Velochimp: Astrochimp on Cycling

Chris Thater Memorial Criterium happened Saturday and Sunday down in Binghamton, NY. This is one of the oldest races on the Calendar and one of the most prestigious. Top pro men and women come out and this year the event was even on TV.

My event was the Category 4/5 race which goes under the classic name of the Senior Men’s Category 4/5 event. The race was run at 8 am on Sunday, a brutally early start to racing in a Criterium. The Crit is followed by a 5K running race and then the Cat 3 men followed by the Pro Men and Women. It is a big weekend of racing. The early start for the Cat 4/5 field stinks since it gives zero time for warming up and makes you get out of bed at extremely early hours. I was up before the newspaper was even delivered. Ouch.

I scrambled to get to Binghamton which is not too far from Syracuse. Once I arrived I could see plenty of cyclist already on course warming up. After signing up and getting my number I was ready to race. There are some little hills around the course and did some sprints to get the blood flowing. The weather was good, it was cloudy annd temps were in the 60s to 70s which was a huge improvement from the previous day of 90 degrees and humid.

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Who needs Versus, when Time Warner Sports is getting into the game too. The WCSN-TV coverage of the Chris Thater Criterium will be shown on Time Warner Sports channel. Good news for the sport in getting coverage locally. Time Warner Sports covers lots of local sporting events such as High School Football, Basketball and Lacrosse. (Disclaimer: I used to work for the local Time Warner Cable Division)

I’ll be racing at Thater on Sunday morning, but probably won’t be on TV since my race is at 8am. Weather looks to be better than last year which was cold and rainy.

SYRACUSE, N.Y.—Time Warner Sports is partnering with WCSN-TV, an online sports programmer, to carry the 24th annual Chris Thater Memorial cycling competitions (men’s and women’s professionals) live on Sunday, August 26 from 12:00 noon to 4:00 p.m. Those races take place at Recreation Park in Binghamton.

Time Warner Sports will offer WCSN’s live feed of this event on its Syracuse station (channel 26) and its Binghamton station (channel 23).

The Chris Thater Memorial, a weekend-long event with numerous running and cycling competitions, is named in honor of a young man whose life was taken by a drunk driver. This world-class event attracts more than 1,500 participants from all over the U.S. and from around the world, who are cheered on by 12,000 spectators and visitors to the Binghamton area. Weekend activities include pro, novice and elite cycling, with a 5K run and a 3-on-3 basketball tournament. The Broome County Stop-DWI program promotes and benefits from this event, recognizing the need for continued awareness regarding this widespread issue.

Doug Logan, Director of Time Warner Sports, said, “We’re pleased to offer this coverage of a major cycling event happening right here in our own backyard, and we thank WCSN for allowing us to pick up their feed so we can let all of our customers in on the action.”

About WCSN
World Championship Sports Network (WCSN) is the popular destination for fans of Olympic and lifestyle sports, delivering an immersive experience via exclusive live and on demand coverage of world class competitions, interaction with top athletes and in-depth access to sports news and information year round. Its website is wcsn.com .

About Time Warner Sports

Time Warner Sports, a network found exclusively on Time Warner Cable, features a wide array of high school, college, amateur and professional sporting events – most of these, carried live — as well as coaches’ shows and other sports content.

Photo by Dan Darkins

Mixing things up in a Criterium is probably the diciest form of bike racing there is. Except of course if you are Lucas Brunelle, but that is a whole ‘nother category of craziness. For the Weekend Warrior such as myself a Crit is as close as you will get to total chaos. The speeds are usually very high, corners make for some interesting changeups and the pack usually stays together for most of the race. Sometimes the pack is in a bunch or strung out depending on the speed. Most of the time spent racing a Crit you are thinking about various things such as how long you can hang on to the speed, or when to attack. You are always watching for a shift in speed or potential crash.

I’ve been racing Crits here and there for the past couple of seasons. While I theoretically know what to do and can stick in the pack technically, my legs/weight/fitness would not allow me to stay in the group for long. Other situations could cause me to lose touch with the pack and eventually get lapped or pulled. All of this Crit stuff started well back in 2004 when I tried out the Syracuse Race Weekend Crit and placed third. First time luck did not translate well. I’ve been trying to get things right ever since.

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Bummer Sunday morning. One of myfavorite low key races from last year was the Rome Circuit Race and Concrete Crit. The low key two event race was fun. The Colavita team got a win in the Crit with Rob Walters, and I got to finally mix it up in a race instead of trying to survive. With the great memories of last year I was looking forward to the 2007 edition. Word before the race was mixed. There was a flyer for a 2007 version of the race, but there was no info on spokpost.com or bikereg.com or any other race listing site. No problem since they were not on bikereg.com last year either and the race seemed equally low key.

Then on Sunday one of my teammates raced at Doc Reilly and heard that the Rome race was definitely on. So despite the fact that emails to the promotor were left unanswered I decided to head out to Rome. On Sunday morning I did the usual race prep stuff, get up early throw the bike in the car and head out. When I finally arrived at the race location there was nothing. Registration was supposed to start at 7:30am and it was 8:00 am when I arrived. I circled around then got a phone call from another teammate Matt who arrived and found an empty parking lot. Some more driving and saw two other cyclist with the same look of bewilderment and sadness. On such a great August morning which would have been perfect for a little low key race there was nothing.

As I headed out there was more traffic of disappointed cyclists looking for a race. I was half deciding to get everybody together for a group ride at least, but it did not seem to be in the cards. I decided to head back home and go for a training ride, at least to get some miles in for the day. When I got home my wife and baby were getting ready to go to a water park which seemed like too much fun to pass up. So the day wasn’t too bad.

To the race promoter or anyone else involved with the Rome Circuit Race, I hope it comes back next year. It was a fun event and it looked like even with the minimal advertising done for a non-event that there were quite a few racers heading out to race. I later heard of two more teammates who arrived at the site ready to race along with other cyslists. So don’t let the vent slip next year, let me know if you need help promoting it.

I finally have something to write about in the Weekend Warrior section as I completed the Concrete Crit and Circut Race in Rome, NY today. While Giuliano Figueras won the Giro de Lazio on the outskirts of Rome, Italy I was racing in the outskirts of Rome, NY around the former Griffis Air Force Base now a technology park with heavy miliatry presence.

The Concrete races are a low key event. Not a huge turnout for a day that had several other bike related races going on all over upstate New York. The flat natureof the course tempted me to come out and stretch my legs. I have not raced at all in the month of July. The last race was the Rochester Twilight Crit way back on June 24th. The low key nature of the event was a perfect place to test out the legs and see how the fitness has improved.

The Team:
Noel Bonk, Matt Howey and Andy Ross were some of the other Colavita guys present for the races. Rob Walters came by later for the Crit with great results.

Race Options:
The choice of which race to compete in was interesting as the races were broken down to the A race which contained Cats 1 through 4. The B race which contained Cats 4 and 5, the C Race, Master men 45 + and women and fnally the D race which contains Cat 5 citizens. As I’m still a Cat 5 the first thought would be the D group, but the distances were very small and competition not so challenging. So I signed up for the B races.
That race was probably the largest field of the whole event with 18 riders, half of them were from one team, the Schuss Ski team who are local to Rome and the Mohawk valley. A few Dick Sonnes guys were sympathetic to the cause too. Noel and I were the lone Colavitas as Matt and Andy raced the A race with five other guys.

The Circuit Race:
Race started off slow, much like a club ride. I took to the front expecting the pack to turn up the pace around me, but nobody was anxious to go. The slow speed made me want to take a flyer, but I decided to wait a bit. After a corner a Schuss guy took off and I immediately got on his wheel. Racing finally started and I felt good. Noel and I were mixing up attacks in the first lap to shake up the field. We quckly noticed that since Schuss had almost hal the field, they pretty much controlled the pack and raced defensively most of the time. Noel and I would either attack to get a break going or if a break going, but did not get much room as we were marked by the Schuss guys. A few breaks went up the road and got a few seconds, but Noel and I had to chase them back down since Schuss was riding a very defensive race. During one chase I found myself out front for too long, as I tried to pull to the side to let someone else chase I found that it was only Schuss guys behind me and they did not get off my wheel. I had to zig zag across the road to try and shake them off. This was so frustrating that I said to one of the Schuss guys “Hey, anybody got some Draino? We need to loosen this clog” Not the wittiest comment, but I was frustrated.

Eventually on lap 2 of 3 I decided that I am using too much energy and tried to cool off for a bit. That was tough since if a break went with a Schuss guy, then the pack slowed down and Noel and I were the only ones able to get a chase going.

All of this chasing of breaks made it difficult to mount a counter attack since we were tired from the chasing. On lap three two break were up the road. We caught the second one, but the first group of two were able to get enough daylight. I was pulverised from all of the attacks and chasing and eventually blew when I was caught between a few accelarations. I limped home near the back.

The race finished in about an hour with around 25 miles completed. That was at 11am. The Crit did not start until 2pm, so there was some waiting around.

The Crit:
The.6 mile crit was basicaly a rectangular course with a cross wind making it tough. Pancake flat with some sand in the corners.

Crit result
Rob Walter took the win in the Crit which was raced with a combined A and B group. Colavita had five guys in the group. Schuss only had five since half the team went home. The race started OK. I jetted up to the front to get in the front group. My legs were feeling a bit tired and I felt a slight cramping in my right hamstring just before the race started. As the paced kicked up I was slowly drifting back through the group as I could not keep up the accelarations in the corners. I was too pooped from the morning’s effort. Eventually I was able to establish a good rythm going at about 22 mph.BTW, I was way off the back. Eventually I got pulled. The pace was pretty high for most riders and the field broke up and quite a few others either ditched or got pulled.

Luckily I was able to videotape the last few laps and capture Rob Walters great sprint victory.

Overall I am glad that the team got a win. Andy Ross and Matt Howey did a great job of blocking in the crit to help the break keep its advantage.

My fitness is better since I was able to animate the Circuit Race instead of simply surviving. Two more races underm y belt and two steps closer to upgrading to Cat 4. Most of my training and racing is now with an eye to next year, but I will get a few other races in during August. Some possible races are Owsego’s Tour de Loop which has some short hills. Chris Thater a huge Criterim in Binghamton, NY and possibly the Ascenson Crit next Sunday in Buffalo.

Abs Diet:
The Abs diet os going well. The results have not been as dramatic as originally expected, but my belly fat is going down. I am getting compliments from folks saying I look thinner and my parents think I am just thin enough. I still want to lose about 10 to 20 lbs, but I think if I do this gradually it will stay off.
There were a few photographers on the course today. I will have to see what I looked like on the course compared to the earlier pic from the Syracuse Race Weekend that prompted me to get more aggressive with losing the belly fat.