For the first time since 2004, I finally won a bicycle race. Specifically, I won the 35+ race at the Cranky Monkey Dirt Crit on Sunday. Yippee.
A significantly smaller field than Cranky Monkey #1 lined up for this short course race. We were scheduled for 45 minutes plus one lap of the 1-1.5 mile mostly flat course. The weather was somewhat cooler than the first race but still unpleasantly hot and humid. I got a decent start and went into the single track around 5th. For a few laps, a duo from NCVC led the field. I moved onto the wheel of the lead NCVC rider after his teammate who had won Cranky Monkey #1 suffered a minor mechanical. I felt comfortable but realized that I needed to put in a big move to gap the leader. I was also worried that other riders were about to catch us up. When we hit the jeep trail, I dumped my gears and gave it as much gas as I had available hoping to build a big gap quickly and discourage hot pursuit. Apparently it worked. I never saw anyone behind me again. After another uneventful lap, I was delighted to see that there were only two laps to go and began to think that I could hold out until the finish. I kept the effort steady to avoid a last minute blow up or crash and rolled across the finish in first place.
Marc Gwadz finished 4th and Dave Vannier finished 12th to round out the DCMTB/CityBikes results in the 35+ class. Ricky D brought home 6th in the singlespeed category and Evan Ellicot and Matt Donahue were 2nd and 3rd in the big boy Expert class. Woo-hoo for the team.
Round three of the Cranky Monkey occurs August 13 and takes the course difficulty up a notch at Fountainhead.