Children,
Settle around the campfire, let's get the cocoa out and let me tell you a story.
A story about some friends who got together and did a race that will not soon be forgotten!
But before I begin, let me send out mad mad mad mad props and thanks to everyone who came out to race on a day when thunderstorms were the call of the day!
RICHMOND WAS IN DA HOUSE!!! BIG TIME!!! Out of thirty-two registered racers at least thirteen, and maybe up to fifteen, were from RVA!!! Jessie, Justin W, John Emanuel, Mac (on the TREK, LOL), Andrew W, Prickly Ryan,STU!!!, Allison, Lori40, Tobbe, Joey S, Stu L and Tony C!!! Also to the Girls from DELAWARE!!! Shehara I got your manifest and you 224 out of a possible 690. I hope you're o.k.! Valiant Effort!!! Another Valiant effort goes to Mike from B.more who suffered from no less than four flats on his pista and another in the rain on the ride home to the metro!!! He's a Demon Cat for sure.
The race started half an hour late, because I was raunning late, but it's not a courier race if it doesn't start late! Also a big part of the RVA crew was stuck on I-95, so we were deflnitely waiting for them!
Being our first race, I wanted it be memorable! The race started at Logan Circle and covered 55 embassies over the the entire NW quandrant of DC. And to those who said they had raced in DC and never seen any real hills, hills I gave them to see! See the nasty little secret that I had kinda leaked, but not too much, was that the race ended at my house in Kensington, MD- almost ten miles up Connecticutt Ave. from where it started. How devilish of the Demon Cats. I was afraid it would scare people off, but with exception of perpetual DFL Spencer, everyone rode up Conn. Ave. And it's climbing out of DC into Montgomery Co., the first alleycat to ever do so!!!
I must admit that my manifest (7 pages long) was extreme and I must give thanks to the independent accounting firm of Kimberlee and Emily. They apologize if they were grumpy, but they were under strict guidelines. But even with that, I managed to bumble the award ceremony.
I accident awarded Top Finisher, Best out-of-town and top Fixie to ISAAC from B.more!!! But afterwards realized that I hadn't given the extra 50 pt bonus for Roving Checkpoint pics!!!!!!! I am sorry for the confusion, but basicallly the first pack of 6 riders took all the top honors!!! So it ended it up like this:
Top W.orld Embassy Champion and winner of the custom DemonCat bag from Dank Bags made exclusively for the race by the one and only Cory Bennion in Seattle, WA:
Dave Sorenson!!! From Washington DC with a score of 638 points out of a possible 690 points. You also won a Spot Merino wool jersey, but you forgit it at my house. Congratulations my friend, I have raced many a race with you and know you to be a fine competitor and you can call yourself a Demon Cat, any day in my book! He also one a pair of PUMA shoes graciously donated
Top Woman and winner of the nice flame bag from R.E.Load, none other than that crossword loving fool and soon to be retiring from the daily grind-a-bike:
Lola!!!! From Washington DC. She also won a nice merino wool jersey, which she graciously donated to the top out-of town woman, who was from RVA!!! Lola is one classy broad! Have fun in Costa Rica! Siempre un placer! Also won a pair of PUMA shoes. Nic at PUMA will love to hear from you again!!!
Second Place Men and Top Fixed was Bryn!!! From Washington DC who left the party, before the snafu was corrected. He won a bag from Crumpler and some track components, I believe. Dan G. has your bag! Excellent riding and nice skidmanship out in front of my house! That was impressive!
Second Woman was Julie!!! From Washington DC. She showed the world that you don't have to be a courier to win a prize at a courier race. All you got to do is love to ride and ride smart!
Third Mens and Top out-of-town and and winner of the Kryptonite New York Chain and Molly Lock, a old-school brain-strain cycling cap by Dank Bags and NFT Guide Book to DC: Issac!!! From Baltimore. Your curses at my course design only validate it's beauty! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Enjoy and sorry for the snafu at the start! You know the Demon Cats will be at the Gang Bang and I'll doo the hilliest of the three courses! We're throwing down the Gauntlet!!! LOL! Good job!
Third Place Woman was Christina!!! From D.C. was a first time racer and rode with Julie. I must say that it was not an easy race by far. I'm sorry that it took so long to score the manifests. I hope you like your bag!
Top Six:
1st Place Dave S. DC
2nd Place Bryn DC
3rd Place Issac Bmore
4th Place Dan G DC
5th Place Lola DC
6th Place AZ DC
DFL Spencer DC- his manifest to be posted soon!
At this point, I'm pretty sure that was the top six, after that it gets blurry. No insults to anyone misplaced. Believe me that was not an easy race, plus it was raining. And the manifest was hard to score. They got a bonus prize for their help!!!
Man it was crazy.
I want to encourage you all to go to www.demoncats.com to check out the pictures and strongly encourage you to write your own Demon Blog with your thoughts on the race and suggestions (like don't fuck up the award ceremony!!!) are welcome! Please write!!!
Remember that even though there were 55 embassies this race, there are almost 200 in DC plus assorted chanceries and embassy residences. For those of you who didn't get the 60 pt bonus checkpoint- it was the emabssy of the ambassador of Nigeria!!! You either had to know the flag or ask!!! Some people actually rang the doorbell! They got their answer though!
Next April be ready for "it's a mad mad mad mad W.orld Parte Deux!!!" another 55 points of mad mad mad mad fun!!! To those who raced this year, I say,"Don't forget your capitals!!!". There will be manned bonus checkpoints that will ask questions based on this year's manifest.
I am also glad to say that no couriers were harrassed by the Secret Service, as Sebastian and I were in the preparation of the initial checkpoints! Thank you to them for not feeling threatened by the presence of a good group of people on bikes out having fun!!!
Now before you think I forget what this was all for. With thirty-two registered racers and Kevin Keegan donating an extra fee (Thanks, Bud) and the Demon Cats donating the beer and paying for a little food for the grill, we came up with $300.00 to be donated to the Bicycle Messenger Emergency Fund!!! I wish we could have brought more in, but I believe the weather was a factor as much as there no NYC or Philly crews. I know NYC has their hands full with CMWC 05 and Philly had a race going on the same day! I was expecting at least another 30 people. But everyone had fun and no one was hurt and we raised some cash for BMEF! Does it get any better than that?
Can you dig it!!!
I just want to thank each and everyone of you that came and I hope to see the RVA crew at the Scrabble Alleycat (I warn you that my grandmother was a Scrabble competitor, you better have the official Scrabble dictionary!!!) and I am drooling at the thought of Ricmond-Roubaix!!! I will see B.more next week for their alleycat "29 Lives" and Issac's crazy Gang Bang three-different alleycats in one for three-man teams!!!!!!!!!!!!! My Goodness, it's sooooooooooooo crazzzzzzzzzzzzyyyy!!!
Anyhoo, we might be throwing the Mayhem in DC. If not, we will see you in October 15th for the pre-NYC Halloween race "I SEE DEAD PEOPLE!!!" Be there or be DEAD!!!
Boo!!!
Thank you everyone- racers, sponsors, bike gods!!! EVERYONE OF YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Racing for Victory and free beer!!!
Demon Cats