I’m the promotor/co-promoter for the Syracuse Race Weekend again this year. Since last year we changed up quite a bit of the event including moving the date up one week to May 17th and 18th. I added a longer Time Trial and kept it at Song Mountain. A new Crit course is also a major change since the pavement at Upper Onondaga Park was bad last year. The City of Syracuse helped recommend the course at the Inner Harbor area of Syracuse. This is the area that Destiny USA will someday cover with Destiny USA features like a Tuscan Village and other Disneyland like areas. For now it is a cool industrial zone will well paved streets and a barely used harbor.
The inaugural Inner Harbor TT was setup to replace the Street Sprints from last year. The course winds through a creekwalk area and goes into a parking lot. I had someone (Wagner Construction) build a ramp for the race. The only problem is that the ramp should have been four times bigger than it was. That is why there are barriers and all types of tape leading up to the ramp, so no one misses it. Most of the TT racers did not even use the ramp, they just flew right over it.
I’m processing the videos from the Syracuse Race Weekend now. Here is a video from the Song Mt. Road Race. This is taken near the top of the Oak Hill climb around the King/Queen of the Mountain. We botched the KOM/QOM scoring, but we will make sure that everything is smoother next year. Otherwise the road race went off well. No major problem. No big crashes excpet for one rider who went down around Preble where tree debris caused one racer to crash. Smooth start to the weekened of racing.
News10Now came out to do a story on the Syracuse Race. My ugly mug was running on the 24 hour local news channel non-stop all Saturday night. Cait McVey the News10Now reporter did an extended story that can be seen on the website.
The Road Race went well which it usually does. The weather was perfect with temps in the mid 70s and low humidity and lots of sun. Once the race was going I did not have too much to do except drive the course backwards to make sure that everything was OK. My biggest fear was that the Otisco Fire Dept was not going to do their usual awesome job, but those fears were for nothing.
The Giro is in full flight and Il Killer looks to be in his best form ever. Riccardo Ricco gets angry at Bettini. Ricco experiences his first “complicated moment”, Lemond gives TMI while the Landis camp looks boneheaded. Meanwhile testimony looks good for Landis, but the whole situation is far from over. All this luscious news for me to comment on, but I have bigger fish to fry at the moment. The promoter hat for Syracuse Race Weekend is getting sweaty as the race is near.
A couple of things I have been dealing with in the past few days and you will see what the life of a promoter is all about. It is not all bike babes and booze. Well the booze will come later, hopefully Ommegang will setup something nice.
(video preview of the Inner Harbor/One Mile TT, sorry for the shaky camera)
On Monday a bunch of guys from the MaxPowerCycling Team and I decided to test ride the new One Mile Time Trial course for the Syracuse Race Weekend. Since Sam and I decided to forgo the Street Sprints in favor of a short Time Trial there have been questions about the course.
(Sam Sampere of the Onondaga Cycling Club on Bridge Street)
The “Media Blitz” for the Syracuse Race Weekend continued this week with co-promoter Sam Sampere setting up an appearance on local talk show Bridge Street. The show follows “Live with Regis and Kelly” at 10am weekdays. It uses a similar format to Regis and Kelly too. I don’t have much of a chance to watch this show as do most working folks, but we wanted to hit the demographic which would include moms to promote the Kids Race at the Syracuse Race Weekend.
Today at 3:20pm Sam Sampere and I appeared on the Jim Reith Radio show on 570 WSYR Radio here in Syracuse. We were interviewed on the phone to talk about National Bike Month which is May and Bike To Work Day which is May 18th. Sam talked about some rules of the road and helped to remind everyone that they should watch out for bikes and a brief looks at some rules.
I talked up the Syracuse Race Weekend by describing the events of the race. We have three events the Song Mountain Road Race on Saturday May 26th, the new One Mile Time Trial on Saturday night at the Inner Harbor and the Syracuse Criterium.
I was a little nervous to make sure that I mentioned everything that I needed to in the short time that we were on. I did get most of the info out there, but wish I mentioned more about the kids race and d’oh I forgot to give out the website address for the Syracuse Race Weekend site. Oh well.
Next week Sam setup some time at a local morning TV talk show called Bridge Street where we will be talking about cycling and the race. Paul from Syracuse Bicycle will bring lots of gear to show off and help to promote the race.
Little by little Sam and I are getting things done to make the 2007 Syracuse Race Weekend a reality. Today we met with folks from the Syracuse Parks and Recreation department. These folks were great to talk to as they seem ready and willing to help make dreams into reality. Sam and I suggested a few ideas about bringing the Syracuse Criterium Downtown and changing the Street Sprints race that is held on Saturday night to a prologue held on Friday night. They were able to come up with some excellent ideas with some interesting courses. I will release details of these ideas after I pass them through the proper channels, but there are some very exciting possibilities for the race in the future.
Good news! Velochimp.com is now part of the 9Rules Network. The site now joins one of top blog communities on the web. For those not familiar with 9Rules here is some info:
9rules is a community of the best weblogs in the world on a variety of topics. We started 9rules to give passionate writers more exposure and to help readers find great blogs on their favorite subjects. It’s difficult to find sites worth returning to, so 9rules brings together the very best of the independent web all under one roof.
Great news overall. 2007 promises to feature some great content:
New Team
I will switch to new team called MaxPowerCycling.com (I am finishing up the team site as we speak so no direct link just yet). The team is made up of a great core of guys that won several races under the Colavita-Spokepost.com team. This year we are taking over as our own sponsors since most of the members have businesses they would like to promote anyway.
Syracuse Race Weekend Promoter
This year I am running the Syracuse Race Weekend bike race. This is a huge event thank Chuck Dominick has run for over ten years. I will have help with Sam Sampere and a few other folks. Sam and I are the main promotors and this is the first race that we have ever run. We will be learning the ropes of running a race in Upstate New York and hope to have an eye to make it a much larger event in the future.
New Training Site Coming
I am also hard at work on a very exciting new project called 400watts.com. More info will be available very soon, but this will hopefully be a very cool site for anyone training for racing or fitness. Watch this space.
2007 will be a fun year for velochimp.com to say the least.
