As part of the lead up to the pro U.S. Air Force Cycling Classic that took place in Arlington this past weekend, teams from the three United States military academies lined up for competition in the Service Academy Shootout (presented by Northrop Grumman, naturally). The format was a team time trial around a 12.5km course starting at the U.S. Air Force Memorial, passing around the Pentagon, and then on a loop through Crystal City before returning to the memorial.

The Air Force men’s A team won, with the Navy men’s A team just a minute behind it, and the Navy B team not too far behind that. For the women’s comp, I believe it was Army, Navy, Air Force. The official results are appended, but you’ll note that they’re not entirely clear.

The Air Force men’s team looked, how do you say it . . . PRO. Seriously equipped and in good form. The Navy guys lacked the aero kits (in fact, one Navy guy seemed to have forgotten his Navy kit entirely), but were scrappy as hell. Army turned out en masse, and cleaned up in the sprint competition, taking first and second place. I’m honestly unclear on how the scoring worked, but this Air Force story reports that Navy ended up winning the day with the most points.

The Air Force team did manage to pull off a decidedly un-PRO move when one of the guys ran into a curb and launched his bike into the air. Even better than hitting a curb at slow speed? He was going uphill. D’oh. I can’t believe that we’ve not seen pictures of it yet, as at least one local reporter/photographer was standing right there, and I understand a local news camera was on it, too.

The most impressive crash of the day, however, was in the shootout sprints, in which I learned that there is the right way, the wrong way, and then the Army way, to win a sprint.

Photos from the Service Academy Shootout are available here. (Apologies for the lack of finishing shots – those are in the same place as my pro race podium shots). Official results are available after the jump.

Results from the TTT:

1. Army W1
DNF 44:37 ( 44:37) = 1:06:40
Kelsey Hassin, Katrina Kamel, Courtney Rehwoldt

2. Air Force M1
35:24 35:25 ( 35:25) ( 38:41) = 1:10:49
Preston Goodrich, Preston Moon, Trevor Johnson, Mark Fraser

3. Navy M1
35:56 35:56 ( 35:58) = 1:11:52
Andrew Christian, Ryan McFeely, Kyle Englund-Krieger

4. Navy M2
37:03 37:04 ( 37:04) ( 37:04) = 1:14:07
Sam Curlee, Ben Storozum, Derek Oskuitis, Tom Simonson

5. Navy M3
38:25 38:25 ( 38:26) ( 43:37) = 1:16:50
Colin Christ, Charles Kreuzberger, Zachary Huff, Charles Jones

6. Air Force M2
38:53 38:54 ( 38:54) = 1:17:47
Adam Kruse, John Shalekbriski, Jesse Galt

7. Army M2
39:48 39:49 ( 39:50) = 1:19:37
Nick Shamrell, Patrick Ryan, Joe Perez

8. Army M3
40:25 40:25 ( 40:25) = 1:20:50
Nick Wheeler, Jeremy May, Joe Grimm

9. Air Force M3
41:42 41:43 ( 20:19) ( 41:43) = 1:23:25
Kevin Gross, Tyler Boyd, Harris Butler, John Ferut

10. Army M1
44:31 44:31 ( 44:31) = 1:29:02
Steve Pingree, Alex Krienke, Erik Wilburn

11. Navy W1
44:31 44:32 ( 52:09) = 1:29:03
Erin Moss, Nikki Bastine, Julie Barca

12. Air Force W1
47:45 47:45 = 1:35:30
Jena Desmet, Mallory Morgan