"The 33"-Road Bike Racing - USA Crit Finals at Interbike 2009

Last turn of the race.

http://sprinterdellacasa.blogspot.com/2009/09/racing-usa-crits-final-corner.html

cdr

Hey CDR, wish I had known you were down there, we could have had a coke or something. Tempted to do the crit but heard too many stories about the surface and safety.

Strange days in the road hall...no Giant, no Felt, no Cervelo...

Dan Bowman... too bad about that.

Not such a good day for KBS.

I know it's horrible but I still lol at the dude crashing after taking his hands off the bars.

I know it's horrible but I still lol at the dude crashing after taking his hands off the bars.

Are you referring to the Harlem Crit finish? I'm pretty sure that was a slippery bike throw (lots of on and off rain that day), not that he was taking his hands off the bars.

I know it's horrible but I still lol at the dude crashing after taking his hands off the bars.

Barlevav crashed at the Harlem crit after throwing his bike at the line a little too hard. He said he threw it harder than he's over thrown a bike before, and his hands slipped off.

Strange days in the road hall...no Giant, no Felt, no Cervelo...I wish Specialized didn't show either. they are the biggest D-bags of the show(year after year).

Barlevav crashed at the Harlem crit after throwing his bike at the line a little too hard. He said he threw it harder than he's over thrown a bike before, and his hands slipped off.

right, memory failed me. he wasn't wearing gloves as I recall.

The race was great and fast. Yeah, I felt bad for him when he went down. I must have been standing right next to you during that crash!! Where he slid into the fence was where my wife and friends were standing.

It was really cool seeing Dominique Rollin run a few laps with the pros. Even though Bahati didn't win, he sure can ride a crit. I see him race a lot (since I race in socal) and he never ceases to amaze me that he will tail gun one lap and half way through the next he is in the front just screwing with everyone mentally and physically. The guy knows how to do it!!!

My team mate and good friend won the 2-3s (and ended up racing three races total last night including the 35+ and Industry), my other friends won the 35 plus and third in the Industry. Good night for my local Vegas boys!

Was it just me, or was the energy of the whole event down from last year, and even more so from the first year?

Was it just me, or was the energy of the whole event down from last year, and even more so from the first year?

Cyclo Cross was nuts, but the Crit was not as wild looking because there were so few venders. Also a lot of pros bailed out in the past yr or two because the course used to be so sketchy. It was pretty clean this yr with crashes far and few between.

Interbike as a whole was way down. I was there and it was definitely smaller and not as crowded as previous yrs. It was still an absolute blast and I can't wait till next yr. The promoter who puts on the Southern Nv Stage Race is going to add another big race for next yrs Interbike.

I talked to some of the folks at Interbike after the third day of the show (meaning tonight). Attendance was up, with 200 more "dealers". Since some of them are kinda not-really-dealers, it's debatable if there were actually 200 more dealers, but overall, there were more people at the show this year than last year.

Eurobike, which boasts about 35-37k attendees, counts turnstiles. So if you go on Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3, you count as 3 people.

IB counts one person once, but each person attends, on average, about 2.5 days. Which is about right because that's what I attended. Based on the numbers, apparently IB boasts 55k turnstiles.

I think that the vendor attendance was down. Giant was the biggie that bailed out, although they were at the outdoor demo, sponsored the fashion show, and (seemed like) lent out bikes to everyone that had some kind of a bike on display (like tool stands etc).

Also the star attendance was down. No Lance, less Garmin. Hincapie was everywhere, and working his clothing booth. More power to him. No Lemond. No Phil that I saw, nor Paul. Less signings, more free beer.

I found the show pretty interesting, although, from a road point of view, there were few surprises. A couple new aero road bikes, the whole power thing, but that's about it. Yeah, Athena 11s, but nothing earth shaking like last year (11s, Di2). Okay, fine, the cool TT bikes, but for the real world, nothing really applied.

cdr

Gavi Epstein in third. Nice result for a nice Jewish boy.

Cyclo Cross was nuts, but the Crit was not as wild looking because there were so few venders. Also a lot of pros bailed out in the past yr or two because the course used to be so sketchy. It was pretty clean this yr with crashes far and few between.

Interbike as a whole was way down. I was there and it was definitely smaller and not as crowded as previous yrs. It was still an absolute blast and I can't wait till next yr. The promoter who puts on the Southern Nv Stage Race is going to add another big race for next yrs Interbike.

Mike Olsen?

I talked to some of the folks at Interbike after the third day of the show (meaning tonight). Attendance was up, with 200 more "dealers". Since some of them are kinda not-really-dealers, it's debatable if there were actually 200 more dealers, but overall, there were more people at the show this year than last year.

Eurobike, which boasts about 35-37k attendees, counts turnstiles. So if you go on Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3, you count as 3 people.

IB counts one person once, but each person attends, on average, about 2.5 days. Which is about right because that's what I attended. Based on the numbers, apparently IB boasts 55k turnstiles.

I think that the vendor attendance was down. Giant was the biggie that bailed out, although they were at the outdoor demo, sponsored the fashion show, and (seemed like) lent out bikes to everyone that had some kind of a bike on display (like tool stands etc).

Also the star attendance was down. No Lance, less Garmin. Hincapie was everywhere, and working his clothing booth. More power to him. No Lemond. No Phil that I saw, nor Paul. Less signings, more free beer.

I found the show pretty interesting, although, from a road point of view, there were few surprises. A couple new aero road bikes, the whole power thing, but that's about it. Yeah, Athena 11s, but nothing earth shaking like last year (11s, Di2). Okay, fine, the cool TT bikes, but for the real world, nothing really applied.

cdr

The single greatest part of Interbike is happy hour. Job #1 for me usually is to grab a show daily and figure out my plan of attack for 3pm.

Gavi Epstein in third. Nice result for a nice Jewish boy.

I forgot to mention him. I become a semi-fan of anyone who's done Bethel (and shown appreciation for it). I was pleasantly surprised to hear his name announced.


The single greatest part of Interbike is happy hour. Job #1 for me usually is to grab a show daily and figure out my plan of attack for 3pm.

The sad part was the Eddy Merckx line was shorter than one particular beer line. I must have missed a memo early in my life since I'm not a big beer fan, so the massive quantities of free beer didn't float my boat. At least people were nice about it - it wasn't like you smelled spilled stale beer everywhere.

cdr

Gavi Epstein in third. Nice result for a nice Jewish boy.

any relation to this epstein?

http://www.roberthegyes.com/kotter9.jpg

Mike Olsen?

Yes.



Mike is probably one of the coolest guys around. I hang with Mike at least once a week.

He genuinely loves the sport and will always put helping someone else before him self when it comes to being successful at an event. Whether he puts it on or someone else, he is always there helping out. He doesn't care if he has to sweep corners, flag or corner or sign guys in. He will jump right in and od whatever he can.

I don't know if you read my post about next yrs Southern Nv Stage Race but it is going to be big and much better than this yrs. This yrs was great, but it is only going to get bigger and better.

How do you know Mike?


Sorry to go off topic, but had to give Mike props. :thumb:

He is from Reno, I use to race with him in the local C races my first year. Great guy.

He is from Reno, I use to race with him in the local C races my first year. Great guy.

Yep! He is just a great guy. What is your name and I will tell him you said "hi"!

Josh, and tell him to bring back a flat TT to the stage race.

Josh, and tell him to bring back a flat TT to the stage race.

No :D!! Last years TT was cool, I'm looking forward to next year.

My team mate and good friend won the 2-3s (and ended up racing three races total last night including the 35+ and Industry), my other friends won the 35 plus and third in the Industry. Good night for my local Vegas boys!

Saw him the next day on the show floor. Glad to see he represented KirkLee well at the crits. We didn't make it out to them. Were you at the BBQ on Tuesday?

Saw him the next day on the show floor. Glad to see he represented KirkLee well at the crits. We didn't make it out to them. Were you at the BBQ on Tuesday?

No, I had friends in town and was pretty busy.

Yeah, Kirklee FTW. Jefon loves that bike!!! :love:

That always makes us happy to hear.