May 20, HighBridge NYC XC race

N

NJ Jess

Active Member
So, who's in? It's a cool course with a dirt jumping section to boot. I take the "GWB over, hit Henry Hudson North,...just before the toll it says, last exit before toll, exit Dykeman Blvd. Right turn off Dykeman, go 5 blocks, go under the overpass(train) and quickly go up the hill. It's Highbridge Park! Not bad for NYC.
 
I want to go just to see my first mtb race and check out the work the guys have put in creating the place. Hope the weather's nice!
 
bikereg.com for Highbridge XC race

Hey there, I just signed up for this race. It will be neat to do "laps" instead of 1 or 2 long loops. who's in?
 
NJ Jess said:
Hey there, I just signed up for this race. It will be neat to do "laps" instead of 1 or 2 long loops. who's in?
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"Neat ?" 😕 Be prepared to use those litlle donut things on the cables on the top tube as an abacus. :hmmm: I don't think the brain lets you count over 4 in a race.

Should be fun and a historic day in NYC mountain biking. I'm in, just don't know if I should do the SS thing or not.

pixy
 
link to the festivities

http://www.nycmtb.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=14064

This is a link to NYCmtb.com. Everyone on nycmtb, visionmtb, and brooklynbikeriders.com are going. Lots of press and vendors, demos, skill clinics, etc.

directions for NJ: go over the GWB, take the exit for the Henry Hudson (North) to Dyckman street exit. At the 5 way intersection with Broadway, go straight onto Dyckman. Three Blocks up, pass under a train overpass, take an immediate right up Ft George Hill and go up the hill and park. You will see the dirtjumping area and basketball court.
 
Since the weather channel said today was going to be a write-off, I wandered over to Nyc to see the new course and watch the races. Pretty sweet! The weather was great, the course looked in fantastic condition.

I heard a few people cheering for Maurice - that wasn't Maurice from here was it?

There were loads of SS riders and a lot of rigid riders too. I even saw a guy with a rigid fork but with a shock on the back (huh?).

Like a numbnuts I didn't take my bike so I didn't ride the course. I was there with girlfriend and pooch instead...

Will have to check this place out on two wheels next time. There looks to be a real pain-in-the-arse pavement climb!
 
🙂 I participated in the race today...beginners (19-29)....this was my first race. It was fun! you are correct the pavement climb was a real challange....long!!

The upper section was a disaster....TONS OF MUD from the rain on saturday....it is a very technical rocky section that today was completely covered in mud. 95% of the racers walked (or crawled)....people were falling from trying to walk the trails!!!

The rest of the course was challenging but very much rideable! I believe that if the course was dry, the upper section would have been very much rideable too!

The trails are EXTREMELY well marked...they are marked kind of like ski trails with green circles for easy, blue squares for moderate, etc....

Overall was a fun day!🙂
 
The trails were mostly taped to channel the riders along the course. Since I had the dog I didn't want to walk the course - he'd likely get in the way. I mostly watched from the section just above the finish line, towards the botton of Ft George Road, midway down the offroad decent. There's a large boulder drop-in with a tree right at the outside edge of the turn after the drop-in. This caught a lot of riders so there was quite a lot of carnage. I think the loop was about 2.5 miles so it's not too long. I think it would be a great morning spin before you went on to somewhere else in the afternoon.
 
I'm afraid that was me, yes.

This race was a blast, quite a bit harder than the number of miles would suggest. But I'm still smiling just thinking of it! A great experience indeed.

Hope everyone had a great week-end.

Cheers,

Maurice
 
Great, well we kind-of met then! So, the ladies in front of me, they didn't include NJ Jess then did they? I was there with my dog who kept wanting to eat the sandwiches the girls had...

Maurice, where did you place in the end?
 
DANSPANK said:
Great, well we kind-of met then! So, the ladies in front of me, they didn't include NJ Jess then did they? I was there with my dog who kept wanting to eat the sandwiches the girls had...

Maurice, where did you place in the end?
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Surely, although everything was a blur around me at that very spot. Couldn't quite afford to look around 😉

I can relate to your dog, after the race I ate an entire packet of cookies (that's 8 large cookies) in record time just as I was about to bonk.

I took 5th in pro/semi-pro.

Maurice
 
heythorp said:
I would like to hear your thoughts on going semi pro this year. After a few races now, what have you noticed? Has it made you rethink training? Or is it what you expected? Has the pace/distance made you change fueling on the bike?
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That's interesting.

Regarding training, in my case I didn't change much. I just ride more and harder, which seems to come naturally anyway. I do not follow any plan, I eat burgers and fries, drink beer (although less when season's on), take my multi-vitamin pill when I think about it and that's it.

I've only done one longer race this season (26 miles), only needed one gel and two bottles of Gatorade. I should have had more gel but I'm lazy. If anything I don't carry a camelback anymore. In short, for a 2+ hour race two gels should do it. It all comes from the training otherwise.

The pace is definitely faster; what still amazes me are the technical skills of seasoned pros. You don't see a top pro that doesn't leap over stuff. You actually learn to simply take the straightest line, even if that means going over something scary.

That to me never gets old, there's _always_ something to learn, some way to improve and eventually get more fun out of an otherwise incredibly painful activity.

I have to say my biggest problem is with gear. It's awful expensive and goes lightning fast...

Cheers,

Maurice
 
Thanks for coming out to the race, guys. Doing that and the festival the day before was a serious undertaking, but somehow it all came together into a great weekend of mountain biking in NYC. The beginners got the worst of the race course- by the end of the day the trails had dried out a bit, and the winner, ultra-endurance racer Harlan Price, turned in a first lap time of 12 minutes!

Congrats to Rlaureano who placed 2nd in his beginner class
NJ Jess won her class
Maurice placed 5th in a VERY competitive pro/semi class behind Price, Verge-sponsored pro Christian Favatta, former U23 Cyclocross US Champ Troy Wells, and past H2H series champ Ed Ceccolini.

Big thanks also to Jess for picking up those Highbridge commemorative t-shirts from our printer down in New Jersey on her way up to the festival on Saturday.

Ours is a fairly unique race venue- thanks to all who came out sight-unseen to give it a shot!
 
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