island rider

This I love.

island rider

I need a listing of every event that has kids races. It makes a world of difference to my family.

globecanvas

[ preface... I've told part of this story a number of times, if I'm repeating myself here, I apologize. ]

I spent the day at Battenkill Saturday even though my race was Sunday. It was super-duper fun to hang out all day without the stress of racing.

I made a list of start/end times for all my teammates and friends and BF people, so I could tell them all how awesome they were at the start and cheer them on at the end. At the start for one field, I couldn't find two teammates who were supposed to be there. Did I write it down wrong or something? 5 minutes after the field left, the teammates wandered up, wheels in hand, asking if I knew where the wheel cars were staging. YOUR FIELD LEFT 5 MINUTES AGO GIVE ME THE WHEELS GO GO GO GO! They dropped the wheels and took off. The chased for 17 miles and finally caught the field just before the Stage Rd climb. Then would end up finishing 6th and 12th -- more on that later. Too bad bike races aren't chip-timed.

As various fields staged, I saw: a former pro linebacker lining up for a cat 5 race (don't remember his name, but the announcer called him out); a guy "racing" on a fat bike; lots and lots of nervous overdressed first-time racers who got older and older as the fields marched past.

After the last field left there was about an hour before the first race to finish, the cat 2s. I got a pizza and hung out with Dave Towle, the announcer, who I'd met last year at Tulsa. A racer who'd crashed out joined us with his broken bike and road rash, locked out of his friend's car. I gave the poor guy half my pizza and listened to his story, but while he was still telling it, I hear a former teammate's parents screaming "GO ALEC!" I dropped everything and ran over to the finish just in time to see the kid win the 2s, 20 minutes ahead of the estimated finish time. This kid was a 5 two years ago, and he's going to college on a cycling scholarship in the fall. Such a blast to see his skyrocketing success. He was beside himself and told me the whole story of his race, including flatting and chasing back.

After that it was a nonstop stream of finishes. I watched tetonrider finish well in the 40+, at the front of the pack behind a breakaway that was won by a current (not even former) world champion. He also had an interesting race story to tell. Then TKP came in top 10, told me about losing both bottles on the very first dirt section.

Next was my tardy teammates' field. I saw one teammate lined up for the group sprint and was amazed he had caught the field at all, much less been competitive. But a straggler from an earlier field was in front of their sprint and my teammate had to bust through the finish chute tape to get around him, then bust back through the tape to cross the line trailing 10 feet of checkered flag streamers -- still top 10. His race was a circus act from start to finish.

After that the fields started to get commingled, stragglers mixed in with leaders, and they didn't always drive the pace cars through the finish so it was impossible to tell what was going on. I was worried about a friend doing his first RR; his field came in but no sign of him. Friends would come through and ask how many in front of them but I'd have no idea, it was just a steady stream of finishers from 20 different fields.

I hung out for a long time with a friend who had raced the 40+, a former euro-pro downhiller, total madman. His big race this year will be Red Hook which is about as crazy as bike races get. His wife was in the W12 race so he went back out to ride up the last climb alongside her and cheer her on.

Finally, at the very end of the day, my newbie friend straggled across the line, totally demoralized. I had advised him, foolishly, to go all in trying to stay with a group, because it's no fun to ride alone. He took the advice, buried himself on the very first climb, blew up completely, got dropped, and did almost the entire race solo, suffering, trying not to draft any other stragglers because he read it was against the rules. The guy runs marathons somewhat competitively, but he wasn't at all prepared for a road race. I felt bad for encouraging him to do the race in the first place, but he felt a little better after we got some chocolate milk and sat in the shade.

8 hours at Battenkill was a lot of fun, and I left sunburned, tired from being on my feet all day, and hoarse from talking. I considered not even coming back to race the next day, though of course I'm glad I did.

Ygduf

I never lose. I win or I learn.


















j/k I lose 98% of the time.

Ygduf

I feel like this is good dry humor. quotes= not real!

furiousferret

i hope not....I'm about to take anti depression meds after reading that.

canuckbelle

Going out for a group ride with a local racing team I'm trying to join. Really excited about that. Just got my stem swapped out: it's flat (no rise) and 40mm longer. Trying to listen to CDR's advice on getting a more aero position for sprinting (I'm taking it in stages as I adapt to each small change).

shovelhd

That's a massive change. Don't hurt yourself.

canuckbelle

Well the bike frame is a little too small for me (54cm and I'm just under 6'0"). But thanks. I'm being careful I won't hesitate to change it back if it feels too uncomfortable.

tetonrider

TL;DR.... most co-workers are asking a question to be polite and probably really don't care about all the details, but a sincere "it was AWESOME!" goes a long way. i know i like to hear about people being STOKED on whatever it is that makes them happy.

a buddy of mine flew to battenkill on friday. his flight arrived after midnight in albany and his 2's race was 9am.

he's an experienced traveler, but he somehow made a mistake of putting his tools and pedals in a checked bag, which didn't make it on the flight, nor would it get there in time the next day. he wasted lots of time at the airport and got to bed at 2am...in albany.

he's up super early, manages to borrow tools and find someone to sell him pedals (different style cleats than he uses!) at the venue at 7am.

he raced as hard as he could, he attacked strong from 4k, got caught at 1250m and had a ho-hum finish.....but he said he had the most fun racing his bike that he has ever had. the weather was perfect, the course was fantastic...and we were racing.

i looked back at my files today and how incredible was it to be flying down meeting house @ 43mph..... or i hit 52 on that descent after stages. the roads, the terrain, the architecture, the history in that area... just staggering. i had 2 races that were winnable (but i won neither), yet i am overjoyed.

was very nice to meet you, TKP, GC. also amazing just to hang around the finish line and see people that i know from racing in CA, AR, OK, NM, OR, CO, and more. it's a small community. i especially love the post-race/parking lot vibe.

harolddelaney

lol, hilarious discussion in the last few posts. i can totally relate. don't even hardly tell people i ride anymore.

"what'd you do this weekend?"

"nothing at all...and it was awesome hardy har har!!!"

we both chuckle. but actually i traveled to another state to race my bike 80 miles. it's just not worth it.

tetonrider

having ended up in the hospital a few times in the past year, and having a stretch of chronic pain where giving up the bike forever was a real possibility (hell, putting on pants without pain was possibly never going to be a thing, again, in my life).... i'm with you.

when there's something like a flat race and all you do is sit in, wait for a sprint, then, say, have something happen like getting boxed in (=no sprint for you), it does suck. but, if you get to race your bike, you turn yourself inside out, maybe take a few chances....adn then you cross the line intact and to a glorious, sunny day....well, life's not so bad.

merlinextraligh

Velofest Races pulled.

"In 2011 when our friend Bryan Wrigley (a racer), was murdered in a still unsolved hit & run, we decided to put on a bike race to raise awareness to the people who live in our community. This bike race became a series of events and programs from maps and bike trail funding, transportation planning to public eduction programming. The need for an advocacy organization was obvious. We are supported by sponsors who believe in our mission and our effectiveness in directly impacting a very dangerous and often deadly issue in our community.

Since that first year’s criterium, we have added races, added money, and added programs to the festival weekend in an attempt to attempt to meet the seemingly never ending list of requests (demands) from racers. At every step of the way, we find many cyclists, and more specifically many racers, to be ungrateful, non-contributors who are, to put it nicely, abusive to volunteers trying to add to the sport. This past year, our organization has made huge strides in programming partnerships with law enforcement and government officials. Most recently, we have started partnership programs including bike rodeos, helmet fittings, and general community education. Watching a young child smile with his helmet on as he walks away with a parent who knows how to fit it properly is a reward in itself.

We have had a true change of heart as it pertains to the race and have found it increasingly more difficult to keep the passion for the races going in our volunteer base. With this year’s race planned to be the biggest yet, so was the struggle. More than ever, racers have sent scathing emails and taken to social media with unreasonable demands. Yet, as they want more and we offer more, there has been a complete lack of responsiveness to get registrations in, and lack of involvement in helping with the race. As each day passes, the risk and stress on our organization rises. Currently, only three weeks out, we have 46 registrations, even though we have sent hundreds of emails for tent requests, and no volunteering from the community event with direct request. At this time we have decided to take the money raised, nearly $34,000, and spend it on what matters to our community. We have decided to use our committed Veloteer base for our programs and not exhausting them on the races. We have reviewed this plan with our sponsors and board members, and they all think this is the right thing. Any fees or costs from USA Cycling are being remedied as we still have our touring ride in the spring, Wrigley Ride, cycling club St. Johns Velo, and wish to continue our membership and support of the organization. We have also paid our marketing dollars to Velo News and other publications as well as for inventory for race gear with Primal Wear.

We are still having our two days of free community events that weekend including a bike parade, bike rodeo, and expo, so we invite you all to attend a great event.

Perhaps one day we will bring the races back. Lord knows we know how to put one on and have the support from our local extremely committed Veloteer community to do so, but at this time, this is the right thing to do. Thank you to the many who have supported us behind the scenes over the years. It has not gone unnoticed and we sincerely appreciate it.

Keep on racing."
Anybody know what happened?

island rider

Wow, that sounds like a shame. The tone of the message reads like someone who is genuinely hurt by the situation.

tetonrider

first person i saw and voice i heard after crossing the line on saturday belonged to GC. was pretty amazing, actually. the next finish was for TKP and though i hadn't met him in person at at that point GC and I were screaming for him as he crossed the line shortly after.

what a great guy. the atmosphere there was truly cool--the fairgrounds was much more conducive to an electric post-race scene vs cambridge.

battenkill, IMO, is a must-do for anyone that appreciates hard racing.

the dirt/gravel isn't that bad. conditions change depending on the weather, but i think many road racers worry a bit too much about it, like it is mountain bike terrain. some of the dirt this year was better than paved roads that i ride, and riding on asphalt instead of chip-seal (what i mostly see in races in the western US) on the paved sections was a downright pleasure.

east coast racers have some AMAZING terrain. i am so blown away after this weekend. really, really want to return. not sure i can swing Killington this year, but i know i need to get back. so mentally engaging, also, to race against people that you do not know, so you are forced to read the race and make judgments as the miles tick away.

Wylde06

Anyone ever have any luck with Southwest Airlines extending a flight voucher by 1 day? I have a $100 dollar voucher from last year that expires exactly one day before I would use it to fly to Tulsa in June (assuming I go this year).

himespau 

I've had luck (not with Southwest) as long as I bought the ticket before it expired, I didn't have to use it by that day. Might be something to look into, but I'm sure Southwest is different than United.

himespau 

At what point, do we expect young people to be adults and do their own advocating? I'm not trying to be snarky, seriously asking.

I just got an e-mail from the parent of a high school senior going into lots of detail about their financial situation and asking me to read her "heartwarming" admission essay to another university in the hopes that I, as a professor in the field she wants to get into, could ask my department to find some scholarship money to give her. First, we don't have the money to give departmental scholarships. Second, I'm not the person who would have the ability to make that decision even if we did.

But that got me to thinking. I do take many students into my lab to do research (mostly unpaid because I don't have the resources to do otherwise). How would I respond if a parent asked me to give their child a job in my lab? I'd probably ignore them. I'd like to see internal motivation from the prospective student. But those are college kids (and the occasional high schooler). Not sure how I'd respond if a high schooler's parent wrote me.

Not that I could have done anything for her anyway, but I wonder if I'd have been more sympathetic if the girl had written herself, and that got me to thinking about my kids (2 still under the age of 5) and at what point I'll have to start letting them advocate for themselves. Cutting the cord does seem hard, but I know it has to be done at some point.

furiousferret

I bought my nephew a bike (2010 Specialized Allez). Everyone has been harassing me about taking on rides. Its a mixed bag, I cycle cus I can be anti social, but he's a good kid and this should steer him in a good direction.

I'm not sure how a 6'3" 15 year old build like Charles Barkley is going to pan out on the bike, but I'm not going to take it easy on him.

His calves are bigger than my quads so I'm half tempted to toss my Vectors on his bike and see his peak power.

Wylde06

With Southwest, it says that travel has to be completed before the expiration date

mattm

If you don't take him out on at least a few rides I'll harass you too!

Also, that sounds like Fudgy's build, so the kid should be fine.

spdntrxi

Fudgy is the round mound of rebound..?

globecanvas

Ygduf, the Round Mound of _____


a) Puget Sound
b) La Honda
c) clown
d) LeMond

Ygduf

mfw this thread

mattm

I just meant tall.

And sexy.