Travel: Ending a trip with a bike race

One of the best things about being jetlagged in New York on a Saturday is that you’re wide awake at 5 a.m. and can go to Central Park to see if a bike race is happening. As I left my hotel, I was a bit doubtful I’d see many serious cyclists. I figured the roads would likely be filled with pot-bellied Wall Street bankers doing slow laps on BMC time trial bikes.  But a few steps down the sidewalk, I saw two fit guys, one on a Cervelo and another riding an Orbea, riding uptown toward the park. Something had to be going on.

Sure enough, a race was about to get underway. As I got to the park, I started to see more and more riders with numbers attached to their jerseys riding to the boat house for the event’s 6 a.m. start. I decided to stake out a spot at the top of a climb near the 4-mile mark close to the West 82nd entrance to the park.

One thing I always try to do in New York is to go to my favorite gourmet grocery stores – Zabar’s and Fairway – on the Upper West Side. I’ll buy some olives, gouda cheese, salad, bagels, biscotti cookies and a cup of coffee. Then I’ll head to Central Park and have a picnic on a park bench as I watch a wonderful fitness parade of runners and cyclists go by. This time, I wasn’t able to do the gawk feast because of work and family pressures. But I was happy that I was at least able to sneak away to the park on my last morning, leaving a note to my sleeping family that I’d be back at 7:30 for breakfast.

I’ve never raced in Central Park. When I lived in the Apple in 1997-99, I didn’t even own a bike. I was just trying my best to cope with a stressful job,  newborn baby and a tight budget in an outrageously expensive city.

I chatted a bit with a race volunteer who was posted at a crosswalk. He said it’s hard to stage a decisive breakaway on the Central Park circuit. There aren’t many climbs or other sections conducive to blowing apart a race. I didn’t see many riders who were successful in opening up a sizable gap. But I quickly lost track of who was racing in which category, and the Cat 1 and 3 groups seemed to blend together.

At one point, the Cat 1 guys caught the women.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t stay for the entire race. I had to scramble back to the hotel, pack my bags and head to the airport. Taking in a bike race is a fantastic way to finish a business trip.

Rigs: Dutch city bikes in Da Apple

For ages, I’ve been hoping that Dutch city bikes will catch on in the U.S. Last year, I read a story in the New York Times about how more people were riding them in N.Y.C. It’s always great to see it yourself, and that’s what I did this weekend in Central Park.

Busted: Pulled over for running a red light

Getting pulled over by park police for running a red light in New York City, near the West 82nd entrance to Central Park. I really felt sorry for this guy. I didn’t witness the awful crime, and I’m wondering how the park cop got the cyclist to stop. Or why did the biker even bother to pull over? Did the police dude brandish his stick?

I once had a policeman in Guangzhou step out in front of my bike and try to get me to stop on Dongfeng Road, which bikes aren’t allowed to use. I slowed down and pretended like I was going to pull over, but as I drew close to him,  I started mashing the pedals and deeked around the guy, who started blowing a whistle and waving a flag at me. I viewed it as an act of civil disobedience. Bikes shouldn’t be banned on a major road. It would be like New York prohibiting cycling on Broadway. But trust me,  I would never ever run a red light. Oh no.