The Mayor's Cup: Boston Rules!

This past saturday I hopped on my bike and headed downtown to witness what I hoped would be the first of many Boston crits. I've seen many alley cats held on the streets of Boston, but in my tenure as a cyclist, I had yet to see a sanctioned race put on by the city. I arrived at City Hall plaza to see the orange barricades sectioning of the course and 'dexed out racers lining up at the start line.

To be fair, I don't really care much about racing, as many of our racers can attest to. I'm not a competitive guy and you know, racers are all snobby and stuff. So when they busted out of the start gate like bats out of hell I was pretty impressed.

Here's a couple of the IF racers rounding the first corner. That's the pride of the factory Kevin "Sparky" Wolfson leading team green and Jon "Older than time" Bruno taking up the rear. I have no idea whose in the middle but I took a lot of pictures of him.

Here's Clint watching the dudes blaze down New Sudbury St.

This dude was leading it off for a while. I wish I knew more about racing and could tell you his name. I will say that the first time he rounded this corner onto Congress St, I jumped back five feet and whimpered like a child. These guys were going 35mph and coming within inches of braining themselves on the barricades. It was sick.

Here's that guy who races for us taking that turn like a badass.

This is Leah, enjoying the race.

Here's Clint huffing something he called "Vick's".

This is Todd blasting up Congress and right around the time I went across the street for a cocktail. It was pretty good, but apparently at weird, swanky, downtown bars they don't know bitters is an ingredient of Old Fashioneds. But hey, at least it was only $10.75.

Here's Sparky and that guy whose name I don't know holding it down on our sick road bikes that totally make you way faster.

Lastly, the hero of the day, our new hire, David Lee. He had to take a hiatus from training this summer but he showed up eager to ride regardless. He was grinding it out like a champ. If he looks familiar it's because he's a rock star.

Anyhoo, the race ruled. It was blisteringly fast for the whole 90 minutes. It was a great turnout. I don't really know who won. I don't care that much. The race was awesome to watch, the IF racers looked good and some guy named Ted King didn't win, which I guess is a big deal. Hopefully the City of Boston will continue to support the bicycling community by sponsoring similar events. If you didn't make it out this year, be sure to come next year. It was a great time.

-Finn