NYC at ESG, New Paltz 2005
By Karen Ulrich and JT:
The Women—Karen Ulrich, Liz Seward, Cindy Ma
The Men—Robert Lattanzi, Scott Willingham, Inson Wood, Kurt Gustafsson, Euri Madra, Stephen Jamison, John Tomlinson, Geoff Bickford, Pedro Arias, and Frank Epinal
Day 1—ITT:
Ten-mile flat course, beautiful landscape (but who’s looking?), minimal traffic, road texture a little coarse. The men began and through Western was tough to beat we ended with four in the top-twenty—Lattanzi at 9th, Willingham at 11th, Wood at 16th and Gustafsson at 20th.
Unfortunately another official (don’t know him, heard his name is Gary) insisted on holding the women, then proceeded to drop five of us into the ditch or road, including Ma and myself; not a good way to begin while the clock is ticking. Never having ridden a flat TT I didn’t realize before starting, how much more you have to push yourself to achieve that I’m gonna puke at the finish feeling. Losing the screw at the back of my saddle a few minutes in didn’t help my game; the back end kept flipping up, urging caution and preventing a real jump after the turn around, cause I was afraid I’d lose it all! End result—a disappointing 4th place, 7 seconds behind the bronze. Ma finished 8th, Seward came in 11th.
Day 2: Road Race at Union Vale (without the final climb up Blueberry Hill)
Two of our men missed the start, after getting lost and arriving a little late—Euri and Pedro Arias. Yet a rider from another region was also late, but he was allowed to begin. What gives?
Men’s report by JT:
The race was very hard at the start, then settled down, then got fast again in the middle. I got dropped about halfway through the five laps, which bummed me out because I thought I was riding well. Plus the race didn’t finish up the usual huge climb, but just on a flat section of the circuit, which would have suited me. I did beat the dropped guys I was with by attacking down the last descent – every rider scores points in the overall so every place is important.
The good guys on our team rode OK, with Scot monstrous. He got in the break but missed out when it split in half and finished 7th. We thought Lattanzi was a contender to win but he got some cramps near the end. Fernando Ferreira from Hudson Valley won.
Women’s report:
The women’s race had a slow start. Seward came from a double dose of Superweek, and had forgotten to change her 23 to a 25. Without a lot of road races beneath her belt this year, she didn’t expect to last long, so on the 1st lap she got to the front and pulled the field up a few hills, aiming to give it all she had by sheltering me for as long as possible before she finished. On the second lap after the feed, Seward informed me that Adirondack was the only team with three riders left. By the third time up Western was back together, making that two, but at the top a front group of four split off — the three Adirondack girls and me (3:1, not a great ratio!). We stuck together, with my feeling cagy and reacting to every surge. I foolishly misjudged the exact location of the final descent and jumped too soon. By the time we got to the top of the final short hill before the descent, I was cooked. I kept my pace, but gained nothing, but another fourth place finish! Seward came in 11th and Ma 14th, at the end of the day NYC was in 4th place.
Day 3—Criterium:
Women’s field began first, five sprints, one every five laps. I sat out the first sprint and attacked after they crossed the line, but unfortunately no one came with me and I was gobbled up after a lap. This one was a race between Adirondack and NYC, but they were tough to beat and the sprints were long beginning at the corner. I think Ma and I placed on the 2nd sprint, Seward placed in another, and I in one more, but it just wasn’t enough. There were a few attempts to get away. I spent a half of lap chasing one down before the finish, which got me nothing at the end but yet 4th place again! At least by now I was laughing at my number of doom. Ma came in 6th and Seward 8th. Adirondack took the top three. NYC’s women took second over all, but we needed the men to finish strong to elevate our standings up to third.
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Men’s report by JT:
Saturday was a points race on a nice rectangular crit course in Poughkeepsie. Beautiful weather, and pretty fast. We did pretty well, with the better guys from the team off the front a lot. No win but solid. Rob was in the first break of the race, then Inson, Scott, Steve and Kurt attacked quite a bit and Bickford rode the last few laps off the front with the guy who eventually won. Scott crashed on the last lap and I was a bit too far back so just ended up 30th of 60. I think I should have been 20th if I’d had more balls.
Actually there were a lot of crashes, though most of the riders seemed pretty safe. One guy Tim Huneck, who said hadn’t crashed in 8 years, fell twice and the second time he was actually laughing as he rolled along saying “I can’t believe it.”
Final results—NYC ended with three men in the top ten—Lattanzi took 7th, Wood 8th, and Bickford 9th. By the end of the day NYC was in third over all, but only 55 points ahead of Central. The TTT would be crucial to hold it.
Day 4—TTT:
Men’s report by JT:
The final stage was a 40-mile TTT. Each region has ten riders in the men, so that’s two teams of five. But since we were two riders down we ran a good “A” team and me, Bickford and Franki Espinal as the “B” team. We still rode as hard as we could in case another team had a problem like a crash or flat or something (and also for our egos) – with Geoff and me doing long, long pulls the first half, and then Geoff upping it to triple-long pulls the last 15 miles. We ended up averaging just over 23mph and getting a severe workout. We would have gone faster, but there were some hills on the course (one where most riders used the small ring) which we did twice (two times an out-and-back course) – and we had to crawl up them to keep Frankie from dropping. And we had to just coast for a little on the flats on the last lap when he blew a bit. But he could handle good speed on the flats and downhills which was cool – he dug deep which was good to see. Long Island B caught us for two or four minutes at mile 21 (a couple miles after the big hill we crawled), then we shuffled back and fourth with them for the next 15 miles before they left us for good on the last climb. In general we were equal or faster on the flats and downhills the second lap but much worse on the false flats and climb. In the end we got last, but at least we were fighting to hold them and also Central NY’s B team.
The chief ref was behind us a lot and I thought he was going to give us some sort of penalty for drafting but instead during the awards ceremony he said he’d enjoyed watching our seriously outgunned team fighting the other teams hard. Which was cool.
Western NY’s A and B teams got 1st and 2nd with NYC A (Kurt, Rob, Inson, Scot and Steve) third by 8 seconds. Actually the results were bullshit, because Western had a rider in their A team that hadn’t started the RR or crit. The officials, (who always seem to have it out for NYC) claimed that since that guy didn’t start because he was sick it wasn’t his fault so he could race the latter events. Whereas since our guys who missed the start of the RR got lost on their own they were out. Very annoying. Without that, a Western B rider would have been in their A team, which would still have won — they’re very good. But no way would their 4-man B team have beaten the 5 NYC A riders. Our A-team had the best split time at the half-way point. Or if we’d had all our guys in for the crit and TTT we would have been second overall probably, and for sure my TTT team would not have been last.
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Very fun event which I highly recommend. The only bad things were that since the race was so close to the city, we didn’t all stay in the dorm housing together, so their was slightly less off-bike comradery than normal. But still fun. Now, with my ass feeling like hamburger from the TTT, I’m taking a few days easy.
Women’s report:
We knew our race was going to be tough and decided I’d take the longest pulls with the three of us riding together for as long as we could. The start was a bit rocky; our ascent up the first hill was far from smooth and shattered when Ma jumped. Ten miles out, we held it together, losing Seward between miles 12 and 13. With a few short recovery’s sprinkled in and slow downs to not lose Ma, I pulled long for the remaining miles. Without knowing where the men were at, I knew our beating Central was crucial for NYC to finish third—and believe it or not, we did. First medal of the ESG—bronze in the TTT; second—bronze to NYC over all. Nice job guys.
I’m so grateful to Bill Montgomery for his humor, as it would’ve been tough to last without laughing. Big thanks to Karl for the road support and food feedings after all the races. Cheers to Hudson Valley/New Paultz for sponsoring the Games, and to everyone else who made it possible – it was a great learning experience.
There are a couple of inaccuracies here I would like to address. The NYC riders who did not start the road race were excluded from the rest of the event as stated in the technical guide:
“All athletes are entered in and must compete in all four events, unless excused by the state chairman prior to the start of an event for illness, injury, etc. Failure to start an event without excuse will result in disqualification from the remainder of the events”
They were not prevented from starting, they made the decision not to start on their own, after arriving at the FINISH in street clothes after the field had completed one lap.
Interestingly enough, even though they weren’t there, they somehow signed the sign-on sheet prior to the race (also a violation of the rules).
The “rider from another region who was late but was allowed to begin” ended up spending the entire day chasing, and ended up DFL at 2 laps down. Had the NYC riders decided to chase, they would have been permitted to ride the rest of the event.
As far as the western rider who missed the RR and Crit, he was sufferring from food poisoning (see the excerpt above under “illness”), and was granted an excuse by the state chair.
ESG official — can you provide your name please?
And I still think it’s nonsense for the state chair to allow a rider to race after illness — if that’s up the chair’s discretion then it’s bad judement. It’s bike racing. Dealing with sickness is part of the sport.
Two other things — thanks for the clarification on the LI rider starting the RR — that’s a great effort on this part. Thanks also for officiating the event — very fun.
JT–
You’re welcome. ESG is a strange event to officiate. We usually have a very short crew. We’re allowed 12 housed officials (2 from each region), but normally we make do with 4 or 5. This year we had 8 housed, and 3 good locals, so we had almost a full crew. The events ran much more smoothly because of being less short-handed.
The officials get worse housing (usually) than the riders, and work long hours for no pay. Tensions run high, and because the State Chair is one of the officials, we don’t have a promoter to point fingers at.
Frankly, we don’t care that a regional coach didn’t get his lunch, especially if we didn’t either, and the results are late in coming.
I will convey to the State Chair your comments about illness, and recommend that he consider changing that rule. For further info on this, the western rider who was ill ended up getting dropped very early in the TTT (first time out), so was not a factor in the race. The results probably would have been identical, the Western guys are just THAT good at TT’s.