bienvenue

I moved to Washington DC almost exactly a year ago. When I first moved here, I hated it. It took me months to peel back the layers of what on the surface appeared to be a fairly artless, soul-less, bikeless town. About three months in I started meeting some amazing folks who introduced me 'real DC'. Not the phony touristy crap or the government office DC, but the parts of this city where art, community and cultures are thriving. Of course, most of it was done from the view of a bicycle.

Since I was initially unsure how long I was going to stay here, I didn't ship my bike when I first came. Just me, my backpack and my dog. A month later, I was sick and tired of hoofing it, and even more fed up with shelling out the cash for constant metro fares. When my little lady arrived, it was to my infinite relief and I put her together ASAP. Lacking a pedal wrench and needing a slight bit more expertise, I rolled into one of the local shops and had two exceedingly nice mechanics help me out. Later in my bike career in DC, both of these people would crop up again at suprising times.

Bike back between the legs (where it properly belongs), I set about riding as much as possible, trying to learn a town that although set on a really easy grid system, is still fairly easy to get lost in. I also found myself demoted from bike messenger (in Portland, OR) back to bike commuter again as I rode out to the suburb of Bethesda, Maryland everyday during the month of December as I was selling Christmas trees (yes, it rocked). This is also when I first started riding on the Capital Crescent Trail, which is still one of my favorite rides around town. It was on this trail that I saw my first cardinal. During December I started to meet more folks, including a tall drink of water named Danny, whose friendship introduced me to more bikey folks and also clued me in to more of the bike scene here. Shortly after meeting Danny he invited me to a cyclocross race, which is where I met a friend of his named Chris. My pup Jack and I cheered them on rang the cowbell. This is also where I met (again) one of the mechanics who helped me put my bike together.

Here Danny takes one of the tighter turns. It was a frigid cold, but sunny day. After living in Portland for years, I was totally unused to this type of winter and was wearing just thin trainers. My feet almost froze to the ground, but I had fun.











Since then, I've met a myriad of people and become more and more involved with bikes
here. Chris is now a good buddy and helped me get hired at City Bikes, a small shop in Adams Morgan where he used to work. At the same I started working there, a female wrench was hired, who turned out to be the other mechanic who helped me reassemble my bike. As much as I miss being on my bike all day, there is something to be said for working in either the air conditioning or heating of a shop.



This is a year that I'm also trying to step up my more serious cycling side. Aside from dallying around with road, cross and track racing in the past, I have decided to really commit to the upcoming road season and race at least a couple cyclocross races this season. I just spent a month riding around France and I've been trying to lay down as many base miles as possible, interspersed with some intervals. I feel strong, but I also feel I have alot of work to do. I'm hoping that with a little cross under my belt, and lots of miles at Hains Point, I'll face the next year even stronger, and definitely more knowledgeable, than the previous year.