Cycling Spectating

 

Keren and I embarked on a somewhat random adventure on Sunday--we travelled up to Northern Jersey to watch a cycling meet (I assume that's the right terminology, as it was a series of events as opposed to one race). Her friend Reed was racing, so we slugged it up to Ramsey Route 17, picked up the car, and drove to Park Ridge to watch the show go down (Reed finished fourth). I'd never been to a cycling event before, so I was excited to note the differences between this sport and say, track or triathlon. In truth: There aren't many. But it's harder to keep track of who's who in a cycling race because the athletes are so bunched together, and you can't really tell one face from another with the helmets and sunglasses. I did discover that Rite Aid has a great professional team (who knew?), and that the sport--or at least this particular event--is not as up on gender equity as most tris or road races. There wasn't even a women's division; and the one woman in the men's race had to drop out after falling back too far from the leaders! Not really fair...