Riding Bikes in NYC is Great
Riding bikes in New York City can be terrifying. Despite some success around Citi Bike, as a whole the city's embrace of cycling remains lukewarm at best (don't get us started on the NYPD's view of Vision Zero). But every once in a while we experience one of those days where riding bikes in NYC is truly great. Sunday was one of those days, starting with a 4AM alarm and a pre-dawn spin to Central Park for the CRCA Club Series. Despite summer's arrival and a hot evening racing bikes at Rockleigh a few days prior, Sunday started with comfortably cool temperatures as a couple hundred cyclists descended from throughout the tri-state area to race bikes.
TBD had a sizeable squad in attendance for what proved to be a quick day of racing - averaging a hair over 27 miles per hour. Ted and Erwin were aggressive as always and there were a few moments when the entire field threatened to split under the pace they helped set at the front. However the rubber band never quite snapped... until the final miles of the race when a handful of racers managed to sneak up the road while the peloton was caught napping. For our part we stuck with our plan to setup Colin for the sprint rather than burn our matches in the chase. It got a bit messy in the finale but Colin survived getting pushed to the curb to come across the line in 10th. Overall a successful day of racing that left a smile on our faces.
Post-race we partook in that classic team tradition: spinning to the 9W Market to grab breakfast and shoot the shit with some of our friends from CityMD. By the time we rolled back into Manhattan our stomachs were full, we had a century in our legs (give or take) and it was still well before noon.
On any other weekend this would make for a pretty good day of bikes in NYC, or really anywhere for that matter. But what made this past Sunday truly special was then spending the afternoon spectating and photographing the Harlem Criterium where the racing was very fast and the pay was (finally) equal for the Elite Men and Women. In summary: blue skies, warm weather and the perfect combination of racing/riding/watching bikes reminds us of why bikes in NYC can be great.
A New York City based cyclist and sometimes photographer. Part adventure rider, part crit racer, and fully obsessed with an English bulldog named Winifred.
Instagram: @photorhetoric
E-mail: matthew@tobedetermined.cc
Bike racing is back with the earliest ever start to the NYC race season