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Capital Cross



This was the final race of the season for most of the team. DCMTB / CityBikes had a good turnout at the race. Marc Gwadz coming off his Marbra champinionship win where he was 1st for the Mabra series 35+ and 1st in the DC/Maryland in his age group. Marc was racing masters, but with the MAC confrence being UCI most of the masters that usual race elite raced in the regular Elite masters catagory. Marc still had a solid race, but one of his mabra rivals got the best of him again. From Marc,“I was in a 3 person group with berni shiao- we were able first to distance ourselves from a large chasing group (Chris scott, Roger Masse, Randle Root, etc), then on the last lap I made a push to drop the others as we hit the berm before the dam. Mike Birner fell off the pace but Berni Shiao counter-attacked got a couple second gap on me with 1/4 th lap to go and held it the line.” Chris Clarke was racing the Masters B race with Mark Drajem. Mark and Chris both road some smooth races and were competitive out on the circuit. Chris felt his legs were a little sluggish and he summed it with,“It’s hard to believe I could get so old without realizing I was so slow.” Ilanna Knopf was able to withstand the cold and finish Top 10 in the women’s B field. In the Mens C race there was the DCMTB / CityBikes Trio of Loren Mcwethy, Kent Baake, and Darren Biggs they had all registered the day of so had to start at the back in about 60th position. There were three different stories brewing there, Kent riding the mt. bike with cross tires doing his first CX race, Loren the young buck coming into form and riding his new $$$ cross bike, and Darren deciding to race at the last minute on pure skill, not his form. Kent was the only racer in the C field to go over the log on the run up. Doing that got the crowd fired up, so he went for broke and tried to bunny hop the barriers which wasn’t as successful but got the crowd fired up none the less and he achieved his goal of having a good time. Darren got a fast start and Loren was able to bridge to him and the DCMTB / CityBikes Duo was able to drop two pursuing riders. In the finishing straight Loren was about 200yds in front of Darren, and Darren was able to catch Loren at the line. Some might say Darren punked him, but Darren believes he gave Loren a lesson on always finishing strong even when you think you got the gap :-)
For More details on Darrens race and Pics check his blog

Elite Masters
13 Marc Gwadz

B-Masters
12 Chris Clarke
32 Mark Drajem

B-Women
10 Ilanna Knopf

C-Men
7 Darren Biggs
8 Loren Mcwethy
14 Kent Baake

Comments»

1. kwoodrow - December 12, 2007

It’s been great racing ‘cross with you guys this year. DCMTB is a great addition to the local ‘cross scene, both in terms of competitive riders and a great race in DCCX. I’m already looking forward to 2008!
- Ken Woodrow, Squadra Coppi