Washington DC(aka District of Columbia)has been a place that I have frequently visited since my adolescent years due to the music scene of bands from the dischord records label that was started by legend Ian MacKaye (Bare with me, I promise that I will get to the bike racing in a few moments) it was place that I appropriately gained much of my political views and interest in the various cultures that represent the city as well a the nation. I have always been infatuated by the the majesty and beauty of the monuments and deeply humbled by the sight of Arlington Cemetery. It always puts me into check on my beliefs and solidifies the notion that You don't always have to be in 100% agreement with our government to love the country at the same time.
When DCCX hit the mid Atlantic Cyclocross calendar in 2007 it became must do race for me. It meshed the world of bike racing with my interest with the District. The vibe has always been great and the course seems to mature more each year. One of my favorite sections that makes the cut every year is the brick straightaway stretch that can be your worst enemy or best friend depending on how your riding for the day. The stair section has come along way and was fast and fun as ever. The fast straightaway on the section near the pond was so fast that it didn't leave a whole lot of room to recover. As of now this is my favorite DCCX course ever. I'm not sure if they can out do themselves.
Sarah and Evan from Nuts About Granola came to hand out samples and sponsored the event with prizes. It was great to have them literally in the middle of the action. Even if I didn't get to spend much time with them I was motivated to perform well with them being there.
Now to the race report.
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| Photo Angie Brenneman |
First up is always the JR race. the start of the 10-12 JRs had 30 riders(that's an impressive number) the format for this was a little confusing to the Jrs as well as the parents who normally try to walk them through instructions. They typically race the full 30 minutes but for some reason their race was reduce to just a lap and a half. The whistle blew and Owen had a great start and it settled in quickly to him and Marcus Provine. They hung together the whole race and when they came around to the finish stretch an official yelled "one to go"?which caused confusion. Owen thought they had one more to go so he kept going but in actuality they were finished on that lap putting Marcus in 2nd and Owen in 3rd. The podium was a mess also and the only spot that was right was the winner. Ean raced hard an ended up in 10th place, he even out sprinted a kid in a gear that looked like he was spinning 130rpms, gotta get his dad to school him better on that one. Nice day of racing to them despite all the confusion. Owen still maintains the series lead with Marcus close behind. Regardless of their competition on the course it's always good to see the JRs hanging post race as good friends having good times.
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| Photo Joe Mallis.com |
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| Photo Angie Brenneman |
Next up was the Master 3/4 35+. Stacked field with the some of the areas finest. DCCX always seems to bring some stiffer talent to the table so the boys had their work cut out for them. Will started well and raced a smart race. Taking some tight corners in the drops and making up some ground. He was catching some big air on the popular drop off section that had me worried that he would crack his head on a low hanging branch but all was well and he came in at 27 position. McCready had a solid race and looked to be riding a good tempo and ended up a respectable 41st place. Beshore started way in the back and gained a lot of "kill" points, looking strong and motoring through the bunch and placed 48th for the day. Chris S was still recovering from his little run( marathon) from the week before and still ended up 92nd place.
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| Photo Angie Brenneman |
Next up was the hard mans race the open Single Speed race that mixes every category as long as you only have one gear and an addiction to pain. Clark E and Mark Cavey did the SS. Clark was settled into top 15 for the first few laps but ended up fighting his way up to an impressive 6th place finish. Mark was moving up in the field everytime that I saw him and seemed to be racing neck and neck with DC's own Joel Gwadz(Gwadzilla) And he ended up in 26th place. Was hard to see friend and fellow racer Marc "Fatmarc" Vettori suffer a mid race flat that put him out of the top ten fight, better luck next time mate.
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| Photos Angie Brenneman |
I was up next and got caught up in socializing with my wife and team Sponsor Sarah who was on house handing out granola samples. I looked at my watch "4 minutes to and realized that I missed my call up so to the back I went and started with Skibby. It was a tricky start and I had to play it cool while weaving through some bad mistakes. I ended up settling into top 20 and saw 5 laps to go "huh??" I kept plugging away and tried to hang with Jay Lazar(20/20) as he motored through the filed after what must have been a crash or mechanical. He's riding super strong this year, great guy with a big engine. The lap counter ended up being wrong and I was saving a little too much gas for what I thought was 2 more laps but only had 1, it was a bitter sweet feeling to see but had allot of work to do. I motored the flat sections in all out mode and made no mistakes through the barriers am corners. I ended up with 12th place and my best DC race to date. Skibby raced a 10 mile run in the morning and hung on as long as he could to the fast paced start.
Unfortunately I did not catch much of the 3/4 race with Mark K and Jared because I went back to the car to change and get Jakes pit bike ready to go. Jared was jumping in the 3/4 to avoid the early start and to get the faster racing experience. he ended up in 73rd place. Mark was racing up close to the front in what seemed to be large packs of rider that formed groups of 10 or so which makes for hard to pass moments. He ended up placing 35th place.
Final "official" race of the day was the elite men. Jake had a front row start with the stacked field of fast Riders. Haymarket's Ryan Dewald started the separation early putting in a fast paces start. Jake got tangled up in traffic and unit the tape. The fast pace start also involved a high speed crash into a tree on a tricky corner. This caused a little chaos and as I was dropping Jakes pit bike off was asked to stand in for Fred Wittwer so he could go check on the rider who crash's and was still laying on the ground. On Jakes next time through he was crashed into the tape and hit the deck hard. When he regrouped his chain was off and took him awhile to get back into the groove. He went from top ten to 28th and worked back up to 18th. He seemed to be settling back into the groove but ended up snapping his derailuer hanger due to damage from the crash. It ended up ending his race. Obviously disappointed he wanted to jump in the tandem(video clip) race for redemption. That started out good enough but after only a short 6 minutes we managed to break the chain. We continued to run with the bike(I sat on for most of it) , let Ean in on the action for a few minutes and then Kilgore finished the last bit and stoped for the reward.
Its always such a great time and I am already looking forward to next years event. We have 4 more races left in the MABRA Super 8 series.Thanks for reading and see you soon!
