cross posted...


Results? Race reports? The sick and stuck at home would appreciate
some entertainment besides DVR-ed episodes of Ramsey's Kitchen
Nightmares (a fella can only handle so much yelling).

This

I'm in for Sunday PP for the Cat5. It'll be my first, so should be fun[1].  I'm still waiting for kit, but I'll say hi to anyone in orange.

Race Report for the Cat 3's today-

First racing of the 2013 season for me today. Meet Joe on the way to CP and rode up with him.

In the Cat5's race, it was pretty standard–nothing–happening until we got to last lap. I held back until i felt i could pull something worth while and tried to attack on last lap after Harlem Hill cresting, but all I did was string out the group all along the West side down to South of park and give them a free ride. I decided it wasn't doing me any good as I was maxing myself out, so I decided to sit back in the front group and get ready for spring up Cats Paw, but of course I get boxed in by three dudes who have no intention of sprinting. Two other dudes are swirling all around almost takin people out in front of me, I was just happy to finish on the bike and call it a day. Rolled in somewhere with the first 15 guys or so. Really sketch in CP Cat5. We had Aaron & Chris P in action as well in this race and they looked very comfortable out there.

After the race, Graydon, Alyosha and I hit Piermont for a coffee & Gypsy donut ride.

I'm signed up for the Sunday race in PP too, but will sit this one out. Regardless, i'll try to come out in support.

Tito, that is the place to attack on the CP course, the place with the highest probability of success. It's amazing how much that last lap, even in a short CP race can really kill you. I've had the same thing happen to me many times. Feel a-okay all day long, then that last time up Harlem Hill and through the finish, I'm basically useless. I think what people forget is that in a short race, the intensity gets notched up. I wouldn't be surprised if you powermeter junkies compared TSS scores from say a 4 lap CP race to a 6 lap CP race, they wouldn't be too far off from each other.

Craig, good job keeping yourself up front for most of the race. That's actually the hardest part of learning to race is to get your body and mind to the front. Now you may feel like you spent too much time in the wind, and that may be true. But it's much easier to go from in the wind at the front, to ideal position, than it is, from back of the packer to ideal position. Power meter will definitely help your training, but from your race report, power was not your issue. You had plenty of power to race at the front. Now you just need to learn to better dose your efforts, so that you have enough juice when it counts (e.g. the final sprint, dangerous mid-race breakaway bridge ups, etc.).

Ros, good job giving it a go in the last lap. Stringing it out for "the field" is not ideal when you are racing solo, but when you've got two teammates in the field, it's actually a pretty good idea. Namely, they can slot in somewhere in that strung out line, about 10 guys back (if you started your string of pain on the crest of Harlem Hill), and then have fresher legs to maintain or improve their position as your steam starts to run out. But if you were looking to go away solo, or get a small group together in the last lap, then you really have to focus on absolutely exploding those legs in a furious mix of speed and power for about 15 seconds. You have to get a separation from the field that is sufficient to make them think, "That dude is totally going to blow up in 30 seconds, I'm not going to bother chasing," or "That dude is way too tough for me, I'm not going to bother chasing." Then you settle down into a more manageable pace and hope that you can hold your gap, or that a few other like-minded individuals will bridge up to you (and hopefully not bring along the pack). If you kind of ramp up your attack more gradually, or you attack at a place where everyone's already sort of jacked up on the juice of adrenaline (aka, top of Harlem Hill), you are going to have a lot of passengers happy to sit on your wheel as you do all the work of keeping the the last lap of a race safer, by keeping the pace up high. Again, hopefully you guys are talking to each other before, during and after the race. As individuals, you can be more successful in your efforts if you race together as a team.

Washington Heighters, FYI, to PP from 157th and Riverside Drive, it takes me a solid 55 minutes to get to the start. I go down Riverside Drive until 96th street, dip down to the West Side bike path, turn left on Canal, over the MANHATTAN bridge, then to the park. I've done it in less, but that's riding basically full gas. Give yourself 60 minutes and be happy, not tired at the start.

+1 on the shivers; i left early (early meaning didn't wait for your last lap) because my gf was about to turn into a block of ice.

Good job everyone! How did Candadian Mike fair in the lead group?

2nd, sorry don't know why I left that out. edited above. 

Congratulations Brendan and Mike and Mike!!

Great results, congrats guys!

badass!

After 21 years of doing this, this sort of thing still kind of blows my mind. In a local race, Canadian Mike, a real deal professional, with mega watts, mega experience, coming off of a big training trip in Cali, who is awesome enough to race/ride with Kissena here and there, gets second. Second place. Chrisssss, this sport is hard.

Also, Brooklyn Mike continues where he leaves off last year to clean up for 6th. JP's as solid as ever too. Nice. We could have a very solid Pro 1/2/3 team locally if we focus a bit more. Let's consider if that's worth it...

Its 80 here. Don't know why everyone is so cold. Did I miss anything?

For the 5s it was a pretty leisurely pace for the first 6 laps until a break formed on the main uphill. 

Great job guys. Brendan, get those races in and lets get you sprinting for us in the 4s and beyond.

Hey ladies and gents, quick race report here(I was in the 123 race)
My first spring race in P-park.. dang was that early!

Was pretty cool to be a part of the Kissena group out there, we where VERY active in every early break.. pretty sure there was a Kissena kit present in the top 10 from start to finish.

Mid way through the race I managed to slip away with a few other guys to form a 5 boy break away. There was a guy on a Champ sys bike (sorry guys still learning the names) who was sharing a lot of the work with me, good on him for enjoying the effort..but oh dear- he was getting a bit cranky with the others.. I was happy to ride on the front and stay warm(ish).

To be fair I think some of the others where just trying to keep breakfast off of thier top tubes... we had one poor kid (no disrespect-just he looked to be quote young) kept getting dropped, over and over he managed to dangle his way back on to our quintet. Rolling into the final few km's said kid goes right to the front like a boss and gives us a nice lead out.

I decide to jump the group close(not so close) to the finish.. anyways, ended up getting to enjoy a front row seat to some other guy winning the race while I took home the 2nd place cash.

After the event I looked on the payout list and saw that I would have earned 7 additional $ for 1st and was reminded of a conversation I overhead on Bay st... (two important looking men walking the way only important men can walk) "its not about money Ted, its about status". At the time I figured these guys where just trading cliches but maybe they where just bike racers.

Thanks for the great Sunday morning guys! I owe the 123's a coffee for that one!

Either next Sundays p-park race or the 8am ride. Coffee's on me.

"canadian" mikeg.

@Canadian Mike. Super pumped to have you racing with us. Hopefully you'll wear our kit a few more times before some pro team picks you up. I think you'll find, the more you race with us, is that as a team we are VERY GOOD at being in the mix in the park races. At the front, in breakaways, you name it. The one area where we stand to improve somewhat is closing the deal with a podium spot. There are some pretty tough, aggressive sprinters in NYC and we literally and figuratively get bullied by them on occasion. Although to be fair to some of our stronger guys, we had a few nice podium results last year in the P 1/2/3 races too.

But, you won't find a better "support" team to ride for in NYC park races, that's for sure.

And just because I can't process 600+ photos ... and because nobody would believe me otherwise.  Canadian Mike did this a *lot* in the break...

Mike Garrigan said:

There was a guy on a Champ sys bike (sorry guys still learning the names) who was sharing a lot of the work with me, good on him for enjoying the effort..but oh dear- he was getting a bit cranky with the others..

That was Brian Breach of Mengoni, local dominant rider and all around good guy. The guy in the break that pipped you at the line, Stalin Quintero, most likely deserved to get yelled at. He's notorious for wheel sucking. He has no shame, but a good kick... so something to watch out for.

That was a fun one.

Alex, I work on 61st and park and live in sunset park. I get out around 7p or later but can try to leave earlier to meet up. Maybe hit PP one afternoon?

Wasn't is also Stalin who took out about 15 riders in the final L&C race last year, while in the leaders jersey, by hotdogging at the front and drinking with no hands on the bars during the downhill? Genius.

I'm uploading the photos now.  Hey Canadian Mike - your tires look a little low - what PSI were you running?

Cat 5's take a look at this and commit it to memory.  Now don't do it again

Good on Mike for getting second.  And sixth.  

Jeff Owens said:

Wasn't is also Stalin who took out about 15 riders in the final L&C race last year, while in the leaders jersey, by hotdogging at the front and drinking with no hands on the bars during the downhill? Genius.

Yup.  Super-wheelsucker.  He's got even less aerobic power this year, though it hasn't hurt his sprint any.