What do you do when there’s a bike race a mile from the shop? You show up and race, obviously. What do you do if you’re going to be at that race all day, and the only operation out there making food has a crudely made sign restricting it to “VIP’s ONLY“? Well, in that case, you get there early, set up a smoker, spend a few hours turning pork into heaven, have a little party and feed the common man… while racing your bike. And that is exactly what we did! While the VIP’s sat in an isolated tent, gnawed on mutton and sipped wine, the BH catering crew smoked up 3 racks of baby back ribs and four pork loins. Then we shared. PSMET, ABD, Bevery Bike… we don’t care. Come get a rib. We feed the people. What, exactly, is a VIP at a local bike race, anyway?
Much thanks to WTF Mike who sacrificed his entire day setting up, cooking, and tearing down our little party spot. Also, a big thanks to everybody who contributed chips, pasta salad, cookies, drinks, or just came over to be social. A great time was had by all.
The racing was pretty good, too. Our best results of the day came from the breakout women’s team. Both Ashley (pictured below… on the left, obviously) and Mara finished in the top 5, with Ashley missing the win only by a matter of inches. Mara put in a solid finish in sprinting for 5th- her 4th top 5 of the year.
Another top 5 came from David Pratt who inched one more step closer to his Cat 3 upgrade. With a 4 man break well ahead of the 4/5 pack, Pratt handily won the field sprint for 5th. With David Ross having recently upgraded, Pratt is on his way to helping fill out an already large Cat 3 team.
See Brion’s pics of the food festival as well as the race action from the St. Charles crit on his smugmug account.
In other news, last week marked a momentous occasion. In what is probably the most anticipated return since Ronnie Milsap returned to a traditional country music sound, Tommy “Cold Hands” Spanish recently raced a crit in Flint Michigan. Spanish, pictured below, was the captain of the team’s Cat 5 (road) and Cat 4 (cross) squads in the fall of 2010. We’re happy to see him back at it!
