Crystal City Diamond Derby March 10th 2012

[KLizotte]

@acc 16084 wrote:

Tomorrow is the day! The Diamond Derby in Crystal City!
Details:http://www.crystalcity.org/do/crystal-city-diamond-derby

My bike is finally coming together, since Mardi Gras, I’ve taken the basket off and reworked it and added approximately 50 yards of rhinestones to my bike. It is quite a sight.

Happy Diamond Trails.
ann

Oh….my…..God. I’m almost speechless. You’ve really got to go to New Orleans for the real thing (bringing the bike of course). Or maybe one of those big parades they show on TV.

I think you may have finally topped Dirt.

What kind of glue are you using?

[eminva]

Wowwie wow wow, Ann! I have to see this in person — will you be touring Vienna anytime soon?

Sorry I will miss the events tomorrow — home with a sick kid while my husband does extended family obligations. Have fun and report back!

Liz

[DaveK]

After all this I’m STILL not sure exactly what this is. But it sounds fun so I think I’ll probably go. Also I heard Memphis BBQ is catering.

[Riley Casey]

I suspect you need to start measuring your rhinestones in kilograms.

@acc 16084 wrote:

Tomorrow is the day! The Diamond Derby in Crystal City!

My bike is finally coming together, since Mardi Gras, I’ve taken the basket off and reworked it and added approximately 50 yards of rhinestones to my bike. It is quite a sight.

ann

[dbb]

@acc 16084 wrote:

My bike is finally coming together, since Mardi Gras, I’ve taken the basket off and reworked it and added approximately 50 yards of rhinestones to my bike. It is quite a sight.

There is something for everyone and the weather should be very good.

Happy Diamond Trails.
ann

The bike was indeed the belle of the ball, particularly with the LED lights. It might need to find a home in the Renwick. Impressive, it was.

[americancyclo]

Was there for the kids race, but had to leave early before the real fun started due to naptime. I had a good time, although it was harder to find than I thought it would be.

[Arlingtonrider]

The Diamond Derby was spectacularly fun! Imagine a mix of bike messenger types, adorable kids, serious cyclocross racers, and fashionista cyclists racing various courses around pillars, over hay bales, in the side door and out the back door of a van, etc., with music, fun pieces of art, a bar and barbeque, and you get just a part of the picture. The racing in the parking garage was awesome to watch! All organized by people with serious racing cred. I have to keep this short, but I have this on my not-to-be-missed list for next year. Among the many highlights were seeing ACC with her bling bike, and among the racers – the couple on the tandem in fox hunting garb, the Cyclelife team showing incredible technique going fast through the turns and pillars, watching one rider “bunny hop” over bales of hay multiple times, as well as others sprinting over them with barely a moment’s pause. I’m sure you’ll hear a lot more about this soon. (ACC – please do one of your wonderful write ups!) Check out any photos posted, and don’t miss this if they do it again next year!

[vvill]

I might try to go next year if it’s on. It sounded fun but I had to take into account how much fun you can really have with sleep deprivation and a teething one year old.

I’ll be interested to see the pictures. I have to agree it was a bit hard to figure out what the event was really like from the website.

[Mark Blacknell]

People notice shiny things.

Good to see you Kathy, Dana, and all. Was a great time. On my calender for next year, for sure.

Lots of photos tomorrow.

[Arlingtonrider]

Another highlight that I forgot to mention was watching Mark Blacknell and Megan race around the course, over the hay bales, and in and out of the van too. (Mark might not have mentioned his racing because Megan earned more diamond points than he did.) And then there was also the (outdoors) bike polo game. Lots going on – and everyone had a great time.

[PotomacCyclist]

The Derby was awesome, even though I didn’t wear skinny jeans! I wasn’t too sure what it was going to be either, so I was surprised to learn that it was an indoor cyclocross course. Yeah, I know the signs mentioned “urban cyclocross” but I wasn’t sure if that was a marketing term. I had looked into doing an outdoor cyclocross race the last two years (DC-CX) but I never managed to do it. (I got lost on the way to the course in 2010.) So I had practiced jumping on and off the bike in the past, but not this year.

Since I rode a heavy mountain bike (probably over 30 lbs.), I wasn’t going to match the speed of the guys on the light cyclocross bikes. I did the scavenger hunt and decided to go for most of the optional challenges. I went through the minivan on every lap except one (when there was a big logjam of people waiting to get through). I did all of the bike messenger deliveries, stuffing the envelopes and maps down my half-zip long-sleeve top. I did the reachover challenge where you had to pick up a roll of duct tape from a small cone and put it on another cone without getting off the bike.

I managed to deal with the hay bales obstacles every time except for the final lap. I guess I was tired and lost some of my balance. I tipped over and wobbled around to the side. I didn’t crash but I came close. It was an ugly finish. But I enjoyed the race overall.

I do have to say that when I first did some practice laps on the course, I felt like I was piloting the Millennium Falcon in The Empire Strikes Back, when it was flying inside the Death Star II, with all of those pipes and ducts overhead. It was almost possible to reach up and touch some of the signs and utility pipes overhead, and I’m not even that tall. Fortunately, no one was decapitated at the race. LOL

The relay race was fun to watch. I had never even considered the thought of someone riding a Capital Bikeshare bike in a cyclocross race. And yet the race marshals entered the relay as the CaBi team. That was hilarious!

The CycleLife guys were very speedy in the Four-X Comps race. They are also skilled at bunny-hopping over tall obstacles. Some of them can bunny-hop about two feet in the air and maintain their speed. There were also a few… underprepared guys in that race too. One guy kept trying to ram his way through the hay bales on every lap. Not too successful a strategy. The guy with the camera had some issues too. And another guy stopped completely before trying to cross the bales on every lap.

I saw the rhinestone bike. Hard to miss. I didn’t see the bike polo game.

I’ll definitely try to make it back next year, hopefully with a light cyclocross bike. I’ll practice my flying mounts/dismounts or bunny-hops too. But I’ll never be a serious cyclocross racer so I won’t worry about it too much. I see cyclocross as an occasional, odd and interesting diversion from my usual cycling and exercise. Great fun for racers and for spectators. Good job to all the organizers, sponsors, volunteers, participants and spectators (who provided the atmosphere).

[acc]

Forgive me for chiming in late. Due to a shortage of rhinestones— I didn’t get much sleep Thursday or Friday night. It became a caffeine popping, glue sniffing frenzy to finish the bike. There were a few glitches, a fancy adhesive that didn’t stick to anything but my fingers, the moment I knocked the bike over and lost ½ hour’s work, and the mortifying discovery that my sequined leggings (ordered online especially for the Derby) were transparent.

But being a little loopy had its advantages. When I arrived at the bar in the Derby Lounge and was asked if I wanted bourbon or vodka in my sangria, I laughed so hard I wheezed. By that point I had managed to keep the heavy shiny bike from goring anyone on a packed, lurching Metro train for 12 stops, and pedaled it in broad daylight through the streets of DC wearing four-inch platform boots, sequined tights, and a ridiculous mini-skirt that had a human eye right on the level of where my bike shorts should have been. Vodka or bourbon? Is there a wrong answer here? I think not.

I’ve lived with this bike for six weeks. It doesn’t strike me as odd anymore. Perhaps this is a side effect from all the glue I sniffed. When I emerged from the bowels of Metro and began taking pictures of the bike against the backdrop of the usual Washington sights, the Capitol, Washington Monument, homeless people sleeping on grates, it was simply another day of fun and frolic. Then I sensed people standing next to me looking over my shoulder. I stepped to the right assuming I was in the way of their camera shot. Strangely enough they began photographing the bike and me. I had a momentary feeling of what it must have been like to be Hsing-Hsing the panda at the National Zoo.

The races were fantastic to watch. I’ve never interacted with bike messengers and based on my conversations, it seems that if you keep your hands away from their mouths you are perfectly safe. They taught me about riding ghetto and ticked off the parts of their bodies that have been broken by cars. One gentleman stated he never wore a helmet because every time he did he got hurt. He looked me in the eye quite seriously and shook my hand saying, “When I die, it’s gonna be on this bike. And that’s the way I want it.”

I watched a beautiful woman professional racer glide around the course like she was on an afternoon stroll. To move as fast as she was going I’d need NOS and supplemental oxygen. She was barely sweating. It’s possible she was almost as tall as Mr. Kelley. I do believe she made Blacknell look like an Oompa Loompa.

Speaking of Blacknell, if he had listened to the rules, and dressed in something beside baggy jeans, he would have been a contender. All things considered he moved very fast (next year the training wheels come off).

To see the bike handling skills of these athletes was a gift. Being able to stand ten feet away from them and watch how they picked a line to enter a turn, braked, leaped over obstacles or jumped their bikes was worth pedaling around in 4-inch platform boots. Arlingtonrider came to the aid of one racer who planted his face on the concrete, she is that nice.

As for me, I’m working on my next concept for the bike. I’m thinking lollipops and flower petals.

Happy Diamond Dust Trails,
ann

[KLizotte]

Where are the photos?!?

[SpokeGrenadeSR]

great bunch of posts in this thread, makes for a good read before bed!

[Riley Casey]

We want pic-tures
We want pic-tures
We want pic-tures

the heavy shiny bike from goring anyone on a packed, lurching Metro train for 12 stops, and pedaled it in broad daylight through the streets of DC wearing four-inch platform boots, sequined tights, and a ridiculous mini-skirt that had a human eye right on the level of where my bike shorts should have be

[Author]

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