CRCA Men’s Team Cup Preview – just for fun
OK, before we start let me come clean on a couple of points to save arguments later:
1. I know I’m not as funny as Schmalz.
2. I don’t take cool pictures like Andy.
3. I have an alarming lack of in depth knowledge about women’s cycling in New York
4. Now that I’ve upgraded to the A’s I can join the vast ranks of those Cat 1, 2, and 3’s who see the B’s as a feeding ground and not an entity in themselves.
I take none of the above statements seriously but I also make no apologies for lacking the wit, technology and grace associated with the first 3 and I admit to having a very short memory in regard to how seriously I took B Races not that long ago – i.e. very seriously!
With that out of the way – oh one more thing – I don’t care if CRCA Races are a closed option for non-members so save any gripes about that for another forum or stop reading now. So without further ado….….2006 CRCA Men’s Team Cup Preview.
He’s a fine dad, just keep that in mind before you flame him.
Any preview has got to start with the reigning Champs and co-favorites for 2006:
@##=#<4,R>@##=#Blue Ribbon:
If you are the defending champs and add to your roster the fastest TT’er amongst active CRCA membership then things are beginning to look very rosy for a repeat. Always put up a strong showing in out of town races and pride themselves on taking no prisoners.
Wintered well ? Not the earliest of risers these guys, can be seen en masse riding up 9W when other teams are on the return. Off season “trades†suited them very well, adding another strong rider to an already strong team
Strengths: All round – have the strongest team of Time Trialers, a great sprinter and experienced riders who aren’t afraid to go on the offensive.
Weakness: For a team that has always prided itself on hard work and team discipline, will the addition of another Team Cup “cert†upset the apple cart with some longer standing riders having to step down to the salt mines of the B’s? Guess we’ll wait and see.
Key rider: Jeff King
Odds for Team Cup in 2006: Even money joint favorites
@##=#<3,R>@##=#Axis:
Whether you view this team as Axis-originals or the “new†Axis that emerged last season from the ashes of Sakonnet’s non-Espoirs team its hard to believe that this bunch hasn’t won the Team Cup in the last 4 years.
Wintered Well ? I should say so ! Seeing upwards of 12 Axis riders pacelining along 9W at 10am on a Saturday morning is a sight to strike fear into the hearts of other subteams.
Strengths: Possess any number of guys who can win either in a sprint, a small breakaway or even solo. Every member of the team is a potential winner or placer in a Team Cup Race.
Weaknesses: With such a strong make-up it’s hard to believe there were several occasions in the past where this team failed to field a full complement of 6 riders in Team Cup events. Failure to do so again this year could result in the same
Key Rider: A fit Kevin Molloy is a danger in any race he clips in for.
Team Cup Odds: Theres to lose, joint even money favorites with Blue Ribbon
@##=#<6,R>@##=#Foundation:
What can you say about Foundation ? Pillar of the club with all the massive fund-raising they achieve ? A great advert for cycling with their jerseys retro-splendant on Transport Alternatives posters ? The most open and friendly subteam in their welcoming nature ? Or do you take the approach that they simply saturate fields with numbers and rarely race effectively as a team ? Either way you can’t miss those Red jerseys in the pack
Wintered well ? Who knows ? The splits to Jonathon Adler and Organic Athlete may hurt them
Strengths: People always underestimate them – makes them even more dangerous.
Weaknesses: Bike handling skills (sorry)
Key Rider: Tom Auth – could this Olympian have threatened Smilie’s TT record. We’ll have to wait at least another year to find out.
Team Cup Odds: Can’t see it but look what I said about them being under-rated. – 5 to 1
@##=#<11,R>@##=#Merrill Lynch:
What started out as a solid Cat 4 Team in 2003 has developed under the tutelage of Sherry, Shen and Harris into a real danger team for 2006. You can’t miss their jerseys!
Wintered Well ? Probably acquired more solid Cat 3’s than any other team. Pound for pound will be the most improved team this season.
Strengths: If Ken Harris can be given just that little bit more rope thanks to his stronger team he may just make a few of those breakaways stick this year. Have a whole slew of Cat 3’s who can place, as well as Mike Sherry who’s a winner through and through.
Weakness: Dare I say it ? Yes I do – in danger of becoming the new Foundation in terms of numbers and cohesiveness.
Key Rider: Mike Sherry – if fit can win it all. If injured they’ll miss him badly.
Team Cup Odds: Not this year, but maybe in ’07 – 5 to 1
@##=#<8,R>@##=#Remax:
The oldest standing subteam in CRCA. Winners of the Team Cup in 2001.
Wintered well ? Not known for their collective treks up 9W it’s hard to tell. Any Connecticut based spies out there with the insider info ?
Strengths: No weak links on this team. All Cat 2’s and all pack a mean punch. If AA is fit he’s still the sprinter to beat.
Weakness: Pride themselves on being a small tight knit team as such no room for illnesses and injuries.
Key Rider: Anthony Allessio – 2 years ago unbeatable, last year largely invisible. Which guise will the Big Dog show up in this year ?
Team Cup Odds: If this was horse racing they would be well worth an each way flutter but cycling only pays out for winner so whilst I wouldn’t put your mortgage on them, they are certainly worth a side bet. 4 to 1
@##=#<2,R>@##=#VisitBritain:
Winners of the Team Cup in 2004 and looked like sure fire winners in 2005 till the last race of the season. Will they rebound or will they be like their title sponsors soccer team and flatter to deceive?
Wintered well ? The early birds of 9w – thanks to the “rider to young kids / angry wives†ratio topping that of most other subteams. Can be seen returning from their Weekly Orchards ride as most other teams are only heading out across the GWB. Picked up probably the plumb free agent on the market in terms of CP races.
Strengths: Have got the best CP sprinter in the club in Ricky Lowe but he’s on hiatus till June. In the meantime we’ll need to see some attacking tactics from newboys Lattanzi, Harvey and Bennett, along with the old skool crew.
Weaknesses: With Smilie following Snoop Dog out to Cali do the red, white and blue boys know any other tactics other than bringing it all back for their Pettachi-esque sprinter ? They’ll need to if they want to figure in the final standings.
Key Rider: Ricky Lowe – if he’s there or thereabouts at the finish other teams had better have a plan B.
Team Cup Odds: Will miss Smilie and Ricky but the old Next crew are gelling well. Now if Gulla were to dust off his size 15’s….3 to 1.
The Field:
Sakonnet if at full strengths ? – ah that’s never gonna happen. They rightly have bigger fish to fry. Jonathon Adler will look cool but will lack the real depth needed, Metro will figure highly especially early season but again hard to see a season long challenge. Who knows what new teams may start mixing it up ? A hard core Yellow and Blue team of the Breakfast Club boys would be a threat but alas no TT’s in CP for them to score highly on.
So all in all an exciting season’s racing ahead for the CRCA. If I were a betting man (if ?) I’d be tempted to lay a double on a Comedy Central / Hannah Long – Team Cup / Women’s Champ accumulator, but I’ll leave their preview to someone with more knowledge of the subject.
As for the B Challenge ? Too close to call between Jonathon Adler, Setanta, Metro, ML, VisitBritain and Foundation – with the winner being……..I dunno ? Any takers for a preview?
i’m going to hear what ladbroke’s says before throwing in my money. . .
nice writes — scratches the surface of A-field politics without gettin’ catty. an educated spectator is a more satisfied one.
Good preview. Well done
Ditto. Brilliantly objective.
Great write up! Looking forward to the action.
A nice job, and your son is very handsome! But I think John Loehner is a much better all around rider than Kevin Molloy. Molloy just sits in and sprints (and rerely wins). Loehner does it all.
Merrill Lynch has one rider. And that’s Ken Harris. The rest suck. End of discussion.
Has anyone ever seen j lo sprint. I havent. I think kevin is the best all arounder in NY. For someone who rides 4hrs a week, he’s the hammer.
the only sprint John Loehner is winnng would have to be down hill with a tail wind with him being solo off the front.
But I think he is the most powerful rider out there.
Andy, can this site track down the email, I.P. address or whatever of this ML detractor ?
Nope. That’s why we have so many anonymous posters with big anonymous balls.
Hey observer..don’t bother memorizing the print on the back of my ML shorts…you’ll be seeing enough of it over the season anyway.
thats more like it –
intra-subteam trash talking from axis and leadership disputes with ml – thats more like the nyvelocity chatter we’ve come to know and love!
You’re all sued!
Hey, Baldwin. Why don’t you finish an A race before you start talking smack. Hearing some recently minted cat 3 talk trash makes me laugh.
I’m sure you are a cool guy. People that know you like you but learn to talk with your legs.
gee..that must have been the other Chris Baldwin who finished 11th in his first A race…..he’s also a fabulous dancer I hear…and he can spell. Funny thing is, I’m still a Cat 4. What’s it going to be like when a Cat 4 shows you his taillights?
Wow, you obviously think very highly of yourself.
People like this guy? I can tell ML isn’t going to win the nice guy award this year. Such ego, not cool
But it’s ok to trash people anonymously? At least he had the balls to identify himself. There should be a login for comments, that would shut people up.
Baldwin: You are not a good bike racer!!!!!!!!!
Now what do you have to say?
(and no, I’m not going to give a dork like you my name, but my friends call me Eugene)
the quailty of racing in the CRCA is very high these days. ML and the Magic Blues are leading the way with smart racing tactics. they dont have the horses of say a mengonie but Tacically they both do very heads up stuff during the crca races
remind me what ML have done if you take out Sherry and Harris? BR, Axis and VB are the smart racers with Zoltan amongst the smartest.
kwk – who are the magic blues? I didn’t catch the reference/slang.
the Magic Blue Ribbon team and ML have been smart, I think by playing the cards they have and influencing the race to the strengts of the hitters they have. a team only needs one or two hitters (think webcor-horner). All it takes is some guts to stick you nose in the wind and take the risk of getting dropped. VB has done this for the team sprinter but I was more impressed with the guts of ML and Magic Blues to attack and counter in well thought out difficult times, plus they still give it a go in the sprint.
KWK – I guess VB wasn’t trying to impress you. Good team racing is about properly playing your cards – which they’ve done with success. I seem to recall Upton and Gulla sticking their noses in the wind a fair amount over the past 2 years. ML has a number of impressive individuals but in terms of team tactics they are not in the same category as Axis/BR/VB. Maybe Baldwin will change that for ML if he’s as good as he says he is, though someone might want to tell him to take the tailight off before a race.
i was thinking of last year more than in years past. but in that case Dash was a better team that all of the previous mentioned. Upton is a class above all of the local riders I know but the Gulla example is funny because I dont think I ever saw him drafting anyone, he just keeps pulling at least he did in the park two years ago. the ultimate break partners are Gulla and Wood. They just dont stop it is awsome. VB is a very impressive team it aint easy delivering a sprinter. I just liked the way ML and MBr tried to bust things up last year.
kwk – good comments, I agree. Just one thing. It’s not magic blue ribbon. Just Blue Ribbon. The Magic sponser went away in 2004.
You are too modest about Axis’ tactics. Axis is very strong and use smart racing.
Lubeley is BR’s best rider. The guy won the last Cup race.
King 1
Ricky 0
Lattanzi comfortable at new home.
in pure CRCA terms it was
Zoltan 1
rest of the club 0
But it all adds to an exciting season ahead for all clubs and subteams.
Nice analysis though it doesn’t mention the fact that in 2006, only 1 of 5 scoring opportunites towards the Team Cup is TT related (vs 2 of 6 last year) which in theory could hurt a strong TT team such as Blue Ribbon. That said, the Rochester Rocket, aka The King will more than make up for it.
Very well done, I look forward to the action