cou- HARLEM.. cough... cough

He said "good" crits Vlad. I think you missed that little nugget.

do you need a lozenge?

vlad said:

cou- HARLEM.. cough... cough

D'Oh!  

Absolutely right.  And I think it's worthy of our support.

That makes eight.  

Even though I've been racing it since 1987, I guess I'm responding to the way too many have written it off.  Bad on me for letting them dictate.

I may be bringing up the Cat5 rear, but I'm in on this one

Scott, hope you did a recon ride!  I find the course really interesting because of the fast downhill on the back stretch between turns 2 and 3 and picking a good line to fly into turn 3 up the short but steep incline before turn 4.  If you are at or near the front, picking your own line through the corner makes you much faster than the wheelsuckers in the back that have to brake and adjust their lines due to the other wheelsuckers crowding around them.  Very helpful if you're not the fastest up a hill like I was last year.

I'll ride on Saturday to 9W and drop into Fort Lee to check out the course.  Bruce, Brendan, Brian and Jim cooked this past Saturday that I wasn't thinking straight ... if anyone is riding on Saturday morning and would like to guide me to / through the course, happy to follow!

Anyone race this?

I did make it out to Fort Lee yesterday for the Cat 5 race.

I enjoyed the course.  Fast, with tight turns, and a hill you had to prepare for.  I think they should host more than just one a year there due to the proximity to NYC.

I did OK all things considered, was my 4th race this year, but did not ride as I had wanted.  I didn't feel all that great at the start of the race.  Not sure if it was the ride from Brooklyn to Fort Lee (18 miles, where I had to ride out there a bit faster than I wanted to as the combined groups and the race started earlier than expected), or the fact I was on a corporate boondoggle Tues evening - Fri morning where I certainly didn't eat or drink very well (or to rephrase, I ate and drank very well, but nightly beer and whiskey probably sapped my long term energy).

I hung with the group through lap 5 or 6 but was ultimately dropped once my energy was sapped.  I did pass a two or three folks who were dropped as well as I continued to push as herd as I could through the race.  Unfortunately, as it is a tight course, the group was finishing laps at ~2:10 / lap, and once dropped, I was clocking a ~2:30-2:35 lap.  So, add to insult that I was lapped on lap 11 (they finished lap 12 as I was crossing).  There were a lot of strong riders in the group, with a guy name Maxx from Fulton bikes winning the race.  A bunch of these guys will be joining cat 4 next year.

Bummed that road racing is pretty much done this year.  I now know what to expect for racing and will be in better shape for the '16 season. 

I'm waiting for results to be posted, will post when available.

Nice effort Scott!  I'm hoping for another crit clinic next year.  Marc usually has one in time for Grant's Tomb and/or middle of the season.  I find them invaluable for crit novices.  Racing with experienced guys like Jeff White in the cat 4s is also very helpful if you're into learning "hands on" during a race.

Not easy when you're out there alone. Sorry to have missed that one, Scott. Had to attend to other obligations in the end. I've come to learn that having at least one teammate in the field can lend a little extra edge.

My first and only criterium was last weekend at Basking Ridge. I new it going in, but it became increasingly clear to me while doing the race, how much crits present there own particular challenges. I'm all for a clinic next spring.

Oh, look Cesar Marte is a Cat 1/2 again. Must be good to be able to race whichever category you want when you come back from a doping suspension.

https://www.usacycling.org/results/index.php?year=2015&id=2711

Hey crit guys, looks like there are two nearby options to suit up for more action on the road. I've never done these races, so I won't put them in "Can't Miss," but they are associated it seems with the final weekend of NCC crit racing. Sooooo, you might expect good organization.

Friday night in New Haven (no cat 5s though):

http://www.ctcyclingadvancement.org/new-haven-grand-prix/

And then again in Hartford, CT on Sunday this time all categories:

http://www.ctcyclingadvancement.org/2015-ct-cycling-festival/

Thanks Marc, wish I could, out on vacation and business travel the next three weekends.  looking forward to road racing / crits next spring!

I'll be in Los Angeles.  Alas.

Marc Bertucco said:

Oh, look Cesar Marte is a Cat 1/2 again. Must be good to be able to race whichever category you want when you come back from a doping suspension.

https://www.usacycling.org/results/index.php?year=2015&id=2711

Funny thing about that.  I was speaking with another ex-Mengoni rider at the race.  Turns out the team has members sign a contract where they agree to return team gear in such an instance.  And Cesar proved his class in a number of ways including chopping people and littering.  Apparently, a current Mengoni told someone Cesar wasn't on the team, just riding in the clothing.

It was a tough race.  As always.  Foundation at the riders to do damage, and when the move went with two of them and Margarite, it was game over.  Six or seven guys up the road.  Not enough horsepower in the field to chase them down.  

when four of the break lapped the field, Foundation went to the front.  They strung out the remainder of the field, and made sure the three non-lapped riders chasing couldn't get on.  At the bell Weather Channel started to ramp up the pace for Margarite, but they did it too early, and Margarite was the fourth of the break in the field.  

They didn't have a good camera at the finish line, and the officials weren't on top of their game and it took hours for hte results to be sorted.  At first, they had Cesar getting third (which was impossible as he had been lapped).  I don't think anyone there wanted to see that result stand.  Thankfully, he owned up to the truth before he realized they had him in third.  

Amateur cycling dopers deserve all the LOLs.

FYI reg for 2017 closes Friday. https://www.bikereg.com/tour-de-fort-lee0

Fast, fun course for you crit addicts out there!

This course is awesome.  Was my 3rd or 4th race ever (check the report).  The kicker before the 4th turn will make / break your race.  Too bad it wasn't around last year.

just went by the course today.  the left side of the back straight was being re-paved today.  It was pretty bumpy the past few years.

Reg'd for 3/4!

really wish my new bike was complete.  i am currently in between road bikes and do not have a racing bike.  good luck everyone!

I'll do the W3/4/5 and the W1/2/3. Since I'm already there....

Brendan Rigby said:

really wish my new bike was complete.  i am currently in between road bikes and do not have a racing bike.  good luck everyone!

you mean there's no CAT 6 race this year?

Scott Kuhlke said:

Brendan Rigby said:

really wish my new bike was complete.  i am currently in between road bikes and do not have a racing bike.  good luck everyone!

you mean there's no CAT 6 race this year?

oh there's one of those EVERY DAY. #bikecommuting

good luck everyone!  depending on how lazy i do/not feel and the weather (dnainfo said something about a monsoon?) i might show up for the later races just to cheer and maybe try to take some pictures

Race reports?

Course was narrow and fast and great! Rectangular course, first turn into a false flat downhill, then a long downhill w/ a tailwind, one punchy short climb, then a false flat into the wind. 

I lined up at the back of a 110 person field and that was pretty much my race. Strong dudes attacked from the gun, and I turned myself inside out getting to the main group in the first three laps. My first 10 minutes then caught up to me and slowly but surely my legs turned into cement and lungs into fire. Dropped from the main group and pulled myself after 32 minutes. I could have stayed in and finished with a smaller group that was around a minute back, but at the moment all I wanted to do was lay in the grass and drink water. 

Lessons learned: line up early. Not being aware that people had started lining up was the end of my race yesterday. It would have been tough but I'm pretty confident that I would have been able to at least finish with that main group had I not set myself up for failure. 

Silver lining: tomorrow's Floyd race is going to feel way easier than usual.

Hard.

When I can't get my heart rate over 180, I'm not going to have a good day.  At this course, with this field, it wasn't going to be long.  Got dropped.  I had been fighting a virus from Monday through Friday, so I don't totally hate myself.  And Victor Chan got some good pics of me.  

@UlrikeGlaser should have some stories.  She raced twice.

Hard as hell!  This course is unforgiving, especially with 80+ riders in the field.  It's hard to hold position in corner 3 given people muscling in on lines, and if you fall back through the field then on every lap you're gonna be braking hard into that corner, having to sprint up a hill and then chasing the field on the flat until it almost kills you.  Ask me how I know!

Totally a game of survival ... for a couple laps I was hanging on by deliberately falling back and bombing the corners. It's risky and I fell off properly about 30 minutes in, but got lucky - it was one of the few times where the pack seemed to ease up and I was able to chase back on.

For anyone racing this next year my tips:

- get some practice laps in (outside of race day if you need to, was hard to do this on race day given back to back scheduling). 
- get into roll out early
- work hard to take and hold a top ten position especially through corner three
- take corner four on the inside otherwise you're going to get pushed out to the grass because the road narrows a lot
- take opportunities to move up between corner 4 and corner 1
- great course for a 2-4 person breakaway

In the 3/4/5 race I went for the primes together with a friend. That was successful, nevertheless senseless, too.....well, my father will get new cycling socks for christmas. It is nice that shops are offering primes, but what is the sense behind it if they only wants to get rid of things in XL or even XXL!?
Final was strange. My friend attacked and I thought she might win the race. So I stayed in the sattle and waited too long (was impaired by the thoughts that I shouldn't do a 3/4/5 race...), got blocked and "rolled in" on 4th place.
I'm sorry that I'm helping someone from another team but she wants to upgrade soon and I'm going to pack my bags anyway.

The 1/2/3 started fast and a break of four went after the first few laps. With the first race in the legs I wasn't able to react and was happy when the speed in the field slowed down. "Sprinted" (Not sure if I should call it like this) on 10th place. Just 13 racer finished the race.

However, it was a good test for the upcoming Saturday at Tour de Millersburg. And what I already observed at Giro del Cielo: Even Cat1 racer seem to be tired after a TT in the morning