DC Old Pueblo Beer Crit

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24 Hours in the Old Pueblo went down last week, as usual it was way more fun than should be legal. And I’m sure some of it wasn’t. Dirty will have an unabridged edition of the weekend to the best of our recollection in the coming days, but just to wet your whistle I’ll give you a quick slideshow of Friday night’s opening ceremony. The Beer Crit.

We thought it would be fun to host a little desert soiree in advance of the big show on Saturday. So I called up a good friend who happens to work for Oskar Blues to see if they wanted to help throw a party. The words “fuck yeah we do” were never spoken so quickly. Because they’re cool like that.

They dropped us a kegs worth of their finest brews, and I marked out a 2 mile loop that would start and finish at the famed Whiskey Tree. Three laps and three beers for the win. Flyers were distributed around camp and come sunset a crowd began to gather.

Of the 50+ that showed, about 15 came ready to race. Six miles and three beers may not seem like much, but rumor had it that some were doping beforehand.

With the crit in full swing the growing crowd took to the trail and began to support those out on their pre-race laps. Armed with cowbells, a gong, and an over-sized flask of whiskey we set out to lift some spirits. A vast majority stopped to join the party. But a steeled few took no joy in being heckled for passing on the beer hand ups. Who knew 12oz could bruise an ego?

In the end a clear champion emerged and Andrew from Portland took the win by a mile, promptly tearing into his winnings (a bottle of George Dickell).

As the dust settled, the party rolled on until all the beer and daylight were gone.

Maybe next year we’ll make it a real party with a beer slide and strippers.

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