This year NyVelocity, www.nyvelocity.com, started it's development team. Beginning in January we brought together almost 30 Men and Women with little to no racing experience. Many were former NYCC A and B SIG riders. Starting from scratch they trained with the team's coach and raced together. The experience was great for all involved, coaches and rider alike, and we won the B cup challenge in the CRCA in the first year!!!
NyVelocity would like to take this oppurtunity to invite any NYCC members who would be interested in taking the jump toward racing to join us on Sept 30th at 9:00 am at the Boat House in Central Park for a meet and greet ride over the bridge. This is an oppurtunity for NYCC members to meet the team. Pleas check out the following links for more info.
http://ostroy.com/dev/nyvelocity_team/joinNYVC1%20_noprint.pdf
http://ostroy.com/dev/nyvelocity_team/joinNYVC1%20_noprint.pdf
Thinking about racing next year?
perfect! iwas wondering about how to join! i'll be there!
Oh god not him!
Alex- The B Cup has not been won by NYVelocity. Good luck in future.
Thats true, we haven't won it yet
My friend was on the team last year and had a very positive experience, thanks for reaching out to the NYCC and newer riders, this sounds like a lot of fun!
Do we have to have a racing licence?
sounds like a much needed service BTW, I've always thought there should be more of a bridge between the NYCC and the CRCA
"For any race, you need a license, whether it's a one-day license purchased at the race or an annual license from USA Cycling. The Nyvelocity team is a CRCA subteam, which means you need a CRCA membership as well, and must do your mandatory marshal duty before your first race.
Referring to the comment about a bridge between the two club: club rides and races are different creatures (though in my experience, A rides have been evolving into races or pissing contests in which people try to ""outsprint"" each other at the drop of a hat).
One needs a higher level of skills to participate safely in a race than on a club ride. Riding in a fluid peloton is not the same as riding in a double paceline. When people refer to a paceline in a race, they mean a continuously rotating paceline.
Finally, one does not need to join a subteam to race--nothing against Alex Ostroy, who has done an amazing job with Nyvelocity, both the team and the web site. Many new racers seem preoccupied with being on a team (or the ""right"" team), I guess for reasons have to do with a sense of belonging than the intended benefits of being on a team.
"
"Great points Fendergal and I apologize if I mislead anyone to think this team is the only way to join the CRCA or to race, there are a lot of great teams and racing solo is the right fit for some as well. We just had some success with NYCC riders last year so we figured we would see if there was any interest for our team and we have received a few inquires so far.
""One needs a higher level of skills to participate safely in a race than on a club ride. Riding in a fluid peloton is not the same as riding in a double paceline. When people refer to a paceline in a race, they mean a continuously rotating paceline. ""
This is precisely the type of stuff we try to address in the spring with training rides headed by expert coaches I think the SIGs and the group rides offered by the NYCC are a great resource, I have done at least one or two every year for the past ten years (thats where I first met Todd) but she is right, they don't quite prepare you for a race. The CRCA races used to do that a bit, but they are quite competitive now, no longer really practice races.
Also I want to make it clear we have a separate women's team that we are very interested in growing as well, so I encourage any curious women to attend and talk with the women racers.
Thanks
Alex
"
Alex,
I think that this is a great idea. It's good to see someone willing to invest time and energy into working with people new to bike racing.
I've done a couple of races over the years when I felt like I was in adequate condition and there was a race at a convenient time and location. I haven't done any since I've been living in New York, but it seems like a great place to get an introduction to the sport, since there are lots of races at convenient locations (central park, prospect park) and there seems to be lots of bike racers of all levels of ability in the city.
The few times I've done races before, I did it without being part of a team. Obviously this is an option, but I wouldn't necessarily recomend it. I think that there are a couple of real advantages to starting with a team for the first couple of races:
-If you've never done any races, the first time out in a race peleton is a bit nerve racking. As fendregal noted above, it is quite different than just sitting in a pace line. In particular, riding with people on both sides, as well as in front and in back, takes some getting used to. If you have a team to practice with and get some coaching from it can help develope the skills necessary to do this safely and with confidence.
-Until you've done some races, there is always some doubt about whether you have the riding skills and are strong enough to maintain race pace. If you work with a team, they can let you know when and if you are ready to try a race.
Since I've only done a few bike races, I certainly don't qualify as any kind of an expert, but I have to say that I did find the experience truely exciting and would recommend to anyone who is already riding quite a bit to give it a try. It's a rush for sure.
William
"While its true that you can join a CRCA race by yourself + there is something nice about the lack of pressure and anonymity of going out to race by yourself (nobody will know if you get dropped, crash, etc..) the pleasure of showing up with teammates in the field is just more involved. I would draw a comparison to pick-up basketball. Sure you can show up alone and get with guys on a good team and play for a few hours but when you show up with 2 other friends - you have support and its just more pleasurable. You can talk about the game, dissect it, what you did well what you didn't your friends can coach you while your playing ""pick up my man!"" ""box out"" etc...,
In my first out of town race one of my teammates who was repeatedly yelled at by other riders asked me if I thought he was riding erratically. I told him yes but not so much as to be out of line with a c field or as to be dangerous. He felt better. They were just talking smack. If he had been by himself he would not have had teammates there to tell the other guys to shut their cake-holes as we did in subsequent races...
"
There are good reasons and bad reasons for being on a team. That is a bad reason. Teammates are not there to defend someone's arguably bad riding. I expect my teammates to ride responsibly and to stand up for themselves.
There's also the notion that just because someone yells something in a race, you are not obligated to respond. Be quiet, mind your knitting, don't do anything stupid, like get into an argument mid-race.
"There are other ""bridges"" between the NYCC and the CRCA. In addition to NyVelocity's program there is the Organic Athlete team which has many NYCC riders as members and CRCA/Setanta. 12 of the 14 active members of the CRCA/Setanta team came through the NYCC. Probably 80-90% of our ""alumni"" who have gone on to bigger and better things have also been NYCC members. Some came via Todd's Fall/Winter Hogwich rides, others via my weekday rides, and some from our group rides up to Gimbels (the next one is scheduled for Saturday October 7).
NyVelocity has a great program but there are several differences. NyVelocity is looking to be a large team, while most other teams are trying to remain somewhat smaller. Setanta not only has no fees to join, but we also supply our riders with free kit, free coaching services from our two licensed coaches, free/discounted fitness/performance testing and a valuable discount at our bike shop sponsor, along with several other benefits. In exchange we are only looking for riders who are committed to racing. We welcome anyone to come out to ride and train with us, but we ask all of our potential teammates to race a few times to make sure that racing is for them.
You can read more about CRCA/Setanta at http://www.teamsetanta.org/
jeff vogel
JeffVgl at yahoo / com"
Jeff,
Sentanta is a great entry point to racing too, no doubt but what NYVC is attempting to offer is different than you and organic in that it includes coaching, Lactate testing, online training journals with a fitness coach and drills run by former professional rider who act as guest coaches. We kind of think of the team as a co-op that pools its money to buy these services that would be far more expensive to an individual cyclist. However to some people its not the right mix and I have recommended they look you, Edgemont or Organic up as an alternative. There are certainly more than enough people who are interested to start racing for even a few more development teams from what I have seen.
See you at the Gimbels,
A
