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Cycling at the Empire State Senior Games
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Ann Shapiro, approaching the finish of the 10K TT. |
The cycling for the Empire State Senior Games was held at Greek Peak the weekend of June 12-13. This was the first year that I participated and I had a wonderful time. Matt Howey did a fine job of organizing them. A number of volunteers from the FLCC helped. Andrejs and Peter Ozolins, Mark Rishniw, and Kerry Kaylegian helped with the TTs on Saturday and Rob Hanlon worked at the RR on Sunday.
Tob de Boer won a bronze in the RR. The top rider in the FLCC was Anne Shapiro with silver in each TT and gold in the RR. These were Anne's first races. Rumor has it that Anne will be going pro next season. Lance Armstrong, watch out!
All three races start at Greek Peak. Both TTs have a turnaround. The 5K TT goes west towards Virgil and is relatively flat. Of course it is over very quickly - my time was 7:43. I thought I rode reasonably well and I got a bronze medal and fourth overall. I was only a few seconds behind Chuck Dominick who won the bronze and only 12 second back from the gold medalist. My age bracket (55-59) turned out to be the most competitive. If I had been 54 rather than 55, I would have gotten a gold medal. The 10K TT heads east and the turnaround is past Parker. So the first 5K is mostly downhill with a lot of climbing on the return. I wasn't sure how to ride the rollers but decided to stand up on the rises and try to power over them. I think that worked best but I cannot be sure since I didn't try the alternative of staying sitting and in an aero position. It was hard to get in a real rhythm because of the constant changes in grade. The results were similar to the 5K and I got another bronze.
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Dave Ruppert with TT medal |
The 20K RR goes to Virgil and then there are three loops around a triangular circuit with lots of short hills. After the three loops, the course goes back to Greek Peak. I wasn't sure how I would do since I'm not a great climber and I'm usually stronger in the TT than in a RR. Chuck Dominick, who beat me in both TTs, looks like a better climber than a time trailer so I was watching him closely. The pace was slow at first so, using what I have been learning on Tuesday nights, I attacked on a rise and got the field to start working. Several of us attacked on the first loop and at the beginning of the second loop there were four of us, Norm Ashbarry, Ivan Lennon, Chuck Dominick, and myself. We stayed together for the second loop and seemed to be increasing the gap over the field. On the third loop Ivan surged ahead and I noticed that Norm and Chuck were dropping back. I stood up over the last and hardest climb and at the end of the rise I had a nice gap over Norm and Chuck was far enough back that I could not see him. Riding back to Greek Peak there was Ivan about 100-200 yards ahead of me and Norm about the same distance back. The gaps hardly changed during the last 3 miles. So I ended up second overall with a gold medal since Ivan was in the 60-64 bracket. Interestingly, the top three finished oldest to youngest.
Dave Ruppert |
