MAYOR’S CUP ‘09: Rebuild It and Some Will Come

In 1609 Henry Hudson, a spectacularly lost British explorer who sailed from Amsterdam to New York searching for a trade route to Asia, sailed straight past Manahatta  -- the local Lenape tribe's word for "land of many hills" -- all the way to Albany, 100 miles up the river that would eventually bear his name. 

Three hundred and ninety-six years later, in the winter of 2005, a kayak guide on the Hudson named Ray Fusco called me to talk about his idea for a race around Manhattan. "It's a stunning course in the most famous city in America," he proclaimed. "Three rivers around one island! It's a friggin' classic!"

"Tis," I said.

"What it would take to get a world-class field to this race?" he asked.

"Money," I replied. "...and Greg Barton."

Ten months and countless phone calls later, Fusco's bold vision was nearly a reality.   Forty-three paddlers toed the line at the North Cove Yacht Cove in Battery Park City on the lower Hudson in what was once the shadow of the World Trade Towers. With no one to push him, Barton focused on breaking the course record of 3 hr, 44 min. set in 2005 by Dorian Wolters. Eying his GPS like an out-of-towner watching a taxi meter, the two-time gold medalist trimmed 24 minutes off the record. 

The next year more than 100 paddlers gathered below the glassy skyscrapers on a tranquil Indian summer day. Two and a half hours into the race, the front pack had been trimmed to four: South Africans Ian Gray and Herman Chalupsky, Zsolt Szadovszki, a native of Hungary who hangs his sizeable hat collection in Hawaii, and Greg Barton. Forty minutes from the end, Barton surged; Gray fell off first, then Zsolt dropped back.  With $5,000 at stake and the course record within reach, Barton and Chalupsky hammered along the sea wall into the wind and current.  Thousands of pedestrians out for a Sunday stroll along the elegant river-front promenade were caught up in the drama and became spontaneous spectators, leaning over the railing and urging them on.

To read more about the 2009 Mayor's Cup, click here>>