DCCX 2008

This was the big event of the year for the DCMTB team. We are a mountainbike team that races cross and road as well. I had helped with the course clean up and mowed the course to be as fast as it could be. The race is at the Armed Forces Retirement Home in Washington DC. One of the few places where there is ample room to have a race. We pretty much doubled in size from last year. We became the biggest cyclocross race in Mabra's history of 400+ races. The nice bonus this year were the Frites cooked up by Scud, and the Keg beer. The Dutch club of DC came in as well with their treats which were great.

I had some of my friends come for the race and it was great to hear AB, Kristen, Elizabeth, Jon, Jeff, Diana, Ellen, and Sara out there cheering for me.

CAT 3/4 race.

I had a fourth row start based on my registration. I never really get that worried about my place at the start, since I am not going to win any of these races I just want to race people. I started behind Matty, and thought if things worked well I could maybe race near him for the race. The field was big with like 80 guys. The start went off well and organized, but on the first hill people were getting stacked up. By the time we got through the up and down section in the woods and on to the pavement groups had started to form. I passed Cargo Mike who was fixing a dropped chain at the brick section. I then took the next turn wide so that I rode the off camber straight on, a guy behind me was on my outside and I think wrecked going down the hill behind me. I felt bad, but if he would have followed me he would have been fine. I think on the second lap my chain fell off, I was able to put it back on quickly but that cost me a lot of spots. After this point I think Ryan from racing Union came up on me, this might have been his first CAT 3 / 4 race. It was good to see him, but I wanted him off my tail :-) I was by myself for a bit, I rode the road sections on the tip of my saddle just trying to get some speed out of the legs. There were a couple of people who I was catching up to now. Then before you know it Cargo Mike had caught up with me. We got to this little rise that was like an energy suck because it was so tacky (I bet by the time the pros rode it was hard), I had to let him go there. The rest of the race was me going hard then slowing a little so I could maintain the effort. Towards the end I saw Matty in front of me and he was a great carrot to try and catch. Matty is faster in most races, so it was good to catch him. I knew he had not slept much for the last couple of days and was rundown so I wasn't too surprised I caught him. So I went past Matty and one other guy, and just emptied the tank on the last lap. My knees did not give me too many problems and I felt my back from the effort, but it didn't get to the point where I hurt it. So I got 28th out of 78 or so starters. The rest of the day was good times with beautiful weather, and food and beer. I didn't get home until 7pm after doing all the take down and dropping stuff off at Wholefoods. Thinking I will be at the Rockburn cross race, I hope I can beat the guy with the chops who has gotten me twice now at Ed Sanders, and DCCX.
Photos done by Sara,Jon,Diana, and Bucknell

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