Armed Forces Cycling Classic Challenge Ride

[Judd]

Due to the shorter loop, the number of laps needed for each medal level went up this year as well.

I’m signed up, but I also volunteered to marshal so that I can hang back and avoid the bloodbath.

[CBGanimal]

Darn…I was looking forward to climbing that hill!!

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[consularrider]

So the average speeds will be higher?

[TwoWheelsDC]

After like 5 years, I’m finally able to do this…If I don’t get a gold medal my bike is going in the river!

Also, I assume peeps are watching Clarendon Cup on Saturday? This year I’m going to try and get out early to spend more time spectating. So if people wanna hang or whatever then, yeah…let’s do that.

[hozn]

@TwoWheelsDC 161126 wrote:

After like 5 years, I’m finally able to do this…If I don’t get a gold medal my bike is going in the river!

Also, I assume peeps are watching Clarendon Cup on Saturday? This year I’m going to try and get out early to spend more time spectating. So if people wanna hang or whatever then, yeah…let’s do that.

Maybe we’ll see you there (at Clarendon). My youngest wants to do the kids race. He was really upset last year when it ended after 300 yards, so I guess he’ll do the full loop this year.

[JQCyclist]

I will be checking out the Clarendon Cup today. I will be the tall-ish goofy guy with a camera and a brown shoulder bag and grey hat with a bike embroidered on it taking pictures and video of the event. If you see me stop me and say HI!

I will also be riding in the Challenge on Sunday.

[TwoWheelsDC]

Well, check that one off the list. I think I finished my nine laps with 10-15 minutes to spare based on the pace car’s position relative to me. I saw the aftermath of one crash, but it didn’t look horrific (not to downplay…I think someone slid out in a corner), but everything was generally fine. My main complaint was that they started all the Boeing riders at the front, even though like 75% of them had no business being there. They also didn’t start people in any discernible order. I think starting everyone by planned pace would’ve been way better.

[Judd]

@TwoWheelsDC 161357 wrote:

Well, check that one off the list. I think I finished my nine laps with 10-15 minutes to spare based on the pace car’s position relative to me. I saw the aftermath of one crash, but it didn’t look horrific (not to downplay…I think someone slid out in a corner), but everything was generally fine. My main complaint was that they started all the Boeing riders at the front, even though like 75% of them had no business being there. They also didn’t start people in any discernible order. I think starting everyone by planned pace would’ve been way better.

Starting position is a perennial issue. As long as Boeing is coughing up the bucks to sponsor, I don’t see this changing.

I hope everyone that participated this year had a good time. I was still traveling back to DC so I wasn’t able to make it this year. I gave fleeting thought last night of driving all night to get back at 6 a.m., do the ride and then go to sleep for the rest of the day.

[Steve O]

I was an “ambassador.” It seems that the organizers forgot entirely about us. There were no instructions, no spare tubes, no phone numbers to call. Nothing. This ball got seriously dropped. I was helping one rider with a flat and the Conte’s official SAG car came up. We asked if they had a better pump than my little hand pump. They said no. Really? Not even a regular floor pump?

The course did not have the AF Memorial Hill on it, I think that contributed to much longer pace lines continuing throughout the ride. The hill tends to break those up.
That said, it didn’t seem quite as crowded as past years. Were there fewer participants, I wonder?

All in all, though, it seems the riders were having an enjoyable ride.
The only rider I know personally who I saw along the way was Rod Smith.

[TwoWheelsDC]

@Judd 161360 wrote:

Starting position is a perennial issue. As long as Boeing is coughing up the bucks to sponsor, I don’t see this changing.

I don’t have a problem letting the Boeing people go first, but seems ill advised to encourage *every* Boeing rider to go to the front. If you’re going for gold, sure, but if you’re just out for fun or going for bronze/silver, there’s no need to start in the front. But whatevs…highly unlikely I’ll do this again, so it’s a moot point.

Really, my motivation for doing it was mostly ego driven. I have a co-worker who talks a big game–owns a $4000 bike with $1500 wheels and never shuts up about weight-weenie shit–but from what I can tell he can’t ride more than like 30 miles at a stretch. For weeks he was bugging me about signing up and how he was going to crush the ride. So I signed up in part just to lap him. But I asked him about it last week and he was like, “I don’t know if I’m gonna do it, I can’t ride that far” and I’m pretty sure he skipped out entirely.

Of course that’s petty, but I’m a 36 year old office worker so I have to take any chance I can to appear superior in a competition. Those kinds of opportunities are increasingly rare at this point.

[consularrider]

@TwoWheelsDC 161363 wrote:

… Of course that’s petty, but I’m a 36 year old office worker so I have to take any chance I can to appear superior in a competition. Those kinds of opportunities are increasingly rare at this point.

Try being a 65 year old retiree who can’t podium any more even at the NOVA Senior Olympic cycling time trials.

[zsionakides]

Having the Boeing people up front was actually a decent way to keep speeds down going through the first couple corners where it’s narrow and there’s a lot of riders bunched together. I didn’t have issues with any of the Boeing riders once we were out on the bigger highways. The slower riders stayed in the right lane and were easy to get around.

[Judd]

@TwoWheelsDC 161363 wrote:

Really, my motivation for doing it was mostly ego driven. I have a co-worker who talks a big game–owns a $4000 bike with $1500 wheels and never shuts up about weight-weenie shit–but from what I can tell he can’t ride more than like 30 miles at a stretch. For weeks he was bugging me about signing up and how he was going to crush the ride. So I signed up in part just to lap him. But I asked him about it last week and he was like, “I don’t know if I’m gonna do it, I can’t ride that far” and I’m pretty sure he skipped out entirely.

I find these people hysterical. I spent the week passing a bunch of people from the Metropolitan Atlanta Cycling Club that had the cleanest bikes that I’ve ever seen with super aero carbon wheels. I was on a Trek Crossrip with stickers all over it and a trunk bag on the rack.

I remember the angst I had about buying my first brand new bike for $600 because I wasn’t sure if I would ride it enough.

[drevil]

@Judd 161376 wrote:

I find these people hysterical. I spent the week passing a bunch of people from the Metropolitan Atlanta Cycling Club that had the cleanest bikes that I’ve ever seen with super aero carbon wheels. I was on a Trek Crossrip with stickers all over it and a trunk bag on the rack.

I remember the angst I had about buying my first brand new bike for $600 because I wasn’t sure if I would ride it enough.

Just as I rarely get too intimidated by those with hyper-expensive bikes, I also never underestimate those with clunkers. I’ve been schooled by too many people with bikes 1/10 the cost of mine

[TwoWheelsDC]

@Judd 161376 wrote:

I find these people hysterical. I spent the week passing a bunch of people from the Metropolitan Atlanta Cycling Club that had the cleanest bikes that I’ve ever seen with super aero carbon wheels. I was on a Trek Crossrip with stickers all over it and a trunk bag on the rack.

I remember the angst I had about buying my first brand new bike for $600 because I wasn’t sure if I would ride it enough.

Don’t get me wrong, I like having nice components and stuff and I geek out over upgrades (like going tubeless or the prospect of to going electronic shifting on my road bike), but there’s a limit…like buying a $4000 bike, deciding the included alloy wheels aren’t light enough, then putting $1500 carbon wheels on instead to ride to Reston and back on the W&OD. I especially don’t get the weight weenie stuff. Like I said to my co-worker, “it’s cheaper and more effective to just go on a diet.” But whatever, him buying all that expensive lightweight shit just makes the regular shit cheaper…and if he wants to spend his money that way then more power to him. I do reserve the right to giggle when I pass him on the trail though.

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