Red Hook Crit - A Race Like No Other
by Graham White
While most people nowadays are content using their fixed gear bikes to cruise around the city taking in the sights, there exists an ever growing population of urban athletes taking their race ready track bikes from the wooden boards of the velodrome to the streets to compete in fixed gear criteriums. A mash-up of bike messenger style alleycat races and traditional road racing criteriums these races are high on adrenaline and low on rules. One gear, no brakes, furious racing all in a compact urban setting that’s an incredible buzz to watch. In this arena bike messengers race wheel to wheel with pro racers to find out who has the skills and speed to come out on top.
The most high profile of these races is the Red Hook Crit, which now boasts a series of races that take place throughout the year in Brooklyn, Milan and Barcelona. What started as an illegal, non-serious birthday race for race director David Trimble in 2008, has morphed into an internationally recognised event. That year, with a few dozen starters, and a bunch of friends spectating, Kacey Manderfield outsprinted the men to take the inaugural title. She went on to win a national track championship and turned professional that same year.
Final sprint from 2008 race
The next year brought more racers and more coverage, and when the New York Times mentions your event as ‘a bike race worthy of James Dean’, you know you’re on to something. The 2009 Red Hook Crit winner, perennial race favourite Neil Bezdek, would go on to be a professional road racer by year’s end. 2010 saw the race move abroad for the first time, hosting a second event in Milan which attracted an international field of racers and over 1,000 spectators. In 2013 the race expanded again to a 4 race format with 2 races in Brooklyn, 1 in Milan and a new race in Barcelona.
This weekend sees the Red Hook Crit in Barcelona for its second year, and the second race of the year. The first round was won by French rider Thibaud Lhenry, aboard a custom built bamboo track bike, marking the first time the Brooklyn round of the race has been won by a foreigner. The inaugural separate women’s race was won by Californian Jo Celso in some of the worst conditions the crit series has ever seen.
RED HOOK CRIT - 2014 from UnbundledUnderground on Vimeo.
Thibaud Lhenry and his custom bamboo track bike
If you happen to be down by the waterfront in Barcelona this Saturday, why not take a spin on your Funked Up Fixie to the Parc Del Forum to check out the action? If you can’t make it you can always download the Red Hook Crit app and follow the action as it happens.
While most people nowadays are content using their fixed gear bikes to cruise around the city taking in the sights, there exists an ever growing population of urban athletes taking their race ready track bikes from the wooden boards of the velodrome to the streets to compete in fixed gear criteriums. A mash-up of bike messenger style alleycat races and traditional road racing criteriums these races are high on adrenaline and low on rules. One gear, no brakes, furious racing all in a compact urban setting that’s an incredible buzz to watch. In this arena bike messengers race wheel to wheel with pro racers to find out who has the skills and speed to come out on top.
The most high profile of these races is the Red Hook Crit, which now boasts a series of races that take place throughout the year in Brooklyn, Milan and Barcelona. What started as an illegal, non-serious birthday race for race director David Trimble in 2008, has morphed into an internationally recognised event. That year, with a few dozen starters, and a bunch of friends spectating, Kacey Manderfield outsprinted the men to take the inaugural title. She went on to win a national track championship and turned professional that same year.
Final sprint from 2008 race
The next year brought more racers and more coverage, and when the New York Times mentions your event as ‘a bike race worthy of James Dean’, you know you’re on to something. The 2009 Red Hook Crit winner, perennial race favourite Neil Bezdek, would go on to be a professional road racer by year’s end. 2010 saw the race move abroad for the first time, hosting a second event in Milan which attracted an international field of racers and over 1,000 spectators. In 2013 the race expanded again to a 4 race format with 2 races in Brooklyn, 1 in Milan and a new race in Barcelona.
This weekend sees the Red Hook Crit in Barcelona for its second year, and the second race of the year. The first round was won by French rider Thibaud Lhenry, aboard a custom built bamboo track bike, marking the first time the Brooklyn round of the race has been won by a foreigner. The inaugural separate women’s race was won by Californian Jo Celso in some of the worst conditions the crit series has ever seen.
RED HOOK CRIT - 2014 from UnbundledUnderground on Vimeo.
Thibaud Lhenry and his custom bamboo track bike
If you happen to be down by the waterfront in Barcelona this Saturday, why not take a spin on your Funked Up Fixie to the Parc Del Forum to check out the action? If you can’t make it you can always download the Red Hook Crit app and follow the action as it happens.
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