Crit Month

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MISSION CRIT – SAN FRANCISCO, CA

RED HOOK CRIT 9 – NEW YORK CITY, NY

SHORT LINE CRIT – LONG BEACH, CA

-Sean

RED HOOK MILANO 2014

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  With the 2014 Red Hook Criterium season behind us, we wanted to share some details from the Milano stop. As a shop and team, our goal has always been to help our friends race bikes and see how far they can take it. For 2015, three members out of our five-racer Crit team are signed with professional road teams. Walton, Kyle, and Evan will all race pro next year. We do not know what the future of MASH at Red Hook events will bring, but we are completely happy about seeing our friends go from riding on the street, to racing alleycats, to racing road, cyclocross, fixed crits, and ultimately taking it to the next level as professional athletes. SO STOKED FOR THESE GUYS!

As we look back at the Milano photos, they mean a little more to me now. This group of friends would be riding together, on or off a team, so to put them on a plane and go to the other side of the planet for a few days is all the more special. Chas has inspired these guys on the street for years. Rainier was the first of the group to make it as a Category 1 road racer. This is the fuel that pushes each other to take risks and make progress toward personal goals. Enclosed are some details from the Red Hook Milano earlier this month and some behind the scenes notes from the trip. Rainier warming up before qualifiers. Traveling internationally for these events makes it impossible to have many of the amenities that help a racer prepare. We are thankful to San Marco for the use of their tent and Cinelli for a few sets of rollers. We always scrap something together, so thanks for this support.This was the first race that we could celebrate Kyle and Evan racing on the same team at a Red Hook event. The Cinelli family was excited about this bond as well. Evan and Kyle work with Tom Sachs. Get your wheel, or seat stolen once and you create a system that helps you in future situations. Serial numbering everything.PinningChas qualifying in the team CX skin suit. Was awesome to see this suit on the road.As a testament to these races getting faster each year, the course lap time was three seconds faster than the same course raced in 2013.Chas did not race in Barcelona, so was required to qualify with group 2. This ended up working in his favor, setting a strong start for the main men’s race.Garrett understands MASH completely and for this reason he helps the team feel pro on the bike. The 2015 Cinelli Parallax with the theme throughout the Castelli Skinsuit and Giro Synthe helmets. Feel fast=go fast.Dave leading the neutral lap.The crowd at this race was one of the largest so far. It made it difficult to get to vantage points for shooting, but that was made up by the excitement of the masses.

RHC MILANO 2015

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We will be heading to Milano for the last stop of the 2015 Red Hook Criterium Look for updates along the way!

RED HOOK CRITERIUM BCN 2014

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Last weekend, Walton and I met up with Kyle in Barcelona for the second stop of the Red Hook Criterium. This is, by far, our favorite stop of the series, with weather being one of the factors rating the event trip. Kyle and Walton are living on opposite sides of the United States currently, so the opportunity to meet in Spain to train, beach, explore, eat, and see friends quickly filled up the calendar.

8-30-2014

Over the past few years traveling with the Red Hook Crit series, we have watched the event grow, on all fronts. On this day, entry was capped at 250 riders to qualify for the the main race. Qualification breaks the riders up into smaller groups, who have 20 minutes on course to set their personal fastest lap. All the riders have timing chips on their bikes which record the lap times as well as update the app with riders’ positions during the main race. The 85 fastest qualifying laps earn riders the corresponding slot on the start grid. Dave held a race following the last qualifier round to let a number of the fastest racers who didn’t qualify to compete in a “last chance race” which places the top ten finishers in the last ten slots on the main race’s start grid.

More international awareness of the event brings more crashes. The level of competition has risen, peppered with first-timers, some national and pro level racers, who are finding themselves for the first time racing a brakeless track bike in a criterium-formatted event

The Red Hook Crit is a spectator sport, both on, and off the pavement.

Dave Trimble

The RHC courses are all intentionally very technical to keep the races spread out, which makes them ultimately safer. It also makes choosing your gear very important since you have to factor in course speed, finishing speed and length, as well as course features like hairpins where you have to slow down and repeatedly sprint back up to speed every lap.

Marc Marino had a top 20 result at RCH Barcelona after building up for US Track Nationals a couple weeks before.

DSC wasn’t able to make it to Spain for RHC in person this year, but SheOne was on hand to hold it down.

Andrea Schiliro always brings the PMA.

Neil Bezdek is the road captain of Foundation Cycling, Kyle’s local road team in New York. This means he decides on the race plan and keeps the team organized and updated on tactics to execute throughout each race. Neil has gained the knowledge to do this through his years as a domestic pro. When he comes to the RHC, Kyle gets to use everything Neil has taught him against Neil.

Stefan Vis TAOf our four-racer roster, only Kyle and Walton could make this stop in the series. They wanted to make the guys back home proud. Although both Walton and Kyle have spent time on the podium in this criterium series, it is worth noting both racers’ strengths are long-distance road races with climbing being part of the topography. The RHC is 45 minutes of flat, fast, crit laps. Their experience with track bikes on the street, as well as time spent on most types of bikes has helped them develop a well-rounded cycling base. All these tools and experiences come together, making the RHC special for this reason.Walton and Kyle made it to the event just 15 minutes before the group 1 qualifier. This delay caused a bit of a scramble and timing chips got crossed, so Walton’s second row qualifying time went to Kyle in the end.

Walton carries a unique posture that is easy to spot in the field.

Working together, they put in top 20 qualifying times out of the 250 entries.As the Red Hook grows, so does the results board. With several qualifiers, a running race, women’s crit, and a last chance race all before the main event.This race community was born from outsiders. This still shows through the expression of custom cycles and self expression.All racers feel lucky to go home with no injuries at these events. There is not enough luck for everyone.

Dave, at the start of the Men’s final.Kyle, calm before the storm.There are two motorcycles at these events. One leads the first wheel or group and the second sweeps racers off the course who are about to be lapped by the lead group.The lead group forms quickly, often assembled of faces from past series podiums.No matter the growing budget for the series, there is always darkness to be found.Kyle, fighting back to the lead group, after going down with 10 laps to go.Walton stayed top 10 (the app showed Kyle’s name due to the timing chip error) On the last lap, sitting 4th wheel, he was swarmed in the second hairpin, pushing his line outside and getting involved with one of the mentioned racers. This is what the RHC feels like for many, with luck playing a massive role in your end result.What a fighter. Happy with his effort, it is time to celebrate.This moment, Kyle happy on the podium, says a great deal to me. No matter what outsiders may perceive MASH to be, we are a small bike shop and network of friends in San Francisco. With larger corporations getting into the fixed crit racing, and buying teams, this photo reminds me why we are here—friends having fun racing bikes together. It is really simple. It may end up being a chapter in the bigger story, but these times will never be forgotten.

By now, he should know how to open Champagne.

Or maybe saving it for the sweet, sweet end.After months of preparation, and the race day complete, Dave finally takes a shower. He must know at that moment, it always comes together. All efforts are worth it in the end.

Congratulations to this stop’s racers/winners. Thank you for pushing what is possible on these bikes. Thank you to the city of Barcelona and its community that supports swarms of visitors traveling to race and cheer for one night in August, 2014. Thank you to all of the infrastructure that makes the Red Hook Criterium possible.

Until Milano, have a fun ride.

TRAINERS

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It’s not uncommon to see flawless machines built for the street and the track. More often than not, these are the builds that circulate beautiful bicycle mood boards. For this reason, I wanted to share with you some working-class race bikes, set up as travel trainers. When we travel overseas for races, the guys are more often missing out on a section of their road season. With training regiments filling the calendar, two travel days can derail a racer’s current program.

I wanted to share how Kyle and Walton have their race bikes set up for the days leading up to, and after the Red Hook Criterium. Days before a race, you need to hydrate your system. Traveling to a warmer, more humid climate guarentees that hydration input ramps up.Data keeps coaches up to date and racers able to monitor live efforts. These guys do not have the latest technology, but it does what they need. Kyle uses an old 705 with GPS, which is helpful traveling abroad.Saddle bags and tool rolls move sealant and tools out of jersey pockets. Freitag did an industry gifting of their model and it is nice to see them being used, and enjoyed.

Walton’s father gave him his old Cannondale bag for sew-ups. These guys can only travel with race wheels, so having an additional Continential  tire, tape, and sealent acts as back-up on race day.

Kyle engraves his initials in his parts, in fear of them being stolen off his bike while locked up. City life.

Look for updates as we ramp into stop two of the 2014 Red Hook Criterium series from Barcelona Spain.

Chas at Fijate 2014

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Federico was down in San Juan for the Fijate events, and sent a few photos of Chas racing. Looks like they had a big draw this year, with racers coming in from around the world. Racer acclimation can play a big role in performance, so it was exciting to see racers smashing in the heat and humidity of a tropical region. Check the Fijate facebook page for more info.