2010 Owasco Flyer!

June 28, 2010 · Print This Article

36348_1530655429295_1322020825_1380419_7318682_n

NY Bellas Kim Behrman and Linda Tersegno duke it out for the finish line!

 

Hot, humid and hilly.  Those are my three main adjectives to describe this year’s Owasco Flyer, a beloved citizens’ race in Auburn, New York.  Of course, it’s hilly every year, but some years those climbs are more painful than others…and obviously heat and humidity contribute to the perceived elevation of the last “Three Bears”, the finishing hills, which annoyingly are really FOUR climbs, not three.  The worst is, that while you know you’ve got those four last grinds to get up to the finish line, you forget that there are about 87 other hills to climb BEFORE them! (Ok, maybe not 87, maybe really 12…10? ok, how about 8 pain in the *ss climbs?)

This year, there were somewhere around 250 racers, which made for a CRAZY “controlled start” with people jockeying for position before even a mile had passed.  (The course is 36 miles.)  Survival includes suffering the usual terrifying shouts of “braking! Braking!! Braking!!!!”, the SMELL of braking and the knowledge that lots of people in this massive pack possessed neither skills nor the understanding of how squirrely riding can have a dangerously domino effect.  Nonetheless, all participating Bellas made it unscathed – we were treated to shrieks of enthusiasm from the lead car, carrying none other than our distinctly vocal LiLynn, who was sitting in on account of her injuries from an awful crash in last week’s citizens’ race, the Giro de Otisco.

 

36348_1530655309292_1322020825_1380416_3039123_n

Kate whistling a little ditty as she finishes.

Everybody has a different story of the outcome – mine was of being dropped on the first hill, but working with a splendid crew to miraculously catch back up to the “pack” at about mile 12 – the pack still being in the range of 100 people!  Then on yet another climb, an unexplained pile up (I looked up and saw bodies somersaulting into the ditch – and a dog shooting out of the pack, but no one else seems to have seen the pooch..) broke up the pack again, and from then on it was, for me, various small groups of fellow suffering non-hill climbers.  Thumbs up from a corner marshall that I was “3rd woman!” which turned out to be off by two, rats!  Oh, well, I’ll take it.

 

Excellent to see Linda and Kim mounting the last hill side by side, then a sudden burst as they tried to out sprint one another for the final stretch.  You can see from the photo proof above who got it, sorry Linda!  Meanwhile, Sue Kahler devoted her race to assisting newer racers by hanging back and being encouraging.  I had chatted in the bathroom with a woman who said it was her first race ever and that she’d “never even ridden more than 24 miles before” – Sue had her work cut out for her.  This was also the first race for NEW NY Bella, Kelly Bulkely – who has ridden her bike something like 483 days in a row, and who raced, as far as I can tell, with PLATFORM PEDALS and NO clips?!? (But WITH, mind you, a 4 tiered black mini-skirt over her bike shorts.  Gotta flaunt the flair, baby, flair.  And she’s working on getting a jersey…at least her handlebars are pink.)

 

 

34340_408764775982_609630982_4980991_644778_n

All in all, we had a decent showing (thanks to LiLynn’s berating email urging everyone to race because we were “lame” this year.  It worked!) and the NY Bellas are BACK!

 

34340_408764795982_609630982_4980995_2385782_n

Bellas in Repose:

Front: Honorary Bella Ruth (2nd woman overall), Sue A, Kelly, Kate, Ellie

Back: Kim, LiLynn, Sue K, Linda

 

35664_1530654469271_1322020825_1380410_924025_n

Kristin (and her brother-in-law, Mr. Clean) who missed our group pic.

Results:

 

Overall 3rd place woman, former NY Bella, Gaetane Perreault

Women 19-29:

 

  • 3rd Kristin Mullally

Women 30-39

 

  • 4th Kim Behrman
  • 7th Kelly Bulkelly

Women 40-49:

 

  • 1st Kate Stewart
  • 5th Sue Atwood

Women 50-59:

 

  • 2nd Linda Tersegno
  • 5th Sue Kahler

Tandem:

 

  • 7th Ellie and Ernie Bayles

 

 


This fabulous post was written by one of our awesome bella volunteers ~ To change this standard text, you have to enter some information about your self in the Dashboard -> Users -> Your Profile box.


Comments

2 Responses to “2010 Owasco Flyer!”

  1. Kristin on June 28th, 2010 6:53 pm

    MR Clean…lol..thats funny!! I had a great time!! I tried to keep with the Bellas but some not so great riders cornered me and I had to quickly break but lost the pack around mile 10. Then my chain fell off and then the woman I was riding with decided to crash as she was getting a water from the volunteers so I was on my own from mile 25ish on…Felt great though!! :)

  2. LiLynn Graves on July 16th, 2010 11:19 am

    If that first photo of Kim and Linda sprinting for the finish, I would just like to say that I witnessed Kim head butting Linda with her helmet for about 100 yards to get that position before she shot through to the finish line. You can see Linda holding her hand out to the officials asking… Is this legal. Kim should have been disqualified from the event but she had to hurry back to hand out money to the winners. Later Linda and Kim were seen have a little “discussion” behind the ladies room about the rules and regulations of the US cycling federation and came to the conclusion that It didn’t really matter because it was all in bella love.

Got something to say?