Superlame RFK Crit wrap-up post

I didn't stay for the racing, and took a grand total of three photographs at this past Sunday's City Bikes RFK Criterium presented by Hub Racing [sharply inhales]. So to further lame up an otherwise lame post, I'm using Men at Work lyrics to structure my thoughts. Yep, I've reached a nadir of cheap gimmickry on this blog. Here's the video, to refresh your repressed memories of the song.



Do you come from a land down under? The bike doesn't, it's a Cannondale SuperSix Ultimate...
.... which is ridden by Leeanne Manderson of Hub Racing, who does. Where women glow and men plunder? I might have plundered that bike, had it not been secured by a lock, and been way too small for me. The SRAM SRM crank features a built-in powermeter, tasteful good looks, a huge pricetag, and two similar acronyms I don't know. If the women were glowing, I was far too tired to notice, as I reported for setup duty at 6AM sharp. Note the fading remnants of the moon just east of the nose of the saddle.Can't you hear the thunder? Yes, quite clearly in fact. I live overlooking I395 (jealous?), where Rolling Thunder convened, just as I had settled down for my post-race nap. Bitchin.
You better run you better take cover. I did, after two laps of watching the Cat5 Men's race, which included a young go-getter named Adrian Fenty. As mentioned, I then beat a hasty retreat for my bed, and listened to motorcycles, wishing I had a head full of zombie. So for race info, you'll have to make due with WABA's pictures, and the results.

I had that awful song in my head all weekend. Sorry. The posts will improve. Maybe.

City Bikes RFK Criterium THIS SUNDAY!

So, why should you bumble out to the City Bikes RFK Criterium to spectate?

--plentiful grass space to setup a blanket and cooler to relax
--view of the majority of the course from start/finish
--Bega's stream-of-consciousness announcing
--men's pro race was added this year
--you hardly ever bike east of the Capitol, swing by Eastern Market on the way home, and make a day of it
--more aural pleasure than either Sunday's Rolling Thunder (click here for road closure info), or the old RFK auto race (they really thought it would create $350M in economic impact?)

Or click here to register.

2008 12 Hours of Lodi Farm: a dcmtb.com Update

[ed note -- this post was sitting in blogger post drydock while i was luxuriating in honeymoon bliss, so it's pretty untimely. But as every maniacal cabbie in St. Lucia told me, "no preshah." Like a more empathetic twist on Jamaica's ubiquitous "no problem." Anyway, onto the race action...]

Howdy. Mike here...

It's hard for me to personally overstate the drama that was the 2008 12 Hours of Lodi... Weather threatened, Kent was out then in, teammates were dropping like flies...On the grenade I jumped, volunteering for the first lap. Kent and Matty allowed me to set the strategy for the race: double laps for one full rotation then back to singles for the rest of the race.I lined up for the pre-race meeting towards the beginning of the prologue loop from last year (hint, hint). Another quick parade loop through the singletrack was announced and I was in the cat-bird seat. I allowed a skinner-lookin' dude to get in front of me as a way to show others that I was in the front and solidifying my #2-into-the-woods plan. We cruised through the end of the course for a solid 1/2 mile prologue then past the start finish. I was #2 into the woods. After the beginning of the first section of trails (before the field traverse), I took a few wrong turns (bad course markings) and I managed to stay in 8th by the end of the first lap. Tom 'Young Buck' from Family Bikes and Mikey 'Cargo' Pearce came by me as did a few other studs. No worries, I had another lap to catch somebody. The course was very different at the top and in the middle. I was lost as usual and confused, to be sure. Lodi has some turns in it, if you didn't know. I passed two people on my next lap and came in a little before 2am in 4th overall, second Expert.To sleep...Through the night, we went back and forth with the Troegenator's team. Their ringer was going against Kent and kept catching him, which is crazy because Mr Baake is quick.Through the final set of laps, we were behind them. Matty went out a few minutes behing the Troegenators. Matty was riding HARD! Roid-rage hard. He was the only guy coming through our campsite HAMMERING! That boy is dedicated. Matty made up the time plus some (hard to do on that course) and he handed off to me with a 2.5 minute advantage. I climbed into the hurt locker that was inside the pain cave at the urging of my wife ('leave it all out on the course!') and DRILLED myself into the ground. I was tired then pushed harder then pushed even harder... I knew I had to kill those little hills, the only straight-aways in the course. Susan was at the end of my lap with the kids, urging me on. I came in to the start/finish fast and handed to Kent, managing to blurt out 'GO! GO!' The kids were stoked.Kent Baake HAMMERED his lap and stayed out in front of Zach from the Troegenators. We managed a win. Zach came in hard and tired. We got him some fluids and did what we could to make him comfortable but that kid REALLY pushed that last lap. They were hard to beat. I would have been fine with losing to those guys. Great guys...I would like to nominate Matty as MVP for the race. Inspirational... Between Susan's words and Matty's determination, I couldn't slow down. Our last three laps were 50, 50 and 51. Fastest lap of the day was 49.1st overall, first expert. My immense respect for our dcmtb team continues to grow, especially Matty, Kent and Mr Fastest Lap, Mike Pearce!Oh, and '70% chance of showers' in Spring in the Mid-Atlantic region means cloudy, dry and WONDERFUL weather... Pics to come later...

DCMTB.com/City Bikes Enjoys Success at Baker's Dozen

Darren Biggs of dcmtb.com/City Bikes made plans to arrive at the race a day early to ensure a prime campsite location for the rest of his team members set to arrive on Saturday morning for the 11AM start of the second annual Baker’s Dozen 13 hour mountain bike race hosted by Plum Grove Cyclery.

‘I wanted to make sure we had a location big enough for my DCMTB/City Bikes teammates,’ Darren said.

18 members of DCMTB/City Bikes made the trip out to race in Leesburg in picture-perfect conditions.

‘The weather turned out to be amazing with bright sunshine in the morning followed by a nice breeze and some clouds to cool things off,’ said Kent Baake, a DCMTB/City Bikes racer and member of the 3-person Men’s class team Solar Ring Blingers.

‘We had no idea that the race would be as successful as it turned out to be,’ said Plum Grove Cyclery’s Rob Harrington, the Race Director for the event. ‘We’ve had incredible support from the race community and we are excited about 2009!’

With over 375 participants registered for the event, the Baker’s Dozen represents one of the largest mountain bike relay races in the DC region. For an event only in its second year, the success is a testament to the quality of the race organization and the course itself, an exciting combination of logs, rocks, drops and fast corners.

‘Our team had a great time out there and managed to secure third place behind our other 3-man entry,’ said Matt Donahue, DCMTB/City Bikes President. ‘There’s nothing better than racing with, and against, your friends.’

Members of DCMTB/City Bikes secured 1st in Women’s Solo, 2nd and 3rd in 3-person Men, 3rd in 3-person Open and fielded additional teams including the duo of brother’s Joe and 19-year-old JJ ‘Prince Harry’ Foley.

DCMTB/City Bikes is a grass-root team of urban mountain bikers. Since 1997 they’ve been ripping it up on the mid-Atlantic race scene! But they’re not just about riding and racing, over the years the team has put in hundreds of hours on behalf of bicycle advocacy groups in Washington, DC. Sponsors include City Bikes Merkle, Continuum Energy Solutions, Whole Foods P Street, the Looking Glass Lounge, Deuter, Serfas, SRAM, WTB. Check out www.dcmtb.com.

Since evolving from an old gas station in 1987, City Bikes has made thousands of people happy with their bike - for fun, fitness and transportation. City Bikes' vision is for Washington DC to flow freely with the clean, friendly motion of bicycles. Check out www.citybikes.com.

[ed note -- the Darren tearing up the race course is not the same Darren who writes this crap blog. Quite plainly.]