Bakers Dozen 2008

The 2008 Bakers Dozen is over and the dust has settled. I did this race last year, and Kent from my team did it as well. After last year I talked it up a bit, and this year we were able to pull 21 DCMTB\CityBikes racers down there! We represented with one of our new recruits Jennifer getting first in the Solo Women's division, Our men getting 2nd, 3^rd in the three-man division, and we were able to snag 3^rd in the 3person-open division.

I decided to start my mountain racing season in style by sporting the stache and the stripped socks. This was a big hit with people, I had Bike Lane and the Route Velo Capital Hill Bike guys yelling out Freddie, as in Freddy mercury.

The Start

We went around in circles to figure out who would do the start. I had ridden with Kent earlier in the week, and was riding a tad faster (which will change as the season goes on he is naturally faster then me) so Kent said I should go first. I didn't know how Mike was riding, but he has the best handling skills on the DCMTB\CityBikes team, so I thought he would be the best person to get through the field. I usually have a pretty good start, and this race was about right. I had Ryan from Bike Lane as a person to gauge myself by since I know how he rides. I do the start and I didn't quite sprint fast enough in the beginning, so I was riding in I think like 10-14^th position going into the singletrak.

Well I knew I was too far back because I was wanting to pass the guy in front of me, but it's really hard in the beginning of a race to do that. Well bad luck was good luck for me. I got to a bottleneck where Ryan and some other were off their bikes tangled up. This let me pass like 5-7 people. After that I only passed one other guy and one guy passed me. When you get out in the front that is usually how it works just like the other expert races I have done, after the first 2 miles I usually stay in about the same position the whole race. At one point I saw Ryan behind me, and that really spurred me on cause I didn't want no stinkin' Bike Lane rider in front of meJ so then at the big rock which I launched off since I knew it naturally does that if your weight's back on the bike. I am pretty stoked about the picture someone took, makes me look like a high flyer. In looking at those pics it looks like I was in 7^th place. Well, I get back to the campsite, and exchange our ankle transmitter to Kent who goes flying out.

Rest of the Race

We were in first place early in the race, but the boys at Bike Line kept up a better average lap time then us, so we went into 2^nd somewhere near the halfway point of the race. At one point our other DCMTB/CityBikes team was only 5 minutes behind us. What really worked well with our team was that we had no mechanicals, or crashes. The laps were so short that you really couldn’t make up time anywhere. We did single laps the whole day, and I think I would have totally cracked if we did two more hours. The single laps didn’t give you too much time to rest. I had a knot in my stomach the whole race it seemed, I needed some real food, so I need to work on my nutrition a little better. I got some severe cramps at one point when I was sitting but my legs seemed ok on the course. Through it all we had the DCMTB/CityBikes camp with laughs and cheering section, it was great to have that many riders at the race. I like to give a big nod to my teammates Kent and Mike, for putting up some good lap times, I think we were a good team we all have a good happy go lucky vibe. The other big thing that helped was having Sara at the race, to try help me as my brain went from a working organism to a mashed potato. Sara kept track of all 5 DCMTB/CityBikes teams so that people could easily ask when the last rider went out and when they should be back in. I was happy she got to see how cool the festival atmosphere is at these relay races.

Random thoughts

· The Race course was better this year I really liked the flow, for a flat course it definitely didn’t feel dull. Ideally I would like the course to be maybe 2 more miles to have lap times in the 45 minute range, but that would put the people doing 45 minute laps this year in the hour range. So it is a give and take.

· Best visual was Marc chasing Bruce from Bike Lane like 2 tire widths from his back wheel wish I had a picture of that.

· Great organization and I really like changing the timing chip at your tent and having the course go through the campsite. One of the things I wish people did more of at the other races. You get an automatic cheering section.

· The duo teams of Henry Bikes and the Sollay boys are the real deal. I mean they were just rocking it.

· Mike S. from the team did one or two laps after he wrecked and we found out after the race that he broke his collarbone that is one hard dude!

· Wish the race started earlier so it ended at 11:30pm so like 10:30 to 11:30 so the awards would be at 12:30 not 1:30 in the morning. But hey what can you do?

· Would be fun to have a cross race at this Venue and include the pine Forest section as part of the course!

· Great beginning to the Mid-Atlantic Cup