GamJams.net: Where Mid-Atlantic bike racers roll

Isaac Howe grabs Working Man's Classic Lead

Isaac Howe (Team Mountain Khakis) followed up Tuesday's 4th place finish at the Working Man's Classic with a sprint win on Wednesday, and now leads the GC by two points over Jeff Buckles (Richmond Pro Cycling) and Todd Hipp (Battley Harley-Davidson). Buckles finished 4th on Wednesday to surge upward in the GC. Battley Harley-Davidson placed both Todd Hipp and Keck Baker on Wednesday's podium behind Howe.

The race was animated with many breakaway attempts. Battley Harley-Davidson was particularly aggressive, sweeping up primes like my vacuum cleaner does Cheerios under the high chair. Keck Baker pocketed a $100 gift certificate from jandwseafood.com, and Russ Langley was on a solo break for a stretch as well.

In the 4/5 race, Curtis Smith (Team Natures Path / 3Sports) solidified his GC lead with a 3rd place finish on Wednesday. Chris McMillan (HPC) finished 2nd last night and moves into 2nd in the GC. Wednesday's 4/5 winner was Chad Rathbone (Kazane Racing), whose victory catapulted him to 3rd on the GC.

Course marshaling duties fell to River City Women's Racing, and we thank them for their support.

Pictures to follow. In the meantime, enjoy this helmet cam video of Tuesday's night's race, courtesy of Bryan Vaughan.

Tonight's conclusion pits Isaac Howe and his Team Mountain Khakis squad against local hero Jeff Buckles and the rest of Richmond Pro Cycling, along with Todd Hipp and the powerful Battley Harley-Davidson team. The course includes a technical 120 degree turn and will be particularly challenging.

Cat 1/2/3 Overall after Stage 2:

1.     Isaac Howe (TMK) 17
2.    Jeff Buckles (RPC) 15
2.    Todd Hipp (BHD) 15 tie
4.    Dave Fuentes (BHD) 11
4.    Chuck Hutcheson (BHD) 11 tie
5.    Keck Baker (BHD) 11 tie
7.    Mason Haymes (TNP) 5 tie
8.    Craig Dodson (RPC) 5 tie
9.    Dan King (Van Dessel) 4 tie
10.    Ben Zawecki (RPC) 4 tie
11.    Craig Dodson (RPC) 3
12.    Andrew Alli (CBC) 2 (Top Cat 3)
13.    Jared Nieters (Haymarket) 1
14.    Brendan Cornett (RPC) 1

Cat 4/5 Overall Results after Stage 2:
1.    Curtis Smith (TNP) 18
2.    Chris McMillan (HPC) 15
3.    Chad Rathbone (Kazane Racing)  13 tie
4.    Grayson Cobb (Kazane Racing) 13 tie
5.    Johnny Phan (CBC) 13 tie
6.    Ken Fennema (Bike Works) 8
7.    Michael Myers (TNP) 7
8.    Wick Smith (Fitness Together) 6 tie
9.    Christian Sherridan (TNP) 6
10.    Mike Yengling (TNP) 4
11.     Ethan Lindbloom (CBC) 2
12.    Nickolay Eremlin (JRVS) 1

Jefferson Cup Race Reports: "I had good sensations."

That's what the pros say when they're interviewed after an early-season race they didn't win, isn't it? "The sensations were good so I am happy with the way my form is progressing. I'll be ready for (insert name of NEXT early-season race here) where I hope for a good result."

Here's what some of this year's competitors had to say about their Jefferson Cup sensations:

• On Cycling: "The high point of my day was lobbing a water bottle to Chris Hayes."
• Aphex Nexus: "I had been told east coast racers are of a higher calibre than Michigan roadies and that has certainly rung true at least for this race. They defiantly pushed the pace.."
• Timothy Christopher Hargrave: "With 2k to go I had more than halved the gap and I thought I had them. The final turn and a spectator yells, 'Yea man, you got it. 8 sec'. I was well in the hurt box, and dug deeper..."
• Ride it Like you Stole it: "i'm just glad no one crashed me out."
• Sim Jetlag: "The racing was frankly soft. Everyone raced defensively and no one grabbed the bull by the horns and got on with it. There were some teams who had a bunch of riders in the field. And I believe that the Richmond Pro Cycling team actually have a couple guys who have spent some time in Belgium. Why either Richmond, Kelly or Harley Davidson cycling team didn't just get to the front, wind it up on a hill, put everyone in the gutter with the cross-winds, nail it over the top, line us all out, hit us right and left and split the entire field apart still baffles me."
• The Robot Diary: "My plan was to sit in for the first 30 miles, and go with dangerous moves after that. This part of the plan went perfectly..."
• gay (bike) racer: "Some folks need to get to leg-shavin. It's almost April for crying out loud."
• Chuck Hutch: "On the 4th lap I tried to shatter the field on the rise past the start finsh, and even manage to string it out and break it up into little groups, but before the next hill most everyone was back. On that same lap I got away with Mike Githens and we were drilling it..."
• good time cycling blog: "Fast forward to the last lap. I decide that I'm going to attack and at the same time a Harley rider did the same. So, it was two Harley riders, a Kelly Benefit rider, and myself in a small break away. I guess we had about 10 seconds on the field going through the start/finish area and it looked like a legit break. But, it wasn't."
• Jimmy James and Bikes: "This field was brutal and very fluid with riders constantly changing lines and battling for position. I was doing well following Tim from VT and trying to just survive with the intense changings in tempo. The line when strecthed out was HUGE..."
  
• DRIVE FASTER ALSTUBLIEFT: "Starters = 125 riders = INSANE. Aggressive level = 5. Sketchyness = 5. Cramping Lap = 5. Place = 30..."
• Cyclist @ Law: "Greg Abbott rode up to me at that point and asked me to shadow him and make sure he kept contact with the field. Greg is a teammate, a great sprinter and given the conditions of the day it was likely that the race would come down to a field sprint.."
• Something totally lame: "This definitely isn't how I wanted to look after Jeff Cup. Sorry for the nudie magazine pic..."
• haters ride their bikes slower: "A flat!!!! ugh... no neutral support at all. The field rolls by and one of the girls stops and gives me her wheel. If you know Anna Kelso(sp?) you are lucky cause I found out yesterday that she is super nice."
• Chain Free: "About that time I hear this awful bike on asphalt noise coming from my rear left.  I didn’t look since I was fixated on the line and had just jumped out of the saddle to sprint..."
• Avery's Blog: "I think the main reason for which I got dropped was because my quantity of miles covered in a one hour trial of timing effort (some people may use the phrase "Miles per Hour") decreased significantly during this final lap to such an extent that everyone else's one hour time trial effort miles output quantity number was greater than that of mine."
• Signal 13: "At some point on last 4, the last lap, a group got off the front. I had no idea this group was away. I knew there were two people up the road that were still in sight and I figured we would catch them on the final stretch to the finish, which we did. But, apparently there were two more guys in front of them."

Rockburn Cross in Words, Pictures and Video

Lateral Stress Velo hosted the BikeReg.com MABRAcross Series Event #4 on Sunday, as Rockburn Cross rolled out under clear skies and warm temps. C3-Sollay.com delivered the 1-2 crane-style punch in the men's elite event, with Andrew Wulfkuhle (C3-Sollay.com) and Michael Gallagher (C3-Sollay.com) leading the way, both adorned in the special edition Cobra Kai skinsuits. Third was Sean Galegher (Hunt Valley Bicycles / Marathon Roofing).

In the women's elite event, Betsy Shogren (SoBe / Cannondale) outsprinted Melanie Swartz (Velo Bella / Kona) for the win. Arley Kemmer (Hub Racing) finished third, after a crash going into the bell lap allowed the lead duo to squirt away.

Other Winners:
Elite Masters Men 35+/45+: Gunnar Shogren (SoBe / Cannondale)
Cat 4 Men: Paul Rades (Artemis)
Masters Men Cat 3/4 35+/45+: Joe Lillibridge (Kelly Benefit Strategies/LSV Amateur Cycling)
Masters Men 55+: Nunzio Dibiasi (Yellow Breeches Racing)
Cat 3/4 Men: Alex Driscoll (Adventures For the Cure)
Juniors 18 and Under: Steven Black (NCVC / Inova Health System)
Juniors 16 ahd Under: Jimmy Klose (Adventures for the Cure)
Cat 3/4 Women: Jessica Gallagher (C3-Sollay.com)

Additional Coverage:

• Bill Schieken has a photo gallery from the 3/4 race up on Flickr.
• Oh yes. 7 full minutes of video from the Men's Elite adn Men's Elite Masters races at Rockburn, by Eric Schmitt
  
  (and also a video from Fair Hill the day before).
• FatGuyRacer has pics from the Masters Cat 3/4 race also. A lot of them.
• girlfoffroad Melanie Swartz wishes she could have another crack at Plan A on Sunday. After all, it worked on Saturday.
• If you really like racing cross, like the Unholy Rouleur, it shows in your cross race reports.
• Except when it doesn't.
• Gay (bike) racer had third place in his sights with 2 turns to go. And then finished 8th. Such is Cross.
• The Complete Jewish Cyclist battled the Cat 4 field, the course, and finally the results pages. He's got pictures of much of it, including the packaging for nutritional supplement CeraSport (CERA? Really, that's what you want to call it?) which is - yup - kosher.
• Cross racing makes The Muscle feel like The Little Girly Muscle.

Schempf defends at DCCX; Buerkle tops sizable Women's Elite Field

Wes Schemf (C3-Sollay.com) hasn't lost a DCCX race yet. After winning the Men's Elite in last year's inaugural event, Schemf outpaced teammate Michael Gallagher (C3-Sollay.com) and Bobby Lea (Rite Aid Pro Cycling) with a 27 second winning margin to successfully defend his title.

In the Women's Elite, it was Patty Buerkle (Vanderkitten) who broke clear of 2-person break-mate Kristin Gavin (Human Zoom / Pabst Blue Ribbon) to win by 15 seconds. Betsy Shogren (Sobe / Cannondale) surged ahead of the chase group to finish third. The Elite Women's field was 22 strong at DCCX this year, up from only 6 in 2007. If Cyclocross were a stock (and I had any money), I'd buy it.

Other winners:
Elite Masters: Blair Sauders (Secret Henry’s Team)
Juniors 17-18: Steven Black (NCVC / Inova Health System)
Juniors 10-16: Jimmy Klose (Adventures for the Cure)
Masters 55+: Rob Lea (T.E.A.M. Fuji)
Cat 3/4 Men: Ian Mathias (Hunt Valley Bicycles / Marathon Roofing)
Cat 3/4 Women: Lynne Oliver (DCMTB)
Cat 3/4 35+ Men: David Blodgett (All American Bicycle Club)
Cat 4 Men: Matthew Bartlett (The Bike Rack)
Little Belgians: James Kline (Artemis)

Complete Results and Write-up:
Have a look at the DCMTB blog for the play-by-play as well as the full results list.

Additional Coverage:

• Gwadzilla naturally has photos - these of the Lil' Belgians race.
• Joe Foley also has photos from DCCX in his Flickr album.
• In which Scott's Right of Way is called a wheelsucker by a guy he nipped in the sprint
• The Unholy Rouleur lives for this stuff, man.
• Indy has some photos of teammates, most with snarky captions.
• Gay (Bike) Racer made the (extended) podium in the Cat 4 race. Swapping out the road shoes and pedals helped.
• Poor Dumb Bastard finished on the lead lap, had a beer in the pits, ate a bean and cheese burrito and rode home with a dog in his lap. By almost anyone's standards, that's a good day.

Schemph, Winfield both improve from Charm City 2nd to Ed Sander 1st

Following a 2nd place finish in the Men's Elite race at Charm City last weekend, Wes Schemph (C3-Sollay.com) conquered his inner imps (they're not exactly demons if he finished 2nd last time) to win at NCVC's Ed Sander Memorial Cyclocross on Sunday. Jeremiah Bishop (Trek/VW) held a 10-15 second lead throughout most of the race before rolling a tubular with 2 1/2 laps to go, taking him out of contention.

In the Women's Elite race, Dee Dee Winfield (Velo Bella / Kona) won by over three minutes. She too finished 2nd last weekend at Charm City. Does peaking in CX only require two weeks? If more roadies knew this they may be inclined to try it.

Other Winners:
Cat 3/4 Men: Ian Mathias (Hunt Valley Bicycles / Marathon Roofing)
Cat 4 Men: Alex Driscoll (Adventures for the Cure)
Junior 17-18: Steven Black (National Capital Velo Club/Inova Health)
Junior 10-16: Justin Mauch (NCVC/Inova Health System)
Masters 35+ 1/2/3: Mark Kutney (Van Dessel Cycles)
Masters 35+ 3/4: Scott Gibbons (Racing Union)
Masters 55+ 3/4: Steven Abbott (cyclonauts)
Cat 3/4 Women: Lindsay Bayer (Potomac Velo Club)

Additional Coverage:

• Beer Frites Waffles didn't mind the mud. Or rather, his Rhinos (34 width, running kinda soft) didn't mind it.
• The Granfalloon also didn't object to a little of the sloppy stuff: "I had mud wash off my legs and into the shower drain today, and it was good."
• And the mud is downright delicious if you're a photographer. Like Zen, who has a bunch of pictures in the Team Estrogen Forums. My favorite is this one (though the one of the muddy legs with the worm still clinging is kinda awesome too):
  
• What's cooler than your dad - a racer himself - writing a race report about you that includes pics and a video?
• When your mom writes one too.
• Smurf along with Cara absolutely sucked. (She said it, not me.) How you do that and still finish top 10 I'll never know.
• Whine and Cheese landed in the money as well, and with less than ideal preparation.
• The Bike Rack team relished the Mud, Guts and Glory.
• For the uff da! chronicles it was Blood, sweat and mud. No glory is mentioned, despite a 5th place finish.
• Poor Dumb Bastard (I'm not making these up) learned his lesson after starting at the back of a 59 rider field - he's pre-regisgtering next time.
• You know how the way someone looks is never what you expect from reading how they write? Well, that ain't the case with the Unholy Rouleur. The pic on his site by Gwadz has him looking as intimidating as his tirades against pathletes.
• Speaking of pics, DennisBike has 'em.

ING Direct Capital Crit: Reports 17-20

Counting up to 20, we've officially made it. I promised our friends at ING Direct that if we got to 20 blog posts and race reports that include the title sponsor's name that I would make their logo the Featured Photo for this week. Alas, the time limit I set was for Tuesday at noon. Arbitrary, yes. But rules is rules, and while we got to 20, we didn't come in under the cutoff. Anyway, I'm pretty sure ING Direct is as happy as we are to see young Thor's form come around so early. After all, he's going to have to sock away those race winnings somewhere, right?

Here are the rest of the reports:

17. Phatphat.com took in the race, and has a flickr gallery to prove it. The orange cowbells ING Direct gave away made an impression.

18. Orange Explains it All was also (naturally) impressed by the cowbells. He's got pics of some local heroes you'll recognize, and also this one of a cowbell above the capitol dome.

19. Riding on the Metro apologizes for the shrill noise accompanying her video of the final two laps. The culprit? Yes, orange cowbells.

20. Let's Talk Biking is obviously a fan of the highest order. She found some pics that GamJams missed, and also has an update on Blake Caldwell.

It's worth pointing out that none of today's entries, and many of the others in the list of 20, are not bike racers. Many of them aren't even cyclists. But the race made an impression on them, and they're linked here because they noticed, on some level, who was sponsoring the race. Not only that, they wrote about it. They created media, well after the event itself, that promotes the event and its sponsors, and didn't charge a dime for it.

Pretty cool model, eh?

So no featured photo for ING DIrect, but here's a consolation prize, courtesy of Joel Steen.

Save your money. Not you, ING Direct. Spend yours sponsoring cycling. But yeah, everyone else should save some.

ING Direct Capital Crit: Reports 5-16

Continuing to count up to 20 (1-4 are here if you're just tuning in):

5. Pete doubles up with a full race report and some thoughts on aggressive vs passive racing, following his earlier fanpost.

6. Brian of OutdoorType shot the event for DCist. He's got photos.

7. Here's what DCist ran on the event - solid coverage by Martin Austermuhle, who obviously knows cycling and may even be a fan.

8. Best blog title of the day: "I'm so mean, I make medicine sick."

9. The TIME Pro Cycling guys had a heartbreaking day. Adam Myerson was in perfect position going into the last lap. Next minute he's skidding across the pavement with no idea of what happened. Anybody see anything?

10 & 11. Friend-of-GamJams MB points us to the write-up he did and photos he took for PodiumCafe. Definitely check it out - he covers the amateur races with the detail normally afforded only to pros.

12. I'm counting this. Scott's Right of Way posted before the actual race, but it's on the Breakfast with the Garmin Chipotle dudes at Don Beyer Volvo. He won an autographed jersey in a raffle.

13 & 14. Bogan's Heroes and Letter from America were spectators, impressed enough by the racers' feats of strength to post their observations.

15 & 16. Jesse wins a the so-close award for his selfless (and ultimately suicidal) full lap lead-out for Mike Esmonde in the 1/2/3 race. So impressive was his effort that we can forgive him for being a closet triatlhete.

C3-Sollay.com Exploits Home-Course Advantage with Men's, Women's Elite Wins at Charm City

Laura Van Gilder (C3-Sollay.com) made it a two-for-two weekend on Sunday with her second win in a MAC Series CX event in as many days. The crit veteran outlasted Deidre Winfield (Velo Bella / Kona) at the Charm City CX race. Arley Kemmerer (Hub Racing) finished third.

C3-Sollay.com's Michael Gallagher and Wes Schremph finsihed 1-2 in the Men's Elite race. Steevo Cummings (Indiana Regional Medical Center) rounded out the podium.

Other winners:
Elite Masters: Roger Aspholm (Westwood Velo)
B Masters (55+): Michael Lynch (Cape Atlantic Racing/Team Beacon/ECA)
B Men: Jeff Bahnson (Secret Henry's Team / Van Dessel)
Cat 4 Men: Alex Driscoll (Adventures For The Cure)
U19 Men: Zach Bender (GS Park RidgeïTeam Cyclesport)
B Women: Kristina Adams (All American Bicycle Club)
U19 Women: Emily Shields (Carolina Masters Cycling)

Additional Coverage:

• My guess is that power files will be found in CX race reports about as often as barriers and sand pits are found in criteriums. But Matt Spohn has the next best thing - a HR download, with altitude.
• If most race reports are "hup hup," then the Unholy Rouleur's are "hup hup hup hup hup hup."
• Scott's Right of Way reports that focus, like fitness, needs to come into form as well.
• Stay out of the way of Chrissy from Team Bi-Atch today.
• Dingus Maximus uses the word "suitcase" as a verb. Normally in bike racing, we find suitcase paired with "courage", not "-ing". But this isn't just bike racing. It's cross Cross.
• Our friends at Proteus have a lot of pictures, and point us to a gallery of even more here.
• You think you were excited for the season to start? D-Dub d-drove 10 hours from NC to race at Charm City.

Complete Results:

ING Direct Capital Crit: Results and Reports 1-4

The Inaugural ING Direct Capital Criterium rolled out under flawless conditions on Sunday. The day's early amateur events kicked off under temps precipitously close to the embrocation zone, but by mid-day temps were almost as hot as the racing itself.

Immediate Mortgage / Artemis Elite went 1/2 in the 35+ event, with Ramon Benitez and Mark Warno sticking a 2-man break to the finish. Nima Ebrahimnejad (Trail's End Cycling Company) cleaned up the field sprint for 3rd.

Battley Harley-Davidson's fast finisher Todd Hipp outkicked the 1/2/3 field for the win, followed by Jake Lifson (Indiana Regional Medical Center) and SuperDave Obsorne (Immediate Mortgage / Artemis Elite).

The field for the main event was rich with class. Christian Vande Velde, Freddy Rodriguez, Rashaan Bahati, Dominique Rollin, Karl Menzies, Hilton Clarke, Danny Pate, Meatball. And it was long on local heroes too: Russ Langley (Battley Harley-Davidson), Bobby Lea (Rite Aid p/b Shebell & Shebell), Tom Soladay (Time Pro Cycling), Ben King (Kelly Benefits Strategies / Medifast). Hilton Clarke (Toyota United) won the event in the field sprint, ahead of Freddy Rodgriguez (Rock Racing) and Dominique Rollin (Toyota United), though to call the event a field sprint minimizes the day's relentless aggressiveness. Tom Soladay made local folks proud on a 10-lap solo flyer, and attacks by Vande Velde, Bahati, Pate, Rollin and others powered off the front throughought the race. By most accounts though, Soladay's break was the coolest.

Full results from the amateur and pro races are up at CyclingNews.com. So yeah, if you finished you can see your name on CyclingNews (and bite your thumbs at all those pros who won't see their names in GamJams).

Additional Coverage:

Counting up to 20 posts on the ING DIRECT Capital Criterium, we begin:

1. Steven Gordon (Haymarket Bicycles) hitched a ride into the pro field from DLP. He's got an insider's view here.

2. I think Pete had as much fun as a fan as he did as a competitor.

3. The Team Type 1 guys have a blog as well. They've got news of their man Emile Abraham's 5th place finish in the pro event.

4. Jared is paying attention. Tear it up in Vegas, Jared.

A Pre-Emptive Note on ING Direct Capital Criterium Race Reports

I know there are a lot of race reports from this weekend about to get pecked out at keyboards all across the Mid-Atlantic. Many will show up here in GamJams, and many more will make the rounds to team listservs. Collectively they'll reach every licensed racer in the region, probably more than once.

One simple request to all of you so writing, whether you're racers or spectators:

When referring to the race, be sure to include the 'ING Direct' part of the race name. It's the 'ING Direct Capital Criterium.' They stepped up in a big way with major coin and a lot of additional support, so the least we all can do is recognize their efforts to support racing in our region by calling them by name. This is the same company that sponsors the New York Marathon so they certainly know how to look for participant support. And they've also been pioneers in interactive media since the days when nobody else would touch it, so they know how to find acknowledgment online as well. Make sure they come back. Show they you paid attention.

I'll do my part as well. If there are 20 race report blog posts on the event that include the full name by Tuesday at noon, I'll make the ING Direct logo the Featured Photo on GamJams this week. I know where to find most of the blogs, but if you want to make sure I see yours let me know.