This Sunday, consider heading down to Penn Quarter to see the ING Direct Capital Criterium. The pro race, which will feature stars like Christian Vande Velde, Freddie Rodriguez, and Rahsaan Bahati (the reigning US pro crit champion), starts at 11:30.  It’ll take place on a six turn 1km circuit that winds its way among the Federal agencies downtown. This makes for easy viewing and constant action. It is, of course, free.
Honestly, we’re getting a much higher quality field than I expected, given how recently this was announced. Christian Vande Velde will be joined by Garmin-Chipotle teammates and fellow Tour de France riders Will Frischkorn and Danny Pate. I’m not sure if we’ll see the Rock Racing teammates of Freddie Rodrigeuz and Rashaan Bahati. Also of note are Symmetrics’ Eric Wohlberg, Kelly Benefits’ Alex Candelario, and Toyota United’s Dominique Rollin.
There are, of course, impressive cyclists who’ve been racing in the DC area all summer. If you want to see some of that, show up a little earlier – the men’s 35+ race starts at 8am, and the men’s 1/2/3 (top amateurs) rolls at 9am.
Finally, this race has something to offer kids – there’s a kids’ ride/”race” running at 10:30a that will give kids (ages 3-11, seperated out into age groups) a chance to hit the same course that the pros are on. And if the sheer excitement of that isn’t enough, the first three hundred kids to register (see the site to do it online) will get free ING jerseys and helmets.
I’ll be down there all day, and hope that some of you can make it, too. If you know anyone who may be interested, please pass this along – it would be great to see a large turnout that would convince the race sponsors to stick around and make this a regular DC event.