New Green Company: FRS

My buddy Andrew has started his own green-economy company. I'm proud of him and he's a great guy. If you are in DC, you should check him out. I'm sure if he gets going that he'll expand into MD/VA but let's get this kid making a profit first, right?

So here's Andrew's Big Link!

Geez, you'd think that all of my friends are hippies! Kent's Continuum Energy Solutions is killer! He's the guy with the solar bike trailer that you'll see at all the races this year. Plug in and get your light charged for free! SOLAR POWER!

Shout Out: Mr Biggs

I'd like to take a second and give some props to my teammate and buddy Darren Biggs. Here's why:

Most recently, Darren put us in first place in our class at Baker's with a SUPER strong start going into the woods in fifth place. AND he did it in crazy-socks and molester-moustache style. Fast with a sense of humor. In my years with dcmtb, this is the majority of the boys/girls.

For trying to stay out in front of me on a downhill at Big Bear last year. And THEN destroying his drivetrain, fixing it, breaking it again and running 6 miles out, with a smile on his face.

Darren has decided, pretty-much single-handedly to create his own Mid-Atlantic Endurance Cup, despite NUMEROUS ribbings from some teammates. I think it's cool and I'm stoked he's doing it. He LOVES racing with people he knows and that is never limited to just us dcmtb cats.

For just being fast. This guy LOVES punishing himself. As MattyD likes to say, Darren likes to 'climb into the pain cave' at a race. He has no problem talking about how bad he feels, how slow he's going to go, how he's going to quit after this lap and then KILLING it with a flawless, super-fast lap. Ask him about his antibiotics...

For showing up at the SM100 with the rest of us dcmtb kids (including some 6-7-time SM100 finishers) and DESTROYING us with a 9-hour time. Damn son. Of course, he was laughing the whole time.

Check out Darren's Mid-Atlantic Endurance Cup. If people are stoked on it, I'm sure he'll improve it next year and I bet he'll find some help, too. Maybe he'll include some regular teams (as long as you stick it out for the season).

So here's to ya Darren. You are one of the biggest knuckleheads that I know and I'm glad that I get to race with you. Keep talkin' and keep smilin'. I'll throw down with you any time.

Baker's Dozen Press Release

DCMTB.com/City Bikes Enjoys Success at Baker’s Dozen

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Matt Donahue
DC Mountain Bike Team
mattydonahue@hotmail.com

Leesburg, VA – 21 April 2008 – Darren Biggs of dcmtb.com/City Bikes made plans to arrive at the race a day early to ensure a prime campsite location for the rest of his team members set to arrive on Saturday morning for the 11AM start of the second annual Baker’s Dozen 13 hour mountain bike race hosted by Plum Grove Cyclery.

‘I wanted to make sure we had a location big enough for my DCMTB/City Bikes teammates,’ Darren said.

18 members of DCMTB/City Bikes made the trip out to race in Leesburg in picture-perfect conditions.

‘The weather turned out to be amazing with bright sunshine in the morning followed by a nice breeze and some clouds to cool things off,’ said Kent Baake, a DCMTB/City Bikes racer and member of the 3-person Men’s class team Solar Ring Blingers.

‘We had no idea that the race would be as successful as it turned out to be,’ said Plum Grove Cyclery’s Rob Harrington, the Race Director for the event. ‘We’ve had incredible support from the race community and we are excited about 2009!’

With over 375 participants registered for the event, the Baker’s Dozen represents one of the largest mountain bike relay races in the DC region. For an event only in its second year, the success is a testament to the quality of the race organization and the course itself, an exciting combination of logs, rocks, drops and fast corners.

‘Our team had a great time out there and managed to secure third place behind our other 3-man entry,’ said Matt Donahue, DCMTB/City Bikes President. ‘There’s nothing better than racing with, and against, your friends.’

Members of DCMTB/City Bikes secured 1st in Women’s Solo, 2nd and 3rd in 3-person Men, 3rd in 3-person Open and fielded additional teams including the duo of brother’s Joe and 19-year-old JJ ‘Prince Harry’ Foley.

DCMTB/City Bikes is a grass-root team of urban mountain bikers. Since 1997 they’ve been ripping it up on the mid-Atlantic race scene! But they’re not just about riding and racing, over the years the team has put in hundreds of hours on behalf of bicycle advocacy groups in Washington, DC. Sponsors include City Bikes Merkle, Continuum Energy Solutions, Whole Foods P Street, the Looking Glass Lounge, Deuter, Serfas, SRAM, WTB. Check out www.dcmtb.com.

Since evolving from an old gas station in 1987, City Bikes has made thousands of people happy with their bike - for fun, fitness and transportation. City Bikes' vision is for Washington DC to flow freely with the clean, friendly motion of bicycles. Check out www.citybikes.com.

Baker's Dozen or 'Sabotage' Video?

Sup, Chester? Nice work out there yesterday...

It was nice to see Prince Harry come out for a race now that he's back from Afghanistan. Makin' the queen-mother proud... changing his own tire like a big boy...

We managed to get 18 DCMTB.com/City Bikes team members out to Lessburg for the second Baker's Dozen race. 13 hours of racing. Fun fun.

I was racing with the DCMTB.com/City Bikes/Solar Ring Blingers. I have no earthly clue where that name came from but I reckon that it had something to do with the child molester in the picture at top-right.

We made it up there in time to get everything set up and hang out for a while. In-camp transitions would be fun with the RFID tags we were issued. That was a nice touch by the boys at Plum Grove.

The course was tight, kinda bumpy with no major difficult sections but random occasional technical and potentially high-consequence trick shots. The speeds in some sections were high enough to cause some real difficulty. Plenty of people got real beat-up on this 'easy' course. I was lucky enough to not shoulder-check a tree (two 'almosts'), come off the bike, slide out or anything. Having never seen the course and getting some less-than-stellar course descriptions, I was lucky that nothing happened. Two personal goals of mine did manage to come to fruition: didn't get passed once on any of my eight laps and never shifted out of the big ring.

For anyone that knows me, that's not an indication of how studly I am, it's a testament to how flat the course was.

We started out in GREAT position, thanks to Darren Longstocking's great start. A team from the Bike Line reeled us back in about half-way through (passing Kent, I can't believe it). We ended up in second. Not bad.

Actually, I just looked through my pictures of the start and Darren 'I Like Small Boys' Biggs came through the start-finish area in 9th. WHOA! No wonder he was so tired. No wonder we were in first for a while! I almost feel bad about all the jokes I made about him. Tommy Vaughn came through in 26th. Loren came through in 29th right next to Mr Pat Miller. Welp was in 35th. Dave in 40th. Joe in 53rd. Lynn in 55th.

I was happy with my times. I was mostly sub 31 minutes. I slowed down for my last double at night. I had a great time. I rode with Lynne, Whitehair and Trevor in the last lap. Those drops were fun in the dark.

Great course. Great placing. Somebody stole a bike from the race promoter. Moots Mooto-X YBB, XTR with White 20mm thru fork. Bad. Very bad. We're going to take up a collection if it doesn't turn up soon. Bad juju. This could end up killing the race. They are pretty upset about it over at Plum Grove, as they should be...

Results are here. Pics are here.

April Fool's Day, Fool!

My boyfriend Chris Scott of SMT had a date on Tuesday. Check it out. I loves me some Southern Traverse.