3 2008 Tour de Bemus Road Race

32 Miles
2300-2400 Ft Climbing


A very hot day on Saturday saw me and my buddy, Neon Thunder, from East Aurora at the Tour de Bemus Point - a hilly, 32 mile circuit road race in Bemus Point, NY. Thunder's familiar Red Volkswagon Golf is always a pleasure to be in and Thunder happens to be a good driver...well, most of the time.

Neon Thunder

Bemus Pt is a lakefront village on the shore of the Chautauqua Lake. On a summer day, its gorgeous to be out here, especially by the waterside. Go motor boating, scuttle through myriad restaurants, buy ice cream, or take a break at the park - do whatever you want and chances are it could be pretty relaxing.

We decided to go to this race pretty late in the week, and my legs were already tired from commuting by bike to work everyday, climbing intervals on Monday and Thursday and whatnot. Nevertheless, I just decided to stick in the pack somewhere, or ride my own race. No records to be broken here.

A small but competitive field turned out for the Cat 4/5 race.

I've heard of 'rape by force'.

But this is the first time I've seen 'rape by presence'. Team Hollyloft was everywhere! It almost looked like this race was going to be a mega team time trial for them.

Hence, my team, team AA, a.k.a the teamless team was far overwhelmed through seeing dull yellow and orange jerseys all day. You know, they should re-design their jerseys so that those behind looking at them get angrier and race faster.

Wait, is that a valid excuse for poor performance?

Anyway, so the race consisted of a 9.1 mile basic loop that we went around for 2 laps. The initial sections are nowhere flat and its demanding to be at the front here and not lose touch with the pack. Its a no-brainer that you must be pretty fresh for the day and good at climbing to have any lucky chances.

Basic Loop - Laps 1 and 2

The third lap was the basic loop added with a bonus half loop, presenting us with a surprise climb.

Lap 3 - Bonus loop with bonus everything...

Some riders I talked to said the bonus deal was totally unnecessary.

Sure.

Remember this though. Racing is all about driving an average of 50 miles from God knows where, paying 30 bucks to enlist in a pack of riders as confused as you, getting dropped on a course someone else decides, and finally driving back home, paying for gas both ways. This is the hard life of an amateur "competitive cyclist".

Yay!

Bonus Hill - Roughly 2 miles at 4% grade

All sarcasm removed, kudos to all in Team Hollyloft for organizing a good race weekend!

Results Cat 4/5 (Click Here for Other Results)



Registration area...after the race

Start/Stop Point

Holler gets third!! Hollyloft %$#^#$!@!!

Blue overkill

Lunch at the Italian Fisherman (If you ever find yourself at Bemus Point, don't miss out eating here)

The back of the Restaurant has a floating deck

Sangies.... Fresh Catch Of the Day! Yum.

Awards ceremony over on the other side. We wont be receiving any today....

Chill and watch the water as you lunch

Occasionally, an old person trying to tie his boat to the pier and about to fall off into the water will provide entertainment.. okay, I shouldn't laugh about that..

6 Kwik-Fill Kinzua Classic Road Race

30 MILES
3500 FEET CLIMBING


After a week of little or no riding, and eating lots of ice cream, I decided to head out with our little gang of three, south of Olean to Kinzua near Warren, PA for the highlight of the past weekend - the Kinzua Classic road race.

Kinzua is located about 5-6 miles east of Warren, within the Allegheny state forest, sort of at the foot of the Allegheny river where one arm branches to the Kinzua Bay and the other goes God knows where (Gulf of Mexico?).

In the native American Senecan language, Kinzua means "waters of many and big fish".

In my language, it means "pretty darn hilly place to hold a race!"

Anyway, this area is home to one of the largest dams in the United States east of the Mississippi River, which creates the Alleghany Reservoir [See Kinzua Dam]. And there's plenty of forested areas to marvel at, and if you're among the ones who likes to go canoeing or motor boating, you can have the Allegheny waters all to yourself, going between densely forested hills that are everything but civilized!

Although this wasn't a USCF race, I imagined it would be nice to race my bike here, even though the temperature was in the low 60's or something and it wasn't too pleasant to be outside here at 8 in the morning, shivering your butt off in scanty bike clothes.

The race was nothing less than challenging with rolling hills, undulating roads and a hillside/mountain top finish, whatever you want to call it. You'd think that 30 miles is nothing , but towards the end, all that pain you thought you can avoid will kick in. Oh well, that depends on whether you're racing or merely riding your bike too... I guess. Most of us were on our limit, especially me after pushing a really big gear up these climbs.

Okay, so here's the profile.


Riders who weren't warmed up or ready enough caught the gnarly air on the first major climb, where faster riders at the front hit the gas and tried to break up the pack, which is exactly what happened.

Beginning 3 or 4 miles (Clockwise loop on Rt 59)

After a 5 second late start trying to clip in like a noob, I accelerated from the back, trying to get past and stay clear from the slowing group of riders. The front end of the peleton was way out there, and I decided to keep my pace somewhere in the middle. That was my first mistake. If I had given it some more gas, and caught up to the front, I would have survived the shakeup behind. Oh well...open the list of excuses, right?

As far as I remember, on that first hill (atleast for a while), there was a lead select group of 5 or 6 riders, a small chasing pack of maybe 4 with me in it, and then a splintered string of riders behind me. That chasing group broke up, and it was just me and another guy trying to bridge the gap between us and the first group of chasers.

Things got more organized after a few more riders including some good looking girls joined us from the back, which explains for the most part why I started slowing down.

The girls were pretty impressive on the climbs though!!!

Soon, our group of 6 or seven got into a comfort zone, and I remember shouting something like "shorter pulls, faster...!" or "ride like you're racing!!" or some crap like that. Sorry, didn't work. These people were riding like this was a group ride. No way in hell we'd catch the people in front.

So it was a mellow ride till the eventual hill finish, and I just decided to take turns pulling, taking it easy and getting bites to eat.

Eventually, the rollers started taking its toll on our group and one by one, people started falling back. Eventually, it came to 4 chasers with me in it, all of us pretty decent on the climbing. When time came to bite your lower lip and dig into the pain on the last climb to the finish, up came vehicles to dodge past... which was stupid. This is not the Tour de France!

The finish at Jakes' Rocks

So round and round the road rose, up the final hill to Jakes' Rocks and the plan was to keep it steady and not lose speed. That somehow worked out... we caught a couple of riders up in front, got past them blah blah blah...finished, and called it a day.

I finished 14th - alright for the kind of mood I was in. I was glad I was among the few representing Olean NY. It was kind of sad that more riders from my area didn't come out and race...






Luckily, mother nature decided to rain after all the racing was over. That was good, and we were soon indoors in a local marina restaurant to catch a warm lunch near the water, where we talked about Kinzua and the Indians and some other random stupid stuff.

Here's the cyclophotography of the day :

Prepare your legs the Euro way...

The race course beckons....

Warm up riders!

The beginning false flat

The Elites on their way...

Atleast one person's happy he's racing... (wow, who's that smart guy behind in sleeveless with a hydration bag??)

Sharing a laugh with Team Hollyloft

Off we go!

Finish near Jakes' Rocks...

Race used chip timing...pretty efficient!

Here I go...

Absolute best finisher of the day? This dude... I guess he shamed us all pushing that thing up the hills...!

I patched up together a quick and fun video with the pictures. Enjoy...

3 Raccoon Rally Road Race : June 27, 2008

This year's Raccoon Rally road race was one of those days for me, when everything went wrong and I didn't have much motivation to continue. First off, the weather flicked us off and gave us pouring rain for atleast 3/4th of the race. Then, my brakes started misbehaving and somewhere along the way, I figured something was fishy. I was riding with the brakes touching the rim and that explained why I missed the surge on the second or third climb.

So I hopped out and spent 10 minutes in the rain, standing by the side of the road, trying to adjust the brakes. No big luck.

The rest of the race was just me trying to finish two laps, 50 miles and 3000 feet of climbing or so. The brake problem showed up again and I spent more time trying to play around with it.

So this was a beautiful race turned ugly by the weather and a host of mechanicals for me. :(

4 BBC Boston/Colden Part 2

Contd from Part 1

BBC Boston/Colden
May 25
Result : 14th in the Cat4/5 race

It was a nice day for racing on the 25th of last month. The course loop was short but quite hilly, some sections being particularly steep. The B race did the loop some 3 times.

One road was a fun, crazy downhill where I reached 60mph on two occasions. To top that with some danger, there was a railroad track running diagonally across the road! On the first lap going down that road, I lost my water bottle. Thats okay. I was safe on the bike. Phew.. You really have to come to these races prepared with good bike handling skills and a confident mindset. Otherwise, you're in for a nasty medical treat.

Course Profile

I came to the race with not much training as I had other things to do that previous week. Still, I thought it was nice that I was able to get on with a breakaway group early in the race, when we dropped pretty much half the field right then and there.

My friend Dave Horn attacked right off the bat, going up to the front and giving a heck of a time for everyone else. When this guy lays the hammer down, he's gone. Somehow I was not in the mindset to go catch his wheel. I'm not really sure what happened to me. Dave would later win the race, as he's been doing for all of the races so far in the area.

An unexciting but good finish for me. A local cycling coach quickly noticed my result and gave me a word of encouragement. Thanks, Frank!

My next race should be the Allegheny Raccoon Rally Road Race, June 27th. It will be only 15-20 miles away from my new home in Olean, where I can climb and climb and climb how much ever I want without bothering about nasty and difficult flats. :)

The race is a celebrated one and has a lot of climbing in store. Last year, I had a mid-pack finish. This time, I want to give it a considerably better shot.

0 BBC Marilla East 1

	A Race					B Race
Time: 1 hours 55 minutes					Time: 1 hour 47 minutes
Distance: 47.5 Miles					Distance: 40.0 Miles
Plc.	Name	Pts.	Team		Plc.	Name		Pts.	Team
1	Jason Skalski	39	Handle		1	David Van Horn		47	Berts
2	Joe Cooke	38	TBS		2	Gary Nadeau		46
3	Steve Burgett	37	Dundees		3	Adam Trost		45	TBS
4	Ken Thomas	36	Wachovia		4	Cameron Townsend		44	TPB/P2P
5	Dan Youhess	35	Handle		5	Stephen Hoadley		43	Job One
6	James Cowle	34	Wachovia		6	Greg Jensen		42	TBS
7	Peter Nuessle	33	Ingram		7	Vince Lorenz		41	TBS
8	David Hawkes	32	Ingram		8	Larry Watkins		40	TBS
9	Jeff Yurko	31	TPB/P2P		9	Bob Patterson		39	TPB/P2P
10	Steve Forrestel	30	Job One		10	Peter Ziolo		38	Job One
11	Ben Badagliacca	29	Job One		11	Stuart Green		37	TPB/P2P
12	Mike Bridges	28	Shickluna		12	Rob Hillyard		36	Wachovia
13	Andy Cummings	27	Wachovia		13	Jim Kuberka		35	Job One
14	Joe Niezgoda	26	TBS		14	Tom Wehling		34	Job One
15	Steve Toorongian	25	Ingram		15	Ed Knab		33	TPB/P2P
16	Attilio Nicosia	24	Job One		16	Tim Galvin		32	TPB/P2P
17	John Roden	23	Dundees		17	Rob Johnson		31	Ingram
18	Vinnie Bolt	22	Shickluna		18	Sean McGovern		30	Job One
19	Mike Loranty	21	Wachovia		19	Tom Tobias		29	Job One
20	Chris Cej	20	Wachovia		20	Jim Puglisi		28	TPB/P2P
21	David Bisenius	19	Wachovia		21	Debbie Matteliano		27	Job One
22	Joe Halter	18	Handle		22	Larry Fillinger		26
23	Tim Putman	17	Ingram		23	Tim Bouchard		25	TPB/P2P
24	Frank Grillo	16	Job One		24	Brian Rohr		24	Wachovia
25	Glenn Hansen	15	TPB/P2P		25	Larry Wehling		23	Job One
26	Bryan Bonn	14	Handle		26	Ron George		22
27	John Fabian	13	TPB/P2P		27	Glenn Speller		21	TPB/P2P
28	Tony Hoffman	12	Ingram		28	Garrett Getter		20
29	Scott Farrell	11	Ingram		29	Craig Polston		19	TBS
30	John Garrett	10	Handle		30	Rolf Weberg		18	TBS
31	Rob Nowinski	9	TPB/P2P		31	Allen Erb		17	TBS
32	Stan Skotnicki	8	Wachovia		32	Rob Leary		16
33	Traci Mariniello	7	TPB/P2P		33	Joe Saviola		15	Wachovia
34	Peter Cummings	6	TPB/P2P		34	Rick Ferro		14	TBS
dnf	Todd Backes	0	Handle		35	Rich Milazzo		13	TPB/P2P
dnf	Eric Curtis	0	Handle		36	Jason Kozak		12
dnf	Chris Fuller	0	Wachovia		37	Bruce Hoover		11
dnf	Joe Giovenco	0	Job One		38	Keith Pellerin		10	Wachovia
dnf	John McClory	0	TBS		39	Bob Glanville		9
					40	Thomas Bamrick		8
	Preems:	Pts.			41	Stefan Buczak		7	Wachovia
1	1. Jason Skalski	3	Handle		42	Melissa Nicosia		6	Job One
	2. Steve Burgett	2	Dundees		dnf	Elizabeth Persons		0
	3. Joe Halter	1	Handle		dnf	Dennis Blair		0	Job One
					dnf	Bill Dowling		0
2	1. David Bisenius	3	Wachovia		dnf	Dan Park		0	Wachovia
	2. Mike Loranty	2	Wachovia		dnf	Chuck Yates		0
	3. Joe Niezgoda	1	TBS
						Preems:		Pts.
3	1. Steve Burgett	3	Dundees		1	1. David Van Horn		3	Berts
	2. Mike Loranty	2	Wachovia			2. Gary Nadeau		2
	3. Joe Halter	1	Handle			3. Stephen Hoadley		1	Job One
	C Race - 25 miles				2	1. David Van Horn		3	Berts
1	Lindy Erb	10	TBS			2. Gary Nadeau		2
						3. Stephen Hoadley		1	Job One

26th in B race at the Sunday BBC Marilla, a 5-6 mile circuit with some short leg burning technical climbs that we went around some 5 times for a 40 miler.

There was an early breakaway of 3, one included a new friend I met, Dave Horn, from the mechanical engineering department in UB. We let them go and never saw them for the rest of the race. Obviously team strategies kicked in and Job One did all the blocking up in front, which made solo riders like me a little frustrated because the pace was kind of slow and something in me wanted to have a go.

I was at the front of the main chase group, and tried accelerating a couple of times to no avail. With some 3 miles to go, I drilled it at 28mph for no reason to catch up with some lone rider up in front, which I did pretty quickly but I soon found out that he was slowing and I had burnt a critical match I had for the last remaining climb. What I should have done instead of slowing down was to counterattack him and just time trial in no-man's land but lactic acid was not too friendly to me, I think.

So the final hill saw me sucked up by 20 some riders and ended up finishing mid pack. We saw some crashes - atleast one that I can remember behind me. Lots of DNF's. Fat people can't do races like these.