Think Racing, Inc.

2 man Team Time Trial last Saturday in Central Park and the onus was on the various VisitBritain squads to score some serious points in the Team Cup and Team Challenge standings. Mission accomplished.

In the Team Cup stakes the unstoppable force of Smilie Upton and Mike Henson utterly dominated with their slowest lap being fastest than any other team’s fastest lap - 1st place. The potentially combustible duo of Alex Gulla and Ken Harris defied a lack of practice and simply rode on brute strength and natural ability to score very close 3rd place - super performance and more points. In 8th place overall and taking away points from other teams was George Suter and Leon Moser. All in all the VisitBritain mark was stamped all over the A results - and by days end the lads had lept into 1st place on the overall standings.

The Team Challenge duos had “acceptable” though not not quite up to par performances. Had it not been for the success of recent weeks a 2nd place and a 6th place would have been deemed good, but secretly both the teams of Roger Freidman and Ted Neu, along with John Kuhn and Paul White were alittle disappointed. With one more road race (this Saturday) and the 4 man Team Time Trial to come Merril Lynch hold a slim lead. ML have established themselves as clear favorites for the latter so this Saturday it will be a full strength VB team and no quarter asked or given to ensure enough points are racked up to keep us in the hunt for a possible unique double of Team Cup and Team Challenge competitions.

Worth noting as well as we progress into the latter half of the season that VisitBritain riders occupy the top 2 positions in the overall individual CRCA A Race standings through Alex and Smilie and the overall position in the B standings as well courtesy of Ricky Lowe.

Congratulations as well to the VisitBritain riders selected to be part of the New York City’s team for the Empire State Games this coming weekend. George and Leon make their return for a second successive year and Alex makes his debut at this multi day event. (We can only guess that there is no crit at the games otherwise why no Ken Harris on the team ?)

Full steam ahead.

Well if the weekend of July 11th was a banner weekend these past seven days have surpassed even those lofty achievements.

On Tuesday night Ken Harris continued his 2 wheeled version of Bohemian Rhapsody (an in-joke for anyone from the UK when that song remained at #1 all summer long back in the 70’s). Another solo break followed by a solo second place from Roger Freidman - ripped shorts and broken bike ‘n’ all after an earlier crash.

The weekend began with Ricky Lowe improving upon his recent form with a strong win in the Al Toefield Memorial Cat 4 Race in Prospect Park. Picking up both the win and the primes during the race, it was a flush morning for our Brooklyn Ace.

Sunday produced the finest set of performances yet from the VisitBritain B’s. A split squad because of Team Challenge commitments and a high profile out of town race in Poughkeepsie had a few on the team worried that our resources may be spread too thinly. We (meaning me - one armed bandit on the sidelines) needn’t have worried. In the morning Ricky toed the line with two tireless domestiques in the shape of John Kuhn and Paul White. These latter two worked like trojans to keep the pack together and to provide Ricky with a clear run to the line each lap. Once in the zone and on the Cat - Ricky is proving very difficult to beat indeed…..and so it proved for the 3rd week (and 4th race) in a row.

In the A race - Alex Gulla re-emerged from his self-imposed hibernation, and like all good bears proceeded to take up exactly where he left off by ripping the legs off the vast majority of the field. A break of 4 was trimmed on the last lap to the dynamic duo of Alex and Rob Latannzi from Next. Whilst Alex kept the screws tight - Rob is nothing if not a whily tactician and he came around Alex up the final stretch to take the win. Alex was an oh-so-solid second. The pack led by George Suter - finally showing some of the old spirit - caught the other 2 members of the breakway meaning Leon had no choice but to dust off his sprinting legs - and to great aplomb - as he took the bunch sprint in convincing style for a VisitBritain 2-3.

Now - that led us to the hilly course at Poughkeepsie - and with all due respect to the other winners in the last week - but this was probably the most satisfying win for VisitBritain from a team perspective this season. Ted Neu has over the last year been showing dramatic signs of improvement over the hills and in the Time Trials - all under the watchful eye and day to day training program of Smilie Upton. However try as he might - and believe me Ted’s a tryer - Ted seemed resigned to placing highly or working selflessly but always falling short of his debut win. Thankfully all that changed on Sunday as he rode away from the Cat 4 field on the last hill for a deserved and thoroughly well earned victory.

Ably backed by Jeff Kanter and Roger Friedman I think its safe to say this was the most satisfying day of Ted’s cycling career…..thus far Congratulations all.

VisitBritain has won over 20 races this year in many different fashions. However in most cases there had been an element of natural superiority. No disrespect intended to any competitors, but on form Smilie was always going to score big in his time trials, Alex was always going to out-strength his competitors in Central Park races and Ken was always going to have too much power and jump for his rivals in his numerous wins this season. But on Saturday for the Lou Maltese Race VisitBritain was , for a change, severely undermanned with only Ricky Lowe , Ted Neu and Paul White availible for CRCA’s signature Cat 4 race - the prestigious Lou Maltese Memorial. As such - this one was special. Special in that the race commemorated one of New York cycling most beloved characters and special in that it was a triumph of true team work between the 3 riders involved.

Whilst admiring Merril Lynch’s aggressive and positive riding the feeling was always that this race would come down to a sprint. As such it was time to put full faith in Ricky’s ability to power his linebacker frame up Cats Paw and Paul and Ted rose to the occassion. Ted selflessly shut down any breaks that looked dangerous over the first 5 and half laps, whilst come Tavern on the last lap Paul hit the front with a controlled pace that ensured Ricky had only to find Ted’s wheel and the confidence to know that his team mates wouldn’t let him down. Paul performed his role superbly, Ted took over at the boathouse and when it was time to light the touchpaper Ricky had both the powder and the matches to light the afterburners and power away to a close but like the previous week ,decisive win. Musketeers all.

Stirring stuff.

The weekend of July 10/ 11th will go down as a banner weekend for VisitBritain - THE best yet! Pride of place has to go to the mercurial Craig “Smilie” Upton for his sublime performance at Tokeneke - but for that one we’ll ask for a first hand account. Running a very close second in terms of -personal performance was Ricky Lowe with his dynamite win in the Lou Maltese Memorial Race in our own backyard of Central Park. 2 truly superb performances.