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Kemmerer and DeWald post top results at the DCCX ’cross race in Washington, D.C.

Published: Oct. 26, 2009

Arley Kemmerer of Hub Racing and Ryan DeWald of Battley Harley-Davidson
won the elite races in the third annual DCCX cyclocross race in
Washington, D.C., this weekend.

The race, which is run by the DCMTB biking team with Family Bike Shop as the title sponsor, had a record 533 racers on a course carved into the landscape of the seldom seen Armed Forces Retirement Home.

In the women's race sponsored by Whole Foods Market, Kemmerer powered up the opening blacktop climb to take the head of a lead group, and then pulled away from her chasers Lenore Pipes and Julie Kuliecza at the tricky uphill dismount on the first lap for a convincing win.

"I dropped them by the barriers, and put down the hammer," Kemmerer said. "I didn’t let up after that."

To be fair to the her competitors, Kemmerer knew the twists and turns of the DCCX course well after leading a clinic for novice women riders the afternoon before -- in a rainstorm -- on the tricks of remounts, off cambers and starts. At least for this race, none of her pupils could best her effort.

DeWald was part of a group of three, including 18-year-old phenom Joseph
Dombrowski, which established a gap over the rest of the elite men's field early on.

With three laps to go he powered up that same blacktop climb, riding away from both Dombrowski, who raced cross with the national team in Belgium last winter, and Greg Wittwer. He then rode solo to the finish, putting on a show for the crowd with a wheelie after the finish.

"DeWald is so strong on the road, it's hard to even sit on his wheel," Dombrowski said. "He started ramping it up; the gap got big and then it just exploded."

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