Ed Sanders Cross
By Marc, Joel Gwadz and Darren
All the rain just put a different spin on Ed Sanders compared to the
dry, dusty 2007 campaign and didn’t cause any problems with the
general ride-ability of the course. my specialize tri-cross frame
was chosen in large part to avoid mud/grass buildup at races like ed
sanders (big clearance front and rear), and it worked great.
I got a front row call up as defending 35+ series winner and got a
good start, latching on to Mark Kutney’s wheel. Anthonhy von Lierop
worked his way up from somewhere back in the pack to take 2nd wheel,
and I made a decision not to try to match Kutney’s pace, which would
certainly be more than I could manage. About lap 2 as I sat somewhere
between the lead pair and a chase group, I slid out off my bike on the
2nd little drop in. I didn’t waste a lot of time, but a few seconds
and restart was enough to cost me several spots
although it is confusing to my near competitors who apparently know
how to ride a bike, I managed to mess this section up just about every
time, though I did my mess-ups differently each time to keep it
interesting. sliding out, falling, going left in weeds, right in
weeds- no bad method was left untried.
fortunately, I was feeling very strong on the flat sections that make
up most of the course, and was able to my way back past mike birner, a
cracked von lierop and finally dropped Chris Nystrum for good on the
last lap. Kutney was somewhere up the road out of sight, but I dangled
behind my crossreults.com arch nemeses randy root and bernie schiao. I
might have been only 10″ or so back, but was unable to close despite
my attempts on the last couple laps.
all in all a strong effort and a good start for the MABRA series. I
was 4th in the field, but 1st in 35+ - the other guys were 45+. so ,
maximum point in the 35+ subgroup, quirky though that might be.
Chris Clarke had a very strong showing - 8th overall in elite masters,
4th in 45+.
Mark Drajem, Raul, and myself were all lined up with the Masters B
we all raced pretty close together which made for an interesting race within the race
I worked hard to trail both Mark and Raul
eventually Drajem and I swapped spots
but I could not bridge the gap between Raul and myself
worked hard… but where I worked hard Raul must have been working hard too
because instead of me closing the gap Raul widened the margin
The B race was fast and furious and was a pretty packed field. Matty D represented DCMTB well had a strong first half and settled into his placing for the day. Darren had a bobble in the first lap, and then had a steady effort that didn’t make him DFL might as well have been in his book. He felt the effects of racing his second B race after racing the C’s last year.
In all turned out to be a good day to watch the races, and people were talking about DCCX even when they were at another cross race!
City Bikes/DCMTB Cyclocross Clinics - Wednesdays in September at Ft. Reno
DCMTB/City Bikes will be conducting a series of free Cyclocross clinics on Wednesdays in September at Ft. Reno in Washington DC from 6pm until dark. The clinics will feature basic cyclocross instruction from DCMTB team members and other experienced local racers. September 3rd will be a special women’s only DC-ChiX clinic with instruction by Melanie Swartz; September 10, 17, and 24 will be open to all. Space is limited, so email gwadzilla8@yahoo.com Just show up!
Check for updates, weather cancellations, and additional details on the DCCX page on dcmtb.com and the Gwadzilla blog.
Dates: 9/3 (Women Only), 9/10, 9/17, 9/24
Time: 6pm
Location: Ft. Reno Park, Northwest Washington, DC
Cost: Free; bring your USAC license is you have one, if not we’ll cover the cost of your 1-day license
Schedule:
6:00 pm - 6:10 - registration
6:15 - 6:45 pm - skills instruction
6:45 - 7:30 pm (light permitting) - unstructured skills work and ride on practice loop.
DCMTB wins EX2’s Day of Endurance
Tom Vaughn and Lynne Oliver represented DCMTB at EX2’s inaugural Day of Endurance. Not only did they win the coed duo class in the 6 hour MTB race, they beat all the duo teams for 3rd overall. Lynne is especial happy to have beaten all the boys, while Tom was just happy to have raced having bruised the heck out of his ribs while preriding the day before.
The course at Rocky Gap State Park was like two courses in one; one section climbed up into Gambril-like rock gardens with a screaming descent back to the mostly smooth and fast lakeside section. There was also some very Lodi-like twisty-turny sections as well, making it a varied and fun course. Jim Harman of EX2 said everybody loved the course and will be doing it again next year.
Thanks to Jim and everybody at EX2 for an expertly run race and thanks to our sponsors: City Bikes, Merkle, Whole Foods P Street, Continuum Energy Solutions, Serfas, SRAM, The Looking Glass Lounge and WTB.
Giro di Copi - DCMTB makes the race….
by Darren Biggs
It’s a great feeling to plan something and execute that plan and to see it work.
I only did three road races last year(poolesville, RFK, Giro di Coppi) and this year it will be just the Giro di Coppi. As part of the DCMTB team we are a Mountain bike team that races cross and road races as well. For our Priority Calendar we only had two races RFK crit(citybikes sponsors it) and the Giro di Coppi. The Giro di Coppi is the only hilly race in the MABRA series that I know of. I did it last year and so you see how that turned out.
This year I thought about it, and I knew what I wanted to do. The issue was I had to make sure we had some DCMTB racers there to execute a plan. I raced the CAT 5 race again since I don’t race enough to really move up. I knew Matt was going to be there, and there was some openings cause of some team members who couldn’t do the race with the date change(was to be in July). I got Rudi who leads the Tuesday Dupont ride, to be a guest “DCMTB” member. I hope I can rope him into racing with our team, since I do allot of training with him already.
The race starts out and we are doing a pretty mellow pace and Matty went to the front for a bit, doing nothing crazy just letting legs get going. Rudi was on the front a little bit, I was trying to get him not to be at the front and to save his energy. Some how Rudi and I were at the front for the Old Baltimore Rd. Climb and we rode that pretty strong, I dug a little more then I wanted to. So we kept on riding and I made sure after that not to go to the front, and Matty and Rudi stayed in the top 1/3 of the field as well. The original Idea I had was that our whole team would attack in unison on the climb. The Idea being if it is one person they will let him die out there, but if it is 3 people from the same team you know the move is serious and that they are going ot work together. I had attacked last year and no one came with me so this year I wanted for our team to make the race, and not just sit around reacting to moves. This summer I had gotten a good tip from Chris on my team, he said that you have to attack on the hill(the finishing hill) before the climb. I then started to see how this would work out Rudi would go first and launch us on the finishing hill, cause these are his bread and butter climbs that I knew he would do well. I was then then to take over on the down hill. So we get to lap 2 of 3, and I saw that Matty was staying near my wheel, and I told Rudi to get to the outside and to launch after the 2000meter to go sign. So Rudi did a good job he was at the head of the group which wasn’t ideal but it was 2-3 across so that was helpful. Rudi Jumped and I was right on him, I thought Matty was with me but I didn’t have time to look behind. As we were about 2/3 ways up that, rudi started to get separation from me, so I said,”Let me come to you”, giving him encouragement in saying keep it steady. So we get to the top and I take over and take the turn hard and start gunning it down the downhill. Previously when we did this people did not do the downhill at full speed. So I was flying down that around 50mph, and Matty came out of my wheel we were both just flying. I then was in front on the climb and then it got steeper so we were spread across the road. I looked to see if Rudi was able to hang on which he was. So we kept going and I think Matty saw two guys coming, so once the two other riders showed up there were 5 of use doing really fast pulls. We all encouraged one another. We took the turn on Comus and when I looked back I could see people trying to chase. Once we got through the next turn we got a time gap from the Motor official that we had 35 seconds. That lead went down to 20 seconds then back up again. I was starting to loose it, and not being able to pull through and take my pulls(no acting here). Rudi has really good reserves but he needed to get his heart rate down so he was in a spot of bother at the beginning but got better once were pace lining while I started to loose contact on Old Baltimore Rd. ,but was only a couple of bike lengths behind. On the next road before the final turn I was losing ground , but still had the lead group in site. Once on the finally road I was more concerned about the peleton coming behind me and going right pass me. I went into mountain bike survival mode, where I put in effort where I could. I also had a severe calf cramp that I was trying to not think about. I looked behind me a couple of times, and I still didn’t see anyone coming. So I kept motoring to the finish and got myself a respectable 5th place I think like 35 seconds infront of the group. What I didn’t know was that the lead group that was up the road from me had built a lead of a minute on the peleton. Rudi finished in 4th but could of maybe done better if his cassette cog didn’t crack and fall off leaving him only his 4 top cogs so he had to spin allot those last couple of miles. Matty got 3rd and said that with him training for the SM100 he had no top end speed at the end so when the last hill came the All American guy just kicked up an knotch and got some distance. With the guy from Maryland? getting second. So not a bad day to have a everyone finish in the top 5
5th Darren Biggs
4th Rudi Riet(guest team rider)
3rd Matt Donahue
DCMTB-City Bikes: Clinic One DC-ChiX
Last night DCMTB-City Bikes hosted Clinic One in a four part clinic series at Fort Reno Park in Northwest Washington DC. This clinic was women specific and was lead by local racer Melanie Swartz of Velo Bella.
Lots of woman signed up for this event. In fact so many people signed up via email that I ended up turning people away in an effort not to have the first session become the last session. As it turns out, not everyone showed up and it was not the massive cluster of lycra that I feared would offend the usual park users at Fort Reno. In fact, it seemed that our athletic presence fit in just fine with the other athletes on the various fields in the park as well as not offending the people passing through or picnicing on the grounds. There did not seem to be any conflict with any of the other park users. Sure a leashless dog chased a rider or two and I would not be shocked if a headphone wearing runner was spooked by the approaching cyclists, but there appeared to be no real conflicts.
Melanie Swartz came prepare!
The clinic started off a few minutes later than expected as many of these cycling events do. Raul handled the registration of the riders while Marc Gwadz and Mark Drajem aided Melanie in course set up. One by one women started showing up with their bicycles. Once a good number of woman showed up the DCMTB men stepped back and the women stepped forward. Melanie lead this clinic as if she had done this sort of things before. She gave a good verbal introduction to the objectives of the evening then immediately flowed into a number of drills. It was not the adrenalin based cross practice that I had anticipated. It was Melanie’s intention to slow things down and get down to the basic comfort on the bike. In watching the riders I understood that Melanie’s approach made good sense as there is so much that veteran cyclists take for granted. Many of these women were comfortable on the bike but completely new to cyclocross. There was such a wide variety of cyclists that it made sense to start at the ground and build things up… even the seasoned veterans can use some review on the basic skills.
After the initial drills on cornering, balance, track stands, and sight lines the group moved to faster paced activities. There were laps around the grounds at Fort Reno Park that took advantage of the variables that the park presents. A set of barriers was set up to compliment the natural obstacles in the park. There was a wide variety of skill levels and fitness, everyone meshed together quite well. At the end of the evening as the sun set in the distance everyone was smiling and it appeared as if everyone left looking for more.
The DCMTB-City Bikes Cross Clinic Session Number One was a success!
I was pleased with the turn out… I regretted turning people away.
Things went so well that I expect a good number of the women from this Clinic to attend some of the clinics at this same park on Wednesdays in September.
special thanks to Melanie Swartz for leading this clinic
and thanks to everyone who showed up
this sort of gathering is exactly what the DC cycling scene needs to introduce more people to the sport of cyclocross
more images to appear on my page
www.gwadzilla.blogspot.com