April 20th, 2019
This Saturday (4/20) the Mission Crit makes it's triumphant return to the neighborhood we’re so lucky to call home. If you've never been before, or are asking yourself what exactly a crit race is, allow us to quote the Mission Crit website...
“Mission Crit is an unsanctioned bicycle criterium held on a short, technical circuit in the Mission District of San Francisco. It is the first race of its kind to win approval from the City of San Francisco. The 40-minute race pits elite road racers, track racers, and bicycle messengers against each other on fixed-gear track bicycles in a fast-paced, high-adrenaline competition.”
Quite simply, it’s our personal favorite neighborhood event of the year, and we’d love it if you came out to show some support alongside the Mission Bicycle staff.
Additionally, with two of our staffers (Nick and JP) racing the event, and the rest of our crew volunteering as event staff for the day, we’ll officially be closing the shop at 766 Valencia for the day of April 20th and resuming the normal store hours the following day.
What to expect:
With Mission Crit now in it’s 6th incarnation, things are shaping up to be even more crowd pleasing than ever before.
One super positive and major change to the format of this years event is the deviation from the tradition of putting the men’s main race as the headlining event and instead placing the women’s race center stage to close out an epic night of high-octane bike battling.
A crowd of around 5,000 is expected to turn out again for this year's race, with over 250 racers from as close as the Mission, and as far away as Europe, the Middle East, and Australia.
If you wanna come out and pre-game the day before, the official kick off party is being hosted at the Pas Normal Studios pop up in Hayes Valley on April 19 from 6pm-10pm.
If you’ll be coming through for the main event, the festivities will officially begin the next day on April 20th, with the following events going down:
Saturday, April 20
- Noon - 2pm - Rider Check-in
- 2:20 - 5:40 PM - Qualifiers
- 5:50 PM - Men's B Race
- 6:25 PM - JUMP Bike Course Ride & Production Break
- 7:00 PM - Cargo Bike Race presented by BicycleLaw.com
- 7:30 PM - Men's Final
- 8:30 PM - Women's Final presented by Machines for Freedom and ThirdLove
- 9:20 PM - Podiums
- Post Podiums- Party at Thee Parkside till the wheels fall off
After all that, we’ll be headed to the after party, organized by the SFBMA, and once again held at Thee Parkside on 17th Street. Live music, food, and all kinds of refreshments will be going on there from the end of the race until the bar closes at 2:00am. The night's gonna be a doozy from beginning to end, so bring your helmets!