This past Sunday I was able to shoot the second race of the Team Shake n Brake Crit 2. I was supposed to shoot their first race on 3/27 but I had a schedule conflict. Something we discussed months before. The second race was rescheduled because of the weather . It was certainly a long time coming that I managed to come out and to shoot the second race. That is, I was hired to shoot and to offer my 6 years+ race photography coverage experience to help them to market and to promote their races and the one on July 3rd. When you have over 6 years+ experience in providing race photography coverage for live events covering from off road triathlons to USAC races, you tend to get things done a lot faster.
And Alex from Verrazano Team Racing was on hand as well to offer his guidance. The expertise and knowledge he could bring in to help the new race director to navigate through the ocean of inner local political intrigue is immeasurable. That is..how do you go forward when all the roads are blocked? You don't use the road..you go GRAVEL baby!!! Instead of taking like 6 to 8 years to become established and wasting loads of money, maybe it would take them like 2 to 3 years with the right help from the outside.
The turnout was unpredictable since a lot of the riders rolled over their registration from the last scheduled date to the new one. Some didn't show up. The course profile is much simpler and very wide. The headwind and the slight uphill by the finishing stretch are probably the most challenging part of the course. I never thought I would see so many slow mo sprint finish in a crit. Glad many NYC racers came out and to support the new RD and the new race series. I say near 50% of the riders are from NYC. Maybe there are still hopes for new blood in our racing scene. We no longer need to slave to "history" and "tradition" just because we know nothing else is better.
Their third race is on July 3rd, Team Shake n Brake Independence Grand Prix. You will see me and Alex and "our" crews there to help out.
Support new race series because history does not need to repeat itself...
