Onondaga Cycling Club

Joe Mautz, the ride leader, asked me to pick the day for this weekend’s ride. As currently the forecast looks better for Sunday, let’s go with that. Most forecasts show some precipitation on Saturday but the four I checked all show it sunny for Sunday.

We’ll be doing “Joan’s Breakfast Ride”, OLP-3n and OLP-3, which starts in Onondaga Lake Park. The ride starts at 11:00.

With daylight hours declining, this Wednesday’s ride starts at 5:30. We’ll be starting at Eagle Hill Middle School on Enders Road, off of NY 92, which is east of the village of Manlius. We’ll be using the Man-2 map.

Registration is now open for the Fall Century, which will start at Carpenter’s Brook at 9:00 on Saturday, Sept. 8. Some items of note:

• The distances are 66 and 102 miles. As several people have asked for a 40-mile option I’ll add that too.
• If you register before September 1 it will cost you $25; after that it will run $35. This buys you a marked route, 2 water/food stops, a souvenir gift for the first 60 registrants, and a donation to SUNY ESF in the name of Bill Johnson, who served in many club positions, including president, before his death in 1999.
• The route and many of the roads are new to OCC. When making up the route, I usually kept us off state roads so much of the route is on quite county roads. I also did my best to take out hills. The 66 mile route climbs some 2,400 feet and the full century climbs some 3,800. To put the latter in perspective, the almost July 4th Century climbed some 1,400 feet, last year’s Fall Century climbed some 3,000 feet, and the 2005 Fall Century climbed 5,700 feet. In the OCC classification system, both the metric and full century routes are “rolling to hilly” (which is below “somewhat hillier” and “very hilly.” The most sustained climbing for both routes is between Cayuga and Owasco Lakes. There are also some notable climbs past Skaneateles near the end. However, the last 5 miles are flat or downhill. The full century also features a nice descent. The full century rides along about 13 miles of Cayuga Lake (but it isn’t always seen) and the metric barely goes along it. Both ride along Owasco Lake for 15 miles and Skaneateles Lake for 2 miles (I planned more, but there are rollers I ended up taking out).
• You can register on-line via BikeReg or by mailing in a form. The latter was in the most recent newsletter and you can also find it on-line. There is a service fee for on-line registration and at the ride you’ll need to sign a waiver.
• Please see the fall century section of the club web site for more information.
• I’d like to think Jeff Palmer for a great job with the maps.

The gate at Carpenter’s Brook Fish Hatchery, the site of tonight ride, closes at 8:00. Thus, it is best if we park out in front on the grass.

Sponsored by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children/New York (NCMEC/NY), the Finger Lakes Ride for Missing Children is a 100-mile ride made by bicycle riders or “Friends of Missing Children” that raises funds to support prevention education programs and to remember all missing children. More than 2,000 children are reported missing in the United States each day, some in our own community. For most families, this is only a brief scare as the child turns up in a few minutes or hours. But for some, the nightmare of a missing child becomes a grim reality. NCMEC’s mission is to help recover missing children, protect all children from sexual exploitation, and assist in the prevention of these crimes.

Funds raised by the Finger Lakes Ride for Missing Children remain in the local community to provide case assistance and spearhead prevention education services across upstate New York. During 2006 NCMEC/NY:
• Distributed 725,534 posters of missing children.
• Assisted in the recovery of 1,703 children through poster distribution and case
assistance.
• Distributed over 244,521 pieces of literature prevention education literature;
• Conducted 785 education programs with 63,655 participants.
• Coordinated 51 child-identification programs with 5,545 children and adults.

This is not a race….. We ride together as a Team - averaging 15-18 mph on the flat portion of the course escorted by members of the New York State Police, local police and sheriff’s departments. This means traffic is halted for the riders!. Our destinations along the route are designated schools where our arrival is the highlight of a safety education program that has been attended by the children of each school. Imagine the impression the riders make on the school children as they see over 100 bicycle riders, riding 2×2 escorted by several police cars with lights flashing and sirens blaring! The visits are electrifying as hundreds of children and adults cheer the riders as they enter the school grounds

For online registration/donations and additional information visit our website at: www.fingerlakesride.org

The Cazenovia Triathlon is happening at the same time as the club ride on Sunday. The Cazenovia High School Parking lot is one of the main lots that will be used by the three sport folks, so the start location will be changed to the Sean Googin Complex on Fenner Rd.

Google Maps Link

The Triathlon folks will notify OCC riders who do not get the message about the new venue. Ride leader Bill will delay the start of the ride so that everyone has time to get to the new area.

This Sunday’s ride is an old ride that we haven’t done in awhile. The start location is Altmar which I know is a bit remote. When we did rides from this location many years ago we would just park on the street (CR 22 or Mexico St.) near NY 13. The start location listed is “by restaurant on route 13″. Since I am the ride leader and not sure what location/ parking lot/ restaurant this is referring to let’s use the Post Office parking lot at CR 22 and NY 13.

While this is remote start location, these are nice rides with good roads and most with very little traffic. Also I recommend that we do each route in reverse. This will keep both rides together at the start and will avoid some steep downhills with stop signs at the bottom. If anyone has an objection please let me know.

To get to Altmar you can take I-81 north to Pulaski then east on NY 13. Alternate route is I-81 to east on NY 104 then north on CR 22.

Hope see you there!

Paul Swinburne
Ride Leader

In the printed ride schedule, Sunday’s ride is incorrect. As in the on-line schedule, we’ll be riding the Giro D’Italia (D’OCC), Geneva-1. The starting location is the intersection of NY 14A and NY5/US20, about 1.7 west of downtown Geneva. Note that the ride starts at 10:00. It is a joint ride with the Rochester Club.

We changed the starting location for Skaneateles from their municipal lot (now basically $2) to the Austin Park Pavilion at the intersection of E. Austin and Jordan ($0).

Well if you haven’t looked at the June News letter this is news to you. We have formed a team to enter the Ride for the Rescue. The team’s name is OCC Geezers. The Rescue Mission has lower the entry fee for members of the Geezer team to $75.00. In addition, I am pretty sure that I can convince the board to kick in something to help you get to that level (anyway I have the check book). But hey it isn’t that much and it goes to a great cause and unlike some other charities, all the money stays right here in Syracuse.

The only draw only drawback to this entry fee is that you can’t register online for under $100. So make it easy on yourself and raise $100.

They are really doing this up big so: Join the OCC Geezer team today.

Here’s the Rescue Mission home page with all the details:

(http://www.rmsyr.org/RideForTheRescue/Home/Main_Page.htm)

Oh yeah, the ride is on July 15, starting from Cazenovia college with various distances, 5, 20, 40, 60, and 100 miles. You can signup for any of the distances and still be part of the team.

Mike Lyon your humble treasurer and

OCC Geezer captain