Northeast - NYC Century 09

/\ so cool!

I met, rode and chatted with folks from Maryland and Connecticut. You all picked the best ride in NYC and got perfect weather to boot:thumb:

On another note - did anyone else notice two or three Bike Lane Signs on the ground in Queens? These are the black DOT signs with white lettering.

great ride, am hurting this morning...nothing some 530am steam room can't fix.

about 30mins into the ride i took a really nasty spill in brooklyn. it was crossing the wooden bridge with cobble stones on both sides. one rider to my far right slammed the brakes and slide out, the guy to my immediate right saw it and did the same. the one to my immediate right was a bit ahead of me when he slid out. i had to choose to feather the brakes or roll into him and launch myself over my bars. i tapped on the brakes and the bike just slid out from under me. i landed left shoulder first and my left cheek was sliding along the ground. i distinctly remember seeing puddles of water sliding past my oakleys. i took 2 secs and popped up to check my bike, more concerned about the bike anyways. left hood was bent in and i just pushed it straight.
another hard crash was coming down the bridge onto cross bay blvd. The headwind was serious so I got into a 4 person paceline. i was riding with another F3SL who was leading the descent, a female marshal was behind him, another male marshal behind her, and then me. Apparently the paceleader tapped his brakes, the female marshal's front wheel tapped the back of his wheel and she went down hard. bike went right she went left. we all stopped since it was a very dangerous position, moved up the road to caution those descending as well as warning vehicular traffic.

I think she was ok, i stopped for about 10 mins when the marshals stopped. I really hope she is ok, i saw road rash from her shoulder down to her forearm. she landed on her stomach and slid a good 15 ft.

Triboro stairs sucked...but making the decision to go to the bronx instead of going back to manhattan was epic. After all the stairs, you get this wonderful shaded descent. then empty out into the blazing sun to decide my fate, i swung left with my crew...boy was i in for a surprise. Legs were pretty much done but wasn't cramping at all so i pushed on. i cruise down towards randalls island and what am i greeted with? an upramp that was viciously steep and i was in the big ring. That was a struggle of a climb and it's damn hard to unclip in the middle of a climb so I just had to suffer through it...that part sucked royally. Coming into the finish down in the bronx river was fun but a bit sketchy rolling through some parts of the bx. I tell you this much, rolling past Post Rd by Dykemen reminded me of fond memories of my youth going into that area.

Physically I'm fine, a bit sore here and there. My slid out was pretty violent and witnessing the marshal's crash really reminded me why i wear my helmet. Road bikes move quick, it's my first real slam thank god everyone that I saw go down was ok.

Escape and then MS...god save my legs.

Hi SD
Sorry to hear about your spill early on (can't remember the wooden bridge)
I was the marshall between you and the female marshal (Heidi).
A pigeon spooked the 2 people who weren't in the paceline ahead of us which caused the first guy to tap his brakes.
It was a very effective paceline fighting the headwind.
Luckily we were just letting up on our speed since we had just come over the top of the hill.
The young lady was pretty shook because she hit her head (helmet).
We rode with her for a few miles and she decided to take a train home.
The other marshal escorted her to the train and I continued on.

Thanks for the update Frankie! That was a pretty serious crash I'm surprised both you and I didn't eat it with her also. I don't remember how tight the line was held but I knew I was looking a head enough to see her go down then brake to get around and eventually stopped. I am though grateful that the 4 of us was smart enough to even start a paceline, that head wind was seriously tough and the leading road into the bridge was long with a gradual grade, not that we wouldn't be able to hammer it ourselves solo, it just made riding in a group a bit easier to say the least.

Anyways, I hope Heidi is ok!

I just registered with this forum and wanted to add how wonderful yesterday's ride was and how all of the volunteers were excellent. I did the 75 (actually 86 mile) ride on my hybrid commuter bike and there were more than a few moments when I wanted to trade for almost anyone's road bike.

Living in Brooklyn, I have biked most of the course before on solo rides around the City. The Cross Bay Blvd headwind was not all that unusual, other than it was a steady headwind. I find it often has a basic direction but then can swirl a bit becoming a crosswind and then changing direction.

For the person who wiped out on the Carrol Street Bridge, I couldn't understand why we went up Carrol with the cobblestones and the old wood. There are a number of better crossings earlier, or we could have avoided teh canal and come up Dean to 3rd or 5th Avenue and then turned at Carrol up to the Park.

Most of the riding I saw went very smoothly, other than a woman falling on a sewer grate as she slowed for a light. Luckily she was going so slowly that she was more embarrassed than hurt. I was happy to see that 20th Avenue in Astoria was repaved, as I was up there in the last two weeks and part of it was torn up waiting for the asphalt to be laid.

Like many of you, I also hate the Tribourough Bridge and those *&^% stairs. The real crazy part was watching the person on a fixie without brakes use his hands to slow and change the direction of his bike just before he reached bottom on Randall's Island. Any time I am Queens and heading to Manhattan I use the 59th Street Bridge or just go back to Brooklyn. It was funny once I went over the pedestrian bridge into spanish harlem, I didn't see markings or look at my cue street and this group of, I think, mostly non-New Yorkers, followed me and I just went down 105th to Park and then up to 111th.

A great ride and all in all on my hybrid I felt pretty good leaving Central Park at 6:40 and after some rest stop food and over a 160 ounces of sports drinks and water later arriving back at 2:50.

Bill

Fortunately, we didn't see anything approaching a wreck.

We did, however, see 22 broken umbrellas!

It started innocently, my wife saying something about seeing a third broken umbrella... and this was well before reaching Bleeker Street. So then we made a sport of it and started counting -- sometimes there would be two or three in a garbage can.

The buddy we rode with has a thing about giving every ride a theme -- as if "All of New York" isn't a good enough theme. Naturally, we'll always know this as The Broken Umbrella Tour!

All I can say is, it must have been a helluva rainstorm the day before!?

http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/4964/brokenumbrella2.jpg

it was an excellent 1st time experience, im definitely wanting to do this again! biked all the way to the 86th with cc_rider :) then routed on my own to the 100 finish line, its a great feeling to know i did it. chatting with some people who lived in texas too! 1st time, beautiful weather, im so lucky to have this forum and good friends! i hope to have more chances to meet yall. (+pgoat!)

it was an excellent 1st time experience, im definitely wanting to do this again! biked all the way to the 86th with cc_rider :) then routed on my own to the 100 finish line, its a great feeling to know i did it. chatting with some people who lived in texas too! 1st time, beautiful weather, im so lucky to have this forum and good friends! i hope to have more chances to meet yall. (+pgoat!)

Wooot! go, man go!:thumb:

we'll hook up for a ride soon, for sure.

Carroll Street Bridge:
Seems like there were at least two crashes there: the one SourDieseL was in, and the one I was in (since they sound like different events). I was one of the first in a group to reach the bridge, and the bumps of the cobblestones jarred my taillight loose, which alarmed people behind me,who fell on the slippery (oiled!) wooden bridge surface. I didn't go down, but 3 or 4 or 5 people behind me did. I used to live in the neighborhood, so I was familiar with the bridge. I call it the troll bridge. When the neighborhood was less attractive than it is now, that bridge was still somehow picturesque. There probably should have been marshals stationed there telling people to slow down as they approached it.

Re: markings:
I really didn't see them. I didn't actually understand what I was supposed to be looking for until the ride was almost over. Perhaps a sign at the start telling the less keen-witted what the markings looked like would have been good? But I was riding with a skilled cue-sheet reader, so nothing bad came of my ignorance.

We made the wrong turn at the Knapp St turn and followed the bike path. It just looked like the right place to go on a bike, I guess. We rode 2 miles or so until the crosswalk at ... what's it called there? Flatbush Ave or Marine Bay Blvd? and realized we hadn't seen Knapp St. so we turned around and went back. I looked at the map later and figured out that we could have ridden "inbound" on that bridge (is it the Cross Bay Bridge?) and we would have been on Flatbush. No harm done, though--just 4 more miles added to our trip.

All around, a great day.

I love the hummus-in-pita sandwiches at the Astoria rest stop.

Re: the sports drink: It was fine. It did the job. It was free. I can't complain. And it tasted loads better than the water I made the mistake of filling my bottle with at the water station in Central Park (I perhaps over-cautiously didn't taste the water at Marine Park; the water at Astoria was totally fine).

We ended up riding a few tenths shy of 60 miles. Cool.

Thanks to the volunteers...though the cheerleaders at the end at Central Park could have at least pretended to look a little tired themselves. [tongue in cheek]

it was an excellent 1st time experience, im definitely wanting to do this again! biked all the way to the 86th with cc_rider :) then routed on my own to the 100 finish line, its a great feeling to know i did it. chatting with some people who lived in texas too! 1st time, beautiful weather, im so lucky to have this forum and good friends! i hope to have more chances to meet yall. (+pgoat!)
Congratulations. Glad you made it all the way.
You were a good riding partner. Thanks for keeping me on track. If I had been on my own I probably would have taken detours and played tourist, probably would have spent more time taking pictures than riding.:)
As it turned out, I ended up riding over 100 miles after all. Finished the "75" mile route with 88 miles on my computer. Since I'd be at 90 miles for the day anyway, and after a break at the finish, my legs were still good and I decided to go for it. Did two laps of Central Park and rounded up to a century.
Great time. Great weather. Missed riding through Times Square in the early hours, but seeing something new (West End Ave) was fine, too.
I had planned for a NY Century to be my first century, but I didn't expect it to be this year. I hadn't been doing the longer rides this year and had done only two metric or longer rides. Everything came together and it worked out.

Sorry to miss you, pgoat. Glad you had a good ride.

hkboy313 - Good luck with the new job, and good luck with the license exams.

Sorry to miss you, pgoat. Glad you had a good ride.

thanks - hope to see you out there on another one soon.

Re: the sports drink: It was fine. It did the job. It was free. I can't complain. And it tasted loads better than the water I made the mistake of filling my bottle with at the water station in Central Park (I perhaps over-cautiously didn't taste the water at Marine Park; the water at Astoria was totally fine). [tongue in cheek]

We had the same experience with the water: the Central Park hose bib water tasted pretty... er.. flavorful. Skipped the water at Marine, and actually went for the sports drink at Astoria Park, which was aok.

I just noticed an ambiguity in my earlier posting...

The [tongue in cheek] was meant to come before the (parenthetical) about Astoria water. The Astoria water was totally fine. Not nasty like the Central Park water.

(Just want to be clear, in case any ride organizers are reading this.)

I had a great ride. My only complaint was that I often had only a vague idea where in the city I was. Queens is a big place! I understand why they don't release cue sheets early, but it would be nice if the cue sheet included a map so riders could see at a glance which neighborhood they were in.

For anyone who wants to see this after the fact, I drew the route in Google Maps: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?cd=20&geocode=FVDNbwIdw5iY-w&ie=UTF8&hl=en&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=101133561933783931258.00047392ee07233c577c8&z=11 It's nice to see where I went.

>>>> My only complaint was that I often had only a vague idea where in the city I was.<<<<

Funny you should say that. As a volunteer at Astoria Park, I was quite surprised when at least half a dozen cyclists - all native New Yorkers - asked me what boro they were in!

I had a great ride. My only complaint was that I often had only a vague idea where in the city I was. Queens is a big place! I understand why they don't release cue sheets early, but it would be nice if the cue sheet included a map so riders could see at a glance which neighborhood they were in.

For anyone who wants to see this after the fact, I drew the route in Google Maps: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?cd=20&geocode=FVDNbwIdw5iY-w&ie=UTF8&hl=en&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=101133561933783931258.00047392ee07233c577c8&z=11 It's nice to see where I went.

The map is great and it confirms that it long way to the Kisena Park rest stop, maybe next year we could have a rest stop in Forest Park?

>>>> My only complaint was that I often had only a vague idea where in the city I was.<<<<

Funny you should say that. As a volunteer at Astoria Park, I was quite surprised when at least half a dozen cyclists - all native New Yorkers - asked me what boro they were in!

One reason I took the time to put this year's cue sheet onto Google Maps is that I definitely want a map in my hand for Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx when I ride this century next year. I can't read a cue sheet w/o my reading glasses, which naturally I can't wear when I'm riding. I would have to pull over. This is why cue sheets more than a page long are useless for me. (Less than a page I can hold in my head.)

If I have the map, I can see at a glance where I am and anticipate where the route will zig or zag. It will be vastly easier.

Also, the ride would be much richer if the riders knew what they were riding past. I was surprised to see in Google Maps that we rode past what used to be the site of the Polo Grounds stadium (in upper Manhattan). It would be nice to know things like that in advance.

One last gripe: is it REALLY such a breach of cue sheet security to not hand them out in the morning when we get our bibs? It would be so useful. I was standing around for 20 minutes waiting for the ride to begin. That would have been the perfect time to review the cue sheet. Instead, I only get it when I'm pulling away, which is precisely the time I can't look at it.

Regarding the cue sheet, I honestly didn't even use it the whole ride. It ended up being a sweat sponge in my jersey pocket. The markings on the ground and the groups I rode with were all good enough to signal back turns, stops at lights, clearing cross roads, and identifying car back. Felt nice to ride with solid groups and knowledgeable riders. The only real issue I had with the whole ride was crossing the wooden/cobble stone bridge in the morning in brooklyn where I wiped out. I felt like that could have prevented with a marshal at the foot of the bridge warning people to slow down. If I had known I probably would have slowed down before going up on the bridge and slowly coasted over it.

Thanks for that map.

As a riding marshal I would be asked what areas of the boroughs we were in.
I was familiar with all of Brooklyn and Manhattan, but most of Queens and the Bronx are foreign lands to me. :)
I was lucky enough to ride through the Bronx with a Bronx native and got an expert tour of every area we rode through.

Lots of riders were asking how far it was to the Kissena rest stop.
It was a bit longer than usual but when you think about it, you can stop and rest anywhere along the way.
As long as you have two full water bottles and an emergency snack, the distance between rest stops shouldnt be a problem.

This was my 2nd NYC Century, the first one I did in 2006. This one was so much better than the last one I did. The roads were so well marked, only missed 2 turns and caught the markings out of the corner of my eye as we passed by. Love riding in the City, especially early mornings with very little traffic.

If anyone saw any of the 7 people with Long Island Chapter TNT jersey's, that was the group I was leading.

The only complaint that I had about the rest stops was the mechanics were not equipped to do anything other than fix flats and adjust derailleurs. One of the guys I was riding with broke a spoke as we passed by Nathan's. I stupidly decided not to ride with my multi-tool and couldn't retrue the wheel for him. Every rest stop we would ask a mechanic if they could just true the wheel so it wasn't as wobbly as it was, they didn't have any tools! :( We ended up riding the 86 mile route... I mean the 75. lol

Had planned on doing the 100, but my left leg was not having any of it that day. Too many cramps to even attempt the Bronx. Will do it next year for certain.

I wish we had another ride this Sunday.

...Too many cramps to even attempt the Bronx. Will do it next year for certain.

tour de bx. is next month and it is free and sponsor by the same ppl for the century tour. try that.

I wish we had another ride this Sunday.

I might do some laps in CP if the early AM weather is nice...also chk your PMs

Yes!


I wish we had another ride this Sunday.

People will often ride the route after the fact, simply following the route markings or using the cue sheets or both. I plan to do this in the Bronx, as I only did the 75 mile route on the day of.

I never saw so many flats, my guess is that a lot were due to pinch flats relating to low tire pressure and hitting bumps.

I never saw so many flats, my guess is that a lot were due to pinch flats relating to low tire pressure and hitting bumps.
Yeah. Lots of flats.
But I only saw 3 falls this year. Two were failure to unclip in time, and one was avoiding a pedestrian who turned and stepped in the way.

tour de bx. is next month and it is free and sponsor by the same ppl for the century tour. try that.

Thanks, will have to check the date and if I can free up the time. :thumb:

For some reason I've been unable to get to www.bikeforums.net since the night before the ride. Apparently video.bikeforums.net works...

Anyway... the ride was a game-time decision for me because of a horrible toothache. I woke-up at 2AM in agony and told myself it would take a miracle for me to do the ride. I gave myself that chance by managing to get back to sleep after taking another painkiller and not turning off the alarm. I felt just good enough after waking up at 4AM or so that I decided to go for it. I'm glad I did, but it was my least favorite of the seven NYC Centuries I've ridden. Crashes nearly ruined it for me.

I made it to Central Park with enough time to get my ride packet and maneuver through the crowd to the start line -- wanted to be in the first group. I was VERY impressed at how efficient the packet pick-up was. Way to go, TA! OTOH, the ride did not start on time at 6AM, it was more like 6:10, IIRC (did others post this?).

About a meter across the start line, the guy on my right misses clipping in, is in too big a gear and tips over, nearly taking me out. Some fancy bike handling saved me from going down with him. Shortly after I met a nice fella in a Garmin jersey with whom I did the rest of the ride. We picked-up some more guys along the way and settled into a nice group of five at or very nearly at the front of the ride. We were really doing well, working together until I got a flat tire getting on the Cross Bay Bridge (I think that's what it called).

A quick change and we were on our way but no longer being at the front of the ride sapped a bit of the excitement out of things. Said excitement returned when we got to the velodrome as none of the other guys had ever ridden in one. Unfortuntely, Garmin guy was rammed from behind by someone and went down hard. He may or may not have suffered broken / bruised ribs but it wasn't pretty. Good man, though, he got up and kept riding. Our little group slowed the pace to keep him with us and we were delayed quite a bit treating him at the rest stop shortly after the velodrome.

As if there hadn't been enough mishaps already, the big one was yet to come. One Garmin guy had managed to get his legs back under him we got our group mojo back and were crackling along nicely. Having not done a ride longer than my commute since last year's century (having a new addition to the family does that), I was beginning to suffer... and liked it! We were yo-yoing with a larger group and finally intergrated into what was maybe 20 riders.

Riding in such a group of that size is a lot of fun, especially when someone puts the hammer down up front and strings it out. Only maybe that's not such a good idea on a Greenway. As I mentioned, my group of five had reconnected with the larger group so we were near the back. The guy in front of me (part of our five) apparently forgot where he was because with his head down, veered slightly out of line and rear-ended a jogger at nearly 25mph. I'm still not sure how I managed to avoid going down. The two behind me weren't so lucky. A long wait for an ambulance ensued. Fortunately, nobody was seriously hurt though there were a lot of chainring gashes and I was worried that the jogger might have had a sprained or broken wrist.

The four unhurt remaining from our group decided to go on while the guy in front me was treated. At this point, I'd lost my taste for the ride so Garmin guy and I decided we'd split off from the other two when it came time to choose 75 or 100. We'd all lost our motivation, which was fine, because we chatted a lot more. :)

It was fun, but I hope to never have another ride like that. Way too many mishaps. My first flat in over a year and three crashes in front to my side and behind me -- not pretty. And the toothache? It was bad, but bearable with more drugs and is now long gone. :)

Edit: I meant to add that it was fun to play tour guide. The other guys in the group of five were not from NYC (one was a foreign grad student here but didn't know much of the outer boroughs).

Also, I didn't look at the cue sheet after the start line. The markings were very good (I maintain that they are usually pretty good for this ride every year) and I obviously know a lot of the route, having ridden it now seven times.

Finally got around to getting the pictures off my camera.
This is the one from Rockaway Beach.