by JP Partland

Development Director of Kissena

reprinted with permission from the Kissena website

We believe this is one of the best cycling cities in the country, though it could just be our provincial outlook. So it’s appropriate that the greatest city in the world is also the best for bike racers. Unlike the rest of the US, you don’t need a car to be a bike racer in NYC. You can commute by bike to work in most of the city really easily, and the close stuff is within walking distance (walking, a great recovery activity, is another fitness benefit). Many cyclists have cars only to go to races. Most of the city is fairly flat (exceptions can be found in all five boroughs), but we can find all types of terrain nearby.

Two huge riding spots are Brooklyn’s Prospect Park (3.2 miles around) and Manhattan’s Central Park (6.2 miles around). If you need to get in a quick hour on the bike, or want a group to ride with, these rolling loops are teeming with cyclists–and the loops are closed to car traffic mid-days and evenings for most of the year. Both parks are well lit, so riding in the dark, both before sunrise and after sunset, is very popular. When you want to go longer, whether you want a flat, rolling, hilly, or mountainous ride, you can find it. On the weekends, there are popular rides that start in southern Westchester, just beyond The Bronx the Gimbels ride, Queens, near the Long Island Border (the Triangle Ride), and at the George Washington Bridge (countless rides start at this spot and make their way through northern NJ, and Orange and Rockland, NY counties). A popular Brooklyn ride is to pedal to Point Lookout).

People ride outdoors year round in NYC. You can find people out training in most conditions, though snow on the road does stop many. We have the occasional 100-degree day in the summer and a few single-digit days in the winter, but intrepid cyclists don’t stop riding; they just dress differently.

In terms of racing, you can race at least once a week for almost the entire road season, March into October, within the five boroughs. The season starts with the Spring Series, which begins at sunrise the first Sunday in March in Central Park and the season often ends with the Pete Senia race in Prospect Park at sunrise in October. In between, we find more racing than can easily be mentioned. There is at least one race every weekend in either Brooklyn or Manhattan from that first Sunday to the last Sunday in April. You’ll find the races in Manhattan’s Central Park, Brooklyn’s Prospect Park or Floyd Bennett Field, or on Staten Island. If these races are not to your liking, there’s also a race series in Newark, NJ’s Branchbrook Park, a short train ride away.

In May, the summer weeknight series start. Tuesday nights, there are circuit races at Floyd Bennett Field. Wednesday nights, Track races at the Kissena Velodrome in Flushing, Queens. Thursday nights, criteriums in Rockleigh, NJ. Friday night races in Riverhead, NY for the East End of Long Island crowd.

In terms of the track, Kissena has a pretty busy schedule. There are training sessions Sundays and Mondays. There is racing Wednesdays (USCF), Thursdays (juniors), and Fridays (messengers). Kissena is pretty convenient to all five boroughs and a mile from the last stop on the 7 train. And if you want more track racing, you can race Saturdays (Category V, IV, and Masters) or Tuesdays (Category II and III) at the Lehigh Valley Velodrome in Pennsylvania. Friday nights are for category one and pro trackies (the stands are packed; the racing is intense, but there also isn’t much else going on in the Lehigh Valley).

Usually, in April, other season-long race series begin. Kissena usually starts its 10-12 race series in Prospect Park in April. And there are other series that come and go. In June, 2004, there was a NYC Criterium series that had races in four of the five boroughs.

In terms of the overall racing scene for the region, you can probably race twice a weekend from March through September without driving longer than two hours in one direction (two hours by car is as far as Philadelphia, PA, Poughkeepsie, NY, Riverhead, NY, Hartford, CT, New Haven, CT, Jiminy Peak, MA). I include in this plenty of races in New Jersey that are easily accessible by train. When you join a city club, you’ll see that riding to races, carpooling, and sharing rentals, are the ways people get to the races.

And then, in the fall, cyclocross begins. It starts in September in New England and October everywhere else. You can probably do a two-to-three month cyclocross season easily, and you can even race ‘cross twice a weekend. There are race series both in NJ, a little over an hour away and Long Island, about two hours away. And, we’re positioned such that we can go south to race the Mid-Atlantic race series (lots of UCI races) and the New England race series (possibly even more UCI races).

In my experience, people find that their work and home locations, work schedule, life schedule, and race schedule end up influencing when and where and often with whom they ride. Luckily, there are so many cyclists in NYC, you can probably find people to ride with regardless of where and when you can ride. I also find that many people end up riding more once they move to NYC, as they ride their bikes to more races, ride their bikes more commuting (most people have commuter bikes in addition to their racers), and probably attain a higher fitness level living here.

Kissena is a large club. I think it is fair to say we focus on bike racing. We have riders of all levels and they pursue all disciplines. We have people who just ride the track, who focus on the road, who focus on cyclocross, who do both two of the three and all three (our people have been to nationals in all three disciplines). Some of our people do mountain bike racing, and some do multi-sport events (our people have gone to the nationals and worlds). We have people riding at all times and in most places. We have skills rides. Every weekend, we have people who are leading training rides and going to races, and let people know about it on our listserv. The rides are less formal and less well-attended during the road race season (though we’ve been growing our fast and fun weekend rides-they go from a noodle to race pace and back, and we try hard to make sure no one gets dropped), and are a bit more formal and better attended in the fall and winter.

We also promote roller racing in the winter. Bike Works NYC, one of our sponsors, owns a great set of rollers, and we put on monthly roller races in the winter, a great way to work the legs and a fun time for hanging out. With roller racing, I can say we have members who race every month of the year.

The only questions that remain are: how much racing do you want to do, and when are you going to start?