FLCC> Cascadilla News Flash

[Mark Rishniw]

Ithaca Journal, Tueday Sept 25.

Cascadilla Hill Climb course revised
by Steve Lawrence

Ithaca is home to a great cycling community.  Events such as the 
Hollenbeck Spring Classic at one end of the season, and the Pink 
Slipper at the other, make for a competitive and enthusiastic bunch 
of lycra-wearing cycling enthusiasts.  One of the premier events on 
the Ithaca cycling calendar is the Cascadilla Hill Climb.  This 
gruelling, gut-wrenching, vomit-inducing head-to-head 1/4 mile sprint 
up Ithaca's own little imitation of a Swiss mountain village road, 
from Court Street/University Avenue to Stewart Avenue, pairs cyclists 
in a double-elimination contest every year in late 
September.  Winning riders end up racing at least 5 times, and often 
6 or 7 times over the course of the morning, generating veritable 
pints of lactic acid.

The Cascadilla Hill Climb is scheduled to take place again this 
Saturday morning.  However, unlike previous years, the Hillclimb will 
not take place on Cascadilla Ave, but has been moved to the 
Waterfront Trails in Kass Park, along the Cayuga Lake Inlet, as part 
of a promotion of Waterfront Trail use by the Ithaca Common 
Council.  Competitors will race each other along the Waterfront trail 
from the base of the bridge on Rte 89 to the Hangar Theater, while 
dodging pedestrians.  Riders will stop at each exercise station along 
the trail and perform the exercises or activities described at each 
station before remounting and proceeding to the next station.

This interesting twist to the Cascadilla Hill Climb appears to 
strongly favor those competitors who are gravitationally encumbered, 
and find riding the actual Cascadilla Hill too difficult.  Come and 
support your favorite rider at Kass Park this Saturday morning.