Wilmington — Team Placid Planet, a local biking and triathlon club in the High Peaks region of the Adirondack Park, is offering a competitive cycling event Saturday, June 21.
Sanctioned by the United States Cycling Federation, the Wilmington-Whiteface Road Race is open to men, women, and youth riders. It offers a variety of fields and distances˜from 12 miles for junior racers to 68.6 for professional racers all starting from Park Street in Wilmington.
“You can’t beat the scenery or the course,” Jim Walker, club president and race organizer, said, referring to the open vistas, rural roads, and tough hills along the route. “Plus, it includes a jolly finish at Santa’s Workshop in Wilmington.”
The course will start from Wilmington — (neutral start) a 6.1-mile (out) on Bonnie View Road accesses a fast and challenging 13.7-mile loop on back roads in the Town of Black Brook. The (back) following loop is also on Bonnie View Road. The final climb scales 1.6 miles of Whiteface Mountain, with an average grade of eight percent; participants are encouraged to gear accordingly. (Junior, 10- to 14-year-olds, race out and back on Bonnie View Road only — no loop, no finishing climb.)
Registration/entry fees are $25 online with pre-registration available at
www.BikeReg.com. Pre-registration closes Thursday, June 19 at 10 p.m.). The entry for juniors, which includes one-day license, is $10. Race day registration is $30 and is available on site from 7:30 a.m. until 20 minutes before each race.
Aside from the annual Whiteface Mountain Uphill Bike Race (eight miles), which had a high turn out this year, it has been many years since a competitive cycling event of this nature has been held in the area.
“Many of our customers are familiar with the Ironman USA Lake Placid triathlon, but we also get a lot of questions about nearby road racing opportunities. Now, we can point them to the Wilmington-Whiteface Road Race as a new, exciting offering,” said Kenny Boettger, a team sponsor and owner of Placid Planet Bicycles of Lake Placid.
The Wilmington-Whiteface Road Race will kick-off at 9 a.m. with master’s men, ages 45+-55+, and juniors, 15-18, sharing the starting line for a 41.2-mile course. Three other fields will follow in five-minute increments. The next wave, including the Pro/Cat 1/2/3 men and the Cat 1/2/3 women, begins at 12:30.
Saturday’s race is one of about 20 in the New York State Cup Series, which recognizes the best overall racers at the end of the season. In keeping with Team Placid Planet’s commitment to encouraging youth participation in cycling, the junior racing field is part of the Lance Armstrong Junior Olympic Road Race Series (LAJORS).
More information about Team Placid Planet and the race, including a map and registration link, is available online at
www.teamplacidplanet.org.
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