I had found the blog the day before, and realized how close it was to my place in Harlem. It would be silly of me not to attend really. Its organized by a guy named Dan Bones, and takes place on a somewhat deserted bike path down by the Hudson river. I guess they started this last year, and since it went over so well, they're doing it again. They do it right too. One guy brought one of those walking measuring stick things, so they could mark out the course length. Timing was done by FRS radio and two stopwatches started at the same time. About 20 guys showed up. Some with road cleats and spandies, some on their street bikes. Most people were pretty relaxed, and a handful of guys shot photos of the action.
Oh,.. and get this, instead of trackstand starts, they use holders.
I won both of my races, with 250m times of something like 21:43s and then 21:67s... However, this was just a bit shy of the final elimination cutoff. Its alright though. I felt good about it. I knew going into it that my 172.5mm crank arms turning a 42/15 gear wasn't going to be the fastest combo out there. I think one guy laid down a sub 20s time even!
Once I was out, it was a bit of a relief, because that meant I could lighten up my bag a bit for the ride home, by downing some tall cans of bud (yuck). I basically hung out at the finish line helping Dan do timing for the finals.
(Photo Credit, Alan S.)
It was totally fun overall, and I'll definitely go back for race #3 next week. I might switch up the Spicer a bit though. Possibly to my new shorty cranks, possibly to a smaller cog.
1 comment:
Hey, there. Just found your blog. This is Michael Green from http://www.bikeblog.blogspot.com. Wanted to give your blog a shout out and see if you want to exchange links. Let me know your email. Mine is: criticalmassbiker@mac.com.
Thanks
MG
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