Nowhere To Run To
Tour de Parc, Wantaugh, Long Island
1 mile loop with a tight 180' turn soon after the start/finish and a small rise at the other end of the teardrop-shaped course.
(An actual report written on the day it actually happened. Shocking!)
First off, a tip to all race promoters in shouting distance of Manhattan—if your race is accessible by the LIRR, MetroNorth, NJTransit or flue, say so on your flyer! I'm not in the habit of guaranteeing things I can't control, but if a rider doesn't need to check a map to figure out whether or not a train runs nearby, it makes sense that those cool, environmentally-minded (ok, or cheap) racer kids might be more inclined to show up.
That being said, Charlie I. put on an excellent race.
The womens field was, unfortunately, small and combined with the juniors. 13 of us total. I got dropped in the turn after carefully marking Ann-Marie Miller's wheel for the better part of the race. Time-trialed the rest alone and ended up 9th. (According to Ann-Marie [who, by the way, won the womens 123 Green Mountain Road Race in a solo breakaway. If you haven't read those race reports at cyclingnews.com or racelistings.com, you're missing out on some good stuff], the field let the NeXT junior escape and then sprinted for second. She took fifth.)
Since I was there, I raced the category 4/5 race. The lessons learned here were many, but the most essential is if you don't have to race this field, don't. Despite my careful riding, I was run off the road when caught behind one crash coming out of the 180' turn, and was knocked off my bike at two laps to go when a rider behind me couldn't hold a line that didn't involve my rear wheel. Once the pileup on top of me was gone, and it was confirmed that the work of Drs' Pelham and Stern remained untouched, I got to hike back to the pit where Ray of Brands Cycle put my bike back into rideable condition. Thanks, Ray, and everyone involved in the race!
And hooray for Tegaderm!
1 mile loop with a tight 180' turn soon after the start/finish and a small rise at the other end of the teardrop-shaped course.
(An actual report written on the day it actually happened. Shocking!)
First off, a tip to all race promoters in shouting distance of Manhattan—if your race is accessible by the LIRR, MetroNorth, NJTransit or flue, say so on your flyer! I'm not in the habit of guaranteeing things I can't control, but if a rider doesn't need to check a map to figure out whether or not a train runs nearby, it makes sense that those cool, environmentally-minded (ok, or cheap) racer kids might be more inclined to show up.
That being said, Charlie I. put on an excellent race.
The womens field was, unfortunately, small and combined with the juniors. 13 of us total. I got dropped in the turn after carefully marking Ann-Marie Miller's wheel for the better part of the race. Time-trialed the rest alone and ended up 9th. (According to Ann-Marie [who, by the way, won the womens 123 Green Mountain Road Race in a solo breakaway. If you haven't read those race reports at cyclingnews.com or racelistings.com, you're missing out on some good stuff], the field let the NeXT junior escape and then sprinted for second. She took fifth.)
Since I was there, I raced the category 4/5 race. The lessons learned here were many, but the most essential is if you don't have to race this field, don't. Despite my careful riding, I was run off the road when caught behind one crash coming out of the 180' turn, and was knocked off my bike at two laps to go when a rider behind me couldn't hold a line that didn't involve my rear wheel. Once the pileup on top of me was gone, and it was confirmed that the work of Drs' Pelham and Stern remained untouched, I got to hike back to the pit where Ray of Brands Cycle put my bike back into rideable condition. Thanks, Ray, and everyone involved in the race!
And hooray for Tegaderm!
posted by liz @ 10:43 PM
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