Who knew Prospect Park, Brooklyn was a nice morning trip from Syracuse? Made it there in time to race at 7:30am, and back in time to play good ol’ fashioned BTB hockey at night!
Above is my hip interpretational photographic documentation of the drive down to Brooklyn.
It was great fun racing through Prospect Park, already on the second lap of the first run the city started to come alive, probably delayed from normal days as it was a sleepy Sunday after all. By a few laps into the bike it was like a video game; dodging pedestrians, joggers, walkers – some with dogs on leashes making their surface area for impact about 8 feet wide while they still thought they were only normal human width, regular cyclists, 1 man who seemed to enjoy bouncing his giant kick ball and occassionally just watch it roll down the inclines seemingly observing what would happen as it approached the packs of cyclists and generic crowd approaching.
All said and done, finished up 2nd overall, met some very nice folks while we were waiting for the final tally of the results.
I still don’t quite know how to fully recap this race…
in just a few short days we went from saying wow this race looks ridiculous to having a car loaded with 4 bicycles and their corresponding humans.. adam, doug, myself from the syracuse, and an ithaca jeremy we picked up along the way south..
bilenky cycleworks presents: junkyard cyclocross
when we were down there someone described it very accurately by saying the whole scene and atmosphere could easily be mistaken as a fantastical bad-dream … a wondrous, fantastical, dream full of unicorns and clowns riding bicycles up and over the deteriorated bones of cars.. no doubt a symbol of something — perhaps the future of the vehicular war that wages on for street equality, and here the bicycles were the victorious tribe dancing and shouting over the once oppressive beasts as they return to the earth or are harvested on this day to make sport for the bicycles in form of ramps and puzzles
Women
1 Helene Schmid
2 Rachel Willard
dns Jennifer Cohen
Men B
1 Scott Hannan
2 Craig Goetzmann
3 Jamie Campbell
Adam Robedee
Marcello Prattico
Craig McGowan
Dan Muldoon*
Michael Tucker
Michael Nortman
Ben Robedee
Brian Campbell
Michael Corasaniti
Mitchel Tiegel
James Corasaniti*
Men A
1 Dan Timmerman
2 Matt Timmerman
3 Tim O’Shea
Aaron Johnson
Phil McCarthy
Dave Faso
Randy Hadzor
Mark Shenstone
Wesley Hadzor
Jerry Visconti
Eric Crandall
Ray Willard
* = Young Guns!
Great job everyone! Some more pictures can be found on facebook be sure to tag yourself and friends!
Sunday the Syracuse Track Club‘s open mens crosscountry team raced and took 2nd to GVH in a cold slippery competition at Watkins Glenn. team results both Randy and Bob placed for the open and super vet teams respectively
you can see all of the season results so far (select race and category)
Next weekend STC will head to Buffalo to battle it out on the trails once again!
Randy finished 5th in AG 25-29 and was the first AG American overall, the elite course was the same distance but a different route so we’re not sure how the times compare…
Here is the top secret post race play by play Randy quickly recounted for his parents and coach: Run felt good, went out pretty quick, I slowly moved up but still a handful back.. i wasn’t as fast as GB guys on the hairpins – t1 pretty quick, i forgot to strap my shoes, another split second lost but i just strapped em up quick and was out… passed the guy that i came into t1 with while they were putting there feet in their shoes
Bike – I started catching a lot of people – there was what looked like an XC team from GB and a Belgian way off the front from the run, I reeled in lots of the GB’s and the Belgian (who i thought would be the strongest rider but wasnt) + a spanyard, ended up going back and forth with a GB guy, passed lots of disc’d TT bikes in my AG + fancy wheeled roadbikes with little bars..
the turns we practiced the other day were all different the put fricken sand and stuff to fill the potholes and barriers to “make it safer” but all it did was make it narrower and mess up the lines i liked.. so i was a bit slower through there actually as the race went on, faster at the begining then lap 3 I went a little sideways slipping on the sand and locking the rear brake.. left foot unclipped, stayed up right but lost all momentum and had a little climb that was thus a slower start than normal.. almost fell asleep a little on the bike but heeded dads FB words and Brents insistance on fuel so had a powergel thing and kept sippin accelerade and kept hammering … then forgot howmany laps i did so i thought i would just see if the GB dude went in but when i slipped on the turn he ended up gapping me quite a bit and he really turned on the gas so i couldnt use him as a marker…
i ended up using my watch – i wasnt sure if multisport mode was showing me ‘lap distance’ or total distance and since i had accidentally clicked it straight from t1 to t2 mode when i wanted it to be on bike after not being able to see if the belgian was going in to transition, i clicked the watch mode again to the run (even though i was still biking) and the distance didnt 0 out and was still at 40k (minus the 10k run = 30k = 1 lap to go) so i got back on the pedals and tried to make up some time..
came into transition, it was cobbles leading up to dismount, i unclipped a foot or 2 after the line so i could be on the carpet and they yelled at me so i just took 2-3 steps back behind the tape line, then they were appeased, then went to go straight to my bike b/c it was right there but they made me run around some friggen tape that was barely a divider, then tried to get me to run all around it transition but i just informed them in frenglish that my bike was over there and they conceded .. wasnt sure if i was right or not.. then 3 official type guys hovered over me in transition making sure i put all my clothes in the little boxes they have there…
run 2 was tough to go faster.. felt like i was slipping into running too slow but kept telling myself that it was kind of like my little park and was thinking about the 2weeks i was here so i broke it into little segments.. didnt really know where i was but saw some of who i thought the fast guys were behind me at each hairpin.. a french guy caught me on the 2nd lap and i tried to hang but he slipped away, talked to him after – he had been in the penalty box for 2 min penalty.. so he may have been a little rested and pissed, i still wish i hung right with him i had a medium approach then the last straight i tried to give it everything to make sure no one passed, and no one did.. 5th i was told, going to go back to the place and check for results now probably.. and get a bottle of vin maybe some chocolate croissants.
Thank you to all those that helped this trip become possible! From those individuals that helped turn our collective pocket lint magically into plane tickets – to the companies who put their resources to good use to help us be on a near level playing field with the equipment of the other best athletes in the world in these duathlon competitions.
Super thanks to the Hadzor and Krisch families!! Morehouse HFC for fixing up the broken muscles and getting them workin’ in time to have good fitness for these races!! Syracuse Bicycle for making it possible to have a very competitive, reliable TT bicycle that not only helped traverse the long (powerman) and standard (nancy) distance courses but also the roads of Switzerland, the hills of the Vosges Mountains, the French countryside to be able to arrive at these races. (I’ve always though TT bikes make the best commuters) The CNY Triathlon Club, Shai+Ellie!, Paul Komanecky, Jamie Trevvett, Coach Joe + MU Hawks, Bryan Blake, Steve and Sara of Mello Velo Bicycles and Café, the Gilbertis, John Hartnett, David Bean, Marcus Lewis, Variety Studios, John Austin, Cazenovia Triathlon, Michael Brych, ATC Endurance, Eric Lankford and WoolSports – – hands down the best clothing material for endurance traveling… and everyone else – – could not have done it with out your help!!
