Think Racing, Inc.

March 28th CRCA club race central park, 6 laps cold windy DieHard lined up with Danny, Karl, Kenny, Ricky, Roger and George. The race was aggressive from the start 3 riders got away on the 2nd lap and built a comfortable gap. With 2 laps to go we put an organized chase. Roger, Kenny and I took turns at the front with some help from the foundation riders we were able to nail back the break with a lap to go. Coming down to the final K’s a small move went from tavern, I went with it and kept rolling at a fast pace till the summer stage. Kenny and Roger came through with Danny, Karl and Ricky all towards the front setting up for the sprint. Kenny then Roger kept it fast so our guys would have a clean shot at the line but Ricky got boxed in on the left and Danny shot through on the right with Karl who out sprint everyone to take DieHards first win of 2010 by 5 bike lengths.
March 29th Spring Series Prospect Park, 14 laps weather more of the same. We lined up with Chris, Kenny, Ricky and George. Kenny was on everything today and if he wasn’t there I was able to cover or bridge too. The last couple of laps were where we put our selfs in position to win, covering everything. One innovations ridder slipped away one the last lap I was able to get him back after the temple then Chris took the perfect line through a messy sprint and shot the Ricky (Cannonball) to the W.
Tailwinds, Big Up!

A Few Tough Out the New Year’s Ride

January 1, 2010

George Suter and Tim Voake
After a long hard effort, George Suter and Tim Voake pulled into Central Park together to finish the 2010 Century Road Club New Year’s Ride.

The New Year’s Century Ride is probably the oldest CRCA tradition, going back to the first years of the club in the late 1890’s. They didn’t do the same route, there was no George Washington Bridge, but they did a century either on New Year’s Day or New Year’s Eve.

The weather wasn’t so bad this morning. The problem was the snow and sleet left from last night. As I rode in the park up to Engineer’s Gate at 7:30, I didn’t see a soul on a bike. At the 90th St. entrance, I was very happy to see six riders waiting. In addition to George and Tim, Todd Brilliant, Brian Gatens, James Mernin and Sorin Ciurea. Amazingly all brought signed waivers. After giving out the index cards to get signed at the Bear Mountain Inn, we took off for two laps around the park.
Todd Brilliant

We started slow as there were areas of snow, slush and some ice on the road, especially by the downhill by 106 st. George as always was great company, telling me about his upcoming trip to California to ride down the coast with Craig “Smilie” Upton and how he finished first in the 1999 ride. I even learned that Roger Aspholm started racing with the CRCA/Think Racing team. Besides Roger, the team had Smilie,Todd Herriott who went on to ride pro, a skinny Dave Jordan, George and Leon Moser who won almost all of the club races for 2 years.

With the weather in the mid 30’s and the sun starting to come out the road was clearer on our second lap. To my amazement Sorin was doing one-legged drills up Harlem Hill. Interesting warm up for a haul up to Bear. As the pace started picking up, I bid everyone good luck as we passed W 72nd St for the second time.
George Suter and Brian Gatens

After getting over the bridge, the riders encountered fog and colder weather. The road was clear but most of the shoulder was some form of slush. With very light traffic, this wasn’t much of a problem.

It turned out that the Bear Mountain Inn was closed, but a parking attendant was around to sign the cards. Jim and Sorin dropped out because of equipment problems and got a ride back with Jim’s wife who planned on meeting up at Bear.

As they headed back home, Todd Brilliant started pulling away. At one point he might have had several miles on the others. George,Tim and Brian started working together. Brian was dropped on the Rockland climb and Todd was caught shortly after. Without having eaten and drinking only 1 bottle, Todd was suffering. George said Tim was really hammering up the hills. They took the State Line Hill very quickly. “Tim looks like a real contender to win many Cat 4 races. He’s very good,” said an impressed Suter.

I headed back to the park at 12:30 and met up with Jim Boyd. No riders were in sight. Not many people were riding in the park. Many were walking all over the road. David Filosa stopped by, very happy with his new Cannondale CAAD9 Rival bike. Ken Harris stopped by to talk about the exciting 2010 Junior team. Jimmy Andrello stopped by as I was getting ready to leave. Then George and Tim showed up. After congratulations, photos and stories, Tim took off. Todd then showed up, much earlier than we had anticipated. He was tired, but very happy to have done the ride as was everyone else. Brian pulled in a few minutes later.

George, who joined the club in 1997 was very happy with meeting some of the newer members. He commented that the depth and constant revitalization of the club is what makes CRCA so great.

1/10/2008

How does this:

Lead to this?

An unexpected week of warm weather has led to lots and lots of early season miles for NYC bike racers. Central Park has been packed with cyclists - I’m sure the same is true for Prospect Park, and 9W for those blessed few without day jobs. I know my metabolism has been on overdrive.

In related news, chickens everywhere have moved into hiding afraid of being turned into the next serving of chicken parm.

1/1/08: So, here we go again. Think Racing is back to racing in 2008 as the CRCA/ DieHard-Think Racing Cycling Team.

Who is Think Racing? The short version is we’ve been around the New York City bike racing scene since 1998. Peter Barlin and I met George Suter in 1997. The guy was as gung ho about racing as we were. I was instantly drawn to him, as were a bunch of other guys. I liken him to the Pied Piper of bike racers. That first year was a lot of fun. We really had no clue how to run a team, or race together as a team, but we learned quickly on the fly.

That’s me our first year racing together in 1998 at the Harlem Skyscraper Criterium. I’m in the foreground with Jeff Shandel over to the left, and Rob Oswald to my right.

George put in a ton of effort to get the team up to the elite racing level. Over the years, hundreds of bike racers have come through the ranks of Think Racing. There are hundreds of highlights. Our breakthrough moment came in 2002 when Todd Herriott scored the team’s biggest win at the Univest Grand Prix.

Guys who have raced for Think Racing have gone on to become pros, race in Europe, and medal at State and National Championships.

For 2008, we are racing in the NYC cycling scene with 13 riders. We got great sponsors in DieHard Batteries, Shawn Warren Designs, Berstein Display, Union Square Cafe, Performance Labs HC, Javelin Bicycles, and a few more to come.

We got a great bunch of riders who are looking forward to the racing season. We have 13 guys in total. 4 new guys, 9 returning racers. We all have different ambitions in racing, but we all love the sport. We all race the CRCA club races, and go out to breakfast at Jackson Hole Diner on the east or west side after the races.

There’s too many people to thank individually, but we want to thank all the riders, coaches, sponsors, supporters, and family members who have helped over the past 10 years.

What we have raced as:

Bridge (1998 - 1999)

Union Square Cafe (2000 - 2001)

Breitling -Tradewear (2002 - 2003)

Visit Britian (2004 - 2006)

The Princeton Review (2007)

DieHard (2008)

2008 DieHard Think Racing Roster

Returning Riders
George Suter, New York, NY (Team Captain)
Peter Barlin, New York, NY
Leon Moser, New York, NY
Roger Friedman, Brooklyn, NY
Stephen Harvey, New York, NY
Kenneth King, New York, NY
Daniel Lim, New York, NY
Piers North, New York, NY
Ed Zimmermann, Brooklyn, NY
New Riders
Frank Leija, West Point, NY
Kevin Zutell, New York, NY
William Crowley, New York, NY
Antony O’Malley, New York, NY

In his first season back to racing after a 5 years off the bike Danny Lim won the over all at the 43rd Labor Day track meet at the Kissena Velodrome keeping the teams late season winning streak alive.

Steve Harvey started off the medal run in early August by scoring 3rd at the CRCA masters championship in NYC’s Central Park.
Ricky Lowe then struck gold by winning the points race at New York States Empire State Games helping the New York City Team to the Bronze in the the over all.
Danny Lim in the NY State Track Championships and National Track Championships Qualifiers scored Silver Team Sprints (Qualified for Sprint Events at Elite National Championships)and Bronze Medal in Senior Men 2000m Pursuit the Senior Men. Then the Masters 30+ Gold Scratch Race ( NYS Champion) & Silvers in the Pursuit/ Kilo/ Points/ Sprints on his way to the Omnium Title.
Rounding out the medal count with the 40+Bronze in the NYS Time Trial Championship was George Suter.
12 Medals in the month of August.

On 6/17/07 Fathers Day, new father Roger Friedman of the CRCA/ The Princeton Review - Think Racing Cycling Team won the New York State Criterium Championships in the Masters 40+ division.
Roger broke away with one other racer from a field of over 100 riders on the first of 20 laps on a 1 mile course around Mount Morris Park to win the Harlem Skyscraper Cycling Classic (NYC oldest criterium) and claim the NYS Criterium Championship. Some great team work was done by Ken King (finishing 7th) to keep the race behind in check as Roger and his breakaway companion powered away from the hard chasing field to win by a 55 second advantage.
Later in the day in the premiere event Ricky Lowe charged to a top 10 finish in the very competitive Pro 123 race.

Roger’s May Race Report 5/19 and 5/20

Kings County Circuit Race Report:

With 16 laps of the 2.2 mile course to go, I got in a move that formed with Jared Bunde (GS Mengoni) and former US National Team rider John Durso (Liberty Cycles) - we were then joined by Rob Lattanzi from Sid’s, Perez from Mengoni, Mike Margarite from Empire, and Matt from Bandit (the other Matt not Matt Howard).

Jared was riding to try and split the group with very hard pulls. I rode fairly conservatively but tried not to miss a turn although a few of the others were sitting on more. I stayed in the rotation behind Jared for most of the race because I didn’t want to be getting back on when he was coming to the front.

I felt really good up until 2 to go when I felt the tell tale signs of cramping. I knew I wasn’t going to outsprint the Mengoni guys. I was waiting for Jared to take a hard pull to launch an attack but he wasn’t going for it. I guess he is confident enough in his sprint. So the bell lap was pretty slow with no one wanting to pull. I dropped back about halfway down the stretch before the last turn and stood up to attack. As soon as I got passed them both of my legs seized up and by the time we hit the turn they were sprinting passed me. I rolled in for 6th.

It’s a big if but without the cramps the result would have been better.

Ricky rode great and got into a promising looking early move but Eugene from Mengoni kept trying to gap him off the back. That move came back right before the one I was in went off.

Great Neck Criterium Report:

George, Steve, Danny, Ricky, and I lined up for the Great Neck International Bike Race. Basically it played out like this:

Pedal hard, turn, pedal hard, turn, pedal hard, Danny gets popped, turn, pedal hard, Steve gets popped, turn, Ricky gets popped, pedal hard, George gets popped, turn, pedal hard, turn, pedal hard, I got popped, day over.

None of us finished and I feel like I got run over by an SUV. There’s always next year- It’s a great course.

Roger

After spending March and April on the road, it was nice to switch up and do a few different events in late April/ May.

Opening Weekend @ Kissena Velodrome
I won the omnium (overall) at Opening Weekend track meet at Kissena Velodrome. Not having raced on a velodrome in 5 years, there were a few things I needed to get used to such as the bumps created from the swamp land settling underneath the velodrome, having to pedal a fixed gear bike, and just some basic track tactics. Timed events are o.k. but I like the mass start stuff the best where tactics come into play and there is a cushy field to sit in behind. I was upset with myself for not starting my sprint soon enough in the scratch race, trying a breakaway in the points race too early, and not boxing in a stronger rider in the miss and out. Despite the screw ups, I was able to rack up enough points for the ominum victory.

Spring Couples Relay
The other fun event was the New York Triathlon Club’s Spring Couples Relay in Central Park. Since I am so bad at running, the only way I am going to be competitive in a triathlon is if someone else does the running. Fortunately, my girlfriend Janet is a good runner. Janet would run 2 miles on an out and back course, I would bike 12 miles, and then we would row 3/4 miles around the pond in the center of Central Park. The fun part was this would be my first semi-serious time trial longer than the 1 kilometer event I specialize in on the track. The dangerous part is that the event starts at 8 am so by the time I am flying around on a time trial bike, the park is just getting crowded. A 7 am or earlier start time would make it much safer. The participants are primarily runners and triathletes. If I felt any guilt about using a time trial helmet, long sleeve skinsuit, and Javelin Arcole time trial bike, I didn’t feel any regrets when I saw a lot of expensive time trial bikes including a few Cervelos, Orbeas, and the Trek Postal TT bike.

Janet got us a great start and once she got back, I took off mindful not to start too fast. I started catching and passing the cyclists that started ahead of me. After the first of two laps around Central Park, I had caught 20+ riders and we were in 3rd place. By the end of the bike leg, I had caught all but one rider. We were in 2nd place but we lost one spot in the transition and I couldn’t row straight. We were lucky we only lost one spot on the rowing leg to end up 4th overall and 1st in our age group. The event was a nice change of pace, well run, and most of all, a good way to do a triathlon. Many thanks for Janet’s friend Sherri who acted as team photographer, my teammate George, team coach Craig Upton, and my parents for coming out to cheer us on.

The Princeton Review - Think Racing team sponsored (and fueled) by Ommegang Brewery and Union Sq. Cafe had a very productive end of April campaign. On 4/14 in the CRCA club race in Central Park NYC Roger Friedman made the break on lap two of the seven lap A race and finished just off the podium in 4th. In the 4/21 CRCA club race (Harlem Hill Points Race) our man Ricky ( The Cannon Ball) Lowe was on his way to a clear victory after winning 2 out of the 3 sprints on harlem hill when a mix up with where the final finish line sprit was put us off the top step. A great heads up move by Leon Moser and Peirs North got Leon 4th in the last sprint and 6th over all. The 2nd and 6th placing put us right back in the hunt for the Team Cup. The real victory came at breakfast after the race at a local upper west side diner when a Man having pancakes lifted his Princeton Review text book and gave us the thumbs up.

Our first road trip as a team took us to Sturbridge Massachusetts for a rolling 70 mile RR. Out of over 100 starters there were 40 left coming in to the sprint with our team intact. We chose the left side of the road to gain the wind advantage but with a lot of bumping and banging the left side was shutout of the 45+ MPH sprint. Ricky and Peirs finished just outside the top 10 with Roger and George right behind them.

Ricky ridding solo scoured a soiled 4th place on the next day at the finale NYC spring series in prospect park Brooklyn. In a fast hairy field sprit with out a team to lead him out Ricky got boxed in but was able to fight his way through for 4th.

Sandy Hook Time Trail was held on Saturday April 7th in cold windy conditions with over 300 participants in spite of the weather. George Suter scoured a respectable 5th place in the Masters 35+ category with a time of 16:31 over 11.5 kilometers.

Easter Sunday’s NYC spring series race was held in Manhattans Central Park under wintery conditions. After 5 laps of fast aggressive racing Anthony (Ricky) Lowe won the field sprint by at least 15 bike lengths to claim 10th.

Sometimes you need some luck to win a bike race. In Saturdays CRCA 2X Points Team Cup Race in Central Park Anthony “Ricky” Lowe charged to an 8th place finish but the boys were left wondering what might have been.

After an opening 3 laps of aggressive racing in which the team played a major role in containing dangerous attacks and breakaways, George Suter and Piers North were both forced to the sidelines with mechanicals courtesy of the parks numerous potholes. The remaining five raced hard to keep the field together. Ricky was set to do his thing in the sprint to the finish behind the Metropolitan Museum of art, however an ill timed chain mishap and subsequent unclipping of the cleat just as things were reaching full speed prevented Ricky from contesting the win and the team had to settle for a top ten finish.

The 3 race on Sunday was 10 laps of the 3.4 mile of Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. Danny Lim and Ed Zimmerman looked comfortable during the race opting to ride near the front to stay out of trouble. Going into the last 5 kilometers, Ed and Danny were able to get together on the final hill. Ed protected Danny from the wind and moved him toward the front of the field as everyone got ready for the on-coming sprint finish. Ed was able to daftly navigate through the field and keep Danny out of trouble until the final kilometer until Danny took off with a Champion System rider who attacked the field sprint early. Danny was passed by the eventual winner and second place but a bike throw helped him hold onto third place in the field sprint. Another podium for The Princeton Review / Think Racing cycling team. Ricky Lowe scored another top 10 in the Pro 123 race with a lot of hard work being done by Piers, Roger, Kenny and George.

The Princeton Review/Think Racing cycling team lined up for the the first CRCA race of the season on Saturday 3/10. An illness and marshaling depleted team of six, including Ricky Lowe, Roger Friedman, Steve Harvey, Pete Barlin, Danny Lim and Kenny King tackled 6 laps of Central Park.
The new Empire team was out in full force so the mission seemed clear, follow all the Empire attacks, go for it if the move looked promising, if it was all together at the end try to bring Ricky to line.
After a couple of uneventful laps, things started to heat up as Empire started attacking and counter attacking. The guys dutifully covered the the moves, but at this point things got a little more difficult when Roger was taken out in bike shattering crash along the West side. Luckily Roger is OK although the same can’t be said of his Argon.
Up Harlem Hill the fifth time, John Loehner of Empire attacked and got a 15 second gap. Steve was in a 3 man chase group trying bring him back for the next few miles.
At the bell Loehner still had 10 seconds but the move seemed doomed. Past the carousel going into the sprint the guys tried to keep the pace high for Ricky. In a 3 up sprint Ricky gave it his all and got a solid second place finish.

On Sunday 3/11 Danny Lim ridding alone in the Cat 3 race of NYC Spring Series put The Princeton Review/Think Racing cycling team on the podium for the second time in as many days with a great 3rd place in a hairy bunch sprint.

Sunday was the first race of the season (always a painful experience) The New York spring series. Peirs North and George Suter made the early breakaway witch is almost always futile but in the case the move stuck. After 4 laps of Central Park the break of 10+ had 2 min advantage over the field. On the bell lap two ridders (Champion Systems & West Wood Cycles) attacked on the 110 st. hill a ridder from Ideal Tile went after them George bridged to him but Ideal ridder could not hold his wheel. George had a sizable advantage over the rest of the breakaway by 90th St. and pursued the two who end up staying away to score first and second. George was caught by the hard sprinting breakaway with in sight of the finish line to finish just out side of the top 10. All in all a good first showing for The Princeton Review - Think Racing team everyone rode strong, smart and most importantly safe.

For 2007 The Princeton Review has joined Think Racing to present the CRCA/The Princeton Review-Think Racing cyclig team. With focus on developing young athletes through it’s experienced elite & masters members.The Princeton Review-Think Racing cyclig team will compete locally in the CRCA club races with the goal recapturing the team cup which we held from 2002 to 2004. The team will also compete at the regional level in the masters and USCF category races and at the national and international level at the USCF Masters National Championships in PA. and the Coupe Des Ameriques in Sutton Canada. Full team roster, race schedule and list of sub-sponsors will be posted soon.

Seventeen men and women will represent the United States in cross country skiing in the Winter Olympics. For some of the skiers, getting to the Olympics has been especially hard — many had to find traveling money themselves. NPR Producer Adam Burke tells the story of one of those skiers.

Eli talks to Steve Scott on the eve of the sprints
Eli talks to Pat Casey on changes in sprint racing
John Dyste on Olympic sprint racing
Chris Hall on the Olympic Trials
Ben Husby on coaching junior athletes
Jim Fredericks, Team Rossi
Jim Fredericks on the US Biathlon Team Olympic Selection
Kevin Sweeney, Swix Racing US on wax

Soldier Hollow, UT - Eli Brown has been filing race reports from US Nationals all day.
Opening Remarks
Women’s 15K
Men’s 30K
Men’s 30K at 15 K
Men’s 30K Break Away
Men’s 30K Final
Closing Remarks w/Pete Vordenberg
Andrew Johnson’s Birthday Bash

The Nissan Xterra USA Championships took place in Incline Village, Nevada at North Lake Tahoe on October 2nd. I decided to head out to Tahoe 8 days early to help acclimate to the altitude. The race course starts at 6200 ft. of elevation and the top of the bike course peaks out at almost 9000 ft. Getting in early was a wise thing to do.

The weather on race morning was a cold 32 degrees, with no promise of warming up. There were wind gust between 20 and 40 mph, and a 4-5 foot swell in the lake. Definately not the pristine coditions we had the previous year.

The swim start was pretty brutal. Getting into the 56 degree warter was not exactely conforting. I made my way thourgh the first lap trying to concentrate on relaxing as much as possible and not tighten up. Between the cold water and the altitude it was not easy to keep control of my breathing. By the time I finished the swim my hands and feet were numb.

T1 went fairly smoothly even though my fingers were useless. I got out on the bike and fellt pretty good, although a little cold. I started up the 3.5 mile climb on Tunnel Creek Road with hope of warming up a bit once my body got started. That never happened. I hit the Flume Trail and headed straight into the wind gusts coming at the side of the mountain. I was shivering and angry. I kept getting stuck behind people finding it very difficult to pass on the 4 foot wide trail with mountain on the left and 1200 foot drop on the right. I started hammering on the pedals and yelling at people to get left so I could pass. I just wanted to get out of the wind. I hit Marlett Lake on the back side and had to go to the bathroom becasue I was so cold. I didn’t want to stop so I just kept going pushing to the next big climb as hard as I could. I hit the peak, took a second to take in the beautiful view of the lake and then started the descent. I managed to get through the downhill switchback section pretty quickly only skidding off the trail once, right in front of a camera crew. I hit Tunnel Creek Road and started bombing the downhill, jumping the water bars and negotioating my way through the sand pretty easily. It took me 7 minutes to go down the same 3.5 mile that took me 35 minutes to climb an hour before.

I made it to T2 a little behind my goal pace set back by the choppy waters and the brutal cold. Another quick transition and out to the run, never my strength.

Turns out the run was my forte this day. I could finally feel my feet and was able to open it up a little on the run. To my surprise I started passing people and was not slowing down. I finished my first 5K loop in 25 minutes, and felt like I could keep going strong. Probably because I didn’t work that hard on the bike being that I had to pee. I pused the pace on my second lap and finished it in just over 22 minutes, posting a 47 minute 10K trail run, pretty respectable for Xterra. I crossed the finish line in 3:31:46, 15 minutes faster the 2004. Under the conditions a succesful race!