prankster

Racers,

I will be visiting NY in the last week of October. Are there road race events (if any) I should do? I know the road race in late October is pretty much done. I just wanted to make sure. If not, group rides? Preferably A group ride, if not something scenic.

Wifey will be attending a medical conference for the whole week and we will be staying in Times Square area.

Please let me know. Thanks in advance!

gsteinb

I think a week later and you could do the turkey race in central park.

group ride and scenic sort of depends on your ability to get out of the city.

On saturdays in park ridge NJ there's a group ride that leaves cyclesport bike shop at 8am
Also on Saturdays and Sundays there's the gimbels ride which leaves the gimbels parking lot (note - gimbels closed in 1987).
On Sundays in Nyack in the Nyack ride. It's 40 or 50 miles, and leaves at 8 or 9 am (8 & 50 before the clocks change, 9 and 40 after the clocks change).

But all those things are hella far and early from Time's square.

NYMXer

Would you mind PMing me the details of these rides, such as meeting place, pace, etc?

gsteinb

Sorry, that's pretty much what I got

cyclesport park ridge NJ 8:00am saturday
gimbels parking lot saturday and sunday never done it so I don't know the time
nyack bike shop sunday 8 or 9 am (8 & 50 before the clocks change, 9 and 40 after the clocks change

all this stuff is readily discussed on the interwebs so google is your friend

NYMXer

You brought it up so I assumed you were familiar with the group rides and could offer information for all to read and benefit from.
I apologize for taking up your time for selfish reasons.

NYMXer

Our club rides out of Florida NY, which is about a 90 minute drive from NYC. We ride every Saturday morning and this time of year, we depart at 8:30 sharp. There are many different levels of group rides to join in on and we have some very fast A and AA cyclists. Sometimes, the West Point Cycle Team will join us and then the pace gets real fast and competitive.

Look it up on the club website, https://ocbicycleclub.org/

gsteinb

I gave you locations, days, and times and you want something more? Plus I pointed out that there's loads of information about these rides on the internet. I can send an uber for you maybe.

globecanvas

Gimbels, Nyack, and the Hump ride (the Florida NY mentioned above) are all competitive drop rides that do the same route every week. There's also the Finkraft Slam ride, Saturday AM out of Greenwich CT, very fast, route varies.

Also on any given day you can just ride to the GWB and wait for a group of hammerheads to come by for a somewhat scenic ride to the Fungible Goon or whatever that bakery is called in Nyack.

Or, 10/23 there's the CCAP donut derby in CT.

furiousferret

I think there's more content on this site about Nyack than Paris Roubaix.

globecanvas

Nyack is a great place to be a dentist with a bespoke Ti bicycle.

TheKillerPenguin

I grew up in Nyack and that is an accurate assessment.

1nterceptor

Check out New York Cycle Club's site; most rides start out in Manhattan:
https://nycc.org/upcoming-rides

You won't see the details of the ride; start location, start time, etc.; if you're
not a member. But contact them & mention the one ride try out for non-members.
They have A, B, c rides; various mileage - 18 to over 100 miles.

hack

East Coast Nyack seems much more lively than West Coast Nyack. Our Nyack has a Shell branded gas station, a Burger King, and a tow truck service. However, it is the go to spot for all the local news stations to report on the first snow of the season.

gsteinb

Is that a California ride?

furiousferret

No but some us use it as a primer for Spectrum, Raincross, or Swamis.

caloso

Same report every year: B-roll of a Suburban stuck in a snowbank. Kids from San Jose who have never seen snow. Chain monkeys in their yellow rubber snow suits. It's also how you know who's the lowest reporter on the totem pole at the news station. Pre-satellite truck, they could do a line of sight transmission to Sacramento from Blue Canyon.

FFJ

I live on the UWS of Manhattan, so only a couple dozen blocks uptown from where you'll be staying.


IMO, the best/most convenient group ride on weekends is the Sunday "Nyack" ride, which everyone I know calls the Rocket Ride. It starts in Nyack, which is around 25 miles north of the city, but the group I ride with frequently rides up to Jersey, rides north along Piermont Road until we see the group riding south, and then turn around to join the group maybe 10 miles into the ride.


The time and distance of the ride changes sometime around when Daylight Saving Time ends, and I don't recall offhand the specifics, but if you go to the facebook page (here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/281306451943156/) and ask, someone will reply and let you know the start time and distance for your weekend.


Unfortunately, other than the Turkey Race on November 13, there do not appear to be any more road races in the NYC area this year. There were a few races in Prospect and Floyd Bennett Field that went into October last year, but they didn't return to the calendar this year.

prankster

Thanks for all the suggestions guys! I will research them at home. Office firewall blocks some "uncategorized" websites.

One question, for those who suggested rides outside NY, e.g. Donut Derby in CT, what is the method of transportation? I don't think rental car is an option as it wouldn't be reimbursed by my wife's employer.

gsteinb

donut derby

at least theoretically you could train (metro north) up to one of the stations near new london and uber or something over to the race

https://www.google.com/maps/dir//41....a=!4m2!4m1!3e0


realistically I reckon the logistics of a 10am start and doing that could be daunting.

https://www.bikereg.com/ccap-donut-derby

globecanvas

That one would probably require a car. You can take your bike on the train (Metro North for NY/CT, Path for NJ) to most of the other rides mentioned.

botto 

perhaps a post ride massage?

NYMXer

Well, now you are being helpful.... maybe

YMCA

ride around the city jumping cars, an hour of that will be plenty

carpediemracing 

Donut Derby - if you're on FB you might be able to hitch a ride from someone. It's definitely more of a fun ride, low key, people may dress up in costume for it (one Masters rider rode as Daisy Duke for example, there was a Batman or Spiderman or some other super hero).

The opening challenge is something quite substantial, I'll call it a 20% grade on a dirt road, and it goes for some time, meaning you can't just muscle over it (BikeReg description says 1 km long, which is probably about right). Although I didn't resort to walking it I did turn around one the last lap I started. I think I last used a 44x25 (remnant from crit season) and it was way too big for me.

The reward is some nice swoopy curves on the descent, some of the most fun I've had on a descent around here.

carpediemracing 

Would this get you a ticket in NYC?

I used to do that before all the bike lane nonsense, even to the point of making trips into the city on the train in order to ride in lower-mid Manhattan. Nowadays with the bike lanes I have no idea what's allowed or not.