Race promotion is a tough, thankless job, and these days, the man doing that job is usually Charlie Issendorf. We spoke with Charlie to find out more about his racing career, business ventures, and of course, race promotions. And we asked him if he was a masochist at heart.

NYVC You’ve taken over a lot of races. Are you a glutton for punishment?

CI It all happened kind of fast and one after another. Last year the Kissena Cycling Club contacted me about taking over the Kissena Prospect Park Series. Their former promoter, Brian Grundstrom, was moving and they needed a new race director. It was kind of short notice as the Series had actually already begun. Not long after that, the promoter of Long Island’s Tour de Parc, Craig Roberts, called me. His mother was sick and he didn’t have time to promote the race. He heard I was doing a good job at Prospect Park and he asked if I wanted to promote that race as well. I agreed. Over the winter, Millie Shepetin, who promoted the Tuesday night Floyd Bennett Series for 11 years, contacted me. She and husband Tony were no longer interested in promoting the series and they asked if I would run the series. Again, I agreed. All these races will now be run by the Kissena Cycling Club and I’ll be the race director. As many may know, I have been in the sport since 1978 when I started racing at the age of 8. This is my way of giving back to cycling and keeping NYC racing alive. This is a critical time for racing in our area. We don’t have nearly the number of New York races we used to have and if somebody didn’t step up we would have possibly lost three more: Prospect Park, Floyd Bennett and the Tour de Parc. Am I a glutton for punishment? I’ll be honest, race promoting is hard work and I’m more tired after promoting a race then racing a race. This year I’ll be promoting 29 races and I know it’s going to hard work.

NYVC Yikes! Can you give a rough rundown of your race day activities? When do you wake up?

CI For a Prospect Park race I wake-up at 3:30AM and start packing up. I am usually at the Park by 4:30AM. I start putting up the tents, tables, and chairs and by 5AM my trusted helper Henry shows up to give me a hand. By 5:30AM I have everything set up at registration and then it’s time to put up the signs and cones around the course. I normally have 5 or 6 people at registration and although it opens at 5:30, by 6:00 I have about 10 people registered. Then the ‘you-know-what’ hits the fan. From about 6:00 to 6:20 we have to register 120 to 150 riders. The races have to start on time so we have about 20 minutes to register over 100 riders. My pace drivers, officials and the marshal director show up around 6:00 and I have a quick meeting with everybody to make sure we are all on the same page. Once the races start they pretty much run themselves. I usually get the prizes ready while the races are on and I stay with the officials to make sure everything is running smoothly. During the sprint finishes for each category I personally walk to the “200 Meters To Go” sign to make sure the jogger’s lane is free of pedestrians and to make sure the riders are holding straight lines during the sprints. I let the officials and photo-finish guy, Reid van Renesse, sort out the results and then I hand out the prizes. When the races are over it’s time to pack everything up. I’m usually out of the park by 11:00AM. Then I sleep the rest of the day and swear I will never do this again…until next week.

Third place at the 2002 NYC Championships.

NYVC You engendered a lot of good will last year when you cleaned up the crashes at Prospect. We’re so used to being yelled at by race officials it was refreshing when you took over and really communicated with everyone and made things safer.

CI I think it takes a racer to understand how to talk to racers. I had a rough start as a race promoter last year. I had to cancel my first race at Prospect Park when a deluge of rain flooded a section of the downhill. The next week there were several crashes in various fields and even more close calls. There were riders blatantly disrespecting the race rules, especially the ‘jogger’s lane rule’. I was receiving reports of overly aggressive riders and even allegations of riders punching each other during a race. The following week there was a crash during the final sprint of the final race that involved two joggers. There was a lead group of 5-6 riders and I was watching the sprint when I noticed that one rider was sprinting very erratically. His head was down and he was flailing his arms. He was not holding a straight line and I remember asking myself “what the hell is this guy doing?!?!” His violent actions actually caused himself to crash–all by himself. He laid in the middle of the road and the field was about 10 seconds behind. He couldn’t get up in time and the field sprint engulfed the fallen rider. Another rider trying to avoid the fallen rider went into the jogger’s lane and hit two joggers. Luckily, nobody was seriously injured. As I stayed with the injured pedestrians until the ambulance arrived I said to myself that serious changes needed to be made.

The next day I sent an email to the local racing newsgroups that there were going to be some changes. I was firm but I never screamed. Basically, I said I was going to be enforcing the rules that already existed. Riders were going to be disqualified and suspended if they went into the jogger’s lane and I was going to have anonymous ‘spies’ in each race looking for violators. Riders had to ride a straight line in the final 200 meters (and I put up a ‘200 Meters To Go’ sign). This isn’t a new rule–it’s been in the rule book for decades. I told riders that they couldn’t make a u-turn after their race was over and they had to take an extra lap or cut through the park transverse. Are these rules too hard to live by? I also realized that the Start/Finish line area needed to be secure. I tripled the amount of cones 200 meters before the line and 100 meters after the line (100+ cones total), I made new ‘Caution: Bike Race’ signs and I asked that all pedestrians leave the jogger’s lane during sprint finishes. And you know what? The races became safer! But I can only do so much and the riders really need to police themselves. The officials and myself have to remain at the Start/Finish line so we have no idea what’s happening out there. We all need to do our part to keep the racing safe and to not allow a handful of riders ruin it for everybody.

NYVC Well, man does not live on race promotion alone. Can you tell us a little about your other ventures, like racelistings.com?

CI I started RaceListings.com in 2002. I thought it would be great to have a website that focused solely on listing races across the United States. The promoters loved it because with a click of button they could list their races for free on our site. The riders loved it because they could go to one website to find all the races. I offered online race registration last year. It was the next logical step. Riders could now search and register for races at once. We are growing incredibly fast with new promoters signing up to use our online registration service every day. We work incredibly hard to promote their races and they really appreciate that and see the value in using RaceListings.com.

I also have my own cycling clothing line, Spa Sport. I started Spa Sport in 2000. I focus on high quality, cycling-specific accessories like winter and TT shoe covers, winter and summer gloves, hats, arm/leg/knee warmers and much more. I personally design every piece of clothing myself and I source the fabrics as well. I sell directly to the customer at my website to offer wholesale prices to everyone. Spa Sport and RaceListings.com have never been shoved down the rider’s throats. Instead, positive word-of-mouth has grown the companies steadily year and year. And that’s just how I like it!

@##=#<1,L>@##=#NYVC What’s your dream race?

CI From an international standpoint, I would love to see the World Championships come to the NYC area. There are some great courses in Long Island or North Jersey and the densely populated, diverse culture of the Northeast would mean a HUGE turnout. Euro riders are shocked when they race at the U.S. Pro Championships in Philly at the turnout and World’s would be even bigger. For a local race, I would love to see a Bear Mountain Stage Race. Friday night would be a 4 mile uphill prologue TT–start at the Bear Mtn Inn and go straight up Perkins Drive. Saturday would be a criterium at West Point. Sunday would be the traditional road race. Maybe in 2006…

NYVC What’s your biggest regret in racing?

CI My biggest regret in my racing career was ‘retiring’ too early. In 1992, when I was 22, I stopped racing national and international events. I felt that I was never going to make it as a pro in Europe and there were not many opportunities here. Back then you had Coors Light and Motorola as the only U.S. pro teams and if you weren’t on those teams there was really nothing else. Just picture the NBA having two teams and you get the idea. There were no Division 3 Pro Teams back then. Now there are 14 U.S. Pro Teams offering over 100 top amateurs a chance to race the ‘Pro Circuit’. Also, when I raced there was no Espoir / U-23 category. When you became a senior at 18 you were thrown into very hard racing with very experienced riders. It was frustrating because sometimes I would feel like I was not getting awesome results. But when I look back now I see that for my age I was doing very, very well. So maybe I thought I was ‘only top 10’ in a big race but I could have been the first espoir. For young riders today it’s great that they can judge their performance against riders their own age.

NYVC How healthy is junior participation now? What could be done to improve it?

CI I see junior racing getting a little more popular but nowhere near where it needs to be. I raced during the ‘Golden Era’ of Junior racing. Promoters always had a separate junior race and not just one–there were separate races for ‘midgets’ (8-11), ‘intermediate’ (12-15) and ‘juniors’ (16-18). At the Tour of Somerville in 1981 I raced the ‘midget’ class and we had 42 riders! The field limit for juniors was 125 and it was met every year. By the early 90’s junior racing was starting to disappear. It’s a Catch 22–promoters won’t hold races for juniors if they don’t have a decent turnout but junior racing won’t grow if there are no races. I’m not sure what the answer is to grow junior racing. Team managers like Fernando Cuevas are doing a fantastic job so that’s a start. I think we need to take a closer look at the very healthy state of collegiate racing across the country. While they are not juniors, the riders are still 18-21 years old and are an excellent source of future pro riders. The problem is that once they graduate many riders leave the sport. Perhaps the USCF should give more international racing opportunities to collegiate riders so that they continue racing once they graduate.

NYVC What are your fondest racing memories?

CI I have a lot of fond memories of cycling. I was a top junior cyclist and I won countless races including the Junior World’s Qualifying race at Bear Mountain and I was a silver medalist at the Junior National Pursuit Championships. I competed in one of the top international junior stage races, Canada’s Le Tour de L’Abittibi, against Laurent Jalabert. As a senior I won almost every big race that New York had to offer back in the late 80’s and early 90’s including the Tour of the Adirondacks Stage Race, The Chris Thater Memorial Criterium, The Tulip Festival Criterium, The Oyster Bay Cycling Classic, The Super Lube Classic and twice the New York Spring Series. I competed with the U.S. National Team at international stage races such as the Tour of Greece and La Vuelta a Chile as well as the Lancaster and Trenton Pro Races. I raced the Tour of Texas the last year it was an international stage race with riders like Chris Boardman and Jan Svorada. I raced the brutal Thrift Drug Classic and the Pro Freehold Classic against Phil Anderson, Andri van der Poel and Richard Virenque. When I managed the top elite team CRCA/Breakaway Courier I competed in some local events and I was a three-time winner of the CRCA Time Trial Championships. I would beg myBreakaway teammates to race with me in the CRCA Team Time Trial Championships and we won that event twice. Some of my best results came as recently as 2002. I got the bug to race again seriously in 2000 and I had some great top 10 finishes. I lapped the field by myself at the Great Neck Criterium, I was 2nd at the Blue Bell Road Race after breaking away with two Pro riders from the Mercury-Viatel team and I was third in the amateur race at Wall Street’s New York City Cycling Championships. All of these races hold a special place in my heart but there are literally hundreds and hundreds more that I have not mentioned–over 25 years worth!

@##=#<2,r>@##=#NYVC What is the biggest mistake you see riders making in races?

CI I think the mistake riders make most is just plain ole’ not thinking in a race. I see riders constantly attacking at the wrong times and wasting energy. I won many races against riders much stronger than me just by using my head. It’s important to remain calm in a race and to think about every single move you make. If riders would just say to themselves ‘why am I making this move?’ before they actually made a move we would see better racing. Riders would kid around with me and say, ‘Charlie makes two moves a race. The first is to warm up. The second is to bridge to the winning breakaway.’ They weren’t that far off the mark.

NYVC That’s interesting you say that. There are some strong local guys who are so heavily marked they don’t bother to initiate moves. Instead, they wait for a good break to get established and then bridge up. Is that pretty much what you do?

CI Absolutely! Trust me, I was marked all the time in local races. It can be frustrating but I never got angry. It’s a sign of respect and a smart racing tactic. When I raced with better riders of course I watched them closely. You don’t think Paolo Bettini has 20 guys on him every time he makes a move? It’s funny that the better and stronger you get the more patient and analytical you have to become. You would think it would be just the opposite and you would ride guys off your wheel. For the most part the races we do are not long enough, the courses are not hard enough and the competition is not good enough. So when you’re in a 30-40 mile race on a windless rolling course, like Central Park for example, you have to be selective about the moves you make. I like to let the race happen. I let breaks go up the road and then I look for a couple of key things: who’s in the break, are they gaining time on the field, is the field chasing, and how many miles/kilometers to the finish. You have to make your decision pretty quickly if you think it’s a break worth bridging to. Once the break gets more than 30 seconds it’s going to be hard to bridge alone. Your bridge has to be all out and quick–like a short 2 minute or so interval. Once you are in the break you can get down to the business of winning the race!

(You can find out more about Charlie here.)