It’s that time of year again!! We are making the preparations for Gobblecross 2017 (seven), the annual unsanctioned backyard cyclocross extravaganza.
If you’re making the trip out, especially if you want one of the commemorative limited edition shirts, be sure to ‘reserve your spot’: https://goo.gl/forms/SNEM0NxTpz8I9PFI2
These are the dudes from Mass’ that ride some of the same roads as Matt. They are super legit, doing the darn thang on the national and international stage(s).
I like this video because it paints them as normal humans. I can’t wait ’till the snow melts and the days lengthen a bit. 200mi rides are where it’s at.
Can’t wait ’til my favorite CNY holiday… Dante’s Day!!
The Wednesday evening of February 4th at Eastwood Brewing Company is the first go at a new level of bicycle silliness for the bicycling scene in Syracuse!
^ ^ right click, save, print this junk out / post it up at your spots ^ ^
I first ever experienced roller sprints like these at SSCXWC in Philly.. They are super fun.
Word to the wise: Don’t try and coast… (haha!) My limited sphere of bicycle influence has very little fixed gear bicycle presence.. I don’t know if bicycle aficionados in the area, especially the average road racer, will be more aware of their surroundings than I… But if you go sprint hard on a fixie and start to think about coasting… It is a very very bad idea.
Information provided on theirFB Event page(as of 1/9/15):
Wednesday, February 4 at 6:00pm – 10:00pm
Eastwood Brewing Company
108 Walter Dr, Syracuse, New York 13206
Welcome to Vagabond Cycling’s, Emerald City Roller Sprints – Syracuse’s first ever roller-racing event! This is the ultimate bike party and February just got a whole lot more fun in Syracuse.
No, you don’t have to ride – although you may feel left out – and no, you don’t have to drink – but YES you will have fun cheering on your friends and heckling your foes, and YES you can help us support a local organization dedicated to getting kids off the streets and on bikes.
Categories:
Men/Women (fork-mounted riders)
Feature Event: Men/Women roller riders (limited to 10 total)
Best dress-up / costume (please make sure your costumes won’t get caught in the rear wheel)
Cost: $15 to ride. No cover for spectators. Proceeds go to support a local youth bike organization.
Event Format:
Qualification rides followed by single-elimination format
Questions you may have:
Q: So what are roller sprints anyways?
A: Two participants duel it out on a pair of custom equipped bike-rollers, connected to a digital timing system, over a distance of 500 meters. The first person to complete the distance win. And between rides you can can go drink a beer and hang out and have fun – it’s that cool!
Anyone can join in on the friendly competition. The important thing is that when the crowd counts down “three, two, one” and yells “GO!” whoever’s on those bikes better be darn ready to sprint as hard as they can approximately 20 seconds! Emerald City Roller Sprints are meant to be fun and not serious training or racing.
Q: Do I need to know how to ride rollers?
A: NO. ABSOLUTELY NOT. Our bikes are connected to the rollers via a fork-mounted system, thus making it possible for anyone to ride.
Q: What do I wear to ride
A: Wear whatever you want
They also posted a little video of the typical scenario of Roller Races to getchya up to speed…
Back in December there was a similar event launched by Bike Loft East which I am bummed that I missed. I haven’t heard how it went but they too posted fun videos to give folks the idea of what it’s all about like this one from Velo Cult…
Saturday was the Giro of Otisco Lake where all the crazy, strong, fun, hardworking cyclists of the area came out to battle for 30ish miles of some beautiful country roads dashed with a solid sprinkling of intense hill climbing.
The race was broken down into 3 fields and was the first year being an official USAC santioned race of it 11 years as a fund raiser for the Spafford Area Historical Society, which benefits the School House where the race starts and finishes, midway up the Stanton road hill.
The attendance was good as lots of strong area riders and several of the local teams were represented; Corning, Bike Loft East, Swan’s Cookies, Max Power Cycling, Paceline, Ruud, Ommegangsters, and the Mello Velo team with all three of the Hadzors, Nilsson and several other rogue individuals came out of seclusion to stretch their sinewy muscles. The race went off swiftly with the blow of a whistle and the long grind began up the top half of Stanton road. With a handful of attacks on the top ridge between Otisco and Skaneateles Lakes where if you had time to peak left or right either side had picturesque views.
I was particularly excited for this race since witnessing the pain on peoples faces as we heckled riders on the final climb last year. Though I’ve been babying some injury stuff and working with the scientifically trained voodoo medicine men at Morehouse HFC and Dr. John Castle to remedy a compensation kind of injury that’s been bothering the knee and attempting to correct some glute hamstring hip flexor quad muscle imbalances and as I’ve put my wisdom and patience to the limit I finally gave to in to typical endurance athlete urge to just get the hell back out there, and there was no way I was going to miss the opportunity to race on stanton, route 20, coon hill and church hill/stanton. The day prior to the race Brent (M-HFC) dialed Celeste back in to reasonable position to alleviate a lot of discomfort from the position I had messed up moving things around in random response to pain through the duathlons earlier on. I was very happy to have minimal to no pain through the race… I’m very excited to get back at it and it felt great to ride again!
All in all it was a great race, probably one of the most honest field efforts I’ve seen in a while with lots of riders doing work and keeping it interesting.
It’s been a while since we’ve posted… we’ve been busy getting in as many miles as possible. I’m going to write this post backwards because I think that the Lopez Video needs to be at the top. I recently wrote a bio for the cnytriathlon.org athlete profile of the month and I mentioned Lopez among people I think about in the hero/role model category.. I found this youtube video today that shows him telling a little bit of his story. I got to race against him in highschool and not only was he a super athlete but also a great person, and now he’s doing all kinds of great things that I can’t even do justice writing about; see lopezlomong.com .. again he is a monster athlete and a great person so that’s why his video is at the top on the post.
Today was actually a great ride. It was rainy, awful, and the radar only promised it would get worse.
I had said I would meet up to ride with some folks and I didn’t want to be the one to bail or confuse the rendez-vous.. looking at the radar I was wondering whether it was intelligent to heed the warning or was it best to just get out there before the rain started coming down and get used to it as it escalated…
I chose the later, it probably had something to do with just reading this post, and picturing glorified mental images of belgian country roads and difficult weather that harden cyclists into greatness, that caused me to toss on my woolsports merino longsleeve, a jersey and long finger gloves to mount up and roll out just as the first heavy drops started to splatter.
It was pretty fun riding with the impending armageddon of weather coming, they were chills and warms bursts every now and then and the rain just came and went, all in all it was a wet ride but quite enjoyable, didn’t end up meeting up with anyone but got to stop into a couple shops and see cool shiny toys, the first time to ask directions because north and east of syracuse is still confusing in the land of SUVs and lots of traffic..
so any who. unexpectedly great ride.. despite the flat on colvin street on the way home..
I’ve even learned my lesson that you can’t just, out of hope, assign the giant pile of crystals to be road salt when you’re in the hood.. because as much as you wish it’s salt, it is glass. Even though this time I didn’t even see any of these debatable piles.. rear flat, giving birth to the new segment on strava ‘the flat tire colvin street climb’.. I feel like winner at the end of 2012 or each year should get a pair of gatorskins. I’ll have to talk to our sponsors, see if we can’t pull some strings with variety studios or mello velo to make that happen. Indicate in the comments of the segment when you have a flat.. I don’t wish this on anyone intentionally; at certain times of the day this could be life or death.. spandex is rival apparel in a region that largely favors red colored clothing and accessories.
I was happy that @davemoore was at home a couple minutes away, finishing up some delicious smelling foods when I replaced the tube but failed to get the CO2 to work and very courteously let me drip water all over his house and use his pump to roll the last little bit home.
very good. now, I know this post is backwards.. but I recommend if you haven’t already watched the Lopez video at the top.. do that and then google him and support his causes, because he’s awesome.
I also just recently saw the 5k video where I don’t want to ruin the surprise if you haven’t seen it already but let’s just say he looks like a grown — man among kids on the track… there is another flo track video with a little interview too.