Do your New Year's resolutions include starting your own road racing team? CRCA is here to help you turn that vision into reality. Please click here to fill out an application to start your own team for 2016, and become part of the US's oldest bicycle racing club!
Plea From Local Cycling Groups for Repaving of Prospect Park
Last week, CRCA along with several other local cycling clubs, teams, and businesses who have a vested interest in ensuring cyclist safety in Prospect Park, sent a letter to the leaders of the Prospect Park Alliance, Department of Transportation, and other stakeholders, which pleads the case for why Prospect Park should be repaved for safety reasons. The letter addresses with specificity the most dangerous areas within the Prospect Park loop due to deteriorated road conditions, and points out the lack of a satisfactory repairs and response by officials. We are sharing this letter with CRCA members in hopes that you will help us in being vocal about this problem, and with enough pressure from park users, perhaps the park roads can finally be repaved.
We would urge you to post the attached copy of the final letter to your websites, Facebook pages, twitter accounts etc. to let your friends or customers know about the campaign we've begun to get the park road resurfaced. You can add a simple message or headline saying something like "Support the effort to repave the Prospect Park Loop: leading cycling groups have called on park and transportation management to repave the loop road by next spring."
Post a quick message to the Prospect Park Alliance and City DOT saying you support the recent letter by cycling organizations and shops. Links provided below.
Thank you in advance for your support!
Links:
DOT:
web/email: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/
Prospect Park Alliance:
email: info@prospectpark.org
Facebook: https://www.
2016 CRCA Board Elections - Concluded on Nov. 29
CRCA 2016 Board elections concluded at Nov 29 2015, 5:00pm Eastern Time. The election committee (Rod Millott, Jeff Vogel, and Sarah Chubb Sauvayre) has certified the results, and the following are the members of the 2016 CRCA Board of Directors. Many thanks to the election committee, to all who volunteered to put their names forward for a position, and to CRCA members who voted.
President-Alexis Kraft ========= Vice President of Rider Development-Tara Parsons =================================== Vice President of Racing-Gabrielle Fisher ======================== Secretary-Fred David ========= Treasurer-Ken Edwards ========= Communications Director-David Wen Riccardi-Zhu ======================= Public Relations Director-Russ Bogin ========================= Membership Director-Randy Locklair =================== Marshal Director-Tomi Ketcham ================ Director of Teams-Robert Rakowitz ================= Director of Open Racing-Ted Teyber =======================
2016 CRCA Board Candidate Statements
Invite for responses to the 2015 End of Season CRCA Member Survey
Future Cycling Champions Classic (Tour de FCCC) - Race Report
Your contributions to the Century Road Club Development Foundation (a tax-exempt entity) are used, in part, to fund its Grant Program, which gives financial support to members of the CRCA Junior Development Team to allow them to participate in regional and national level races. The juniors apply with a specific race in mind and the Team covers the majority of their racing costs. Recently, the CRCA Junior Development Team traveled to the 2015 Tour de FCCC. Here is Justin Strauss's race report in his own words.
To support the CRCA Junior Development Team, please donate here (membership login required) or contact Matthew Vandivort at clubracing@crca.net, and to find how you can help (volunteers/leaders are needed for coaching, ride leaders, marketing, sponsorship, etc.).
The Tour de FCCC stands for the Future Cycling Champions Classic and is unique in that it is one of the only annual all junior stage races in the country. It’s held in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley (near T-Town) and marks one of the final stops of USA Cycling’s Road Development Race Series calendar. This year, the race conflicted with the Tour of the Catskills, but since this is my last season as a junior, I opted to race the last Tour de FCCC I’d be eligible to compete in. Kaan and Andrew joined me by staying overnight at the Kutztown Main Street Inn, one of my favorite bed and breakfasts, situated just 10 minutes from the races.
Stage 1:
I woke up to the sound of Kaan’s footsteps walking around the bathroom one floor above my room. He and Andrew left early since he had to register day-of and Andrew’s men’s 15/16 race started earlier than our 17/18 field. I stayed behind at the B&B to indulge in a not-so-light breakfast of oatmeal, yogurt, fresh fruit, and the innkeeper’s signature creme brulee french toast. The criterium is held at the Bob Rodale Cycling and Fitness Park, across the street from The Velodrome. It’s a one mile course with one short climb and no true corners, making it more like a short circuit race than a criterium. I hadn’t warmed up and lined up at the start line with Kaan amongst our small 10 person field. Like most other junior races, the pace started off easy. I ended up pulling the field for the first couple of laps and even tried breaking away with a Cannondale Sports rider to no avail. After the field reeled us in, one of the Young Medalist riders launched an uphill attack and his teammate counterattacked, eventually breaking away solo. The following lap, Kaan decided to make an attempt to do a solo bridge up to the breakaway. I moved to the front and slowed my pace to try to prevent the field from following him, but most of our competitors caught onto his wheel and I was left in the dust along with two others to form our own chase group. Just past the halfway point of our 20 lap race, the rider who broke away lapped my chase group and then went on to lap Kaan’s six person main group. With a couple of laps to go, we noticed that we were about to be lapped by Kaan’s group as well, but we stayed about 30 seconds ahead of them going into the finish. I won the sprint among my group of riders, but still ended up over two minutes behind the leader, in 8th place.
Stage 2:
I learned my lesson from the previous morning, giving myself adequate time to warm up and opting for a much lighter breakfast. Stage 2 is a 4.2 mile time trial on a rolling course with three short, punchy climbs. To prepare, I wore a skinsuit and shoe covers and outfitted my bike with aero bars and climbing wheels. Kaan and I were assigned the last time slots, so we were also able to sleep a bit longer. I was off a 8:51:30 AM and picked up speed pretty quickly, getting into a rhythm at about 28 miles per hour. Near the halfway mark, Kaan bridged the 30 second gap separating us and caught up to me. As we ascended the three consecutive climbs, we stayed within a few bike lengths of each other, being careful not to break the rules and accidentally draft. Having Kaan just up the road served as a positive motivator to help me dig deep and try to close the gap during the final minutes of the time trial. I ended up finishing 7 seconds behind him and improved my time compared to last year.
Stage 3:
The same group of 10 lined up for the road race, which is a 29 mile race consisting of seven laps on the time trial course. A few hours had passed since the prior race, so by then it was midday and temperatures hovered in the high 90’s. The surrounding farmland lacks any trees to shade the pavement, so there is no respite from the beating sun. The field stayed together, for the most part, during the first few laps. All attempts to go off the front were chased down to prevent a breakaway from forming. One of the less experienced Young Medalist riders (not the same one who won the criterium) lingered off the front going into the finishing straight with four laps to go. This time, the Cannondale Sports rider went to chase him down and rather than taking the field with him, the two of them stayed off the front. After a few minutes, we realized that they couldn’t be seen up the road anymore and their pace wasn’t letting up, so the chase ensued. The seven of us that remained only lasted as a group until we hit the three climbs. One rider went off the back on the first hill, Kaan peeled off on the second one, and I was the last to go on the third pitch, leaving only four riders chasing. I ended up riding solo for a couple of laps and in a fashion similar to the time trial, Kaan eventually caught up to me. This time, we were able to work together, taking pulls until the finish. And just like that, my three year run of racing the Tour de FCCC had come to an end.
Great job, guys!
Lou Maltese Women's Elite Race Report
We recently caught up with Lou Maltese Elite Women's Race winner, Camie Kornely of Breakaway Courier. Here's how the race played out from one of NYC's most talented sprinters.
I was a little freaked about getting up at 3:30am! My body doesn't respond well to things like that (but whose does, right?). I got to the park at 4:30am sharp and met up with my teammates to rock the registration table for the next hour - getting the CRCA Team Duty done! Suddenly, time was short and I ran to the bathroom (no really, I literally ran). I ran back while finishing dressing as they were calling everyone to the line.... and realized our only talk of a strategy was, "Hey, remember that one race? We should try to do that again."
Then the whistle blew and we started fast. I looked down as I gasped for air to see we were doing 24 mph and we hadn't even passed the museum yet! Then came the attacks.
Anna Zivarts and Cheryl Clark were really putting out power out front, but every team had someone jumping off the front: Radical, Craft, Rockstar, CityMD.... We were clocking sub 15 minute laps! I was thankful to have my teammate, Jodie Hein, who was all over it. She'd stay at the front and get on moves. If I started drifting back she'd slip in front of me and bring me back up and she worked so hard to keep us in touch with any potential break.
Going into the last lap we were all together and we were full gas as we passed engineers gate straight through to the finish. My legs were tired and it took a lot to get up the hill the last time with teams drilling it on the front (with an average speed of about 24mph over the 41 miles, this may have been the fastest women's race I've done in Central Park).
As we rolled over the west side lumps at about 27mph I saw Jodie near the front and knew she was waiting for me. I dug in and caught on to her wheel. She pulled me up to the front five as we descended to the flat straight where I moved onto Caryl Gale's wheel. Just before the chicane we were swarmed on the left and as Anna slid up on my right I got on her wheel. Then, as we cleared that first bend of the chicane where it opens up on the right...I took off. It was so early, but Caryl had the direct line with Aimee Layton on her wheel so if I was gonna pass that train I had to go!
I picked a lightish gear and spun until my legs burned so much I was surely casting off smoke instead of sweat and managed to cross the line first.
Thanks to all for the cheers and to my Breakaway Courier teammates and sponsors for their amazing support!
Thanks for the great race report, Camie! Up next, in our Open Racing Calendar is the Mengoni Grand Prix. Register now!
Full race results can be found here.
Full photo gallery below thanks to CRCA member and awesome photographer, Kevin Hatt!