Crystal City Diamond Derby March 10th 2012

[acc]

Dirt’s recent adventures with the Forever Lazy suit moved me. In so many ways.
Unfortunately I just don’t do justice to the giant Peep suit the way Dirt does. (And there’s no way I’m jumping into a lake in the winter.)
Sadly, I am not a competitive cyclist, nor an urban cyclist (aka roadkill). But I can aspire to be chic with enough planning, cinching, and surgical glue for my false eyelashes.

http://www.crystalcity.org/item/gears-and-glitz-coming-to-crystal-city

Got fishnet/snakeskin boots/black leather jacket/rhinestones

I will be either spectacular or quite a spectacle. Either way I hope you’ll start working on an outfit and come out.

Happy Black Leather Trails,
ann

Topic

[eminva]

This sounds like great fun! Sorry I missed it and hope they do it again next year so I can make it. Congrats to all participants.

Liz

[Mark Blacknell]

Photos? Video? Here.

(Potomac Cyclist, were you the 9 year old girl on the banana seat bike? Sorry for putting you into the wall. But racin’s racin’.)

[Tim Kelley]

More photos here: http://www.tbd.com/pictures/2012/03/crystal-city-diamond-derby-photos-brakes-helmets-required-for-indoor-garage-race/18346-1316.html

Our own cowgirl is featured!

[PotomacCyclist]

LOL

Where did they post the standings? I know I got lapped by more than a couple people but I did manage to get points for most of the challenges. I went through the minivan on every lap but one. I skipped the U-lock ring toss though. Seemed like it took 5 minutes to finish, just to get one point. The other challenges were faster to finish.

[PotomacCyclist]

@Arlingtonrider 16159 wrote:

Ann, thanks for your kind words, but that wasn’t me. I didn’t see anyone take a hard tumble, just one gentle one onto a bale of hay, followed by a tuck and roll. I was glad to see most people moderating their speed for the conditions and their abilities. I saw lots of people stopping at the hay bales before carrying their bikes across. The first races seemed to have quite a few beginners in the mix, many dressed in non-cycling clothes and creating their own ways of dealing with the obstacles, which made it even more fun to watch.

Kathy

One guy in the Four-X Comps hit the bales and then flipped over the bike and landed hard on his back. Fortunately he was able to get up pretty quickly. I’m guessing that he must have been aching from that.

[acc]

I watched the tabulation of the scores and can remember a range of numbers. I posted the results on the large pillar next to the registration desk. If you send me your final points number via private message I can give you a rough estimate of where you came out in the standings.

ann

[PotomacCyclist]

Hmm, I don’t really remember what my points number was. I was grabbing cards left and right and getting different cards stamped. I kept stuffing them into the bento box (small velcro-strap container on the top tube) during the race. If I had to guess, I’d say that I had about 5 cards and maybe 6 or so hole punches, along with the WABA sticker that kept falling off the back of my long-sleeve half-zip top. That might be near the bottom, but hopefully not. It doesn’t matter to me either way. I was just curious. At the very least, I hope I beat the couple on the tandem bike. It would be kind of embarrassing not to be able to beat someone on a tandem bike in a cyclocross scavenger race.

***
In related news, I saw that the back of my left calf and knee are black and blue. I smacked my leg against the bike when I flubbed the final hay bale jump. I didn’t wipe out completely but I did knock into the bike kind of hard. I thought there were only a few minor scratches. But when I did a long run yesterday, I felt some minor tightness in the leg. I haven’t had any leg problems from running in over 2 years so I was concerned. Turns out that it was caused by the bruises. It’s only a minor injury though. Looks much worse than it feels. I think of it as a bad-ass battle scar! I made it through the run just fine. I’ll see how it fares during my ride this evening.

[acc]

Promise not to cry.

The tandem won it.

[PotomacCyclist]

I’m crushed…

OK. Not really. Everyone else lost to the tandem, so I’m fine. I’m not alone in my unworthiness. I don’t remember them lapping me. Then again, I didn’t see very much when I was inside the minivan on every lap.

[paulg]

What all of us needed was some tandem strategery.

I raced my ass off and loved every second of the scavenger hunt. For the first 3 laps I had no idea about the van, picking up envelopes and I still couldn’t tell you where the u lock toss thing was! I was having too much fun whizzing around the columns in my Jeans on my red Surly cross check with fenders and rack.

It was a great fun event. I picked up 23 points and felt quite please with myself. The winners on the tandem got 39 points. I lapped them twice.

I think it’s just awesome and exactly what the event was about that a couple crusing around on a tandem dressed in fox hunting garb beat the pants off everyone else. Great stuff. So how did they do it? Well I presume each person got a card each lap and each person played all the games on the way around. Might be a bit slow but double the points each time. Nice job!

Next year I’m doing it on a tandem for 3 (anyone know what those are called?). triple the points triple the fun.

Thanks to the organizers. I’ll be back next year.

[PotomacCyclist]

I plan to use this next year:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]827[/ATTACH]

[Arlingtonrider]

Practice carrying it in through the side door and out the back of a van and over hay bales. The couple on the tandem did pretty well with those things!

[dbb]

@PotomacCyclist 16388 wrote:

I plan to use this next year:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]827[/ATTACH]

I am there if you need a galley slave to row that puppy!

[paytonc]

Boringly, I think a tandem for three is a “triple tandem.” I remember remarking to them at some point “wow, and I thought my turning radius was wide” but I guess they showed me…

The results are up at http://diamondderby.tumblr.com/results, but I’m sure you knew that by now.

Okay, so I completely blanked on how to do a rolling dismount so I ended up having to stop before the hay bales. Still came in 7th thanks to some nice work on the ring toss. Oh, and I finally found a good photo of myself!

[PotomacCyclist]

I didn’t know they had posted results. The race seemed informal so I wasn’t expecting to see online results.

Well, at least I didn’t finish last. Next year, when I use the Surrey, I will attempt to squeeze two people in per seat. So maybe 12 people total. Try and beat that! Of course, I don’t actually own a Surrey… yet.

[Author]

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