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.

Pennsylvania Avenue awaits its first pro criterium

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

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

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

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 . . .

Men's 1/2/3 field lines up

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

Ramon Benitez working the peloton. Again. 

Cycling earns new fans

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.

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

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

A couple of guys from Garmin-Chipotle show up 

Hey, I know those sideburns! 

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

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

ING Direct Capital Criterium Pro Field

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

Fast corners are fast

No shortage of fans.

The riders feel out the chicane just before the finish 

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

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

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

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

Sweeper -the field spreads out over Pennsylvania Avenue

Keeping the race coming to your screens

And the speed picks up

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

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

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

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

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

Toyota United's Hilton Clarke enjoying the moment

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

Inaugural ING Direct Capital Criterium winners

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