Hey folks. After living and cycling in and around Joburg from 2003-2006, I moved to Chicago, where I didn't ride a lot at all. My fitness level went from being an "A" seeded guy to "not-good-at-all". It was only this year (after another move to New York), when I re-discovered my passion for road cycling. One wouldn't think, that NY is a good place for riding. At least I didn't. However, it turned out that Central Park in Manhattan and Prospect Park in Brooklyn are ideal spots for early morning weekday rides. And that only 20km north of downtown Manhattan, you find quiet, winding, undulating roads through idyllic forest areas, along the Hudson river. So, a couple of months ago, when I discovered, that all my cycling kit didn't really fit all that well anymore, I got on my bike again. Since then, I've been riding 4 times a week, doing long rides on the weekend. I've found a couple of groups, which go out regularly. There are also a couple of clubs, like Club 100 etc. There are quite a lot of charity events for cyclists, which are not quite races. But they are organized with marshalls and rest stops on the way. I found out that those are a great way to discover the city. Last Sunday, I did the NYC Century Bike Tour, which is a 100 mile event, through all parts of New York City. It was a very nice experience and I met a lot of new folks. As for racing, it's interesting to see, that South Africa's amateur racing scene is much ahead of the US. South African riders should be grateful for the fact, that there's at least one race per week (usually with partial road closures) during the summer months. There are only occasional races in and around New York. Also, there's no national seeding system and no timing of the events. Races are timed by hand with video cameras on tripods. They have 5 categories of racers, with Cat.5 being the slowest guys. There's a staggered start. You have to do at least 10 races a year to progress into Cat.4. From there, results count. Only a certain percentage of the best Cat.4 riders make it into Cat.3 and so on and so forth... I haven't gotten back to racing (yet). Don't feel the urge to compete in an organized way. Still, when I'm on that climb, and somebody overtakes me, I gotta catch him :-) I still miss riding in SA - don't think it's much safer here. NY traffic is as mad as Joburg traffic. That's it - maybe it was interesting for some of you. Take care out there. Torsten P.S.: Some pictures and stories: www.indoorpicnic.com/category/cycling
