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Race Report: The Early Season Races
The video above is of the bell lap of the Cat 3 field of the Meadows Farm Circuit Race, and it’s about as compelling a watch as I’ve seen in a while, both because of the quality (cool little speedometer and power meter in the corner? Check!) and because that’s our own Tony Abate taking second place in a hotly contested sprint.
Tony’s been on something of a roll recently, taking second place in the season opener at Black Hills and sixth place at the Morgantown Road Race in West Virginia a few weeks back. If all things go to plan in the coming weeks, he’ll be all grown up and ready to move up to Cat 2.
The rest of the team has been warming up its legs at a number of races, both local and in Pennsylvania. Chas landed a solid ninth in the Cat 4 field at Meadows Farm, Tony Allen-Mills took first amongst the 55+ racers at Richmond and brand-new racer Alex P. got himself his first Top 10 finish in the Cat 5 field at Farmersville.
And there’s plenty of racing left to come. A few of us are heading to the Tour of Ephrata this weekend (where Tony won the crit a few years back), and next weekend we’ll be splitting our time between Turkey Hill and Ft. Ritchie on Saturday and heading down to Jeff Cup (now with warmer weather!) on Sunday.
DVR Presented By…
Late last year, we received the unenviable news that our shop sponsor at the time, The Bike Rack, had decided to focus less on road racing and more on its growing multi-sport team. But for every door that closes, someone leaves a window open, right?
And with a window wide open to us, we’re extremely happy to announce that for the 2011 season we’ll be partnering with Bicycle Pro Shop, an institution in the world of local bicycle retailing. We couldn’t be happier with the decision. The shop’s owners and managers were nothing but receptive to the team’s vision and our idea of a mutually beneficial relationship; the salespeople and mechanics have already given us more attention and support than we could have expected. We’re all proud that we’ll get to fly the BPS flag high throughout the season, and we’re ecstatic to be the cute little brother team to our new siblings at Your Ad Here.
As one of our first steps in solidifying our relationship with BPS, we’ve kicked off a Sunday shop ride that leaves at 10 a.m. from Francis Scott Key Park in front of the shop’s Georgetown location. Yes, there are a million shop rides within a 20-mile radius of the District, but we’d like to think that we’re just better, faster, smarter, and sharper-looking. The ride is slowly defining itself, but so far we’re looking at a 60-mile A ride (fast and aggressive) and 40-mile B ride (steady and smooth). We’re also trying to spice things up a little by hitting new roads or taking old roads backwards; if you’ve never ridden up Eggert or down Oaklyn from Persimmon Tree to Falls, come out and join us. Here’s the Garmin data from last Sunday’s inaugural ride for anyone who’s curious. I was taking it easy, by the way.
In other sponsor-related news, we’re very happy to be rejoined by View14, Lyons & Sucher Advertising, and The Farm at Sunnyside for the 2011 season. We’ll also be partnering with Honey Stinger again for food and energy (Lance is a maybe for our soon-to-exist elite squad), Let Larry Do It for taxes and accounting, Inward Out Designs for website work, and Twisted Brazz Studio for kit and cap design and a whole lot more. We’re also happy to be joined by the Raw Talent Ranch, who we don’t believe needs any introduction.
As for the team itself, we’re the same band of miscreants as before — only we picked up a few new members we’re very excited about. (In suspense? You should be.) And yes, we’ll again be partnering with Artemis to host the Dawg Days of Summer Circuit Race, which, with the weather we’ve got now, couldn’t come soon enough.
We’re looking forward to racing again, and we’ll be well-prepared and well-supported this year thanks to our great sponsors and partners.
What Our Off-Season Has Consisted Of
For anyone looking to assess our collective level of off-season race fitness, that’s 24 custom District Velocity Racing cupcakes we had at our monthly team dinner yesterday. (Clenbuterol-free, we promise! Oh — too soon?)
On a more serious note, DVR has seen some big changes over the last months, notably our move to a new bike shop and the addition of a host of new, exciting members. We’ve even seen the slow growth of a development squad as various team members have welcomed children to the world, so look out for our own regional U23 squad sometime around 2035.
We’ll have more details in the weeks to come, but first we’ve got to go work off those cupcakes.
Race Report: Church Creek 3/4 TTT
We took the win AND second place. ‘Nuff said.
Race Report: Dawg Days of Summer
After many months of training, racing and recovering — a process that was rinsed and repeated many times — the season came to something of an end this weekend with the Dawg Days of Summer Circuit Race in Bowie, MD. But unlike many other late-season races, this one was special in its own way — it was our race.
Well, let me be more specific. This is the second year we’ve worked with the crew from Artemis Racing to put on the circuit race, and it’s the second year it has gone off excellently. Artemis brought years of experience and a huge logistical capacity to the process of organizing the second installment of the race, and we couldn’t have picked a better team to learn the ropes from.
Coming into Sunday’s race, the weather wasn’t looking too encouraging — we were being promised 70 percent chance of rain and thunderstorms. And while it did rain on the early races and dump on the 1/2/3, the majority of the day’s races took place under cloudy, though dry skies.
On top of our day-of responsibilities — road guarding, manning registration and food sales, and driving the pace car — District Velocity Racing p/b The Bike Rack put riders in a number of the races. Michelle and Lisette survived a soggy early-morning women’s race, while Kevin, Chas, Grayson, and Seth jumped into the 35+ field. It was in this race that we saw some of the day’s true race excitement — Kevin jumped off the front of the pack with about 12 laps to go, gaining over 20 seconds on the field and coming within less than two laps of taking the victory. I watched the whole thing from the pace car, and it was an impressive show of strength and mental fortitude.
Brian S., Tony, Kevin, and I jumped into the fast 1/2/3 race, which was relatively uneventful spare the Indian monsoon that hit us a few laps in. It’s not an understatement to say that I’ve never raced in such objectively frightening conditions. For the better part of five laps, visibility was just above non-existent, and water pooled on large sections of the course. Thankfully, that the race course wasn’t particularly technical ensured that we all stayed upright during the drenching. The race was cut short due to lightning, but we all came out of it alive. That’s a victory in and of itself.
The Cat 4 race may have been one of the most exciting of the day. There were attacks and counter-attacks, and a breakaway even survived until the bitter end. Tom S. led out an early breakaway that seemed promising, but wasn’t to be. Jon tried his own flyer, while Marcus, Corey, Nate, Seth, Tom J. pushed the pace and closed gaps. Matt R. made it into a four-man break with a few laps to go, joined by NCVC’s Nick S. in the closing miles of the race. In the end, it was a three-man contest for the win, and Matt took second third to a hard-charging sprint from Nick. The rest of the DVR crew led out the field sprint, and though I haven’t yet seen the results, I’m pretty sure we took places six through 11.
All told, it was a great day to end the season on. Our most sincere thanks go to Artemis for letting us jump in and co-promote the race, and for everyone who showed up even when the weather radar would have encouraged you to stay home instead. We also owe a serious debt of gratitude to our friends and sponsors who kicked in for prizes and premes — Lyons and Sucher Advertising, The Bike Rack, View14, The Farm at Sunnyside, and Johnny’s Half Shell Restaurant. Thanks for everything.
A load of great race pics are available here.
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