Section head text.
Prospect
Is Lisban the top local sprinter? James Joseph stays sharp for Tuesday night, Andy Gipp still on a roll. Charlie has the results. Anyone have photos? Smutney beats Butts! There’s your headline right there!
King’s County
Jermaine Burrowes keeps rolling at Floyd, Sherry finally finishes a race. After crossing the line Sherry’s bike burst into flames.
Hungry! And we were worried he peaked at the roller races. Aaron flaps his wings and crosse the line. Scot’s having a second peak.
Aaron with his tribute to Pantani salute.
Track State Champs
More results than you can shake a stick at, sounds like Jared Bunde dominated. Lots of pics and video, with even more to come.
way to go Aaron – Steve – JJ – Aaron can I order a pizza?
the whole edgemont team rode a smart race. Charlie put on a good set of races.
anyone know how those 2 guys who were carted off in an ambulance after the 3/4 prospect race are doing?
Westwood guy has a broken collar bone, 3-5 broken ribs plus a totaled bike. There was some unnecesary foolish riding going on at the front of the field on the last lap.
Has anyone had any issues riding in Central Park. I have heard reports of police speed traps giving tickets to riders in the morning.
Ben,
Yes, CP park rangers writing tickets for running the red light (or "not yielding to pedestrians," even when there are no pedestrians). They set up around 6:45AM on the West Side, right in front of the maintenance truck lot across from the Delacorte Theatre. Jay Fitzgerald got NAILED last week.
two good days of racing this weekend. that was my second time racing in FBF…forgot how hard that wind is. definitely a challenge for a skinny climber type like myself.
Nice work Aaron!! I could drive a semi in between you and the second place rider.
do you guys think pereiro is being a weeny or is he right about this whole feeling like a tour winner thing? I kinda thought he was being stupid at first, definitely different than how menchov dealt with it last year at the vuelta, but on second thought I think people should start taking this cheating stuff personally. I mean they would be freaking out if the guy took a shortcut up a hill right, isn’t this the same thing?
They are also giving tickets after 6:45 – 7:00ish for speeding and riding in the traffic lanes. Enforcement seems to be on West Side only between 104 and the maintenance facility near 79th. An unmarked car rode next to me – – literally – – for a mile waiting to see if I would speed. They are NOT making pedestrians, runners, strollers or rollerbladers clear the bike lane, so if you encounter a clogged up bike lane, beware when you pull out into traffic to get around. They might be waiting for you. Real nice.
..would be less of a weenie if the peloton hadn’t handed him a half hour to put him in contention – we all know they could’ve taken that time back if they had wanted to that day. He sure showed his strength after that, but the Tour is not about gifts and Pereiro sure got a lot of them this Tour. My opinion is he should stay a little low profile about this win. I like the guy, but as far as I’m concerned, Kloden is the winner.
estrogen. Man does that guy whine a lot. This is the same guy who complained about Hincapie as classless for sitting on his wheel last year and then did the same thing to Cadel Evans the very next stage. This guy doesn’t have enough class to carry the FBF leader jersey much no less the yellow.
I was involved in the crash at the end of the 3/4 race as well. The entire race I felt on edge and people seemed to be all over the place even more than usual. All I saw was the guy on the Cervelo go down about 30 feet in front of me but had no idea what caused it. I tried to move over to the left but not too fast that I would take someone else out in the packed field. It looked as though I had made it around the wreck but his bike was still skidding across the tarmac and sideswiped my rear wheel as I was going by and took me down. Fortunately, I was pretty much unscathed besides some road rash.
Sadly for me, I had just gotten my bike back two weeks ago after waiting 5 weeks for an FSA warranty crank and now it’s back in the shop again. I know I’m not the best bike handler personally but as was mentioned before, some of the stuff that was going on in the field was completely reckless and it is really unfortunate that other people got injured/broken bikes on their account.
I also wonder if the 100 person field limit is pushing the limit of what Prospect Park can handle (at least for cat 3/4 and 5 races). The accident happened shortly before the bottleneck where the parkdrive becomes one lane. It works ok when the field is racing conservatively but when everyone starts jockeying for position it becomes really hazardous on certain portions of the course.
And don’t get me started on the CP Park Rangers in the morning.
Charlie did put on a good set of races. I wish there were a few more people who showed up on Sunday. It would have been nice to have a few more souls line up for those races.
to Ethan:
i was in the 5s group on saturday and ironically it may have been the safest field there. we had about 35-40 guys. the rest of the fields were HUGE!! it just seemed way to big for the park.
That is funny….
ironically Charlie told me he is limiting race days to 3 fields to prevent fields mixing, which is dangerous. But huge fields are also dangerous in the park. Not sure what the solution is, given the large turnout and limited window of time. Maybe have the 5’s go at 6am, then do masters, 4,s and P123s later, kind of like at floyd?
This is not a knock on Charlie by the way, he’s a does a great job, and he had given us a cautionary speech warning us not to do anything stupid before the start
I was also in the 3/4 race.
I don’t think at all that it was dangerous due to too many riders, it was dangerous due to too many riders not knowing how to ride a bike, and slamming on the breaks whenever their tire comes within 14 inches of another rider, that’s bike racing man.
If someone feels worried about riding with 100 guys, maybe some bike handling skill training are in order, PP is one of the easiest, safest courses around, have you ever raced in VT or PA on tight one lane country roads?
And like everyone else has already mentioned, Props to Charlie for putting on these races, even when idiots go screaming at him, and more people should come out and race those morning Floyd races, they are great!
To TH
I was also in the 5 field at PP on saturday. There were some sketchy moves made in that field. Nothing resulted in anybody going down, but some folks really didn’t know how to ride in a pack, and thus made some stupid decisions. For example one guy getting up to sprint from 25 places back, and running into the guy next to him.
The out of town, one lane, yellow line with 125+ makes prospect park look like a 4 lane highway. Agreed on the bike handling skills comments. Riding in a pack is nothing to take for granted and many are doing just that. The thing is, there’s really no way to practice this unless you go out to Gimbels or something. Otherwise the only option is to just race and be extremely self aware.
yeah, i should have put "safe" in quotes. i counted a few bonehead moves from where i was. i guess i’ve been lucky in the 5’s…i’ve seen my share of shit, but haven’t gone down once. the race on sunday was my last as a 5, since i got my upgrade approved.
Congrats TH on the upgrade, now you get to jump to the safety of the 4 fields. It’ll take me a little more to make the move myself.
There
I have to agree with the pack skills comments on the PP races. They really can be extremely safe races if people would learn how to come off the bottom of the hill and through the one narrow space on the entire course without hitting the brakes. There really is no reason to brake at that point if you’re on any kind of a decent line…not to mention that it’s not coming out of the blue we’ve all ridden the PP loop enough to know it like the back of our hands. From my count the 3/4 race made it through a total of 2x without someone at the front putting on the brakes.
Are people at the front really braking before going into that turn in PP? I always thought it was the compression of the field after coming off the hill as the front riders are slowing down (less momentum), while the back of the field is catching up (momentum + draft), and then stringing out again as you go from two to one lane.
if you break to "turn" in prospect you should be summarily executed
There is a certain amount of physics involved with Prospect. One should take into account that, with most fields that ride that course, bottlenecking is something that just happens and the end result is braking. Unless there is some entity off the front stringing out the field through those particular sections of the course, I always anticipate an issue. The trick is just dont peddle into deadend gaps that will collapse as the roads narrow. I see guys jamming into gaps that only leads them into the back of another guys wheel! I always find myself coasting through these sections while holding position. I am however guilty of knocking over the occasional pylon and I understand this doesnt help the problem. Whenever I race that course I try to stay away from riding the middle @ certain sections. I’ve never caused a crash and have never went down in 3 years of racing. (oops….did I just jinx myself?)
Higher fields usually dont have this problem because someone is always amping the pace throughout the whole course.
there are times where its unavoidable to scrub off a little speed in a bottleneck but the trick is to feather the brakes so that the rider behind you doesn’t panic. And don’t panic if someone brakes in front of you, it just makes it worse.
i think lisbon with out a doubt is the fastest sprinter out of NYC, Acton may be faster but only margionally.and he is a pro. no one locally has the results Lisbon has. the big difference is he does it out of town in semi stacked fields.
different reasons…sometimes just as gnarly
What about moving the Prospect finish line to 1/2 way up the hill — right where it opens up on both sides. Perhaps moving the finish farther from the bottleneck turn would prevent wrecks?
apparently the finish used to be closer to the turn, and some people thought it was safer. Maybe people attacked just prior to the downhill and it strung things out a bit? Not really sure, wasn’t racing then. further up the hill might be tough to stage the s/f, registration, pace motorcycles etc. though.
I remember when Kissena Cycling club’s sat. races were the only game in town and the races ended shortly after the downhill in front of the temple. The last year for that was 1994, and 1995, I thought the races got much, much safer. There ain’t no advantage to the old days. Frankly, if you need more room than what there is by the temple, you probably didnt move up enough before the downhill to be in a good position. Now, for those who care, I can tell you a story about racing in my day with toe straps, hairnets, and friction shifting. I am getting old fast.
The crux of the issue isn’t how fast the race is or isn’t. The course conditions or anything else (sat. we averaged 26.5 and the 123’s averaged 27.5 for example). I think the problem with what is seen as sketchy race conditions is really just a tricky down effect of people not taking accountability of where they are in regards to the race the racers the course ect..and staying focused, looking for "outs". there are olny a certain kind of rider that should feel safe in the middle of the pack at this level of racing. if you bike handling skills are less than developed you should be at the front back or sides. If that means you do more work and get dropped then so be it. Great training. As for foolish riding at the front coming into the finally of a race, I don’t think that is ever going to change. It’s just plain ole jockeying. What happens is that people that are already smashed try to move up 20 positions in the last K when they should just sit tight and ride it out. There’s a reason that it’s always the same 10 people fighting it out at the front in the last k, They’re ready to be there and can handle there bikes. I guess I could be oversimplifying the issue as I’m a newbie in my first year of racing so take my 2 cents for what its worth. Lets be safe….
I would think moving the finish of the prospect race closer to the hill would help..this way people won’t fight as much on the downhill..maybe I’m wrong. I’ve been racing mtn, cross, track and road bikes for 14 years..I’m still not comfortable riding in the middle of a pack..I’ll admit my handling skills are not great..which is why I try to be at the sides, on the back or front of a race..rarely in the middle…
i know its bad for business but its a big gap between cat 2 and cat 3, way bigger than cat 3 to 4. I’d be interested to know how many cat pro through 2 were in that race saturday, and if its feasible to run a race without cat3s. Lord knows it would be way safer.
don’t the p12 races get strung out and drop a lot of the 3’s anyway?
Hello all. I was the Westwood guy on the Cervelo who went down while pulling the pack. The reason for the crash was exactly as described, someone cutting in front of me and taking out my front wheel for no reason whatsoever. I am healing but would really appreciate any information on who cut me off. I am not a revenge person, but I would like to know who did this so that I can avoid this kind of stupidity. I used to think that being on the front was a safe place in the peloton! Thanks to everyone who stayed and helped me out after the crash. Feel free to contact me at DrAxeman1@cs.com
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