Mobbin' Monday's 2015 Temple Criterium

the women's leaders lean into turn one

a lot of people placed their bets on the elite level roadie, but...

at the end only two contested the finish sprint for 1st and 2nd

I did not really expect to say such a thing for another ten, maybe twenty years. "I was the oldest one out there" was never more true, that is until the dude with the long white beard rolled through, the race attracting his attention and impelling him to turn around to check it out. You know what though? I finally figured out what that saying actually means - it really has nothing to do with a sense of place, or feeling out of place. Rather it simply means that there are a ton of people from my generation (and I say that meaning that most of those 'kids' out there today, could be my own kids, at least age-wise) who are missing out by adhering to whatever norm society says we must age by. This stuff, not some shot of toxic stew or surgeons' knife, keeps me young, and so I will keep doing it.

In case you didn't know, the Temple Criterium was raced on track bikes - fixed gear, brakeless, and with the right pair of legs powering them, you knew it would be fast with no let up. The speed in fact seemed to get progressively quicker; I attributed that to the fact that there were many capable pairs of legs. There were two separate races, one each for men and women, each going for thirty minutes plus five laps. It didn't take long for the fields to begin to shred. While the leaders in the women's race pretty much kept together, the men's race had several breaks over the course of their thirty minutes. At the end, that one came down to a sprint between two, with a ferocious field sprint for third more than a few seconds later. A good race, in an interesting setting (I had never been around there before). Congrats to all the competitors, to Mobbin' Monday for hosting, and to all their sponsors for putting up the goods for primes and podium placings.

Mobbin' Monday already posted the winners list up on their website, but I figure something is missing if I cover a race and the podium list is not shared, so:

Mens race:
1st, Cameron Bond (FixFixie)
2nd, Brandon Jones (Aventon Factory Team)
3rd, Roberto Roman (Team Zero Miedo)
4th, Ronnie Toth (PAA)
5th, Shawn Langwell (Walmart Cycling)

Womens race:
1st, Asia Morris (Engine 11)
2nd, Cora Colasuonno (She Wolf Attack Team)
3rd, Ginger Boyd (Pink Rhino Racing)
4th, Martha Mauricio (She Wolf Attack Team)
5th, Melissa Ortega (Mobbin / Unknown)

And now: There are 137 photos in the Flickr album. Click the link and go man go.

The photos are not a complete catalog, but are representative of all the others taken during the day, so if you don't see what, or who, you were looking for in the album, let me know and I will see what I can find. If you see a photo you like, feel free to download it (credit where credit due, of course). You can also contact me via email and I will gladly send a full size jpeg file of the image.

Want more? Go ahead and order your own copy of the CLR Effect racing annual. There are two editions available right now (2013 and 2014), and you can preview them by clicking the 2014 Seasons in the Sun Book Preview button near the top of the right hand column, or under the title banner at the top of the page.