Our teammate Sal Abbruzzese was in a tragic bike accident on
Saturday July 5th while participating in the popular Gimbel's Ride.
His injuries were substantial and remain critical. He broke all of his
ribs, punctured and collapsed both lungs and lost a kidney. SAL also
fractured his cheekbone, and has a broken clavicle and broken scapula.
As any one can imagine, everyone of his teammates was stunned. One of the strongest and classiest guys in the local racing community- and the best teammate anyone could have - is in all of our thoughts.
Currently Sal is at Westchester Medical Center in ICU on a respirator
and not out of the woods yet. We all hope and pray and believe that
he'll make it through.
Karen (Sal's wife) tells us that he will be in the hospital for at least a month, followed by time at home to recover and physical therapy.
Karen welcomes get well cards but not flowers (yet) and you may send your get well wishes to:
Salvatore Abbruzzese
180 Palmer Lane
Thornwood, NY 10594
Email: salabb69 at yahoo.com
We'll continue to update the site as we get news on Sal's condition and we have no doubt that the strength and determination that lead Sal to such a successful season this year, will see him through this trying time as well. In the meantime please keep Sal in your thoughts and stay safe.
- BLUE RIBBON CYCLING
CRCA/Blue Ribbon Restaurants presented by Translations.com is an elite amateur bike racing team based in New York City. Under the direction of Marc Mauceri and Thomas Pennell, the squad competes in national, regional and local races up and down the Eastern seaboard. Please use the links above for information about our sponsors, results, photos, rider biographies, and more.
News
June 29th: Unstoppable? It seems that way as David Taylor and Mark Alden went one/two respectively in the 35+ field of the Union Vale Road Race on Sunday! With the strong men of the race still together at the bottom of the finishing climb, Taylor took off to solo in, while Alden attacked what was left of the group to come in right behind him. "You really couldn't ask for a better finish" said Taylor, and top things off Sal Abbruzzese took 9th to put 3 riders in the top 10. Finally, in the Cat 4 race Aleksander Betko continued his growth this season by taking 10th.
On Saturday, the team partook in the 3rd Annual Lou Maltese Invitational race. In what turned out to be a good fast race, the winning break was established with 1.5 laps to go and with less than 1 lap to go David Taylor bridged up after some furious work done by Sal Abbruzzese to close the gap close enough to bridge to. Taylor went on to finish 4th in the race which was enough for the team to finish 4th overall.
June 20th: The team made a strong showing in the 35+ race of the Giro d'Jersey over the weekend. The 3 day stage race started off with Sal Abbruzzese winning the first stage time trial and thus the pink leader's jersey.
Day 2 became a battle for time bonuses on the intermediate sprints and finishing lap and the 3 man team that also included David Taylor and Eddie Espitia, worked hard and well together to keep Sal in the leader's jersey for the second day in a row.
On the third and final day, the sprint bonuses got the best of everyone and in the end Sal finished still on the podium, but second overall. Congratulations to the three on a well fought race and impressive showing.
June 8th: 2 WINS IN ONE WEEKEND!
This weekend was on the calendar of a few of the team members for the season and for good reason. On Saturday, Mark Alden bridged up to an early break in the Master's Field of the Balloon Festival Race in his father's former home of Cambridge, NY. One with his two breakaway companions the trio established a lead of over 2 min. for a good 55+ miles on a sweltering 95 degree day. Coming to the finish line Alden was able to solo in for the win, and as he put it "This win meant more to me than any other win that I've had. My Dad lived in Cambridge for most of the 90's. During my visits I used to ride regularly on those roads. Over time I developed a real fondness for the region. My Dad passed away 8 years ago and the race passed the cemetery where he is buried
every lap on the run into town. With each passing lap I became more motivated to win the race."
> Read Mark's entire report here.
On Sunday, David Taylor returned to course that he both has an affinity for and has won on, at the Tour of Highbridge, in Highbridge, NJ. With 2 laps to go in the 35+ race, David attacked the eight man front group right after the 'stupid steep' climb with Kurt Gustafsson of the CRCA/Axis joining him. The two worked well together and were able to keep a gap on the remaining six. Coming into the finish line, David rolled across the line first, taking the second win in as many days for the team and his second win in four years on the course.
Back in Brooklyn, Sal Abbruzzese took 6th place in the 1/2/3 race at the . With top times separated by seconds, Sal was the 4th CRCA rider in the results and has shown that he's only gotten faster since his early season success.
The team wishes to congratulate everyone who raced hard and brought so many results home on what's sure to be memorable weekend for some time.
June 1st: On Sunday both Sal Abbruzzese and Eddie Espitia qualified for the Hudson Valley team for New York's annual version of the Olympics called the Empire State Games. With 25 miles left in the race Eddie bridged up to what then became a 7 man move finishing 4th on the day, while Sal soloed away from what was left of the field to take 8th. The two are the only riders on the team from the region, and make up one-fifth of the ten man roster going to the games in Binghamton later in the summer.
May 31st: Today was the first ever CRCA Power Points race, a 7 lap points race that had 2 sprints per lap in Central Park. With some strong support from the team Mark Alden won two of the sprints on top of Harlem Hill before being in the winning breakaway on the day. Mark would go on to take a 2nd and 3rd place while away and eventually finished up 3rd overall. In his first A race Joe Azze won the first sprint of the race on top of Cat's Paw Hill, only to have his front wheel taken out while going for the sprint again two laps later. All-in-all, a good race for the team as the Summer starts to ramp up.
May 11th: David Taylor kept his strong spring going by taking 2nd place in the Bear Mountain Spring Classic. With teammates Mark Alden and Sal Abbruzzese the three riders made sure that the team was represented in all of the big moves of the day, with Taylor finally putting the hammer down on the last lap, and just narrowly missing the win in a two up sprint.
April 27th: Another Win! Joe Azze used his fierce uphill sprint to win the Palmer Road Race on Sunday. There was a break up the road that had about 2 minutes on the field.
It looked like that would be the move of the day but Joe had other
ideas. He started the chase and other riders eventually joined him to help
reel in the break. When the break was in sight on the last lap Joe
drifted back into the field to recover for the sprint.
The finish at Palmer is hard to judge. It has a long big ring uphill
drag. Spend too much time in the wind and you’re done. Likewise if you
are boxed in the middle or caught at the side where the risk of
getting pushed off the road is high. Joe started the sprint from a
long way out and was running neck and neck with another rider. At the
line Joe had him beat by half a bike length.
April 19th: Battenkill-Roubaix always seems to bring an active race inthe 30+ field and this year was no different. With the winning solo move going on the first climb the battle for second raged on which eventually saw a 4 man break containing David Taylor break free with about 15 miles to go. Taylor would go on to finish 5th in the race while another 4 man group got away, this time with Mark Alden in it who finished up 8th.
April 20th:Two more podiums! David Taylor made the move of the day and made it early in the 35+ Spring Series at Prospect Park today. Taylor gave it a dig on the first lap, eventually bringing two other with him for what would be a race long break away with Taylor finishing second.
Meanwhile Joe Azze pulled out the same result in the 3/4 race taking second in what came down to a field sprint.
April 5th: Cold temps and rain still brought a full squad out on Sat. for the CRCA Club Race. Eddie Espitia got it going early initiating an early move on the first lap that eventually grew to about ten-plus riders. After a few laps away the move was reeled in though and Mark Alden made the counter and with most of the big teams represented, it eventually grew to be the winning break, with Alden finishing 6th.