Exxxcellleent Smithers...I'm sorry I missed all the fun....but I should just stay away after todays results. John yours is cautionary tale of what happens when heavy guys with tons of power lose weight. Can't wait to see you in the shamrock green kit at the next one.
yacks

p.s. all the weight John lost, I seem to have found

@John - how much weight have you lost? I thought it was just that ugly purple jersey from the spring series that made you look like barney

nice work John!

Thanks all for the props, but it was really Ian, Jeff and Patrick and all the others that sacrificed to make it happen! It was super awesome to be in that position of protected rider. Also, great to hang out for some post-race caffeination and bagelry.

@ Yacks — You got it all wrong: you're Maverick and I'm Goose. Looking forward to having you back to fight the possibly mended Iceman McGarity this Sunday (that's if he hasn't collarbone'd it). Are you in?

@ Mike — I was 220lb when we were doing Computrainer at Ride Brooklyn in Feb. Now 200—not exactly The Biggest Loser, but the PP hill seems like more of a bump now.

I plan on being there Sunday...going to attempt to "train" this week...
yack

Here's some great shots of our exploits from last weekend.
http://www.oneimagingphotography.com/Cyclings/Lucarelli-CastaldiCupRace618/Cat-4/17663207_nV66Jq#1346896277_gf6zqQC

hahah Dan's got his I'm loving this face on:

http://www.oneimagingphotography.com/Cyclings/Lucarelli-CastaldiCupRace618/Cat-4/17663207_nV66Jq#1346888973_Xcj9Sn9

Dude, that was already a lap into that break, I think that was the point where I was realizing, we still had 7 more laps to go, and if we were going to make this one stick we needed to go hard for a long time. I knew you guys were going to make the rest of the field do the work to bring us back, and would do your best to make sure it wasn't easy.

I still don't quite know how I ended up there in that break, since I was going to take it easy for the first half of the race. I was just marking a guy moving up the road. Next thing you know we've got 20 seconds on the field and there are 3 of us working well together. Next time I will stay away from the very front of the race in the first 2 laps.

taking my first plunge with the Cat 4's on Sunday. expect to see me getting yo-yo'd off the back - but looking forward to it nonetheless! i'll be looking and listening for any instructions should i find myself anywhere near the front....

Congrat's Mr Stearns, glad to see you moved up.

fresh meat for the grinder...

Im racing in the 4s on sunday whats the plan?

So, I'm racing the H2H race at Lewis Morris tomorrow morning, but start time isn't until 10. Is it super lame to show up, go for some KOM points and bail early so I can make the hour+ drive to NJ?

I personally think it would be super-pro. But it might be against the rules or something.

If you race around a few laps, hit the last KOM and then take a sharp left, accelerate off of the course towards your next race. Hero. For convenience, I suggest you try and coordinate both races so that you have the same number for both.

Very enjoyable racing today: Joe racing in the 123's like it ain't no thang—JP busting it up. Dan, Wojciech and the guys in the breaks, making Hudson work their asses off. Vollbach 1/1 destroyed the KOM and I got a good hold of the Green 1/3 due to the tireless Kissena train (OK maybe a little tired at the end). Thanks to Dan, Yacks and Ryan for getting things sorted on the road and all the guys for stringing it out—made my job easy. 8th overall got us a few Entenmann's treats post race.

P.S. Does anyone have a length of chain or a baseball bat I could borrow? Forgot I have to meet that punk in the alley later.

Yeah, today was fun minus the "even-for-a-Cat 4 race" intense aggro vibe and amazingly sketchy riding.

Great racing in the 4's, I had a blast grinding it out with the crew, especially Yacks and Jeff with whom I worked leadout duty all day.

I wish we could have been there a little better for John at the end but Dave smashed both KOMs by like 20 or 30 meters and we got both intermediate sprints. On both KOMs Yacks towed us across the start/fin and then peeled off for Jeff, whose effort onto the base of the hill basically just gapped the field, so by the time I was doing the final leadout for Dave the two of us were pretty much alone.

Lots of communication and lots of fun and while its still far from pro - hey we're far from pro! I thought it was great team showing.

Hell yes, we definitely looked like we knew what we were doing out there. Sorry we couldn't get something more together for you at the end, John. And thank you guys for the perfect leadouts on the KOMs. Definitely made the first part of my day easy.

As for the second part, a flat on the final lap with about a mile to go let 2 guys get by me while I fixed it. So I could only manage 3rd place. Still stoked for a "podium despite mechanical" but would have really loved to get the win.

Next time.

Great racing everyone.

@ Dave. You were on fire! Too bad you punctured in your other race. No worries on the sprint, covering those jerseys and breaks was a ton of work as it was. Forgot to thank Nathaniel and Jeff for the teamwork too. I hope I can repay the favor soon.

On another note, it'd be great if people could weigh in here:
Some of you may know that during Sunday's PP race I lost my shit at this rider who just up'd to the 4's, Nolan Montiel. He's the same guy who put Mitch Sonies in hospital (+ totaled his Cervelo) and crashed me out in an early Cat 5 race (riding third wheel!). I think Adam and Stearns and a few others can vouch for the fact that he's a dangerous player. He's a talented sprinter, but he has a serious over-inflated sense of his own skill—has a habit of whipping sideways without warning or looking. During the race he swung over my wheel on the hill and I had to brake, narrowly avoiding contact and causing who know's what grief for the riders behind. I chewed him out and his response was something to the tune of "get off the bike and we'll settle this". Laughable! I think Jeff shut him down after this (thanks). I protested him to the ref. (AJD) and he asked me to point him out, but he'd flown the coup.

So what I wanted to ask is, what else can I do here? I'd really like him to get a bit of a zing from someone official, he's young, arrogant and isn't panning out as a good listener. I know, crashes happen and there are riders that have a rep, but these guys at least have experience and I don't see them causing too many disasters. If someone is exhibiting a pattern of riding dangerously, putting people on the deck and wants to have fights during races my feeling is they should be out. So: does there ever come a point where race organizers (those guys tasked with putting the safety of the riders first) will boot someone from a race?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xTqP58o1iw

He was upgraded without my approval. Not one verified race.

I'll weigh in on this one.

I agree with John for most of this. Nolan is unpredictable and unsafe (he was riding in the jogger's lane when you went off at him). To add a bit of background, my girlfriend who popped down to the race this Saturday (Laura) and I have a little bit of a giggle at his expense. I've raced with him many times and it's a similar situation. Somewhere along the line someone injected him with 'I think I'm Mark Cavendish serum' and it's taken effect. His dad, who regularly attends races tells him how great he was in every race (not true). At the Tour de Parc crit in May the Cat 5 race was really quite fast and the field got split. When the leading group (including me, and him, he was at the very back might I add, didn't make the sprint) finished, his dad kept telling him how great he was for splitting the field. Erm, I don't think he had anything to do with that really! Also, there's more carbon on his bike than in a coal mine, including his $370 yellow shoes (that's why I have nicknamed him Cinderella). Just thought I might want to put in a little bit of info of where this guy is coming from. Note, I still think he's a tool.

Anyway, Laura overheard his pals talking at the weekend and it turns out that this guy was some sort of under-16 track champion (not sure at what level). This somewhat explains his inability to check where he moves and his desire to sprint. Also, she overheard something about him aiming to ascend to cat3 by the end of the year. It's in order to qualify for something or another, not sure what. All in all, this pretty much explains the guy. He's 19 at present, new to road racing and has no idea (if he had any idea, he'd have figured out that he's not that great and NEEDS a team in order to succeed) and this all come across in his immature behaviour, including his offer of fisty cuffs.

I think that the best bet would be to talk to the race organiser before the next race, explaining these details. It puts him into perspective somewhat and I think that they might then feel that they should at least keep an eye on him. If nothing else, if there is an incident and he is reported after the race, as well as before, they really have to take notice.

eric: can you put out an APB on this chump

I wish, but there is little I can do. Just report him to the officials when he does something out of line. Then you can go up the ladder. Have someone else corroborate and if the officials don't act, we'll throw it up the officials ladder.

Heh, yeah. After he said that I told him "You don't wanna do that, shut up and ride your bike." I mean, John outweighs him by at least 50 lbs and is a KIWI. Has this idiot never heard the Haka? "PREPARE YOURSELF!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3o0pv6k37yE

Also overheard was Yaks getting into it with possibly the most dangerous rider in the 4's, that dude who spins at 140rpm AT ALL TIMES and has the dreadlocks tucked into his jersey. Really skinny. Really awkward and erratic on the bike. I think this dude also bumped John at the last PP race.

I dunno what to say to them either. Just like when we confronted the Scottos and Organic guy with cheating two weeks ago. Either they cheated and knew it, or didn't think they cheated. So any approach is going to result in an angry response b/c who likes to be called out, whether feeling guilty or innocent. And with riders like these guys in the 4's, how do you tell someone you're a bad bike handler and need to get a clue? I've identified the 5 or 6 dangerous guys you regularly see (the giant Speedwell guy comes to mind), and I pretty much spend a decent portion of the race trying to stay away from them. Like you said, stuff happens, but it's frustrating when it's the same guys over and over. One of the Eastern Mountain guys, used to be on Organic, came over on me and I told him to watch it. He's an older guy and knows better and quickly apologized. I know it's no his m.o. But these other dudes....I dunno how to tell them after the race that they need to be more careful. I mean, Charlie gave his usual "this is a friendly local race" talk and the race immediately began as completely aggro. People are just deaf and stupid I suppose.

If the kid is actually only 19 we might consider just talking to him directly and being cool about it. Not an aggressive confrontation, just a "look, we got into it a bit but now let's chill out and talk about what's actually going on here."

I think if we are relatively nice to him we can still make him feel like the older guys in the bunch want him to work on certain specific things and he'll probably feel that pressure. No one wants to disliked by everybody, especially when "everybody" is being reasonable.

My guess is we'll do more to achieve our desired end, which is to make the knucklehead ride straight, in that way than any other.

Maybe a solution is to talk to his dad.

call the principal?

Thanks for taking time for all the comments and Hakka videos gentlemen.

I think I'll chat with Charlie/Ref again. And Ryan makes a great point, yelling at someone in front of 80 of their peers isn't probably the best way to change behavior (the old praise in public/criticize in private thing). Focus on the real problem: Pendejo's riding like he's coming off the banking of a 333. I'll keep it pro and try the conciliatory approach with him and his dad before the next race and take it from there. Now where's my DESO script and my Xanax?

Yeah. I think that approach usually works. A few weeks ago at FBF, mike was telling a velocity dude that favors would be repaid if he helped chase. The guy confused what he said into a threat of "help chase or else we'll remember this" and yelled at mike to shove it up his ass. I told the guy to calm down, that's it's just a race and supposed to be fun. The important part was mike going up to him after the race and straightening things out. In the heat of action when the heartrate is up, people can say/do things they wouldn't normally do. I think it's probably a small number of people that won't respond to calm interaction if approached in a friendly manner, before or after a race.

Or I can always ride him into the curb.

I second the comment on that guy with the dreds - Chris I think? He hops into the back of the 123 race and bounces around. I went to tell the official, I think it was Maurice, because it was so dangerous. The official told me to back of and he'd "deal" with it. I wish they just throw down some DQ's for behavior that is so obviously wrong that nobody can complain about the consequences.

The situation with this young kid is a bit trickier and might involve talking to him privately to avoid bruising his ego.

Michael