Tioga Velo Club invites you to join our club’s weekly TT on Tuesday evening, 7 July, in Tioga Center as the TVC does a practice run of the NY TT Championship Course in Tioga Center. This is a challenging, winding course that runs about the length of Halsey Valley Road and back (see profile below). We’ll have orange cones out for both 20km and 40km turn-arounds. Continue reading →
 |
Emily Guzas will be leading this week’s women’s mountain bike ride at Shindagin Hollow since I’ll be out of town. Details below: We can meet at the parking lot on Braley Hill Rd. at 6:00 pm on Tues. 6/30. I’ll send out a cancellation notice (to the flfc listserv) if weather looks iffy. To get to the parking lot, go to the corner of Braley Hill Rd and Bald Hill Rd (see map, below) then keep going for another few hundred feet. Specifically: Continue reading →
Five Ithaca women ventured out to Saratoga Springs, NY this past weekend to participate in a mountain biking clinic hosted by Team Luna Chix of New York. Two summers ago, I participated in a downhilling mountain bike clinic at Whiteface mountain organized by the same group, and it had been a blast! I had no trouble at all recruiting four other women to join me for a tamer skills clinic. Jimena Florit-Dolzadelli, our instructor, has over 12 years of professional racing experience and several NORBA championships on her resume, and competed in two Olympic Games. After showing us several drills that included the fine arts of track stands, bunny hops, wheelies, figure eights, riding over small ramps and drops, she would yell out enthusiastically, “Alright, let’s do it!” with a huge grin across her face. Continue reading →
Andrejs Ozolins, Mary Bouchard, Steve Powell and the Monkmans joined the Southern Tier Bike Club for their annual Great Finger Lakes Bicycle Tour this past weekend. The STBC were marvelous hosts! The food was delicious and in quantities befitting bicyclists, the routes were scenic and peaceful and the entertainment , well, the entertainment was almost X rated. On Friday evening I read the schedule of events for the weekend and wondered to myself “Hmmm, what’s this fashion show on Saturday evening?” Dear God, it was the most hideous collection of cycling clothing that I’ve ever laid eyes on. And, the entire collection was on one person! Layer after layer came off. Tights, jerseys, shorts, and speedos. When he reached his last pair of tights, the crowd yelled for more. When he reached his last speedo, the crowd begged him to stop! Alas, he didn’t…. Ever go cycling in a thong? Here’s a link to the slideshow of photos (sorry none from the fashion show) http://picasaweb.google.com/PMonkman/WatkinsGlenWeekendBikeTour#  plus Vanessa and me taking the photo We made it a little over 6 miles and our first calamity happened in Brooktondale with the aweful sound of a chain crunch and sure enough, it was toast. Christine was just too strong on that hill heading out Valley Road and snapped that baby to bits! We quickly put our heads together and decided it would be best she get a ride home since the few of us with her and the correct tool had no idea how to use it and didn’t feel this was the time to learn. We left her in good hands with her husband coming to the rescue and we TT’d up the road to catch the others. The night was beautiful and the temp ever so perfect. The scenery going up old 76 was so pristine with yummy shades of green. We crested Caroline and headed over to do the Yaple loop enjoing the downhill we encountered for a couple miles. As I was heading into the turn, I saw a long sad faced Mary Anne and so I turned around. She was holding her rear derailleur cable in her hand and was stuck in her hardest gears. Soon I had Cynthia and Charlsie’s Mom that turned around to help. I was prepared for this one because I had zip ties in my saddle bag, but I had left that in my trunk back at the parking lot. I had just snapped my cable off at the shifters a couple days ago so I had some idea of how to set the derailleur to the easiest gear to get you home. We used a bungie cord from handle bars and had her up and running in about 10 minutes. I was so excited I got on my bike and fell over. Smacked my hip and have a nice bruise to prove it. Kelly came back with a cell phone to let the front group know all was well and we were back on route. It was quite a site with Mary Anne spinning like a Singer sewing machine down level green and flat iron. She kept saying she had shifter envy. Kelly managed to push her when it was getting really pathetic and her legs could not spin fast enough. All in all we still made the 30 miles and got back by 8pm in almost one piece.
Thanks to Cynthia for taking the fabulous photo. We ended up with 14 women total and some new faces as usual. Hope to see some of the familiar faces back again soon! Well, folks — it’s history, and memorable history for sure. 
Not a single drop of rain was felt by the array of flair, floats and awesome get-ups presented by the lurkers, Continue reading → Now is the time to sign-up for a weekend bike tour along the car-free Erie Canal trail, organized by the FLCC Touring Group.
We will drive to Fairport on Saturday morning and bicycle to Holley (35 miles) where we will camp. We will reverse course on Sunday, ending in Fairport in mid-afternoon, and then drive back to Ithaca. There will be plenty of opportunities for rest, food, and ice cream along the beautiful canal trail. Continue reading → This is the info I just received: Some of us should arrive by 5:45 pm. Everyone else can try to get there some time after the fun run because we are way in the back. Number 67 out of 80. We also are right behind the “Out Loud Chorus” so we better make a loud impression folks! Families could even watch most of the parade near the start area and just be ready to join in. Continue reading → |
Coming Up
|
|
Copyright © 2009 Finger Lakes Cycling Club - all rights reserved |
||
A full day of rain couldn’t hold back our group of 27 riders and 3 support people from participating in a weekend of bike touring and camping along the Erie Canal. 17 young people, aged 4 to 14, along with 10 parents, rode the 39 miles from Fairport to Holley along what normally is one of the most popular sections of the Erie Canal towpath trail (on a sunny day, that is!). We ate lunch under a freeway overpass to get out of the rain, and converted our afternoon ice cream stop into a hot chocolate stop, and then set up camp at the lovely Holley canal port. Warm showers and 8 pounds of pasta and 6 quarts of sauce later we were happy campers. The weather was terrific the next day for our return ride to Fairport, which finally did include ice cream. This is the first of what we hope will be many more bike tours especially for young people and families. 
Here we are at 5:58pm and the ride leaves in 2 minutes flat. Sara and Erin came whipping into the parking lot in a car with their helmets on begging us not to leave without them. “Last minute Ladies” we called them. So we were off to another dry evening of fun riding and even Lisa managed to go as hard as she could to find us on Ringwood. Christine and Ace were setting a blistering pace for the front group but seemed to settle down a bit after climbing Ringwood. Then we had a lovely cruise down the other side and through upper/lower creek, back to EHP.
Yippee! The Ithaca Festival Parade is tomorrow – Thursday, May 28th, starting at 6:30 pm. Please read carefully and share with all members of your group the following guidelines and your staging location.
Recent Comments