America's #1 Balance Bike Destination

America's #1 Balance Bike Destination
America's #1 Balance Bike Destination

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Glory Days

Solobreak is not the only one with 80's nostalgia to share with you.. Back when I had what would be called 'natural ability', eight hours of training a week were enough to get up onto the podiums of some very stacked junior fields. The majority of my results are missing- I was not in the habit of asking for signatures on my license, not until I discovered how hard the 19+ guys were killing themselves to get upgrades.. Besides Ralph McCreadie knew my results and thought I deserved it. It should be pointed out that 'life requirements' prevented me from riding and racing in 1992, 1993, 1994, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002, and 2004. The incontiguousness of my racing made it very hard to reach my current level of form. In the late 90s I was approaching 200 pounds..

4 comments:

solobreak said...

I raced Johnstown in 1989. That was the Fulton County Cup, right? IIRC, it was a 3/4 race and I was 10th. Looks like you placed ahead of me and became a 3 that day...

IMA said...

Yes I think it was- I was rifling through my accumulated race numbers and saw the word "fulton" somewhere in there. Remember, I did the junior race at Johnstown. Were the juniors combined with cat 3s and 4s? I can't remember. I do remember being blocked in at the sprint- badly enough that I cussed and pushed people out of my way to get up to 4th. The day before or the day after- can't remember was a crit in Gloversville, NY, I think.
Did you race the 1989 Bank of Newport Classic Crit? Myself and another junior drove out from Rochester, my friend (Derek Larson) took the win. I got a prime and 10th place. They gave away really cool posters and long sleeve t shirts at that event. Wish I still had them.

solobreak said...

I raced Newport at least once, probably 1989. Wolfie got me at the line for the last paying spot...

Gloversville was the day before Johnstown, but I did not do the that, just the RR. I used to go out for the Tour of Schenectady too. I met Duano for the first time there, spending our winnings in a pizza shop after the crit...

IMA said...

Tour of Schenectady.. You mention a race that I've actually won.
I think it was spring of 1989.. After a winter of xc uphill running at Powder Mills Park, lots of off road cross riding (not racing), and lots of weight training at the gym, I won the junior crit at Tour of Schenectady in the early spring. (Does this prove anything about running? it might, because a few years back when I played indoor soccer all winter, my spring racing seemed a lot easier) Anywho.. it was cold out that morning in Schenectady, that's for sure. I remember jumping into one of the senior crits afterwards for the training. They ran the junior crit as a points race, so we were sprinting every 3 or so laps. I took pretty much every sprint, and the final sprint for double points. Second place was taken by a kid named Rob Rose. He was struck and killed by a drunk driver sometime in 1990 I believe. I remember being pretty down about it. He was very cool to talk to when I saw him at the races. There are no memorial races in his name that I know of, but the Albany Tulip Festival Crit would have been a good event to honor him with. The year I took 4th, George Hincapie won it.