Hangover 3/16/2009

by schmalz

Weekend Bez.

We’re just now recovering from a weekend of almost non-stop racing. From the early hours of Saturday morning to the last finals afternoon gasps of the Bethel circuit, there were scores of racers in wide arrays of colors and fitness levels circling public spaces and temporarily abandoned office parks.

Locally there were four races: Grant’s Tomb, Branch Brook, the Spring Series in Central Park and Bethel. Results have been posted for most of the races and we expect to soon have the results for the Spring Series once they emerge from the internet incubator that serves to hatch them.

The always capable and wonderfully named Velocity Results has the full, nearly exhaustive results for every race, but a quick recap of the day at Grant’s has Eric Schildge of bikereg.com/Cannondale winning the Pro 1/2 race over Stephan Kindcaid of Empire. In the women’s 123 race, Laura Van Gilder wins over Evelyn Stevens of Radical Media. In the men’s 3/4 race, Neil Bezdek of Kissena starts his winning streak, with Jose Soltren of MIT winning the men’s 4 race over David Kim of Rutgers and a storming Christophe Jammet of FGX Racing. Anna Oliver of Yale won the women’s 4 race.

At the Spring series, Neil Bezdek has another chance to practice his winning salute by taking the 123 race. And yes, that would make him 2 for 2 over the weekend.

Branch Brook results here. Bethel results and recaps here.

 

46 Comments

Anonymous

Neil, time to upgrade before everyone starts accusing you of bagging sand. Oh, and NICE RIDING!!!

Anonymous

Guy has come along way in a few years. He keeps up that sprint and he will be a 2 soon.

Good job!

Anonymous

Not sure, but maybe K Rahn. I swear that Empire team all looks the same to me on the bike. Most of them similar build, dark hair, skinny fast looking dudes. I saw him go by about 30 times but couldnt tell who it was…and amazingly the announcer never mentioned a name once in spite of the long effort.

Anonymous

empire guys took 1+ lap flyers off the front. Otherwise not many others had gaps. I think J.Lo was the last/longest?

Anonymous

whoever it was, it was a lot more than 1+ lap. It was like 10+ laps to the last one when he was swept up. Impressive effort, I say, from my position as a spectator.

Anonymous

Grant’s Tomb Part 1
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=67145&id=724148459&l=7d0eca1ad4

Grant’s Tomb Part 2
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=67438&id=724148459&l=cc244ea89f

Grant’s Tomb Part 3
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=67446&id=724148459&l=b9ef91a66b

I was trying to load these onto NY Velocity – though it was going to take too long.

http://photos-h.ll.facebook.com/photos-ll-snc1/v2574/62/76/724148459/n724148459_1554623_1037385.jpg

Thanks again Columbia for putting on a great race.

Best,

Ray Alba

Anonymous

yes, john minturn of empire was solo off the front for the majority of the race, caught on the back stretch on the last lap.

Anonymous

you post a joke comment that obviously isn’t really accurate and actually bother to come back and correct a typo?

Anonymous

Who cares? Timing, teamwork and tactics wins…
Sleep more, hydrate, warmup…
Get to the front, go like hell when spurters sit up…

Anonymous

What the heck happened at Branchbrook. No more long course? No decent pace vehicles. Fields running into each other. No officials on the course. What happened to that crazy official dude with the P.A. yelling at the riders the whole race. What a bummer!!! I miss that guy.

Anonymous

The parks dept. won’t allow the promoters to use the long course this year and the fields mixing/pace car issue was addressed this week.

Anonymous

Used to be run by Ray Smith. Due to a long running battle between Ray and the njba, Ray seems to have disappeared from the local racing scene. The particulars got ugly, involving law suits and general nastiness.Also Ray started running “outlaw” races. In any event, now being run by Tommy Mains and Jim Bernstein. The park would not give them a permit for the old “long” course. It’s a little tough running two fields on the short course and they need to be out by 10:00 am. Ran smoother last week, registration was flawless and they got full results, paid for a professional cameraman to do the finish. Had ’em posted with-in an hour or two. Fields mixing is always a pain in the ass, been involved in that plenty of times at Prospect. The 1/2/3 field runs last and is on the course by themselves which is a big help.

Oh… I miss the guy in the car yellin’; that was Ray’s brother. Obviously out of the picture. Maybe we need someone to volunteer to be ” car guy”?

Anonymous

Give ’em time. They’ve only run it twice so far and got most of the bugs out. I’m just glad they’re doin’ it, I love racin’ there.With that said, Ray definitely lent some character to the races; never boring. Shame they all couldn’t co-exist.

Anonymous

ray will be back. hes a controversial figure in the world of NJ cycling and he has disappeared before. his personality is sometimes tough to figure out cause he would go off on you about something minor at the start of the race then come up to you after the race to thank you and chat. He did a lot of things that ticked people off but they were trival like fail to post results, start races late/early or book races on days that compete with other races.there are alot of guys like him in the world of sports but alot more nefarious. in the end i think he was good for cycling. I really liked his schooleys mountain road race and the south mountain reservation evening crits.

i do miss the crappy sound system in that lead car.

Anonymous

The guys who run the races in the Pines (Jason @ Pro Pedals) used to have a guy to pace the fields on a big Harley. Big mustache, german helmet… blasting opera for the first lap of Ronde Van Mullica. Oh… back in the day.

When did racing become some frikkin serious?!?!

Anonymous

Take care and see ya.

I’m pretty sure the last straw was that Ray failed to deliver to the NJBA and the USCF, the fees which provide insurance and other coverages for riders. He collected the monies from us, and failed to turn them over when he had his dispute, as though Riders with a bib# should be denied coverage if something happened because he and the NJBA have a hard on for one another.

Then, he ran races under some other bicycling authority which is fine, his choosing. But he misrepresented the events as being run under USCF licensing, the insurance and coverage of the USCF, asking riders to sign USCF waivers when it wasnt a USCF event. Upgrade points were not available as a result as well.

Someone wrecks hard and breaks a neck, all the “oh , what the bid deal” discussion goes out the window as that persons’ family tries to find a way to afford the hospital bills left unsatisfied because the rider wasnt covered.

Good riddens to them.

Anonymous

Don’t worry about Pro Pedals races; they will be back. Jason and his wife are expecting in two weeks so the spring race was understandably put on a back burner. Should be able to recruit the Harley pace vehicle again, gotta keep things fun!

But fun with reg fees, insurances, permits, results, ambulance standby, upgrade points, etc. all done correctly.

Anonymous

All I know is that Ray did a heck of a job with his hands tied behind his back by the skumbags at the NJBA. Skumbags who have been stealing rider’s surcharge money for years. And what do you know,look who is running Branchbrook a bunch of old time skumbags from the NJBA who never supported Ray one day.

Here’s to Ray!!! One of the best promoters of the era!!!

Anonymous

Ray’s never been a particularly good speller — it’s not surprising he wrote ‘skumbag’ with a ‘k.’

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