Tue, 22 Aug 2006

Prospect Park Summer Slam (Bike Race)
Went to my first bike race in NY last night. That's the great thing about NY. Only here could you have a bike race at 10pm on a Monday with only fixed gear bikes and still get 50 entrants. Here's the whole rundown of the event, sponsored in part by Track Star NYC and a few others, quite crazy, but very fun.

I got the the park with only a few minutes to spare, Mila and I had just gotten back from meeting Tamara in Manhatten, and I had just enough time to bolt the new toe-clips and straps to the pedals. There were about 50 or 60 bikes laying around at the top of the park, and I registered, getting my number. It was a team event so I was paired with another guy at random. His name was Shusaku and rode a nice Bianchi Pista 2005 concept. He seemed pretty fast and we might ride together at some point. The whole race would be 4 laps, done as a relay. I would do 1 lap, shout for Shusaku to go, he would do 1 lap, then I would go again, etc. Laps are in the 9 minute range.

So, I started, pace was super fast and I was incredibly thirsty from the start. I feel like I have been dehydrated since I got here, so half way through the lap my whole body was dry as a desert but I was still in the top 10 riders of the 20ish that started. Now is when the dramatics started. The park is still open to pedestrian and bicycle traffic, and this is not really a legit, sanctioned event. So we were occaisionally passsing walkers and regular bikers. about 3/4 of the way around the first lap someone next to me hit a regular biker, and both went flying. The rest of us kept going as we were racing ya know? Then part way up the only decent hill in the park two of the leaders crashed into each other and a third got tangled in the bikes, so I'm in about 6th spot by default now, but dying up the hill as I have no water in me. I get back to the start, yell for Shusaku to go (Number 9!!) and two more bikers crash at the finish. All this was on lap 1. I borrowed some water to avoid death (keep in mind its in the 80's here even at night). The original crashers start straggeling in, and one of them is holding his shoulder in that tell-tale "I have a broken collarbone now" sort of way. The organizers decide to call the race since there is the possibility of Police coming our way. Shusaku gets back and I ask him if its always this crazy, and he says nobody has ever crashed here before. Just a crazy night I guess. So, I'm out $3 but it was certainly a crazy good time. At least I didn't get hurt, and I got to test myself against some hard-core NYC bikers.

Also my bottom bracket worked its way loose again. Gotta get that replaced I guess.

I haven't put up a pic of my new bike, so here it is. To sum it up in a few words: It Rules. I love it, and its so fresh. I just want to look at it all the time. I think Mila is jealous ;)


posted at: 11:24 | path: /blog | permanent link to this entry