dc bike racing

Shawn "bega" Blumenfeld
a quest to win a championship...

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blueberry_soup_is_coming - February 18 2010
blueberry_circuit_race - April 12 2010
im-in-points - November 19 2009
on-lead-lap - November 25 2009
bike_to_work_day - May 24 2010
getting-ready-for-cross - September 14 2009
urban-cross-is-coming - November 14 2009
officiating_the_crits - May 17 2010
indoor-training - January 10 2010
officials-renewal-clinic - February 6 2010
waba_vasa_ride - March 11 2010
44th - December 2 2009
outdoors - January 27 2010
tacchino-ciclocross - November 8 2009
usa-cycling-radio-ban - February 3 2010
no-rain-for-me - March 29 2010
ten-nine-radio - February 8 2010
and-so-now-im-addicted - September 22 2009
kelley-acres-next-up - September 24 2009
hyattesville-cross - October 12 2009
re-urban-cross-is-coming - November 15 2009
photo-from-hyattsville - October 13 2009
another-cross - October 6 2009
off-to-the-races - February 25 2010
towc_part_2 - June 23 2010
re-tacchino-ciclocross - November 9 2009
kelley-acres-cross - October 5 2009
tour_of_washington_county - June 12 2010
south_jersey_training_series - March 22 2010

Over the years, I've dedicated a good deal of my life to helping other people race bikes. Whether from my early years of racing with the likes of Team Aggress, my own messenger racing Team Bega, and more recently the Hub Racing Women's Pro Team, I've received most of my glory from other people's victories. Don't get me wrong, I've played my part and I've recieved proper admiration for my job as a manager, a soigner, a domestique. But it's not the same as winning a race on the bike. And I've won a couple. But I want my own Championship. At the Cycle Messenger World Championships, I've qualified on the front line, placed top 20 twice, been in 6 finals. So now I really want to try to win my own championship in Guatemala at the 2010 CMWC... (im already thinking about 2011 also: the usa national championship timetrial in the mixed tandem masters classes)

kelley-acres-cross

October 5 2009

"Kelley Acres" Cross - Middletown Md October 4th 2009

so let me start by apologizing to janelle and chris. as i was in my personal fog of mental lapses as i went to register, chris and janelle switched places at the registration table and i never really looked up. i called janelle by chris's name. ive only known the 2 of them for maybe a combined 25 years, and i cant believe my faux pas. sorry you all. i feel like crap.

the race was spectacular. in the words of joe jefferson, "like mountain biking on a wet golf course". the short cut grass that dominated the race course was slick for warm up, but would dry by race time just enough to be really fast and smooth. some of the descents would have felt more comfortable on a downhill bike, but it was the climbs that would break up the race at the front. i was able to stay seated the entire time up the steep embankments, but i never tried to clear the bunny-hoppable logs as the winners surely were doing. the fly-over was cool, a 40 foot ramp down at about 20 degrees, but real fun would have been up the ramp and down the stairs! and the bridge at the creek crossing was just scarry.

joe on the mic jokingly called me as if i was off the front as i got lapped through the start area, and i put it into the big ring to justify his stating that i was "on fire". i rode safe and clean, but never found a race partner like charm city. big ups to the dcmtb and artemis riders: each one said something nice as they lapped me, granting me the encouragement to finish it out. i dont believe in not finishing, and it certainly reinforces that feeling to have friends on the course.

i finished 48th, just 43 spots off the podium. im moving up baby! but i gotta admit, its kind of a brick of a hammer of the pending mid-life crisis to be listed as 40 years old in the results. cycle cross aging is weird.

ill be at bikedc next on october 17th, working the mic and running comms. then look for me at dccx on october 25th announcing and racing!