Hopeful Friday 7/30/10

Take my wife, please

The three-day Tour of the Catskills opens today at noon with the time trial in Tannersville, culminating Sunday at Hunter with the Mountaintop Classic — including the Devil’s Kitchen ascent and assorted rollers. Live race commentary throughout by surviving Borscht Belt comedians.

On Saturday CRCA offers a scratch race in Central Park, while Quakertown, PA hosts the PA Masters State Time Trial Championship — no race day registration, however.

Sunday brings the The NJBA Team Time Trial at Upper Freehold, NJ. Online registration deadline is 11 p.m. tonight. For those who had their hearts set on the Cycle Sports Circuit Race in Doylestown, PA that day, bad news: road construction has cancelled the race. 

70 Comments

monday morning armchair para-amateur psychologist

anyone who has raced in new england knows about that “lady.”

of course, we should be happy that there are people who come out and do the work to make it possible for us to race, but it’s a real mystery why someone who seems to hate people, and cyclists in particular, would want to have anything to do with running a bike race.

come to think of it, though, there are plenty of racers who apparently hate cycling, based on the fact that they rarely do anything at a race but complain to anyone who will listen – yet there they are, week after week, bitching.

Face Plant

Dude: I think BH may have been mocking the fact that a club race was mentioned. I was going to complain that they did not list my ride on the bike path.

Bibendum

Catskills, GMSR,
If you are going to include a TT in your stage race, don’t make it a hill climb. With Catskills, you are climbing on both road stages so make the prologue something that the support riders can have some results with.
As for GMSR, a TT that you can’t use TT bikes for is like drinking an O’Douls. It feels like a TT, but you know it is missing something. Flatten it out and let us use TT bikes so all 4 disciplines are truly represented.

Bibendum

Perhaps if you tried harder in high school you would not only have a TT bike, but also the ability to spell.

Keano Saddlebag

oh, the old “you spelled douche wrong” retort. i know how to spell the women’s hygiene product. also i won my fifth grade spelling bee. but you are still a TT dooshbag.

ERgometor

I am guessing that most people travel to the Catskills to race the “Hills” and not flats but I could be wrong. If not, you could just race the local NJTTs and PP races. Be happy there is a good quality SR close to NYC.

Catskills Local

Lars Internal Routing

Part of the thinking behind holding an uphill TT – not requiring a TT bike is to alleviate racers of the hassle of bringing two bikes to an out-of-town race.

Niccolo Topcap

How long will it be before people start to explore the use of douches for bike cleaning, and then over time the term “douche my bike” will be standard usage for that activity? Just a thought. That would be cool, right?

Oderigo Stiff

Forget bringing two bikes… how does one justify keeping a TT bike around in a NYC apartment? Between a road bike, a fixed gear, a folder, and the GF’s bike, I’d be out on the street if I came home with a TT bike. Hell, it already feels like bikes are the primary household residents and we are just the help. All I can think of is that most TT types must be suburbanites with garages.

CRCA

but can someone please update the Boyd points and team cup points so they are not 2 races behind.

eh?

I hate TTs. Don’t own a TT bike. Generally ride cannibal.

However, not allowing TT bikes is just not fair to our TT-loving brethren. Like it or not, TT’ing is a discipline, a skill, and a fundamental part of our sport – especially at the stage race level. Some of us dig crits. Some, hilly RRs. Some TTs. My guess is that a TT’er is more bummed out by the “no TT bike” rule than I am excited to have easier competition.

I hear the argument all the time that road bikes “level the playing field,” stop people from buying speed, or some such argument. That may be true, but it’s also nonsensical. Our sport – especially at the stage race level – has TTs ridden on TT bikes. That’s it. Having a stage race with a TT that doesn’t allow TT bikes is not stage racing in cycling as we know it.

Matthias Steerer

I don’t own a tt bike, and enjoy GMSR all the more because of the rule. I occasionally do tts when they include a cannibal field. However, like the post below, it is a legitimate discipline, and integral part of a stage race. Would it make sense to handicap those without tt bikes, to subtract time for those riding cannibal? Is it even quantifiable?

Henny Youngman

A doctor gave a man six months to live. The man couldn’t pay his bill, so he gave him another six months.

Henny Youngman

I know a man who doesn’t pay to have his trash taken out. How does he get rid of his trash? He gift wraps it, and puts in into an unlocked car.

The Sensei

… But if anyone asks me how much I charge to “Doosh” their bike, I’ll kick them squarely in the nutz (or similarly placed girly parts)

Jeremy Flange

Beautiful scenery, quiet roads, gentlemanly racing and camaraderie are the themes of the day. Yet more proof that NYC racing just plain sucks.

Charlie I.

The Lucarelli & Castaldi Cup Prospect Park Series comes to a close next weekend with back-to-back races on Saturday August 7 and the final race on Sunday August 8.

The fields have been filling up so pre-register online to guarantee a spot in your race.

To pre-register online go to:

August 7 Lucarelli & Castaldi Cup Race:

http://www.bikereg.com/events/register.asp?eventid=10325

August 8 Lucarelli & Castaldi Cup Race:

http://www.bikereg.com/events/register.asp?eventid=10330

To see the current overall standings for the Overall, KOM and Sprint competitions go to:

http://customcyclewear.com/lccupoverall.htm

Charlie Issendorf
Race Director
Kissena Cycling Club

Tony the tiger

Got up at 5:10, rode over to the park, paid $10 bucks, and hammered out 8 laps at a pretty decent pace. Safe riding, heard ‘hold your line’ once (it ain’t PP!). Chatted with a few friends, saw an NYCVelocity guy hit a moto on the start line – complete comedy gold, I can only guess it was his first A race, he seemed so eager!

Finished up, made plans for riding tomorrow, swung by the coffee shop and was home hanging out with the girlfriend by 8:10.

That is why NYC racing rocks.

Raphael Axle

Doesn’t leave much time for nutrition, hygiene, or elimination (I got up at 4am to take care of those before heading out).

Tony the tiger

It’s a frickin’ 50 mile race in a park, you don’t really need to hydrate or eat before it. I like to think dinner a few beers the night before pretty much takes care of that. I bring a water bottle and, if I remember, I drink it. I finished today with 3/4 of it left. As for crapping I can hold it until I get home.

Did getting up at 4AM to eat, drink and poop result in a win?

Anyway that’s not the point. I was just trying to say that NYC racing really doesn’t suck. In fact it is kinda cool.

Bill Strunk

I do prefer an earlier wake-up in order to void the bowels and eat some breakfast, but Tony the Tiger speaks the truth. It’s not such a bad thing we have here.

Siebe Threadlock

and when you do, yell “NOW” and then i’ll jump and maybe I can win the damn
sprint. The guy blew by me and I almost fell of my bike. Now I know why Lezek crashed. I’m not saying he is the fastest, but his jump is off the chart.

question?

The question at the end of my comment ask who won the bike race Adler or the Mets. Since I’v never seen Adler winning a bike race, I answered the Mets and the damn thing wouldn’t work. What the hell!

jann post

i’m with you Tony the Tiger. got up at 5, ate a banana, took a couple of bong hits, and went to the race. all the sustenance i needed.

just sayin'

Raphael Axle, combining your naivete regarding nutrition for a park race, your concern as to whether or not you’ll take a shit, and hygiene (seriously? hygiene? you’re worried about your hygiene at 5am for a 1.5 hour race?), with your inability to handle wit at your expense, you totally come off sounding like a huge, whiny fag.

Giovanni Wave Ring

I find that I personally feel much fresher and relaxed if I wash my bike with vinegar & water after a hard central park race. Is that so wrong?

pp

what a miserable bunch of ” Officials ” up at tour of catskills. Countless complaints from local people coming out to watch the races getting a hostile reception when asking any questions.

The volunteers and local police were excellent and thank you to all the locals that came out and cheered everyone on.

” Officials ” you are our governing body and also have a code of decency to uphold , not just the cyclists.

Its embarrassing to see officials not only shouting at cyclists but also at the locals coming out to watch the races.

Loic Headbadge

As a volunteer road marshal we try and provide you guys with a fun and safe race. We were a bit short this year on volunteers so we had to shift around a lot and as quickly as we could to keep providing a safe corridor to the finish line. Nothing pleases us more then to have your all finish safely and as fast as you can. We hope you had a blast!

As of the official in question, she was also shall we say a bit pissy to the road marshals too if we tried to get some info out of her. I guess that is her personality. However, as a road marshal this year I had gotten lots of questions from my fellow locals about what was going on and I did my best to explain while still keeping an eye on you guys, the cyclist, and the traffic. I guess that lady official can’t multi task.

I hope to see you back next year!

Lukas Clamp

the annoying fat woman with the dark hair needs to calm down. maybe she’s joking most the time but she sure seems surly to me.

Every time I saw her she was freaking out or yelling at someone.

keep it Real

it’s either crappy officials, crappy marshals, crappy promoters, crappy something. why the fuck are you whiners always bitching about something? haven’t you figured out that you’re competing in a third-tier sport in this country? something is always going to suck when it comes to racing in the usa, so let it go and try and enjoy it for what it is–a third tier sport. if you don’t like it how it is, go get into synchronized swimming. their officials are spot on every time.

Noah Seatpost

eh, the competitive checkers circuit is no different.

crappy towns, lo budget motels, lousy officiating, barely any prizes.

Pp

You must be British as well, always taking crap.

Nothing ever get done if nobody speaks up , and that’s why they walk all over you like a piece of crap.

Crappy promoters get away with not giving you results charging up the arse prices, crappy officials abusing locals, a goodie bag with your freebie rest stop brochures, etc etc

I love the sport and that’s why I don’t want it to be a third tier sport, it gets a lot more respect in other countries so why not here.

pp

Great job with the results at battenkill by far the fastest.

We pretty much had the tt results by the time we were back down the hill, great job.

OJ

She was bellowing at everyone at the start of Pawling Mtn a few weeks ago, leading my teammate to conclude that she has a fundamental hatred of people.

Vincent Rear Entry

She clearly gets a rush out of shouting at people. It wouldn’t be necessary to scream so much if she went ahead and used a PA or bullhorn like most officials do. Also, after screaming her head off about generally inconsequential items and telling people off, she practically whispered to let us know the race had started. I could barely hear it from the front row.

I also heard multiple reports that she was being nasty to locals/spectators asking her questions like “where is the finish line”, etc. Way to keep relations between the race and the locals in good shape.

phil / teany

Great race guys, some real team dynamics from local teams, made it one of the more fun races of the year for me. Congrats to all those who placed in top 10, or finished it for that matter.

Nice riding with you all, now back to bitching about sandbagging.

Piero Compliant

Yeah, that lady is something else. So in the 4B race, a guy on my team won the overall yellow and KOM – the angry lady started telling him that he didn’t win the KOM overall… come to find out, he did as she wrote the wrong name next to his number on her sheet – after she kept arguing that some other guy won it, so her mistake. Did she apologize for making a mistake, which did get corrected after us forcing her to look into this…no. She didn’t say a word, just turned her back and walked away. She was clearly pissed off that she was wrong.

I love how she’s never looked at any of the roads, etc, etc… from her speech. I’ll bet she tries to run cyclists off the road in her spare time as she clearly hates us so much. Typically people that are involved in a sport have some kind of love/connection to it, I’m confused as to what her tie-in is. Glad we don’t see her much our way in Western, NY!

Anyways, still a good race overall and weather was perfect for it. Good competition out there as well!

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