"The 33"-Road Bike Racing - Anyone ever do Giro del Cielo (NJ)??

With the demise of the Owasco Stage Race (TT/Crit has been canceled) that was set to go off this weekend in central NY a bunch of us are thinking about heading down to NJ for this TT/Crit/RR weekend.

Anyone ever do it before? Is it a quality race? Just trying to decide if it is worth the drive. We all have already made plans to be away this weekend and want to race (aka everyone has taken off from work, cleared it with the wife/husband, found sitters for the kids).

Anything else going on that I dont know about in the northeast?

I noticed that one too. I am still probably going to do the sunday Owasco RR though.

I did it last year - my first ever stage race - and plan to do it again this year. The TT is in the Stoke's State Forest - last year there was bear sighting. It's flat at the start but kicks up for a hard finish. The Crit is in a parking lot of a baseball stadium and was a nice, fast, flat course. The RR is on hilly terrain and is quite challenging. I found it to be well run and enjoyable.

Rad. I was unhappy to see Owasco contract to only a road race, so I am in for the GdC. Good to hear the good experiences.

Bears are fast. Turn the bike around and sprint downhill if chased.

RR course is hilly? I did a mapmyride.com version of the course and seems flat as can be. I also know mapmyride sucks sometimes so dont put to much faith into it. Tech guide has no profile for the RR either.

I'm a Flatlander, so the RR seemed darned hilly to me last year. It's all relative.

For future reference - the RR part of this race is flat. Flatter than either Prospect Park or Central Park. One little hill of any consequence and three sharp turns per lap so there is nothing to break up the field.
And it was tight. Ridiculously tight, to the point where the race was not fun/miserable because it was impossible to move up in the pack.

Owasco was the opposite of flat.

Yeah, I ended up just getting burnt out on travel...so skipped both races. Looks like I didnt miss much in NJ.

Instead was lazy and did a handful of 60 mile rides. A hair under 300miles/20hrs for the week, not bad.

I was really looking forward to Owasco for the past month and a half...then found out it was no longer a stage race and I couldn't justify the drive up there for just a single race. Hopefully they get the permit situation squared away next year.