SB Nation User Blog: Sui Juris

Belgium Sponsors DC Cyclocross

Sui Juris — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 20:15:10 -0000

This is such a great story that I'm just going to cut and paste the press release without shame:

The organizers of the October 26 City Bikes DCCX, the only cyclocross race held within the city limits of the U.S. Capital, have announced that their "Lil’ Belgians" Free Kids Race will actually be sponsored by the Belgian Embassy. "Lil’ Belgians" racing, a traditional part of every BikeReg.com MABRAcross event, is a free fun-race for young children that occurs just prior to the Elite races, and it’s not unusual to see Elite and Amateur racers "assisting" their training-wheel -equipped youngsters by pushing them around their own special course.

Until now, the Lil’ Belgians moniker had been just a cute tribute to the homeland of cyclocross. But at the City Bikes DCCX, Belgium will be involved in an official capacity as the Belgian Embassy will be offering all participating kids a special (and tasty) prize. The kids won’t be the only ones getting a tasty Belgian prize, however, because the City Bikes DCCX organizers will keep the Belgian ambience rolling by serving free Frites to riders and spectators alike. For more information, see BikeReg.com

Lazyweb: Riding Cape Breton/Bay of Fundy?

Sui Juris — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 23:18:16 -0000

Hi, PodiumCafe Lazyweb! You've served me well before, so I figure it was time to take advantage of you again. We're driving (!) to Cape Breton this weekend, and will spend a week there (and along the northern edge of the Bay of Fundy on the way back) and are appreciative of any ride suggestions. Thanks in advance.

(Only taking the road bikes with us, I'm afraid, so that epic windswept granite near the Cabot trail will have to wait.)

ING Direct Capital Criterium - Now With More Photos!

Sui Juris — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 21:49:57 -0000

Toyota United's Hilton Clarke takes the field sprint, just ahead of Rock Racing's Freddie Rodriguez and teammate Dominique Rollin

Podium Cafe is a full service establishment - we bring you news of the race, we organize a social gathering around the race, we make sure that those of you who can't make it get a chance to chat as you watch it, and we get you same day photo coverage.

And now we're bringing you a few more pictures from the ING Direct Capital Criterium (full results here) Hit the fold for more.

Pennsylvania Avenue awaits its first pro criterium

A race ends early in the men's 35+ field . . .

Bet you've never seen a DC street this fresh and smooth

The men's 35+ field rounds the u-turn

Immediate Mortgage/Artemis' Ramon Benitez - that's him winning the 35+ race as a *warm up* for the 1/2/3 race he entered a few minutes after the first . . .

Men's 1/2/3 field lines up

NCVC - I'm not sure you can actually hold a race in the MABRA region without at least a half dozen of them showing up

Ramon Benitez working the peloton. Again.

Cycling earns new fans

Men's 35+ Podium. That's Immediate Mortgage/Artemis Elite's Ramon Benitez and Mark Warno in first and second, respectively. In third is Trail's End's Nima Ebrahimnejad. Sure, you can laugh his kit - but did you represent your country in the 1992 Olympic road races? No, you did not. He did.

Men's 1/2/3 Podium. That's Battley Harley's Todd Hipp in first place. Indiana Regional Medical Center's Jake Lifson is glad he made the trip, in second. And DC fixture and Immediate Mortage/Artemis Elite rider "Super" Dave Osborne rounds out the podium

Announcer Joe Jefferson Interviews Rock Racing's Freddie Rodriguez for the Crowd

A couple of guys from Garmin-Chipotle show up

Hey, I know those sideburns!

Freddie Rodriguez decides that Pennsylvania Avenue is as good a place as any to change

Toyota United's Dominique Rollin at the ING Direct Capital Criterium Start Line

ING Direct Capital Criterium Pro Field

The field hits the only climb of the course, in front of DC's Warner Theatre

Fast corners are fast

No shortage of fans.

The riders feel out the chicane just before the finish

Not in the plan: a Kelly Benefits and Inferno Racing rider lose the field after crashing in the U-turn

Rodriguez, without a team to work for him, stuck with the plan he announced at the start and sat in for most of the race

Team Type 1's Dan Holt rounds the corner with Garmin-Chipotle's Danny Pate

Photographer in the field: note the helmet-mounted camera on the Battley Harley rider in front

Sweeper -the field spreads out over Pennsylvania Avenue

Keeping the race coming to your screens

And the speed picks up

Successful Living's Alessando Bazzana goes down on the last lap

And he knows that it's the end of his race

Toyota United's Hilton Clarke takes the field sprint, just ahead of Rock Racing's Freddie Rodriguez and teammate Dominique Rollin

ING Direct Capital Criterium winner Hilton Clarke takes a moment to recover

ING Direct Capital Criterium's first podium discuss the finish. Freddie says he just needed a leeetle more space to come around Hilton . . .

Toyota United's Hilton Clarke enjoying the moment

. . . and enjoying the end-of-season payday.

Inaugural ING Direct Capital Criterium winners

Team Type 1's Emile Abraham had a good day, too, snagging fifth place in the sprint finish.

Finally, while Podium Cafe is a full service establishment, we are not too proud to sending you to another site with excellent info. In this instance, we're sending you to GamJams ("Where Mid-Atlantic bike racers roll") which is collecting reports from local competitors. It's a growing list, and includes this one from Haymarket rider Steve Gordon, who found himself riding with DLP Racing at the last minute.

There are more photos, of course, but I wanted to get these out now. Look for an update here (or in an open thread) tomorrow.

-Mark Blacknell for Podium Cafe/All Photos Copyright Mark Blacknell

ING Direct Capital Criterium: Live!

Sui Juris — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 03:32:33 -0000

As has been noted, DC will be enjoying a downtown pro cycling race - the ING Direct Capital Criterium - this Sunday morning. And now you can, too - live streaming looks to be in place! (We all know, of course, of the perils of live feeds, so cross your fingers for everyone and everything involved). Schedule, course map, and race start list links below the fold.

Schedule

There are three races scheduled. There's a kids event between the amateur and pro races, thus the time gap around 10am.

8am - men's 35+, 45 minutes (about 32 laps), $500 in prize money/10 deep
9am - men's 1/2/3, 60 minutes (about 45 laps), $800 in prize money/10 deep
11:30am - pro, 85 laps (no set time), $50,000 in prize money/25 deep

Course

It's a six turn 1km circuit that winds its way through DC's Penn Quarter. The road on the bottom is Pennsylvania Avenue (for reference, the White House is just off the left side of the map, and the Capitol a bit off of the right). The riders will be racing clockwise, which means that they'll head up a bit of a hill right after the start. It's not long or particularly steep, but I'm sure it will add up over 85 laps.

The right-left-right back down should be fast, sending the riders into an easy left back to Pennsylvania Avenue. A tight u-turn then sets the riders up for what should be a very fast sprint finish down a long and flat run-in to the line.

The Field

Garmin-Chipotle's bringing five riders to the race, including Christian Vande Velde, Will Frischkorn and Danny Pate. Freddie Rodriguez and Rahsaan Bahati will be alone in representing Rock Racing. Similarly, Toyota United's Dominique Rollin and Hilton Clarke will be a two man team. Kelly Benefits is bringing a full squad to put behind crit specialist Alex Candelario. In contrast, Symmetrics' Eric Wohlberg will be making this a solo effort. Bobby Lea, Karl Menzies, and Team Type 1 are also in town. Complete start list here.

Should make for a great race. I hope the streaming video can do it justice - and if not, well, check back here for a bit of post race photo coverage late Sunday, sure to be accompanied by reports from the many Podium Cafe members that were there.

ING Capital Criterium: Add Bahati, Pate, Rodriguez . . .

Sui Juris — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 21:14:11 -0000

This coming Sunday will bring DC its first ING Capital Criterium. We found out last week that Garmin-Chipotle's Christian Vande Velde would be stopping by for the fun, and today we get a few more interesting names on the list. CVV will be joined by teammates Will Frischkorn and Danny Pate. Rock Racing will show up with Freddie Rodrigeuz and Rashaan Bahati (rocking his new crit champ kit, I'm sure). Also of note are Symmetrics' Eric Wohlberg, Kelly Benefits' Alex Candelario, and Toyota United's Dominique Rollin. Honestly, this is a much higher quality field than I expected, given how recently this was announced. Very much looking forward to it. Race details (and hopefully a complete start list) will be coming later in the week.

Shimano Yumeya

Sui Juris — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 12:32:58 -0000

Shimano Yumeya

Why, Shimano, why?

Univest Start List

Sui Juris — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 00:43:21 -0000

For those of you who are planning to try and catch the crit portion of the Univest Grand Prix on Sunday, GamJams.net has the startlist for Saturday's road race. I presume it will track closely with Sunday's crit. It's an interesting field - I wish I'd known about it earlier, as I would have tried to catch it in person.

R.I.P., Ian Hibell, Cyclist, Global Circumnavigator

Sui Juris — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 22:45:55 -0000

I know Podium Cafe is more a racing than a cycling culture community, but I thought I'd pass along something that deserves a brief pause:

A cyclist who pedalled the world for more than 40 years, braving raging rivers, a lion and the hospitality of an Eskimo princess, has been killed by a hit-and-run driver in Greece.

Ian Hibell, 74, was a well-known figure in the world of long-distance cycle touring, setting several records and pedalling the equivalent of ten times around the Equator.

[ . . . ]

Mr Hibell, from Brixham in Devon, set out on his travels in 1963 after asking his employer for a two-year sabbatical. He returned ten years later, having become the first cyclist to ride from Cape Horn to Alaska, among other journeys.

[ . . . ]

Mr Hibell rarely kept to the beaten track, managing to cross mangrove swamps, mountain ranges and even the Sahara desert on two wheels. He was shot at by bandits, had his tent eaten by tropical ants, was sniffed by a lion and chased by elephants.

Sounds like a life well lived. May we all aim for the same.

Olympic XC MTB - Live Thread

Sui Juris — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 02:16:24 -0000

No, the Olympics aren't quite over for pro cyclists. Tonight (in a very general sense) we have the men's and women's XC MTB running. VeloNews has a good recap of what the course entails. And remember, mountain biking has provided a lot of top road racers - Evans, Rasmussen, Landis, Sanchez, etc.

The women's race started off at 10p EDT, and the men roll at 3a EDT. Those of you outside of EDT will just have to do math. I can carry the torch for the men's race, but I'll need a left coaster to complete the relay.

Live video link for (most) US-based viewers here.

DC Gets a Downtown Pro Crit

Sui Juris — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 15:36:37 -0000

On September 21st of this year, you'll be able to head down to Penn Quarter and see a real live pro criterium race in the form of the ING Direct Capital Criterium. It's a six turn 1km circuit that winds its way among the Federal agencies downtown.

I've been waiting for a long time to see something like this happen (in fact, I already know the shot I'll be aiming for). As it stands, there's going to be a Men's 35+ race, a Men's 1/2/3, and a Men's Pro. No word on who the teams will be yet.

DId you notice something missing from that list of races? That's right, no women's field. Which is especially disappointing, considering that Cyclelife, a presenting sponsor, has its own women's team. They're aware of that disappointment, and while they haven't promised anything about next year, they say that they hope to include a women's field when they can. The official race site is here, and I'll post more when details become available.