Cold, Wet, and Difficult: The Bear Mountain Classic
With an early May date, the Bear Mountain Classic Road Race is no stranger to mixed Spring weather. In fact two of the most recent editions have been rain soaked. But whereas the 2017 and 2018 editions featured merely uncomfortable weather, conditions for the 2022 race veered into “brutal” territory as temperatures dropped and rain poured down. The weather was perhaps best captured by a few lines in the post-race reports posted to our team Slack:
“It started raining properly on lap 3 and my hands froze. I was having to watch my hands change gear to make sure I was doing it.”
“I hobbled back and finished with four other riders, who were pretty nice in our shared misery. It was freezing by that point.”
In fact, the weather was bad enough that some riders had to be ‘rescued’ off the course and officials wisely cut laps for dropped riders. But such is the nature of early Spring racing in the Northeast. And ultimately, despite the weather, CRCA pulled off an excellent event — sustaining one of the few road races left in close proximity to NYC.
A very big thank you to the volunteers at CRCA, all of the race staff staff — especially the moto officials who spent nearly 12 hours riding in awful weather — and congratulations to all of the winners and new New York State road racing champions. A photo gallery from the second half of the day is included below and here’s hoping for better weather next year.
PS - Stay tuned for part two of our State of the Sport analysis of the Bear Mountain Classic (part one) - we will review final registration for the 2022 edition of the race, and compare how registration for the event has changed for various USAC categories over the past seven years.
The Full Bear Mountain Classic Gallery
A New York City based cyclist and sometimes photographer. Part adventure rider, part crit racer, and fully obsessed with an English bulldog named Winifred.
Instagram: @photorhetoric
E-mail: matthew@tobedetermined.cc
