Luckily there’s a new race tomorrow! who else is in?

I wish!!! I'll be away the next 2 weeks. All Kissena members should seriously consider coming and out and racing. Like the old dog that it is, FBF's bark is worse than its bite. Although maybe not by much... I thoroughly enjoyed racing there when I was beginning as a Cat 5. Even though I got left off the back more than once, I gained a ton of experience each time. As a Cat 4 I've had some of my best races and finishes there. I feel like with some consistency, we can put a rider on the podium. I find it to be a safer and friendlier place to ease into racing than PP - wider course, more options for moving up, a really great atmosphere and so beautiful as the sun sets at the end of the race. Definitely my favorite spot to race in NYC. Ride it once and you'll see what I mean! If you haven't raced yet this season, now's the time!

Nice evening out. Raced the 3/4’s with Greg, David was in the 5’s. Noticed i still have a lot to learn about positioning - didn’t feel super comfortable being right in the middle of the bunch through the corners - but the race was nice and again had a crazy big field. Had a little bit of sketchiness on the second to last lap with someone chopping wheels, held back a little bit after that to regain confidence and then made some efforts to move up to the front a bit more on the last lap. Had fun! 

Well.. Tonight wasn't great. Loads of crashes for no apparent reason. In the 5's a few guys crashed on the finish line - after exactly one lap. In the 3/4's, there were multiple crashes, and I think some guys fell in the 1/2/3's too.

I had the honor of being part of one of the crashes. Some chaos happened a few riders ahead of me, and a Verrazano rider reacted. I had the bad luck of being right behind.  Looking at the video below I think the Sanba rider ahead of him made a mistake by suddenly moving to the left, but it's always difficult to say who's fault it is. It's bike racing, stuff happens

As far as going from 50 km/h to 0 km/h goes, I did pretty well. Have a few bruises but really nothing too bad. My big chainring caught most of it, but after the Specialized guy there bended it back in place I could ride back on the small chainring. I think the bike is fine apart from that and my bar tape. Even my kit is completely fine.

Former Kissenista James Reeder made the video below and then helped me out big time. We rode back together. Very appreciative of that.

The Verrazano rider whom I touched wheels with came up to me after the race to apologize/check on me too, so did a lot of other people. 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/16s8F86sUrJhcILUYXm_lEoWOH-VnRSN7/view?usp=drive_link
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KyganqHZLRnKl878qVWMoXDGXxnFkWLr/view?usp=drive_link

Ouch , feel better soon

Glad you're OK.  Hope you recover soon!

ah man, heal up and hope you're back to 100% soon!

Thanks  Don’t think I’ll be racing this Saturday, but if it weren’t for the smoke i would be good to ride again tomorrow.

The Burrowes Brothers bikeshop installed a new bar tape and chainring today, so the bike is also back in shape again. They hooked me up with a good second hand chainring they had lying around there for free so all in all the crash cost me $100. Could’ve been a lot more expensive.

Take good care, Lennart!

Does anyone know if there's a race at Floyd this week? I've away the past 2 weeks, and I don't see anyhting on BikeReg. Has Tom gone back to cash and day of race registration only?

Yup. Back to day of cash.

Feel better, Lennart!

This past Wednesday me and Greg both raced, Greg in 3/4, me in Cat 5. I was able to maintain good positions near the front till the last lap and got gassed coming to the finishing straight, finishing off the back of the bunch.

Yesterday was another beautiful day to race bikes at FBF. Temps in the 70's, a little overcast. The usual large, enthusiastic group lined up for the 3/4's. I was the only Kissenista lining up for any race. I haven't raced in about 1 month, so I was a little nervous, but the group was well behaved, and I soon settled in. I think everyone must have been a little spooked from all of the crashes lately, so the pace was only moderately fast. On lap 5 we were neutralized as the 123's moved up and passed us. After we started up again the race got a bit faster. I found myself coming around turn 4 in good position, but with a gap to a group of about 10 that was moving away. I really didn't want to be exposed to try to bridge up to them. I spotted and sat on a fast wheel for some of the distance and then passed and bridged to the group at around the start line. It was only lap 6 so I wasn't putting too much stake in my postion at that point. We were moving fast and I was beginning to wonder how I might conserve some power for later when, bam! I hit a dropped water bottle and went down like a ton of bricks. As my poor body was grinding along FBF's cheesegrater surface, I caught a fleeting glimpse, and then experience the impact of a large, orange kitted rider as his front wheel made contact with my body and proved that there's a lot of energy in large objects moving at high speeds. Ouch. Once I ascertained that my fingers and toes were functioning I hauled myself up to try to see how bad the damaged was to the bike. The brake levers were twisted upside down and wobbling like noodles. (I was amazed when I flipped them over later that although the shifting function was toast, they somehow still worked as brakes). The handle bar was torqued sideways and the front wheel has a big wobble, but otherwise it seems OK). The state of my skin on the right side of my body: not so good. Deep gnarly cross- hatched road rash from shoulder to ankle. I woud need 2 stitches in the elbow, and there's a lot of swelling and inflamation in my lower left back from where crasher #2 ended his ride. EMT's did a nice job of cleaning everything out and tried to convince me to ride the ambulance to the ER since I would need stitches in my elbow and possibly my knee. Since nothing was broken and I wasn't concussed, I declined, opting to go into an urgent care in the morning. I called my wife, who without question, drove over and picked me up. She's a fine woman.  Standing in the rain, shivering in the dark, dripping blood on my shoes, waiting for her to arrive seemed like some kind of sign that maybe it was time for this fools errand to end. Nah. I don't know when I'll be back out racing, but I hope it's soon.  I do hope I never crash again...

ahhhh shit, hope you heal up quick Joe!

oh man, that sounds gnarly.  Heal up quick, Joe!

Ouch, take good care, Joe, a little patience and you will soon be back full on. Heal up!

Oh no. All the best with the recovery! 

@Joe Matunis  Hope you got stitched up this morning and there were no broken bones.  

And your bike is ok.

Looking forward to seeing you on the bike soon.  

I hope you feel better, Joe! 

@Joe Matunis just read about your crash last week. Hope you’re healing up quickly and there is no lasting damage (to you or your bike)

@PatrickGrehan thanks. I'm getting the stitches out of my elbow today and all the road rash is healing up nicely. I have a large potato sized hematoma on my lower left back that is lingering. I'm going to have that checked out today. Pain is that area has decreased as the days pass. As for the bike, I had to replace the brake levers, fork and some front wheel spokes, but the mechanic who checked the bike didn't think there was any further damage to the frame or other parts of the bike. I'm hoping to be out riding again soon. 

Shoot, that sounds like a heavy crash Joe. Heal up quick mate.

I'd you didn't see Tom's email, there's a weekend FBF this Sunday.  If you've never raced Floyd or are normally busy on Tuesday nights, this is your chance to come race at an NYC mainstay.

https://www.bikereg.com/fbfsummer

I'm thinking about racing the Masters 50+ - it will be smaller field than the usual 3/4's, and possibly less bumpy jittery. It will be my first race after crashing at the end of June, so I imagine I'm going to be a little nervous. It sounds like a great day for racing and race spectating - the 16 lap CAt 123 race ought to be interesting. This is a great chance to race a NYC classic. I hope to see you there!

I arrived about an hour before the 8:00 start of the Masters 50+ race. I wanted to get in a few laps before the race, check out the course, the road conditions, my own state of mind. I haven't been on the bike much since crashing at FBF in late June, so I knew my conditioning wasn't great, but I wanted to get back on the horse and see how it felt. I suspected the race was going to be challenging - it wasn't a big field, (around 30 riders), but there were some strong 50ish Cat 123 guys there that I suspected were going to make a race out of it. The course was kind of messy. It had rained the night before so there were pretty much unavoidable puddles on every section of the course, and Tom had put cones around a couple of the bigger lakes. There were attacks starting after the first turn of the first lap and regularly for the rest of the race. Between the attacks, the additional narrowed sections of the course and the small field, there was a lot of yo-yoing and few opportunities to hide in a pack. I think about 1/2 the riders dropped by the half way point. I hung on for 7 laps, by that point I couldn't close the gaps any more and there was no one left behind me to jump on behind. I figured I was at about 75% going into the race, so I wasn't too disappointed. It was great to be back out again after crashing hard and having some doubts about racing again. I'm hoping to get some conditioning back to do better in the final Tuesday night race in 2 weeks. It was great to see David Vibert out racing in the Cat 5 race. 

Hey @DavidVibert , time for an upgrade?

Is anyone going out for the last Tuesday night of the year at Floyd Bennet Field? It looks like it's going to be a beautiful day for racing!

@Joe Matunis  Now you have me wanting to go.

@mugwump and everyone else: I hope to see you there!

It was a glorious day for racing a Floyd Bennet Field, as usual. David did a good job representing Kissena in the Cat 5 race - which finishes up before lining up the 3/4's and 123's. I had a chance to watch that race in its entirety and cheer David on. This was my 4th race at FBF this summer. Fewer than I'd hoped for, so my plan was to keep it safe and make it to the end in one piece. There were a lot of teams with big squads: L&D, Rogue, Kruiscx, Sanba, so I was expecting some of the teams to be making moves. The race started off fast, but everyone seemed to relaxed and riding safely. I was cruising along, riding towards the middle of the pack, when after coming around turn 4 on the 3rd lap a huge crash happened just ahead and to the right of me. Riders went down like a wave of dominos towards the left and then began piling up behind in a wide triangle of bikes and bodies. I had to slow down almost to a full stop to avoid getting caught up in it, which, thankfully I was able to do. The riders up ahead sped off into the distance while those of us behind the crash did our best to bridge back up to the pack. I was able to eventually make contact with the back of the pack, but had burned all my matches doing so. It was with great frustration that I watched the pack pull away from me and my race end. At least I didn't crash. Well, not at the race anyway. When I was about 50 feet from home I had to brake hard to avoid hitting a pedestrian who'd stepped out onto the street in front of me and I went over, landing hard on my right hand. My middle finger was bent at the middle joint over to about the 2:00 position. I didn't know a finger could do that. It looked like a cartoon hand injury. I grabbed it and pulled it straight. Much to my relief it kind of popped back into place. I went home, iced it and in the morning went back to my now familar local urgent care center. Xrays show a fracture. Tomorrow I see the orthopedic hand specialist. Good luck, bad luck, fate, cirumstance, karma, serenditpity, silver linings, the universe speaking? But, getting back to the race, and racing at FBF - I've been hearing a lot of talk about the increasing number of, and severity of, crashes at those races this year. They seem to be prevelant in the cat 3/4 races. I'm wondering if there's a connection between these big squads of young riders and the number of crashes...