FLCC> [Cookies] Updates to the web site - off road

[Tom Swensen]

i threw this idea out to ernie before.  i like to blast shindigan  
hollow to banks through brooktondale as a one way TT.  warmup riding  
out there and hammer back towards ithaca for about 7 to 9 miles.   
hardly any traffic and nice roads with clear sight lines.  no stop  
signs or turns, and there are a few parts where 40 mph is possible.   
that's fun on the aerobars.  the course has a bit of downhill and with  
a southerly wind, is quite fast.  for variety, you can start at banks  
or anywhere along the way and head up ole 76, stopping at caroline  
center or turning around and heading back for an out and back—a  
variation of the state TT glenn organized a few years back.

i would be willing to organize/keep track of this on saturdays; i have  
baseball games on thurs (coaching).  i always found a TT on sat and  
long ride sunday to be a great training stimulus.  if on sat, you  
could ride a few more miles if inclined or stop at the brooktondale  
store for a snack.  i think riding there is more conducive to getting  
kids and families out.  i know my son (he's 12) is not comfortable on  
coddington; i dont like it much either.  a few kids may help get other  
kids out; it would be great to get a cluster of kids riding.  in the  
summers, you could race and then swim in 6 mile creek.

perhaps a few TT in several locations as part of a series.  most TT  
would be centered near ithaca, but there could be the occasional one  
elsewhere, like on 228 out of mecklenburg—that's a great road with a  
southerly wind too.  a TTT would be fun, too, and very tough.  we did  
some of those in TN in the grad school days when i organized a pre- 
season training series.  we broke the club into teams and competed  
fiercely through various ITT, TTT, crits, RR, and points races.


on another note, i think we have a very grand potential dirt/TT RR  
course.  there is a nice loop that involves heading south on s. danby,  
right on gun club road (dirt hill), right on fisher settlement  
(rolling dirt) and right again on s. danby.  looks like a 12 mile  
loop.  no flat stretch, no traffic, and decent dirt roads; i am sure  
there is a place to find some good parking, too.   i look at the  
battenkill race, held in april, and see it sold out in december.   
there is a market for this kind of masochism.

tom




On Mar 26, 2009, at 12:05 AM, Ernie Bayles wrote:

> Yman,
>
> Actually, the TT series was generally dead before our esteemed  
> president started to keep track of the times and post them.  That  
> small effort, I think, was responsible for keeping people coming out  
> and increasing participation considerably.  If someone were to  
> develop some sort of "standings" whether they are simply best time,  
> or handicapped in some way (quantity of aero equipment for one), or  
> maybe based partially on attendance, I'm pretty certain that it  
> would encourage more people to repeat.
> I didn't think the coddington course was in that bad a shape, but I  
> haven't raced it since last May.  Certainly the Cayutaville course  
> is nicer in many ways, but it's a bit of a haul for a lot of folk.   
> I'd guess that Bostwick is just too busy to be much fun (plus the  
> hill is daunting).  We used to do a course that went from B'dale to  
> Speedsville that had a pretty good hill in it.  This might be a good  
> alternative.  Still, Coddington remains the gold standard against  
> which all times are tested.
>
> I'm sure that if someone is willing to organize this a little bit,  
> people will go whereever.  What we don't really need is competing  
> venues.  Even though a TT is a solitary sport, it's a lot more fun  
> to come out when there's a mess of riders than when there's only a  
> few.  So we should endeavor not to dilute what we have.  Note that  
> there are also some people who would only use one course so they can  
> track their progress more accurately.
> But, in the end, I'd say that any effort to get results recorded and  
> organized in any meaningful way goes a long ways towards getting new  
> blood into the sport.  Go for it.
>
> Ernie
>
> Cameron Cogburn wrote:
>
>> One thing I have always thought would be cool is to have an off- 
>> road  time trial on the gravel snowmobile track that directly  
>> parallels  Coddington Rd from near the Community Center all the way  
>> out to  Willseyville. Unfortunately, the path crosses a couple of  
>> roads on the  way out, which means one has to slow down and be  
>> alert, thus almost  certainly exempting it from being used in any  
>> type of "race"  situation. Perhaps there is somewhere else that is  
>> close for something  like this...
>>
>> Not to hijack the topic, but another thing I've been thinking  
>> about  and mentioned to Peter Ozolins was that since Coddington is  
>> in such  bad shape, we should switch off weeks between Coddington  
>> and Bostwick  and maybe even the Cayutaville TT. My true hope would  
>> be to turn it  into an informal series with different  
>> "classes" (e.g. collegiate,  open, women, masters) with an end-of- 
>> the-season prize along the lines  of the pink slipper. Coddington  
>> has a net loss in elevation, Bostwick  has a net gain in elevation,  
>> and Cayutaville is almost as flat as a  pancake and is out-and- 
>> back, thus offering something up for every type  of rider,  
>> regardless of special aero equipment (especially true with   
>> Bostwick).
>>
>> Thoughts? It has seemed like less and less people have been coming  
>> out  to the Thursday night Coddington TT, and I suspect (as this is  
>> my  excuse) that it is because Coddington is in such bad shape.
>>
>> -Cameron
>>
>>
>> On Mar 25, 2009, at 10:29 PM, Ernie Bayles wrote:
>>
>>> Pretty nice page.  The only improvement I might suggest is to set  
>>> up  your links to open in a new window.  It takes a while to load  
>>> the  page when you use the back button.
>>>
>>> We used to have that great friday night race series......  so a  
>>> ride  would be good.  I won't be coming for a few months probably,  
>>> but I  should be gtg before fall.
>>>
>>> e
>>>
>>
>>
>
> -- 
> Ernie Bayles, Architect
> 209 Utica Street
> Ithaca, New York  14850
>
> 607-275-3722 (tel and fax)
>
>
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________________
Tom Swensen, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Exercise and Sport Sciences
Ithaca College
Ithaca NY  14850

607.274.3114
tswensen at ithaca.edu