Getting excited
The Saturn Rochester Twilight Criterium bike race is Saturday. I’m getting pumped over it.
That the $27,000 total purse is attracting pro-level teams is nice, but what does it for me is that the course covers several streets I ride a couple of times a week, and anything that closes so many streets downtown is a good thing. If you visit the site, on the Competitor’s page there’s a course overview that includes a map (click for larger) and a video overview of the course.
The part I regularly ride is from the Kodak First Turn (although I come at it from the opposite direction and make a left) to the Excellus High-Speed 90 [degree turn] where I take a left again to join the west side of the Riverway Trial. The video opens partway through this section with the Monroe County Jail dead ahead across the intersection where the course turns right (and I turn left).
Twenty-seven seconds in is the first pass through the DPI Crossfire turn. The course passes through this intersection twice and promises to be a good place see a lot of action. At 0:54, it’s a good example of how all downhills in Rochester end at a stop sign. At 1:20, you’ve rounded the block and returned to the DPI Crossfire turn.
At 1:30 or so into the video, you’re crossing the Broad Street bridge. Once upon a time, it carried the Erie Canal across the river before the canal was rerouted south of the city. Then it was used for the subway, back when we had a subway in town. Interestingly, the latest pie-in-the-sky proposal for downtown is to rip up a mile-and-a-half of Broad St, and refill it with water, including this bridge.
Anyway, to the right in this scene, is the back side of the Rundel Memorial Building of the Central Branch of the Rocheser Public Library (Literature, Children’s, Stacks, Videos and Administration). To the left is the “corkscrew” ramp of the South Ave Parking Garage, before it collapsed a few weeks ago. Ahead, the building with the shiny, pointy roof is Bauch & Lomb’s world headquarters and just behind it, Xerox Tower, which was modeled after the World Trade Center towers, but at about one-third scale. And there’s only the one.
At about 2 minutes into the video, is a turn into a sort of courtyard between the B&L tower, the “new” B&L Building of the Rochester Public Library (Non-fiction, Art, Music, classrooms) and yet another parking garage.
Turning the corner, the video doesn’t do justice to how small this space is and how tight the corners are. It’s a lot of fun riding through there. The turn starting at 2:15 is a complete 180° to the right, just after a 90° to the left. These turns are comfortable for me at only about 10 mph. It’s that tight. (Of course, I have to stop the the light too, so there’s no reson for me to go any faster.) And it promises to be another great place to catch a lot of action.
From 2:30 to 2:36, that’s the world famous Dinosaur BBQ (and northern terminus of the east side of the Riverway Trail) on the left, and the Rundel Building again on the right.
Before and after the crit
Among the gifts I got at my no-gifts birthday party (which made it awkward for those who obeyed my request) was a gift certificate to Towner’s Bike Shop. I swung by on Monday and ordered a new cassette. (That’s the gears on the back wheel.) I discussed the strategy a few entries ago, but in short, the new cogs should match my riding style and the local terrain better, making it easier to maintain a steady cadence. It’s supposed to come in on Friday. I’ll have it installed on Saturday morning.
On Sunday, I’m going to try my first group ride. It’s one of the Rochester Bicycling Club’s “Slow & Easy” rides—a 14-mile spin along the Canalway Trail. It’s a seven-mile ride to the beginning of the ride and back, and with a victory lap or two at home, I can clear 30 miles on the day. I’ll leave here at noon to have plenty of time to make the 1:00 start.
The ride leader is a gal I’ve met only online in the Bicycling Love Forum. I’m looking forward to meeting and riding with her. I’m trying to get Mark and another guy I met on BikeForums.net to come along too.
Later…
Dang! Have to reset the clock.
Thirty-eight days without being in a motor vehicle. A friend asked if I wanted to go to Sam’s Club tonight. I needed stuff there and I don’t have a membership of my own, and some of the individual items I bought are too big to haul on the bike (let alone the whole purchase), so there was really no other choice.
Still, I feel so… so… dirty.
