# Gfny



## TricrossRich (Mar 26, 2014)

Picked up my packet today.. and that place was a major s**t-show. Embarrassingly unorganized, especially when compared to the 5Boro packet pick-up.... and I think 5Boro was dealing with 30K people, while GFNY has to deal with less than 10K. I hope this isn't a sign for how the overall ride is organized.


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## NJBiker72 (Jul 9, 2011)

TricrossRich said:


> Picked up my packet today.. and that place was a major s**t-show. Embarrassingly unorganized, especially when compared to the 5Boro packet pick-up.... and I think 5Boro was dealing with 30K people, while GFNY has to deal with less than 10K. I hope this isn't a sign for how the overall ride is organized.


I agree. The Friday is always a mess. It amazes me how much better organized GFNJ is compared to GFNY. Although posing with the podium girls is better than Marty. 

BTW, posted in another thread (did not see this one), what time did they tell you you need to be at the bridge by. My daughter is singing tonight so I would prefer to sleep as much as I can rather than spend an extra hour on the bridge.


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## TricrossRich (Mar 26, 2014)

NJBiker72 said:


> I agree. The Friday is always a mess. It amazes me how much better organized GFNJ is compared to GFNY. Although posing with the podium girls is better than Marty.


GFNJ is definitely better organized, at least in terms of packet pick up. I didn't bother posing with the podium girls yesterday... I just wanted to get out of that mess, maybe on Sunday.




NJBiker72 said:


> BTW, posted in another thread (did not see this one), what time did they tell you you need to be at the bridge by. My daughter is singing tonight so I would prefer to sleep as much as I can rather than spend an extra hour on the bridge.


No one told me anything... the information is all in that magazine that's in the goodie bag, but its so spread out and convoluted that its quite possible you read it and didn't even realize it. It is my understanding that the bridge opens to riders at 5:30 and closes at 6:15... they will NOT let any rider onto the bridge after 6:15, so if you miss it, you can still do the ride, but you want trip the start and won't get an official time.


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## TricrossRich (Mar 26, 2014)

Did the GFNY 100 yesterday.... and I'm left with a mixed bag of thoughts about the day. All in all, I'm super happy with how I did. It was my first century, but I'd been training for this and building up to it, so I felt fine all day and never felt in trouble. I did the Bear Mountain climb in 21:33 as timed by GFNY.... setting a personal best for the full climb as well. Several of my buddies did the ride with me, so we'd all regroup at the rest stops.

The Positives:: I thought the route was great... definitely some great climbs (wow, that back-half is killer). The rest stops were, for the most part well stocked and staffed with friendly helpers. I also thought they were spaced apart pretty well. The police presence at all of the major intersections was great, stopping traffic and allowing us to cross safely. They really deserve a huge shoutout, as I'm sue it was a long, hot day to be doing traffic control for a bunch of cyclists.

The Negatives:: Overall organization was severely lacking. From the get-go, I thought the delivery of relevant information was sub-par. You shouldn't have to read an online magazine where the information is spread across different stories. In order to piece together the relevant information of start time, location, parking, etc... it was lacking. I appreciate the fact that they were trying to deliver a professional experience from a branding sense, but it was just confusing and in some spots it felt like the information was somewhat contradictory. IMO, the biggest issue was food.... When we arrived at the finish line festival @ 3:45, there was no more food... gone, completely out. You've paid $200+ dollars, burned 4000 calories and they're out of food. That is downright shameful. I realize that we certainly weren't at the finish line festival when it started, but there were still plenty of people behind us and the party was supposed to go until 7... how is the food all gone at 3:45? As we sat in the food tent cooling down, drinking some water.. a pizza delivery guy arrived, with 9 pizzas. That's ridiculous! That combined with the confusing cluster-F of packet pickup on Friday makes me weary of doing this event again. I'm glad I did it and got it done, but I don't think I'd pay to do it again.


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## NJBiker72 (Jul 9, 2011)

TricrossRich said:


> Did the GFNY 100 yesterday.... and I'm left with a mixed bag of thoughts about the day. All in all, I'm super happy with how I did. It was my first century, but I'd been training for this and building up to it, so I felt fine all day and never felt in trouble. I did the Bear Mountain climb in 21:33 as timed by GFNY.... setting a personal best for the full climb as well. Several of my buddies did the ride with me, so we'd all regroup at the rest stops.
> 
> The Positives:: I thought the route was great... definitely some great climbs (wow, that back-half is killer). The rest stops were, for the most part well stocked and staffed with friendly helpers. I also thought they were spaced apart pretty well. The police presence at all of the major intersections was great, stopping traffic and allowing us to cross safely. They really deserve a huge shoutout, as I'm sue it was a long, hot day to be doing traffic control for a bunch of cyclists.
> 
> The Negatives:: Overall organization was severely lacking. From the get-go, I thought the delivery of relevant information was sub-par. You shouldn't have to read an online magazine where the information is spread across different stories. In order to piece together the relevant information of start time, location, parking, etc... it was lacking. I appreciate the fact that they were trying to deliver a professional experience from a branding sense, but it was just confusing and in some spots it felt like the information was somewhat contradictory. IMO, the biggest issue was food.... When we arrived at the finish line festival @ 3:45, there was no more food... gone, completely out. You've paid $200+ dollars, burned 4000 calories and they're out of food. That is downright shameful. I realize that we certainly weren't at the finish line festival when it started, but there were still plenty of people behind us and the party was supposed to go until 7... how is the food all gone at 3:45? As we sat in the food tent cooling down, drinking some water.. a pizza delivery guy arrived, with 9 pizzas. That's ridiculous! That combined with the confusing cluster-F of packet pickup on Friday makes me weary of doing this event again. I'm glad I did it and got it done, but I don't think I'd pay to do it again.


Sounds like you had a better day than me. Nice work on Bear. 

I more or less got crashed at the turn around 2.5 miles. Wet, rainy. I see a rider go down, so I yell slowing and try to gently apply brakes. Apparently some riders think "Slowing" means, time to pass. Forced me to take a bad line and I could not stay up and avoid the down rider. So I took a slide. No big deal, I was fine, tiny bit of road rash, but the bike was not. 

Had to wait about 40 minutes for all the riders to pass before the SAG wagon got there. They fixed me up but not completely and then they fixed me up again. All in lost between 40 minutes and an hour. Then riding with a bike that may or may not have compromised bearings, steering and handlebars.

Got it in my head to play catch up and hopefully find a group to share the work. Also forgot when the cut off was and since I was dead last, did not want to miss it.

Never did find anyone to work with until much later and then only for bits and spurts. By that point I was spent. My times were all way down from last year. Even Bear which I felt good on (23 min compared to 22 last year). Cramping by the end of the ride. Overall finished in 7:13. 6:21 moving time per Strava. I was hoping for under 6. 

Still it was fun to look at the split standings and moving up. I am hurting today.

Overall, happy to have gotten off the ground and finished. I was not sure that was going to be possible.

You did not miss much with the food. The pasta was better than most post ride pastas but nothing to write home about. The iced coffee was good.

I agree they could do much better with food for the price of this ride. The traffic control was not as good as usual at the end of the ride either. I had one driver nearly take me out head on after the Mile 68 rest stop and then give me the finger.

My biggest gripe is the bridge start. If they have to do it there stagger it. Cop and mechanics I had lots of time to talk to all agreed. I think I saw 5 or 6 crashes at that same turn where I went down.


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## cnardone (Jun 28, 2014)

Congrats on finishing. 8500 feet of climbing. youza!! I have a long way to go before I can do that. looking the route on granfondony.com/ it does not look like you went through Harriman, but I passed (going in the opposite direction), a ton (hundreds) of riders on Lake Welch Parkway. I can't imagine 2 huge races in the same day. so is the route on the site incorrect? If so, what was the actual route?

cmn


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## NJBiker72 (Jul 9, 2011)

cnardone said:


> Congrats on finishing. 8500 feet of climbing. youza!! I have a long way to go before I can do that. looking the route on granfondony.com/ it does not look like you went through Harriman, but I passed (going in the opposite direction), a ton (hundreds) of riders on Lake Welch Parkway. I can't imagine 2 huge races in the same day. so is the route on the site incorrect? If so, what was the actual route?
> 
> cmn


It does not go into Harriman, although that would be an improvement I would welcome. You would recognize the GFNY. All the riders are in the same green jersey.


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## TricrossRich (Mar 26, 2014)

NJBiker72 said:


> Sounds like you had a better day than me. Nice work on Bear.
> 
> I more or less got crashed at the turn around 2.5 miles. Wet, rainy. I see a rider go down, so I yell slowing and try to gently apply brakes. Apparently some riders think "Slowing" means, time to pass. Forced me to take a bad line and I could not stay up and avoid the down rider. So I took a slide. No big deal, I was fine, tiny bit of road rash, but the bike was not.
> 
> ...


Wow... based on the fact that you had to stop and wait.. but still finished ahead of me, You certainly passed me at some point. I'd guess in a rest stop somewhere. I was happy with my ride, but my overall time was slow. I was with a large group of varying abilities and we were waiting for each at each rest stop, so it meant staying at rest stops longer than I'd like. I'd like to try it again ad just go my pace to see my time, but I don't think I'd actually pay to do it again, given the way this one was run. GFNJ is much better.



cnardone said:


> Congrats on finishing. 8500 feet of climbing. youza!! I have a long way to go before I can do that. looking the route on granfondony.com/ it does not look like you went through Harriman, but I passed (going in the opposite direction), a ton (hundreds) of riders on Lake Welch Parkway. I can't imagine 2 huge races in the same day. so is the route on the site incorrect? If so, what was the actual route?
> 
> cmn


We don't go through Harriman state park at all... but we do skirt the edge of it for some time. If you had come across the GFNY group, you'd know... it would be thousands of riders, not 100's... and they'd all have been wearing the same ugly green jersey. Perhaps some people missed a turn and other's followed them... that's the only way I could imagine that you'd find people on Lake Welch Parkway.


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## cnardone (Jun 28, 2014)

Here you go New York Triathlon Club - NYTC - www.NYTC.org There was a tri going on. 

When I thought GFNY I thought that I was some 60 miles out from the start and that the packs would be really strung out and i'd only see a very small portion of the riders over that 2-3 mile section of road.


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## D&MsDad (Jul 17, 2007)

I didn't do the ride, but I did come across the head of the "race" at around 10:00 or so, on Little Tor.

I'm glad the organizers had the sense NOT to route the ride down South Mountain Road from Rte 45 to Little Tor (around mile 70). The road surface is horrible, it would have been carnage.

I passed one guy who was having cramps, I hope he made it.


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## TricrossRich (Mar 26, 2014)

NJBiker72 said:


> Sounds like you had a better day than me. Nice work on Bear.
> 
> I more or less got crashed at the turn around 2.5 miles. Wet, rainy. I see a rider go down, so I yell slowing and try to gently apply brakes. Apparently some riders think "Slowing" means, time to pass. Forced me to take a bad line and I could not stay up and avoid the down rider. So I took a slide. No big deal, I was fine, tiny bit of road rash, but the bike was not.
> 
> ...





D&MsDad said:


> I didn't do the ride, but I did come across the head of the "race" at around 10:00 or so, on Little Tor.
> 
> I'm glad the organizers had the sense NOT to route the ride down South Mountain Road from Rte 45 to Little Tor (around mile 70). The road surface is horrible, it would have been carnage.
> 
> ...


Yes... I did a recon ride with some buddies the week and we went down South Mountain road because that was the prescribed route... it was HORRIBLE! i'm glad they bypassed it too.


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