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ING Direct Capital Criterium - Now With More Photos!

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Toyota United's Hilton Clarke takes the field sprint, just ahead of Rock Racing's Freddie Rodriguez and teammate Dominique Rollin

Podium Cafe is a full service establishment - we bring you news of the race, we organize a social gathering around the race, we make sure that those of you who can't make it get a chance to chat as you watch it, and we get you same day photo coverage

And now we're bringing you a few more pictures from the ING Direct Capital Criterium (full results here)  Hit the fold for more.

Star-divide

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Pennsylvania Avenue awaits its first pro criterium

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A race ends early in the men's 35+ field . . . 

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Bet you've never seen a DC street this fresh and smooth

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The men's 35+ field rounds the u-turn

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Immediate Mortgage/Artemis' Ramon Benitez - that's him winning the 35+ race as a *warm up* for the 1/2/3 race he entered a few minutes after the first . . .

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Men's 1/2/3 field lines up

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NCVC - I'm not sure you can actually hold a race in the MABRA region without at least a half dozen of them showing up

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Ramon Benitez working the peloton. Again. 

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Cycling earns new fans

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Men's 35+ Podium. That's Immediate Mortgage/Artemis Elite's Ramon Benitez and Mark Warno in first and second, respectively.  In third is Trail's End's Nima Ebrahimnejad.  Sure, you can laugh his kit - but did you represent your country in the 1992 Olympic road races?  No, you did not.  He did.

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Men's 1/2/3 Podium. That's Battley Harley's Todd Hipp in first place.  Indiana Regional Medical Center's Jake Lifson is glad he made the trip, in second.  And DC fixture and Immediate Mortage/Artemis Elite rider "Super" Dave Osborne rounds out the podium

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Announcer Joe Jefferson Interviews Rock Racing's Freddie Rodriguez for the Crowd

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A couple of guys from Garmin-Chipotle show up 

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Hey, I know those sideburns! 

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Freddie Rodriguez decides that Pennsylvania Avenue is as good a place as any to change

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Toyota United's Dominique Rollin at the ING Direct Capital Criterium Start Line

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ING Direct Capital Criterium Pro Field

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The field hits the only climb of the course, in front of DC's Warner Theatre

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Fast corners are fast

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No shortage of fans.


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The riders feel out the chicane just before the finish 


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Not in the plan: a Kelly Benefits and Inferno Racing rider lose the field after crashing in the U-turn

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Rodriguez, without a team to work for him, stuck with the plan he announced at the start and sat in for most of the race


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Team Type 1's Dan Holt rounds the corner with Garmin-Chipotle's Danny Pate 

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Photographer in the field: note the helmet-mounted camera on the Battley Harley rider in front

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Sweeper -the field spreads out over Pennsylvania Avenue

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Keeping the race coming to your screens


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And the speed picks up

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Successful Living's Alessando Bazzana goes down on the last lap

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And he knows that it's the end of his race 

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Toyota United's Hilton Clarke takes the field sprint, just ahead of Rock Racing's Freddie Rodriguez and teammate Dominique Rollin

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ING Direct Capital Criterium winner Hilton Clarke takes a moment to recover 

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ING Direct Capital Criterium's first podium discuss the finish.  Freddie says he just needed a leeetle more space to come around Hilton . . .

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Toyota United's Hilton Clarke enjoying the moment

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. . . and enjoying the end-of-season payday.


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Inaugural ING Direct Capital Criterium winners

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Team Type 1's Emile Abraham had a good day, too, snagging fifth place in the sprint finish.

Finally, while Podium Cafe is a full service establishment, we are not too proud to sending you to another site with excellent info.  In this instance, we're sending you to GamJams ("Where Mid-Atlantic bike racers roll") which is collecting reports from local competitors.  It's a growing list, and includes this one from Haymarket rider Steve Gordon, who found himself riding with DLP Racing at the last minute. 

There are more photos, of course, but I wanted to get these out now.  Look for an update here (or in an open thread) tomorrow.

 

-Mark Blacknell for Podium Cafe/All Photos Copyright Mark Blacknell

 

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Meanwhile in the US...

Jun 2008 by gavia - 16 comments

Comments

Display:

Super Dave!

Man, that guy is everywhere. He must log a good 9 hours in the saddle every day. I bet he bikes around the office too.
And yes, I am laughing at the Trail’s End kit.

"If writing too much about the Classics is wrong, I don't want to be right."

by Chris... on Sep 22, 2008 7:49 PM EDT reply reply actions actions   0 recs

Dude's the friendliest guy

out there.

~

That kit . . .well, it’s distinctive. I’ll say that much.

by Sui Juris on Sep 22, 2008 7:56 PM EDT to parent up reply reply actions actions   0 recs

Dave Osbourne...

is he about 40-ish? Man, I think I raced with that dude back in the mid-90’s.

by itswells on Sep 22, 2008 7:51 PM EDT reply reply actions actions   0 recs

Yup

I bet it’s the same guy. He was in the very first local race I went to see here in DC (98, I think).

by Sui Juris on Sep 22, 2008 7:53 PM EDT to parent up reply reply actions actions   0 recs

love the shot at the start

with the capitol thingy in the background. sweet perspective. nice of that french guy – heh, i’m forgetting his name now – to set up the sightlines so perfectlike in dc.

why is the team type one guy cornering on his hoods?

hilton and his check look far too cutey together.

you don’t mess around with the linkage, do ya ;-) thanks for the photos. more pleez.

by gavia on Sep 22, 2008 8:17 PM EDT reply reply actions actions   0 recs

Pierre L'Enfant!

Unfortunately, the only honor gets in DC is the horrid L’Enfant Plaza. Seems so wrong.

~

That corner wasn’t easy at all. Fresh pavement is slick pavement. And I must have seen the peloton take a half dozen different lines through it. Surprisingly, there were only three crashes there (that I’m aware of, anyway. Only saw one in person, but it’s kind of hard to take a good photo of someone 6 meters aware from you with a 300m lens. I think it’s well past time to pick up another camera body. Anyone want to send me an old Canon digital body? No?)

by Sui Juris on Sep 22, 2008 8:29 PM EDT to parent up reply reply actions actions   0 recs

that's it!

he has a metro stop and everything :-)

it doesn’t look at all easy – the body language is a giveaway. just thought it was funny that one of the kids was NOT like the others. and usually, the drops are like so the way to go right there.

yes, you definitely need to go pro and carry two bodies. camera bodies, that is. and no, i don’t have an extra one. hell, i don’t even have one. a 300 might be a tad unwieldy in this situation, though.

by gavia on Sep 22, 2008 8:37 PM EDT to parent up reply reply actions actions   0 recs

how in the world

does “away” get turned into “aware”? I can’t even blame spell check.

Any neurologists in the building?

by Sui Juris on Sep 22, 2008 8:41 PM EDT to parent up reply reply actions actions   0 recs

bazzano

shoulda won the hotter than hell criterium . . .

except he threw his victory salute at the inflatable arch that was the finish for the rally riders . . . the next day . . .

and the start/finish line for the crit, which he’d raced past for 74 previous minutes . . .

was 100 yards up the road. Luckily, his team-mate won, and he still got 4th.

by R Mc on Sep 22, 2008 8:32 PM EDT reply reply actions actions   0 recs

Excellent pics with nice dialog

I love the picture of the pro winners podium with the ING banner that says “save your money” with the Capitol building in the background – oh the irony…

by roadside on Sep 22, 2008 8:59 PM EDT reply reply actions actions   0 recs

Great work, MB

Your pictures and commentary make the pros almost as interesting as us amateurs.

Thanks also for the link.

by GamJams on Sep 22, 2008 9:46 PM EDT reply reply actions actions   0 recs

almost

but not quite. I mean really, who’s the Burt Friggin’ Hoovis of the pro peloton?

by Sui Juris on Sep 22, 2008 10:33 PM EDT to parent up reply reply actions actions   0 recs

Thanks for the great pics Sui Juris :-)

Do we get to see more soon?

"The most wasted day is that in which we have not laughed."

by nikki on Sep 23, 2008 12:38 PM EDT reply reply actions actions   0 recs

Cool!!!

Great freddie expression, great action shots. Next time I don’t listen when you bitch about the wrong lens…these are about as perfect as anyone could want.

by JFS_PGH on Sep 23, 2008 7:16 PM EDT reply reply actions actions   0 recs

Holy crap!!

since when do Toyota United riders have personalized jerseys?!?!

Seriously!! Who do I talk to about getting a Rollin jersey?

by Hons on Sep 23, 2008 8:25 PM EDT reply reply actions actions   0 recs

Rollin, I suspect.

I bet there’s a sale going on right now, too.

by Sui Juris on Sep 23, 2008 8:54 PM EDT to parent up reply reply actions actions   0 recs

Thank you Hons.

I knew Jelly Belly’s jersey’s had their names on them but I didn’t notice Toyota’s until just recently. Is that new for them?

"The most wasted day is that in which we have not laughed."

by nikki on Sep 23, 2008 9:14 PM EDT to parent up reply reply actions actions   0 recs

I didn't realize he was such a big dude - almost Hincapie big.

Perfect build for the early season Northern Classics.

"I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass... and I'm all out of bubblegum."

by Drew... on Sep 24, 2008 9:53 AM EDT to parent up reply reply actions actions   0 recs

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