New York City!

I recently had a great opportunity to ride in New York with "The SkullKrusher" from the Speed Metal Cycling Podcast.  I'm a big fan of the podcast so it was a real pleasure to have a personally guided tour by the host himself of New York City. 

Since I've never been to New York I wasn't really sure what to expect and I didn't really have an agenda but the Krusher and Mike Spriggs from Gage n Desoto were fantastic hosts and tour guides for me.  If you ever go there, be sure to stop into Mike's store in Red Hook, Brooklyn - he has a ton of cool cycling memorabilia and clothing.  If you can't make it to Brooklyn, check out his website here. 

OK, on to the tour:

Start and stopping point was the Gage + Desoto store in Brooklyn.  Again, great place to checkout - I guarantee you will find something you like there or you can have your money you didn't spend there back! 

We crossed into Manhatten and then traversed the island to the west side and rode up a multi-use path that must of had all of New York on it.  On the harbor is an old aircraft carrier that has been turned into a museum, it is the USS Intrepid and is pretty cool to see a frickin Aircraft Carrier right next to the biggest city in America. 

After riding North for a few miles, we took a right hander and rolled into Central Park.  This is a pretty big park, and amazing considering the value of the dirt around it.  Nice work Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux.  So the kitty cat is where bike races start and finish in Central Park. Not sure if my hosts were pulling a fast one on me but this is the story they told, so I'll believe it.

After Central Park we rode to Times Square.  Touristy doesn't begin to describe it.  The MTV studios are there, there are weirdo's in costumes (such as Soraz Racing Kits and a live Statue of Liberty), tons of advertising, and people all looking up. 

Next was the Empire State Building.  Hard to take a picture of from street level because it is a bit tall.  We rode down a few blocks, turned around, and this is what we got......

I like the last one with my bike and the building. 

A bit more riding brought us to Ground Zero.  It was not practical for us to go to the memorial, you have to buy a ticket, go through a security screen, and we would have had to leave the bikes outside. So we just stood there for a while and the guys told me their 9/11 stories.  It was chilling to listen to and surreal to look at the damage done to some of the buildings and to try and imagine the dust and debris that must have covered everything.  I'll leave it at that.  

The new building under construction is called the Freedom Tower.  You can find info for it here. 

A quick stop at Grand Central Station yielded this unremarkable self portrait:

And we were off to get back to the shop and lunch at an amazing grocery store.

Our view from the store's outside seating area was of this:

Yup, that's the Statue of Liberty in the background and my best impression in the foreground.

I'm cutting this blog short to hit the rack but I want to send a HUGE THANK YOU to the SkullKrusher from Speed Metal Cycling Podcast and Mike from Gage + Desoto!  You guys were awesome and I really, really appreciate the tour! 

If you ever have a chance to see NYC by bicycle I'd highly recommend it.  It is a super way to get around and the city is very bike friendly.

Thanks for reading.   Ride Hard, Ride Fast, Ride Safe.

Andy

Racing 2012

So far my racing season is starting off with a bang!  As in .... well, not really any ideas here, I got clobbered at Banana Belt 3.   It was my first road race EVER (PIR doesn't count as a true road race as there are no hills) and I got dropped where I expected to get dropped - on a hill. 

The Banana Belt Series runs an 11 mile loop around Hagg Lake just west of Portland, OR and has about 550' of climbing per loop.  My race (CAT 4/5 35+) was four laps. 

The race started out pretty nice; weather wasn't bad (previous week had mid 30's and snow) with high 40's and overcast skies, and the peloton didn't want to work too hard just yet.  Pace averaged 21mph for the first two laps.  I was doing ok, hanging out near the front of the pack and hanging in on the hills.   At the end of the second lap I decided it was time to eat something, so I opened a gel and started chowing down - and lost my concentration a bit as I was thinking about how delicious blackberry GU is.   This caused me to drop back towards the back of the pack a bit and then I got stuck behind someone who was in reverse.   All in all, I had to start to chase to work back to the front - which was an issue because the pack had picked up the pace to about 23mph and everyone was trying to get on the front for the one "big" hill in the loop.    I made it safely back into the back third of the peloton by the base of the hill and then I went into reverse. 

At the top I was about three bike lengths off the back and I never regained contact as the omeba accelerated away.  I chased for about 8 minutes at max heart rate, picked up two straglers, then gave up as I was the only one working.  Our group of three became four as we picked up another dropped rider then we got passed by two riders who had been dropped earlier.  Our group of six stayed together half a lap and then the last two dropped the four of us.  Our foursome settled into a working pace and motored towards home.  I was dropped again on the hill and had to chase for about three miles to catch back up prior to the finish.  In the final sprint (uphill - of course) I was happily in fourth position and started to motor past our group.  I thought "See ya Suckers" in my head and stood up to sprint.   This is when my legs finally told me what they thought of my racing plans and seized up in horrid cramps.  I had to sit back down and finish 4 of our little group of 4.  

Overall:  34 of 36 riders who finished.  Hey, at least I wasn't dead last!  And I had a great time racing, as I always do.  

Race results here.

Stay tuned for some out of state racing in my next installment.  I have a trip back east in the future and plan on showing the East Coasters...... . again, not sure what, but I'll do my best to represent my State, my Team, and myself!

Ride fast and never quit!

Andy