Tour of the Catskills Race stage 1: Assault on devil's Kitchen

As a cyclist, I am always riding somewhere. As time goes by, one ride blends into the next. Its hard to keep the same routes fresh, but its always enjoyable. Its just sometimes forgettable. One thing is certain, I will always remember my hardest rides. I have a top 5 that I can recall with vivid memory. They were life changing, and pushed me in different directions.

Today we raced the Assault on Devils Kitchen at the Tour of the Catskills. This is the hardest ride I've ever done. 65 miles of racing with about 6000ft of climbing and a 5km climb at the end of the race with up to a 16.7% grade.

This was a cat 4/5 mixed race with a field of about 75. It started out with a lot of climbing that split the field up quick. I was on the back of the lead pack which was about 15-20 racers. I fell of the group a few times and had to work a lot to get back. At one point there was a minor crash in front of me which caused me to lose them by quite a big gap. Luckily there was a huge descent coming up. I rode down the whole thing without touching my brakes in order to catch up. There was no visible pack behind me, so If I didn't catch up, I was pushing the wind by myself.

I stayed in the group with my teammate Alan (who ended up 17th) and my friend Eli who took 4th. As we were coming down another descent which went around a corner, my rear end kicked out sideways and I almost crashed. I got up out of my saddle and realized that my tire had gone flat. This was 2/3 into the race. I was pissed as I knew this would kill my race.

I waited at the intersection but it took about 20 minutes until a support car showed up. We had this great idea at the beginning that it wasn't worth it to carry a flat kit because once you flat you are pretty much done. That was a stupid idea. During the time I waited I watched the rest of the field pass me by. My other teammate Johnny stopped as I was fixing my flat, and we rode off together in dead last place.

Johnny didn't seem to have much left in him so he stuck behind me as I pushed the headwind and my limits for another 20 miles. I picked off a bunch of racers along the way, I'm not really sure how many. I didn't look back until after about 10 miles, and I realized that Johnny was nowhere to be seen. There was a pro 1/2/3 girl who had latched on to my wheel. I was mistaking the sound of her bike for Johnny's. Either way, I kept pushing until I hit the wall. By wall I mean the devils kitchen climb.

I was wondering when the climb would be coming up, and it was obvious. It looked like a fucking wall. I could see people ahead of me struggling on the first 100 meters. My body had energy but my legs were dead from pushing so hard on the way there. I made it up most of it but I had to get off at a couple points. 80% of the people around me were walking their bikes. It was so steep that it was actually hard to walk up. My heart rate was through the roof and I felt like I was seeing stars. Shit was intense.

After the relief of finishing the climb, the last 5 miles or so until the end were rough. I was out of water, light headed and felt like I was going to pass out from heat exhaustion. I found myself again alone and just pushed through it. I surprised myself actually as I seemed to still have a bit left in reserve. I picked off a few more on the last stretch.

Overall I ended up 39th. I am still happy with the result because of my huge setback. I know I would have done much better had I not flatted, but thats the price we pay. The feeling after dismounting the bike when I was done was indescribable. I was so spaced out and couldn't make sense of anything around me. After drinking a ton of water, coke, muffins, a cheeseburger and a beer, I sort of realigned my head.

I'm not gonna lie, right now I can say that I don't ever want to do that climb again. I have a feeling that will change and I will probably do this again next year. Somehow through the pain that we endure, there is pleasure, and looking back at today I can somehow say that I had a great time. Til next year?...

The race:



A few photos via instagram:

3 bikes stuffed into a Honda CRV

finish line

race and reward

sunset on the way home

Things as of late...

July was a crazy month. I have been racing here and there, but overall just training, eating well and riding like crazy. Its safe to say that those 3 things are consuming my life at the moment. When I'm not doing something to push myself forward, all I'm doing is thinking about my next move, my next ride, my next experience.

I put in just under 900 miles in July which is the most I've ever ridden in a month. I also attribute a little of it to the fact that I now own a Garmin and document every mile I ride. Either way I'm proud of myself. The feeling of progression is addictive. Once you realize that it is happening, there is no way to hold back from pushing harder. I'm not a young kid anymore. Believe it or not, I'm 36. A lot of the people I ride and battle with are 10 years younger than me.

I am currently finishing out the road season riding for Team Cicli Devotion. I'm very happy to be part of a solid team with some great dudes. I feel as it is a great fit for me and I am looking forward to learning some better racing skills and training with them. My cat 4 upgrade is coming up soon. I should be ready to upgrade within the next few races.

This weekend a few of us are out to tackle the Tour of the Catskills. We are only racing Saturday. It's 65 grueling miles with what is apparently the hardest climb in the Catskills at the end of the race (devils kitchen climb). I'm looking forward to it and also nervous as fuck. I haven't done any road races outside of the NYC parks.

This past weekend we did a race in Prospect park and then headed out to the NY/NJ state line right after. It was a solid 80 miles of consistent burning in my legs. Doing a long ride after a race is brutal. Don took some shots which are on his blog along with the one of me below. See more at Donalrey.tumblr.com

Cat 4's at Prospect this past weekend

Deux North Hunt #1

I was lucky enough to hang out with all these guys the other night and see the full version of this video. This must have been such an awesome experience. You can't watch it without wanting to be a part of it. Get back to your roots. Enjoy the ride.

#HUNT1 from Deux North on Vimeo.

Brooklyn to Bear Mountain to Cold Spring 7/21/12

About 10 of us headed up to Bear mountain this past weekend. It was a perfect day weather wise as it didn't get far out of the mid 80's. Even though we pushed it pretty hard for most of it, we still found time to relax. We stopped at a cafe in Nyack for a pre-climb re-fresh. We hung out at the top of Bear for awhile and enjoyed the sights, and once we got to Cold spring, we all sat down and enjoyed our prize...Beer and food! Nothing tastes as good as a cold beer and a Cheeseburger after a ride like that.

sunrise over the manhattan bridge

on the way out

top of Bear

Al, top of Bear

Cycleangelo's Colnago

Waiting for trains...

River Road Repeats

Last Wednesday Angelo, Jonathan and I decided it would be a good idea to head out with the intention of doing 10 repeats on Alpine climb. We accomplished our goal. The hardest part was melting on the way back home. The heat index was 107 degrees. My water hurt to drink because it was so hot. :suffer->conquer:

Jonathan on river rd

July 2012 vacation

(About 2 weeks overdue)

I just got off of what ended up being an almost 2 week vacation. I stayed in NYC for most of it. My brother and his fiancee were here, and he brought his new Cannondale CAAD10 with him.

I started off back in my hometown of Rochester, NY, and spent a couple days with my family. After I returned to the city, I went on the Rapha ride (posted earlier). The next week was spent eating and drinking a lot (especially on the 4th), and of course, riding.

My brother hasn't really done any good long rides, so I decided to take him on an excursion outside of the city. This is a normal route for me, but I was excited to show it to him for the first time. On the way to pick him up, I got doored by a cab. Getting doored is the fucking worst. When it happens, it literally comes out of nowhere. Both times its happened to me it was instantaneous and inevitable. I actually didn't fall. My friend Chris who was riding behind me said that I went completely sideways and somehow avoided the brunt of it. I hit my hand and wrist and had a golf ball size lump on my wrist. This was before I put in 60 miles.

All that and pain aside, the rest of the ride was awesome. My friend Chris and I took him down 9w via river rd. Alpine climb on river rd can be pretty tough. I was worried my bro would have trouble as he doesn't ride nearly as much as us, but he made it. We rode on to piermont, ate a little, and headed back. I took him on some side routes, and made sure to stop at Strictly bikes to oogle some bike porn. Basically I gave him the scenic tour. Even though I've done this ride 100 times, being able to show all this to him meant a lot to me.

A few days later my brother and I drove to Amagansett in the Hamptons for the weekend, and brought the bikes. My grandfathers friend owns a house there, so we're lucky for that hookup! Aside from consuming beach beers, fish tacos, lobster rolls and other random seafoods, we had a great ride out to Montauk point. It only ended up being about 40 miles, but we put in a pretty hard effort for most of the ride. It is mostly a flat ride with some minimal climbs, but its very scenic and bike friendly.

I returned to NYC late Saturday night. A bunch of us had planned to do a chill food ride to Staten Island on Sunday morning. We went to the Blue Fin Grill. We were there a few months ago and had to go back for the all-you-can-eat brunch. The place was full of families and well-dressed Sunday brunchers, and I'm with a group of Lycra clad cyclists clomping around in their bike shoes. Nevertheless, it was awesome and I left full as shit.

All in all I put in a ton of miles, hung with my family and good friends, and consumed some great food and drinks. Within 20 minutes of being back at work when I got back, I was ready for another vacation! I guess that goes without saying...

Some photos via iPhone and instagram:

west side highway

my brother, top of alpine climb

Montauk point

Bayonne bridge on the way to Staten Island

Rapha Mobile Cycle Club ride NYC 6/30/12

A bunch of us got together to hit up the Rapha MCC ride in NYC yesterday. The Brooklyn crew met up at Dough in Bed Stuy which is slowly becoming a pre-ride standard. The ride met up at Signature cycles on the west side of manhattan. The plan was to ride to Nyack to meet up with the mobile cycle club RV which was waiting at yet another doughnut spot.

Ironically, Dough in Brooklyn is on Franklin st, and Gypsy Donut in Nyack is also on Franklin st. We literally rode from one amazing doughnut spot to another. When I'm off the bike, my diet is somewhat strict and calculated. When I'm on the bike, or right after I get off, anything is fair game. I enjoyed the shit out of every crumb of both those doughnuts.

Oh yeah the ride...
We took river rd through Piermont and to Nyack. There were a couple deviations in the normal route. One that went on a backwoods gravel trail. Another on the way back home that went through an observatory. This route also avoided a big climb but replaced it with what felt like an even bigger climb.

After that climb the ride leader noticed a few of us were getting antsy and he told us to go ahead. That signal started what was the fastest pace line I've ever been in. I don't think we went under 28mph for about 10-15 minutes. At one point we were going almost 33mph. I got out front for a bit but I didn't last long. It was nuts, and kicked the shit out of me. On top of all this the average temp was about 97 degrees.

We ended the ride at Oaxaca in Manhattan for some bangin' mexican food, and then headed home. I didn't move from being in front of my AC for the rest of the day. Great ride!

View the Strava info from the ride HERE.

A few iPhone/instagram shots from the day:

Dave from the 5th floor, UK just moved to Brooklyn. He was the only one riding fixed yesterday and he killed it! 

Don's Guch

 Don's face says it all

 Beautiful Serotta at Signature Cycles

 Oaxaca

Sunday ride to Elmsford, NY and Kensico Dam 12/4/11

This past Sunday 5 of us rode through the Bronx, and up through Elmsford, NY and to Kensico Dam. Right after the Bronx, you hit trails that go most of the way there. A few parts of the trails were on dirt, gravel or mud. There were also some spots that required dismounting to walk over sketchy bridges and rock paths across water. Overall it is a really scenic route with some of the best downhill sections I've ridden. 2 guys were riding fixed, which was pretty nuts for this sort of ride. Ride totaled in to just under 76 miles.

More info on my Strava page.

A couple nice Rossin's on the bay

Anyone that knows me by now knows that I have a serious soft spot for Rossin's. I'm always searching for them online, and I'm sure at some point I'll end up with a second one. Anyways, here are a couple I came across on ebay recently:

Although I'm not a big fan of the modern components on the bike, this thing is pretty sick. I love the old TT frames, and they are super rare. Link to auction and more photos HERE.



I'm posting this one because its literally the first time in almost 2 years that I've found another Rossin like mine. This is the RLX, a columbus SLX frame. Overall, its pretty similar component-wise as mine. I think mine is in better shape though ;) Either way, its nice to know that another exists out there. Link to auction and photos HERE.

NY Century: Into the sun

Yesterday was the NY century. 4 of us rode together and put in around 116 miles total. I saw parts of NYC that I never knew existed, yet half the time I had no idea where I was. One crash and 2 flats later, we were home. Good times. Photo taken and edited on iphone 4.

Brewster ride, 9/4/11

Last Sunday a bunch of us took the train up to Brewster, NY and rode back to NYC. The ride was awesome. The weather was perfect and there was never a shortage of beautiful scenery. 80% of the ride was on backwoods trails. There were a couple of miles of dirt trails where I wish I had my CX bike. Overall we totaled a bit over 80 miles.

All photos via iphone.

This is a partial map before my phone died:


Flat top tubes make great coffee holders...










We ran into a classic car show mid way through.