Here it is! The opening weekend of the season! The beginning of our crusades to boost our self esteem, to humiliate our friends and colleagues, to justify spending way too much on equipment, and, as always, to display to the world our new lycra plumage. But let me suggest taking a moment to savor these last few hours before the season begins, as these are the last delightful moments of wintery delusion. As of now, all of us are prepared, none of us have been defeated, our collarbones are intact and we can beam with the confidence of the unsullied—because on Monday, sadly, this might not be the case.
On Saturday there’s a wide range of cycling related hijinks. There’s the CRCA club race in Central Park, there’s the beginning of the Branchbrook Series, and in the evening there’s the Championship Roller Race Finale in midtown. Also, you can join Team BH-Louis Garneau after Saturday’s club race for refreshments at NYCVelo. Come on by and mock our uniforms in person—if you dare.
Sunday has a full dance card also, with the beginning of the Spring Series in Central Park and the start of the venerable Bethel Spring Series with the Ronde de Bethel.
hopefully my conservative approach to training will pay dividends, and 3 hrs/wk of riding the trainer has spurred a physiological adaptation heretofore never experienced by another human being. hopefully the ten guys who actually trained all winter are overtrained.
I will attack off the gun
and first tomorrow…
eat it, FGX…..
so excitable
Can’t wait to crash.
3 hrs/wk of riding the trainer? to me, you’re the one over-trained.
see you at engineers gate, then.
this weekend, so someone else gets to win.
Will someone ask AVD what the F@ck is a thropy?
Posted on CRCAnet…..
eliminating the Boyd B Award and the B Championship race is not a good idea. And, it didn’t serve only as a “reward the last man who didn’t upgrade to the A’s.” (condescending by the way)…winning consistently and in various ways (breaks, sprints, etc.) at the development levels builds better long term racers than one hit wonders who upgrade into obscurity. Perhaps this rider won because his team was tactically better…perhaps this rider doesn’t have the time, physical talent, or inclination to chase Lisban, Gavi, or empire around all season.
“winning a whole mess of B races only means that you are ready for the A field” is perhaps the worse quote in history…I know a guy that comes from a crew background and has the biggest engine ever, but he’s squirrely…and clearly not ready for the “A” field…what’s more is, plucking the most successful rider off a “B” team only means you cut the head off that unit…making that team weak and possibly isolating a strong rookie in the A field…this is the thinking of crca back in the day when we were all blue and gold and individual…
Perhaps the other “B” racer should train harder and spend less money on SRM’s…pro woment can’t complain because Evie had a hell of a successful season, they have to try to find a way around her, that’s bike racing…the same learning should be available to the cat 4 club racer when they have a strong rider in their field…whatever the case is, THIS IS CLUB LEVEL RACING!!! our goal should be to encourage success at all level, not create 300 rider “A” field because we only reward the top guys and those with egos too big to race in the category they truly belong in. Points jersey, leaders Jersey, and trophies for all!!! Charlie I has the right idea CRCA means well I’m sure, but dropped the ball on this one.
djp
If you really want to do away with a useless competition eliminate the “A” men’s championship…”I’m the cat 1, grass roots champ of central park scratch races”…this is an even more meaningless, ego inflating competition than the “B’ title.
god who cares
who cares? someone who measures their life by how they do in the world famous crca race series and how mom’s meatloaf tastes, that’s who.
post of the day
Is really telling of how insane this sport is on a local level.
Now that is the post of the day!
thropy is the ass end of philanthropy
A throphy is the cough AVD does when you ask him about the trophy
I’ll be thinking about you as I sleep in while you pathetic wannabes race in the WINTER just because the pro season has started. Those of us who realisticly embrace our amateur mediocrity will wait for the spring and temps out of the thirties to start our racing season.
ready…oh wait i have to get on the bike…sunday i will get on the bike on sunday
exhale fog is fun
sublime fun that is winter
in those that gather
Don’t forget to bring you release forms bitches! Release forms!
http://www.usacycling.org/forms/waiver.php?url=rider_release.pdf
make sure mommy packs you a sack lunch.
Good luck David Taylor and his new team!!!!
finishing a race before 8am is stoopid.
Funny, because my sack is your mom’s “lunch”
I guess neither of you two douches read the CRCA letter about treating other club members, park users, etc, with respect etc… Cat 5’s or 4’s?
is way too easy, it should be age limited , or maxed . the talent is too thin. awarding for lower cat USCF races works because competition is much higher.
but can someone tell me why CRCA uses A,B,C instead of the seamingly more widespread/understood/usefull Pro/1/2/3/4/5 nomenclature?
…was a bit argy-bargy in the finish. No crashes; ground didn’t collapse beneath us. Score.
Where are the pictures?
shen was racing. does that mean no photos? did the race even happen then?
since i was last wheeling it, does anyone know when the break got away in the A field? lap 1?
I know what happened in the CRCA A Race, Ken Harris of Adler and Dan Zmolik of AXA got away on lap one, and were caught with about 500 meters to go, Pavel Gonda of BH-Garneau won the sprint and the race. Score!
pavel outsprinted ricky and gavin wtfffffff!@
Looks like at least one collarbone was broken in the 45+ group at Branchbrook Park this morning. What a way to start the season….
Isn’t that what happens there every season(also the Spring Series in PP and CP?)
Would it be possible to add a field like this?
D=5
C=4/5
B=3/4
A=Pro/1/2/3
W123
W4
or
D=5
C=4
B=3
A=Pro/1/2
W123
W4
CP is too small for 6 fields riding at same time, max 4 works just fine and most of us can match four numbers to four letters without writing it on our hand.
How about one race day mixing up all the field from Pro1/2 down to 4 who are on the CRCA sub-team. Call it a “team cup” or something.
Chances are the likes of AXA and Adler will have an edge, but it will be good to have some sort of real intra- club race. Perhaps some of the Cat 3 or 4 teams do against the stronger teams. Give it some handicap by roster number…say if a team has a Pro racer, that team gets 5 racers for the event. Any team with Cat 1/2 racer gets 6 rider slot, Cat 3 gets 7 and Cat 4 gets 9.
Rookies
Masters
Pros
Amateurs
All else is designed to max out entry fees, keep people involved. Not that there is anything wrong with that.
I want some new fields also…
A+ = Pro 1/2 doped
A- = Pro 1/2 not doped
B+ = Cat 2’s on their way to or from Cat 1
B- = Cat 2’s who’s entire identity is that they are Cat 2
C = Cat 3’s
D+ = Cat 4’s that don’t usually crash the field
D = Cat 4’s that are known to crasht the field
D- = Foundation
D!!!! = Excitable 4’s
E = Cat 5’s
E- = Cat 5’s that think Cat 5 is really a Cat
F = Racers who forget their waiver or license
W123 = Women Cat 1/2/3
W4M = Self explanatory
W4W = Same
W4MW = Can also ride in either field above
M4M = May ride in any field, except “X” – see below
CX = Guys who won’t shut up about how awesome CX is to ride
PUWM = Pregnant unwed mothers, Cat 1-4
X = Sub teams with offensive kits
Z = Racers who miss the start
Mike, please approve ASAP, we are going to need to get some extra motos.
And you are probably a Cat 3…
How about:
C- = Who upgraded to Cat 3 just for the sake of being Cat 3 but will get dropped racing the A field or their asses handed to them by some excitable Cat 4s?
PUWM–awesome.
Schmazzle, does anyone ever do park races with a helmet cam? I need to prove that I’m actually racing bikes at 6 am and not, as some suspect, molesting marmots. Plus, might be cool to see.
all cat mixer = cat3/4/5 race, as 1’s and 2’s will stay away, due to vastly increased danger to life, limb and equipment, not to mention reputation.
the B field was embarrassingly slow. man, i suck
There have been guys who have raced with helmet cams—I did once. Will O’Donnel wore one and won a race, David Sommerville wore one and crashed—but i haven’t seen any footage in a while. Here’s some moto footage from a past Mengoni race I put together.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlIz35plsCE
anyone know who won each category?
per my calculations wasn’t too slow. It’s nice that a break stuck and all that. Who was in it?
One thing that was clear was that it was a big field. Biggest I’ve seen in a while and it was a very safe race. For the most part it was very quiet during the race. There was some yelling at Engineer’s Gate around laps 3 or 4 but I believe it was other teams admonishing NYVC for not chasing the break (they had the max # of riders).
Also, there were a fair amount of women in the field (who held their own mind you). Is having women race with the B’s a new phenomenon?
Good to be back in the part and kudos to Alex R. and CRCA for putting on a nice morning.
I guess they were going for 4th place
they had a rider in the break fool
one wonders…..
I’m amazed that that break held up. It was like 15 seconds at the longest I saw. I was marshalling. I kept expect to see it reeled in.
B break:
metro (sorry i will always call them that)- asian guy
nyvelocity – ben
BH – chris
spring series crashes – are there really that many?
BH an A rider who raced down because BH was at the ‘A’ field max rider limit?
What order did they finish?
I just wanted to thank everyone who came out to race today at Branch Brook park. We also want to thank the Essex County Parks department who worked extremely hard all day Thursday and Friday patching potholes in the pavement to make the course safe to race on. If you see them next week, please be sure to thank them as well.
Results have been submitted to usacycling and are available here: http://www.usacycling.org/results/index.php?permit=2010-309
Thanks again.
Jim
Chris is a 4 who petitioned to race up to the A’s, but then had to race down because we exceeded the field limit in the A’s, so the answer is yes and no.
does that make him an a- or a b+?
is there a cover charge for roller races?
sketchy spring series
mengoni (wiswell?) wins p123, tim spence takes masters, and scott savory wins 3/4
mexocutioner wins the 5’s!
Savory was second actually
heard it was close
Fun race, but yes, very very sketchy. I don’t know why people were complaining about people holding lines – everyone held the line. Problem is that the line went diagonal across the road in an unpredictable manner. Still, it was consistently taken. Also enjoyed the much used innovation of aggressive passing in the joggers lane.
Was Sweet first, Savory second? I know Salty was third.
Could have sworn Savory nipped him. Was there a photo?
Nice race to both either way and look forward to seeing more from both of these guys.
check cyclingreporter.com
theres a pic
marmo seems to have gotten him
The break had an older avg age than the masters race. You couldnt chase those relics down?! Does SS stand for social security?
Where the fuck are my pictures?
pussy
Adler’s Savory got nipped by Mr. Marmo. Was a fun last 100 meters to watch eiter way.
Marmos been working on his bike throw, I guess it paid off.
wiswell 1st
breach 2nd
don’t know about the rest but neither are old enough to race masters.
anyway, what’s your point? the masters race was faster than the 123s today.
Yea, this Master (though I haven’t mastered Masters) nearly had a coronary in the race.
http://www.crca.net/2010/03/welcome-to-the-crca-2010-season/
B Boyd Award eliminated. For what reason CRCA? So a guy threw a bike. That was one guy and it was addressed, and he was dealt with. So why the f*ck penalize everyone else who had nothing to do with it? That’s just lame. Jesus CRCA board, that ‘s the best you could come up with? Really? What are you guys, like 10 years old?
Did the board ever stop to think that maybe the B award is attractive to bike racers who are, I don’t know, interested in competing?
And you announce this 4 days before the start of the season? Who made this decision? and Why? Did you bother to ask any of the sub-teams?
Get real, the B award didn’t keep anyone from upgrading. On the other hand, did you ever stop to think that maybe it is a reason for a racer to keep doing park races all season long? If anything getting rid of it is yet another reason to just skip CRCA races at 5:30 in the morning and just go find open races to do.
dude unless you where in break its not slow, what are you basing your info on, the avg. Thats what cat 4’s do. Its what goes on in between! The pack had no reason to chase. Learn your racing and if was slower you can try joining in the the pro race instead of talking about it?.
The mass (from the above example) would be 3 kilograms and the speed of light(c) is 299,792,458 meter per second.
So c² = 89,875,517,800,000,000 mtr²/sec² which rounds (for purposes of this discussion) to
9 x 1016 mtr²/sec².
So, the energy equals
3 kg (mass) x 9 x 1016 mtr²/sec² (c²),
which equals 27 x 1016kg • mtr²/sec²
which equals 2.7 x 1017Joules.
This is almost 2 billion times the energy we obtained from the “ordinary” burning of 1 gallon of gasoline. (And we all know that is a huge amount of energy).
Its a smart move to get rid of it.
Overalls like this lead to negative racing as the season goes on. Too many guys in B are just willing to sit in and never try anything so a couple of teams can just control things as the season goes on.
Whats so bad about upgrading to A with some dicey bike handling skills? These races are for learning and trying different stuff. There are plenty of A riders that have been doing this for years with garbage skills that have no interest in improving.
no, if the laps are ~15 minutes or worse, it’s a slow ass race. it just is.
Debating a ‘B’ championship is like caring who wins the NIT. Heck, having an ‘A’ championship is lame enough.
Get out there and just race. . .
You are underestimating the incident that happened last year – There is NO reason why ANYONE should throw bike. PERIOD. This could have jeopardize much bigger picture – ie your right to race in the park, whether it is CRCA or Spring series, well, may be even your right to ride your bike in the park.
Under the circumstance, he got off pretty easy, in my opinion.
Sure B Cup and B Boyd points can be a attractive factor…may be the board will bring it back one day, may be not.
The board does a lot more than you can imagine. If you want your opinion counted, start taking part in it.
The point is, that’s how bad the incident was. It is unfortunate, I hope the guy learned his lesson and shit like that doesn’t happen again, by him or anyone else.
Yeah, what Will S said.
Beautiful day and non of the sketchy stuff at Bethel today.
Cat 4 race – Darius/CRCA/Teany outs prints everyone and wins
Cat 3/4 race – Tron/CRCA/Adler finishes 3rd in a three man break away that lasted 1/3 of the race.
Your missing the point Cold Observer – The B award is an individual award, not a team thing. You can’t win it by siting in. They didn’t get rid of the B Cup, just the B Boyd.
I have yet to hear any rational reason that makes sense for losing it.
Boyd B winner = community college valedictorian
Those 3 break guys were flying. Way faster the P,1,2,3!
Global and Denos had 20 guys in the race chasing for 2 laps and never got close! Nice try anyway guys.
No one said it wasn’t a serious incident. Whatever anyones opinion about it, the board dealt with the two guys involved in the way it saw fit. Case closed.
WTF does that have to do with the B Boyd competition? Absolutely nothing. The two are not even remotely connected.
Steve was upset— I was there and heard him say to me, something like “It was important, b-cup, boyd points, now that’s all gone”…Based on how upset he was, I suspect if that was a scratch race, he probably would haven’t reacted that way.
I guess learning to control oneself is also a part of being a good racer? I don’t know…may be that should be a part of some boyd points?(just kidding)
The board, I believe asked around a quite a few people to get feed backs on what happened. It wasn’t some random decision I am sure. Look, if you have an issue w/ the board, perhaps I suggst you request your permission to attend the next meeting and officially ask for explanation or even better suggestion?
Foundation put guys in the last race that didn’t normally race B trying to win the Boyd and team and championship.
They thought it was the World Cup and World Championships.
Paris Nice
Prologue results |
1. Lars Boom (Netherlands), Rabobank, at 10:56
2. Jens Voigt (Germany), Team Saxo Bank, at 0:03
3. Levi Leipheimer (United States), Team Radioshack, at 0:06
4. Alberto Contador Velasco (Spain), Astana, at 0:06
5. Peter Sagan (Slovakia), Liquigas Doimo, at 0:10
6. Xavier Tondo Volpini (Spain), Cervélo TestTeam, at 0:10
7. David Millar (Great Britain), Garmin-Transitions, at 0:11
8. Luis Leon Sanchez Gil (Spain), Caisse d’Epargne, at 0:12
9. Roman Kreuziger (Czech Republic), Liquigas Doimo, at 0:13
10. Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez (Spain), Euskaltel-Euskadi, at 0:15
Thanks for the spoiler asshole.
Setanta sent guys from A field also but that’s not illegal, right?
funny, world cup…were they trying to juggle some balls?
first off the B race is so slow it is painful. so is the A race for that matter. if you win the b cup it would almost be embarrassing, since it requires zero training or effort.
i would rather see an age limited cup. under 26 or over 40. but pick them out of the A field finishes.
the b and c fields are for learning
**insert random complaint here**
dudes its March 7th and the sub 13s are coming just not now>>>
Now we know who cosimo rides for….Foundation. Go wash Inson’s bike would ya.
Deno’s did no chasing… Maybe Scott from Metro and the coffee den dude was taking massive pulls Deno’s was at the front when it did not matter…shame on them for not racing as a team they had they guys to bring it back but choose not to.
i prefer a c or d cup myself. b cup, meh…too small. i need more than a happy handful.
I was joking.
Global and Denos should of stayed in bed.
If Luzio or O’Neill don’t show that team is a waste of Lycra.
it’s true that they didn’t do much today but they did go 1-2-3 at Branchbrook yesterday.
Oy, I appreciate that you took the time spell it out for me, but you still don’t make any sense.
Of course Marmo was upset when he threw his bike. Clearly the man has some anger issues. That doesn’t have anything to do with the B Boyd. It has everything to do with his anger problems. HIS anger problems. The people effected by the decision to cancel the B Boyd, however, are the other 90 guys in the B field who DID NOT throw their bikes or fight.
If the board wanted to send some sort of message that its not okay to fight over races, then they should have been more severe in their punishment of the people who were fighting. What is the point in punishing the people who did NOT fight?
Getting rid of the Boyd for that reason is like the Olympics deciding to cancel medals to ice skaters because Nancy Kerrigan got attacked.
And NO I am not interested in requesting an appointment for them to explain to me why they did it. Their decision effects the entire 4 field, which represents a large contingent of the club that they serve. That is who they owe an explanation to.
not exacty skinsuit/fast weather. 15 min laps in cold temps are very difficult as the body just can’t work as hard and clothing is much bulkier…colder air is slower, fitness level is lower, team dynamics are being figured out…13’s are for after May…
Masters are faster early on as they are one foot in the grave and will actually train in the dark or indoors…
class dismissed i-douche-sacks!
Bentoverme,
What makes you think the club needs to award B-field with a B-Cup or B championship award in the first place? I say B field is a place for work on skills/get stronger, get upgrade and then move to A to compete for the cup/individual title in the A field…no?
I am not against having the B -cup…but perhaps someone taking the B-cup SOOOOOO seriously that he almost put a lot of folks priviledge to race in CP in jeopardy and possibly causing a big liability case probably contributed to cancelling the B-cup…This may be an isolated incident, but what if it happened again? Then what?
The club has greater responsibility and community to serve, and B-cup is a minor issue, if get my drift.
Perhaps the B field may be the majority, so what? I think the club was designed to be competitive, you bragging the B field’s importance, to me sounds like some NYCC rider trying to turn every incline to a competition and thinking that he is the king of the hill…
Again, if you are so upset about it go to the club, I don’t need to hear why they cancelled the B-cup.
where the FUCK are the pictures?
that boyd award seems is little bogus anyway. what if Leszek had a big team riding for him?
Pictures are so 2009.
Why is he still in the B’s?
isn’t there a crca forum somewhere
For the last time Oy, the board did not cancel the B-Cub.
They cancelled the B Boyd award – the individual competition.
At first I just thought it was your views that were retarded. But since you don’t even know what we are talking about, now I see that we are dealing with a whole other level of stupidity.
Do you guys really care this much about club races?
I would prefer a name like Flaming Douchebag, why can’t this website generate names like that?
The generator? What are you talking about? I hail from the NY Douchebags, a proud line of Douchebags who traveled to this great country, from the a tiny Russian village called Assholvia, fleeing the pogroms and in search of free speech (including the right to anonymously flame on message boards, should such a thing exist in our future). It was my great-great-grandfather, Total Friggin Douchebag, who first set sail from our homeland in 1895. He settled in the LES tenement shared by his two brothers, Waylon and Annoyin Douchebag in their produce business.
Please, kind sir, redact your remark as I am very proud of the entire Douchebag clan and our long heritage of being the finest Douchebags in the state of NY.
Bentovermoi. sorry I made you confused(or being stupid)… the point is B-Cup or B-Boyd, they are the samme…team or individual…but still at the “B” level and the desire to win those drove the incident to happen. You have no insight to the bigger issue do you? Instead of worrying about winning the B-cup or B competition, go worry about becoming a better racer. May be some day you will get to ride with the As and feel some pain.
Da, Assholvia, I know it well.