Lights, Cameras,... Motion Pictures!

Last night saw the kickoff of what I hope will turn into a regular series called Motion Pictures. It's basically what my friends and I do during the winter - recap all the best stages and races from the previous year. This time however, we decided to invite a few hundred folks to a café, setup up a movie screen, and have an official party.

Friends old and new came in from the cold, the Glass Shop quickly filled to capacity, and the viewing got underway. The spectacle that they all came out for was Stage 7 of the 2010 Giro d'Italia.

It was the race that had stayed on everyone's mind well after the season ended, and Stage 7 - the Strada Biancha - exemplified that year's Giro. Featuring a blistering pace, miserable weather, and road conditions that at times rivaled a cyclocross circuit, the stage was made even better by World Champion Cadel Evans' suffering and victory.

And just as the riders on the screen got into difficulty on the Strada, we ran into a little difficulty of our own. It wasn't any argy-bargy, it was the NYPD. Two plainclothes and 3 patrol officers crashed the screening and proceeded to write us a pile of (pink!) citations, most of which had to do with having too much of a good time. The best was "Illegal Bottle Club". We weren't even sure what that meant, but it sounded way cooler than what we were actually doing - handing out beer to our friends at a private party. We'll let a judge decide.

Fortunately (bizarrely?), they didn't shut us down, and the party and the stage were salvaged. Maybe the cops were awestruck by what Cadel was doing on the screen? Whatever the reason, the event ended up a huge success, and we look forward to doing it again soon.

Many thanks to Coney Island Craft Lagers for their generous sponsorship. La Colombe threw in a ton of Farinella Bakery's pizzas. Dave Trimble, Eric Robertson and G+D hooked up the race and the A/V (9 foot screen!), and DJ Clever provided the mix on the slick Sonorasaurus iPad app. And thanks to Francesco for making his cafe - the Glass Shop - a winter respite for NYC cyclists.

But most importantly thanks to all who showed up!  The goal of the event was simply to have a great time and celebrate the difficult (for many reasons) sport of professional bike racing - and we plan on continuing to do both.

Stay tuned!

Plenty more photos on flickr here.

(n.b. This post was brought to you"epic"-free.)