they ever got more than 50 yards or so but with Axis and another team blocking they were holding it coming into horsehit alley. It started to get clawed back and by the time we got neutralized the gap was about 20 yards. Great training for Grants Tomb. The masters field contains riders who can handle their bikes and who understand that riding squirrely and squeezing other riders out only burns watts. Oh and I had my tubies reglued a few weeks ago and did not ride them till this morning. Apparently some glue must have dripped out all over my brake track which made for memorable moments on the 1st lap. See you cheeky bastards at Grant's Tomb. Yacks

Some proof that Yacks was all over that Axis shit.....

And some other pre and post race race shots. First time I ever tried to photograph a bike race. Besides the above shot (which Yacks made easy) it's difficult getting action shots of teammates ensconced in a swift moving field.

I should be joining you guys either this week or next (but can't say I'm sorry I wasn't in the race today).

a few more

last couple

Come on. Van Dunk has his act together this morning. Registration was miraculously smooth. We started on time. No field overlaps. Van Dunk wasn't responsible for the squirrely riding.

One of the Burrowes brothers (was it Jermaine) was telling us after the race that WS United (Mango Seed) are running all the Greg Avon races in PP this year. I think there is one coming up in the near future, though I didn't see the flyer that was supposedly circulating. This might be a nice change.

Posted By: dstokesRegistration was miraculously smooth.

My favorite is that he finally realized that if you are going to have pre-registration, you should probably have a separate line for pre-registered riders. Made a big difference.

Posted By: dstokes
One of the Burrowes brothers (was it Jermaine) was telling us after the race that WS United (Mango Seed)

Anyone on the club "friendly" with the Borrowes brothers? (My last encounter with them nearly ended up in fist-a-cuffs) If so, those guys were all over the joggers lane. And not just getting forced out by a swaying field. I don't have a problem with that use of the joggers lane in the interest of safety. But they were using it to advance their position repeatedly. They should stop that.

Posted By: dstokesVan Dunk wasn't responsible for the squirrely riding.

No, but he is responsible for properly educating/training his course marshals. After the crash, they had marshals standing around looking at the carnage. I saw the 3/4 field coming into the sweeper at full-speed and I held my breath. I was sure there was going to be another mass pile up. Luckily no. After that I rode further up the course and told the marshals that we needed to slow everyone, letting them know the race was over because of the crash. They knew there was a crash, they just didn't know what to do. One of the marshals who was at the crash site should have hustled up the course to do what I did.

^^^^

I'll agree with that, and now he doesn't have to post any results! He'll be in our good graces for a few weeks.

I do think, since he runs these early season races he gets the bad wrap of having dangerous races. In a lot of cases it is the riders. I wasn't perfect, but there were other riders in the 123 race who were all over the place. I was surprised.

Now, I can almost guarantee that fields will overlap @ Prospect Park.

And he probably won't post results for a long time.

And the time trial will be a mess.

But let's give him a chance

I know AVD doesn't cause the crashes, the riders do. But common sense precludes a 150 rider 3/4 field on this course. I think the field should have been closed at 100. I don't know how many fields he is permited to run at the same time in Central Park, but splitting the fields and having A. & B. cat III, IV fields would have made more sense. Then again there wasn't even a motorcycle for the masters field which makes having more fields a moot point. I was not in the race so I will only have to ASS-ume that there were multiple rec. lane violations. A 150 rider field puts the racers and the park users at risk and like Forest Gump says, "That's all I have to say about th-aaat".

@Yacks I had the exact same thoughts about switching to Master's - you were a smarter man than I.

I also had the exact same thoughts about allowing that size of field on course. And even if they could not do as you suggest with splitting the 3/4 field, they could easily have just not given 3's the option; there was plenty of room in the P123 race.

I've always accepted that crashes are part of the sport. Even pros touch wheels, take bad lines, and go down in dumb ways. So clearly the crashes aren't his fault, but I'm certain these changes would have prevented some of them. And even 1 less crash saves $1000's in medical bills and shredded carbon fiber, not to mention the pain of concussions and broken bones.

It wasn't 150. That was a gross exaggeration. We reckon 100-110. Much fewer at the end (maybe 40) and they were still crashing.