Race Report


2007 Cranksgiving Race Report

The most important part was not the cranks but the giving.  Post-race all eighty five competitors plus crew pedaled their bikes to the St. Mary's Church and made a difference.  Several hundred items of food were donated to the ecstatic organization who in turn provided a warm and filling meal to the unfortunate this Thanksgiving.   

The format for the race was clever combining shopping and alley cat style bike racing.  Race organizer Ken supplied a Sudoku like puzzle with four rows and four columns worth of Manhattan grocery stores.  Only four stores had to be hit but the trick was each row and each column (representing one of four chains) had to be included.  Food options were also divided up into a 4x4 table which required one item from each row purchased.  I teamed up with Izumi, Cooper and Jeremy Cox on cracking this brain numbing puzzle.  If we went here we couldn't go there, if we went downtown we had to go uptown.  There was no stand out simple route and massive amounts of frantic scribbling on our maps took place before the final route was decided.  Brantley showed up late and put himself on our route.  Our plan basically made a large square out of Manhattan.

The field was maxed out with most of NYC's heavy hitters present.  Last years champ Yatika was missing but the usual protagonists Austin, Crihs, and Dan Chabanov were on the start line.  Pablo, Brantley, Izumi, Prentiss, Andrew, Prentiss, Fernando, and legendary Squid filled out the tough field.

Below is how the race unfolded.      

My body was static but my mind had already been suffering from the side effects of being switched to race mode five minutes early.  High levels of concentration and adrenaline are fully kicking by the drop of the green flag.  This mental preparation is key to the hole shot.  As Ken yells the start command I'm bouncing my bike down some steps, off a short ledge and onto the open road.  The 10th Ave dash began and I as usual having nothing but loads of daylight stretching out into distance.  I'm leading but quickly joined by Jeremy, child prodigy Cooper, and Pablo.  A few blocks later Dan and Crihs hit 10th Ave half a block in front of our group.  The pace is already hard but moderated by numerous red lights.  Traffic is suspiciously light so when Cooper drops us splitting a signal I raise an eyebrow of concern.  Dan and Chris pull off 10th pursuing their route.  A few blocks near 86th St.Pablo also goes his separate way.  My field hits the hard right at 86th with Jeremy, Prentiss, and Brantley still in contact.  Cooper remains off the front with a block and half gap.  Cross town traffic is thick and juicy but we're passing it like a knife through hot butter.  The race pace continues to rise as I pull the field through the Central Park transverse.  Prentiss hits it hard on the exit at 84th St. and I struggle to hang onto his wheel.  Every obstacle, vehicle, pedestrian, red light, and various road hazard melts away into a tunnel vision induces stupor which defies sanity.  The bike I'm on is brakeless which is good because I'm not slowing down for anything.

Brantley and I quickly organize a pact which will see our shopping duties shared.  Cooper is first in the store and first out followed closely by Brantley who has purchased huge double packs of dry stuffing.  While I'm outside attending the bikes a half dozen more riders dash into the store including Izumi who is thick in the main pack after a slow start.  The gap to Cooper is steady but Prentiss and Jeremy are now gone forever.  The south bound traffic on 2nd Ave is gridlock hell all the way from 86th to the Queensboro Bridge entrance.  Brantley and I are struggling to zig and zag our way through the mess but so is Cooper who remains within striking distance.  The road finally opens and the chase begins.  Brantley and I fly over a few short rollers while up the road the young kid frantically searches for skitches.  I'm nervous because I know if Cooper lands a lucky one it could be race over for the middle aged.  Near the UN we encounter the steepest climb, Cooper puts the power on over the accent but lifts off the gas on the decent and we instantly erase his lead.  At 34th St I grab onto a charter bus, Cooper is directly behind me also hanging on (and drafting!).  Brantley sensing the opportunity grabs onto the adjacent side.  The bus driver is a champ, his perfectly constant 23 mph pace hits every green light all the way to 14th St.  It's hard left on 14th and I'm almost taken out by a minivan forcing me hard onto the sidewalk.   Brantley follows but Cooper inches away again.

The C-Town on Avenue D is already being ransacked by Dan Chabanov with Austin on bike duty when we arrive.  I dash into the store with a frantic calmness.  The trick to the rudeness of this race is to do it with extreme politeness.  True I'm sprinting through the halls of a crowed grocery store demanding cranberry sauce but I'm doing it in a calm and courteous voice.  I am even ushered straight to the front of a five deep line because of my charity inspired explanation.  I'm out of there in half the time of Dan and Cooper and onto the next checkpoint.  The next store is relatively close on Third Avenue but cross-town traffic on 14th causes dangerous delays.  We hit a wall of fast moving traffic on 2nd Avenue and instead of waiting for a hole we make a hard right into traffic.  A few hairy blocks later we make a left on 17th and over to 3rd.  3rd Avenue is where we make our single blunder.  The MET store is on 17th but we get ahead of ourselves and head up 3rd and through 18th before the mistake is calculated.  Brantley hits his front brake and I hit him hard.  I recover from the accident and retreat to 17th.  It may be Brantley's turn to go shopping but he's nowhere to be seen so I readjust my strategy and barrel in.  I quickly locate the bean aisle, cut to the front of the line and find Brantley freaking out in front of the store.  Apparently my hit had taco'd his rear wheel but he's rolling again after truing it with his foot.  The bike has a nasty wobble and I mutter a fleeting apology as we head several blocks northeast to the final checkpoint.

The final checkpoint is an Associated Grocery store on Park and 22nd.  Brantley runs in without knowing what to get which is important because the wrong item at the wrong time is grounds for disqualification.  I'm double checking the manifest and chasing after him screaming instructions to buy canned sweet corn.  It seems like half the field is in the store on their second and third checkpoints so the staff is already less than amused.  A few moments later Cooper rolls in followed a few minutes later by Pablo.  The minutes tick by slowly waiting for Brantley to emerge.  I try to calm my nerves by chatting with a girl whose teammate is also in the midst of shopping.  Finally a heavily stressed Brantley reappears and nothing is left but the cross-town battle to the finish.  Up to this point I'm calling out every turn for Brantley who an instant before was my teammate.  Together we fought off our rivals and now the battle is to be decided between us so I'm giving nothing away.  We snake our way onto 23rd and the attacks commence immediately.  I'm sprinting hard but Brantley, busted wheel and all, is having no problem matching my pace.  I inch away coming to 8th Avenue but a horde of pedestrian targets swarm across the road.  I whip my skidding bike through a foot wide gap between a pregnant lady and another pushing a double stroller.  The resulting hysterical curse filled berating rolls off my back as I loose position to Brantley.  Another hard effort and we are back together and blowing smoothly through 9th Avenue.  The finish is at 11th Avenue and in sight.  10th Avenue doesn't accumulate the gridlock of the middle Avenues so the red light that greets us is followed by fast heavy cross traffic.  I go for broke and throw my bike immediately across two of the five lanes.  I've got one eye on Brantley and the other on the vehicles bearing down on me.  Lane number three is un-passable for half a dozen cars so instead of losing momentum I make a sharp right and head north a quarter block.  My peripheral vision senses a small opening and I double back diagonally across the two remaining lanes causing a symphony of screeching tires and horn blasts.  Brantley is momentarily out of site but he's there haven gotten through the intersection maybe twenty feet back.  I launch the sprint and take the win.

Here's a link to our race route and results

Race Route


Race Results