By Daniel McMahon

I remember standing in a light mist on a chilly night back some years ago, somewhere on a street corner in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. I’d gotten word from a teammate that a guy named Dave Trimble was organizing a little nighttime bike race. It was the second edition of the Red Hook Crit, I learned later.

With my then new girlfriend, I headed out sometime around 10 to see what the chatter was all about, despite the weather. Being the romantic type, and wanting to impress on one of our early dates, I stopped in a bodega for chips and a couple cans of beer. After a short walk along some old cobblestoned streets, we found ourselves among a small handful of spectators watching an even smaller pack of racers huddled together at a makeshift start line.

That was 2009, and the rest is some pretty cool history.

Trimble has been really impressive in growing his Red Hook Crit into a major event that today is a four-race series complete with big-name sponsors, world-class competitors, and lots of style. It’s exciting to see all the new stuff he keeps bringing to his race. Digital tech. A slick iPhone app. Beautiful design. Respect from everyone. It just gets better each year.

If you’re hanging around the New York City area this weekend, be sure to check out the race.

And if you want to learn more about the RHC, check out this short history I wrote for VeloNews.

Kudos to Dave for following his dream and all his hard work. It’s totally paid off. He’s got one of the coolest races in the country, and Europe. Who knows where he’ll be taking his crit to next.

P.S. I’m not really that unromantic. We ended up having a proper dinner over candlelight. There’s good history there too.