Harlem Skyscraper Crit

Oh, it was hot & sunny! Riding up Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem was all that we needed to get ready for this classic city criterium. The women had a field of 21, including Nancy, Andrea and me.

Nice wide corners and surprisingly good pavement enabled the field to stay together despite a bit of variety in experience levels. As we went into the last lap, the pace slowed up just a bit and Camie from Toga took advantage—she attacked hard into corner 2, and managed to get a gap before the field favorites took off after her.

Badly situated at the back of the pack, I watched Camie go and realized it was time to get my butt in gear. I took off after the escapees, and almost caught them by the time we got to the finish—I took 5th. 5 seconds back, Nancy took 3rd in the field sprint and Andrea three spots behind her.

Team Cup #3

The individual time trial is a race that most of the team does not love. Unfortunately, the timing of the race (9am in the far reaches of Brooklyn) did not help in recruiting riders—our ranks were whittled down to Andrea and Caroline. They gave it their best shot and brought home 6th and 9th, good for 35 points. We maintain our hold on 2nd, but whittling down the gap to first may be hard.

NY/NY Cat 4 W Series Info

Tenafly Bicycle Workshop and CRCA/Bicycle Workshop are pleased to announce the return of the NY/NJ women’s category 4 race series for 2006. All Cat 4 women are eligible to participate—race in any event and you’ll be automatically included in the series standings, culminating in a single series winner. It's all part of the Cycling Made Real Women's Cycling Series.

The 2006 race series will consist of the following events:

March 19 Grant's Tomb Criterium W*

June 18 Skyscraper-Harlem Crit W*

July 8 Lou Maltese Memorial W3/4*

July 15/16 Giro del Cielo W4**
Sunrise Mountain Time Trial
Skylands Park Criterium
Augusta Circuit Race

September 10 Bear Mountain Fall Classic W***


* All women start together; cat 4 results will be separated out.
** As the Giro del Cielo does not require racers to complete all three stages, we will be counting each of the races independently. A great opportunity to score lots of points!
*** All women start together; cat 4 racers will have a separate finish.

Series points are earned by finishing races—so even if you get dropped, it’s worth finishing the race. Updated standings and other news will be available at Bicycle Workshop and well, here! throughout the season. Top riders will be eligible for prizes. For full details on how points work and what happens when you upgrade, check Cycling Made Real.

For more information, contact Ann-Marie Brady (adashm at att dot net) or look for the CRCA/Bicycle Workshop team at the races.

Team Cup #2

There comes a time in every team's existence where they realize that they should chase down their own teammate even though it might ultimately end up in a not-necessarily-better result.

This was the time we should have realized this, and we didn't.

Maggie attacked the third time up Harlem Hill, and when the dust settled later that lap, there were six riders up the road and only one of them was in the red and black of TBW. Three of them were CC—not a good situation for us.

Instead of chasing, we held back, hoping the break wouldn't stick and that some of the other teams would chase, leaving us some legs for the finish. The break did stick, and none of the chase attempts were nearly enough to chase down a break containing AMM on a mission.

SS took the win, Maggie took 2nd. Our field sprint was good, but not good enough—in a race where cup points went 8 deep, we took 9th. Disappointing, despite the podium spot.

ESG Qualifier, Prospect Park

It is a truth most evident that I would far rather race in the rain than train in it.

Seems this isn't the case for most New York City riders--the Empire State Games qualifier was sparsely attended this year. Three women showed up, all three of us qualified by handing in our forms and our $25.

Since we didn't need to prove anything regarding who would go to Rochester, we decided to ride with the men instead of practicing our TTT (which yes, would probably do us more good in Rochester!). The men were going to do 22 laps; we didn't do that many, but it was fun nonetheless.