On the first few levels of the Crystal Gateway North underground parking garage in the Crystal City neighborhood of Arlington, Virginia, office workers can be seen heading to their cars braced for rush-hour traffic. But travel deeper within the garage every Wednesday evening in March, and music and voices audibly echo off the concrete walls. The squeals of bike tires and brakes can be heard as someone booms: “Racers to the start!”

On the lowest parking levels is Crystal City Wednesday Night Spins—an underground race series catering to all flavors of the DC cycling scene. Bike messengers, daily commuters, elite racers, first-timers of all genders and ages flock to the crit four to five times a year.

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On the half-mile course—which spans two levels of the garage—are spandex-clad racers mixed in with cyclists kitted up in t-shirts and work clothes: They route through a minefield of more than a dozen 90-degree and 180-degree turns, and zig-zag through concrete columns. Top racers hitting speeds of more than 25mph, and can make about 250 turns per 30-minute race.

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All are here to carve corners, test their skills, and experience the rare thrill of parking-garage racing.

“You go down there and the scene is unreal,” says Justin Shaw, who races with his daughter Lizzy. “It’s like Fight Club for bikes.”

Why We Show Up

Bruce Buckley

Garage racing started in Crystal City five years ago with a few one-off races. Three years ago, the local business bureau decided to expand it to a race series that offered opportunities for both serious competitors and casual riders.

Unlike most races, Wednesday Night Spins don’t enforce a categorized system based on experience level. There’s a beginner race and an open race, but participation is self-selected—no one checks race licenses here. There’s also a women’s race that is open to all abilities.

The scene also draws in—and seriously caters to—spectators. In addition to the beer garden, there’s a pie vendor every week and food truck-style grilled cheese sandwiches on offer.

Kristy Heidenberger (left), a regular spectator at Wednesday Night Spins, brought her friend Anne (right) to the Anything Goes finale. "She loved it," she recalls. "She wished she had gone to all of them." Bruce Buckley

That’s part of the draw for Kristy Heidenberger of Washington, DC, who prefers to spectating to pinning on a race number. The diverse crowd and the overall vibe are what really bring her back every week.

“It’s just fun to watch and cheer people on,” she explains. “At any sporting event, it’s fun to cheer for your team, but in this case you’re just cheering for everyone.”

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Each evening is worth a spectator’s time, but it’s the series finale that’s an absolutely can’t-miss event.

The series caps off with a succession of increasingly wild races. That final Wednesday of March offers everything from a fixed-gear race; to the very “inside-the-Beltway” Federal Workers vs. Federal Contractors team relay; to the most anticipated event of the evening: an Anything Goes race. Cargo bikes, tandems (Shaw and his daughter rode one), recumbents, unicycles, rented Capital Bikeshare bikes, and even Razr scooters rolled up to the start for a timed race you’ll find nowhere else, above or below ground.

Girrard Ford rides a pint-sized pennyfarthing during the Anything Goes heat. Bruce Buckley

At this year’s Anything Goes race, Crystal City resident Girrard Ford turned ten laps on his new mini penny-farthing, which features a 28-inch wheel on the front and a 16-inch wheel in the rear. “I was on Craigslist looking for my stolen bike and I saw that,” he recalls. “I picked it up on Sunday, built it on Monday, practiced outside my house on Tuesday and raced it on Wednesday.”

You can do things on a ride that you can't in real life:

Andres Solas, who works as a courier, borrowed a cargo bike from his boss and rode from Columbia Heights in D.C. to the race with his girlfriend as a passenger. Minutes before the start, his friend Alan Parker asked if he could jump on the front. “We were drinking and hanging out. I figured, why not?” Solas says.

As the race went off, the 6-foot-10 Parker lay prone off the front of the bike, leaning in and out of turns. “He was pretty much controlling the bike,” Solas says. “I was just pushing. We finished 27th out of 50. We did great considering that I had to push a 200-pound human being around for 15 laps.”

Andres Solas and Alan Parker (front) whoop it up during the Anything Goes heat. Bruce Buckley

It’s stuff like this that tempers the ‘race’ vibe.

“This is nothing like a standard road race scene, which is why I’m here,” says Homer Ailstock, a Cat 4 road racer from Virginia who raced Crystal City on a unicycle. “I knew it would be super low pressure and tons of fun. That’s exactly what it is. Not to say that road racing isn’t fun, but it’s very high pressure and the stakes are much higher.”

“It feels more like an alley cat than a crit,” adds Craig Etheridge, two-time World Cycle Messenger World Champion. “You have to be okay with it being a little bit renegade. Realistically, it’s as dangerous as you make it.”

Making Racing Fun—And Accessible

Bruce Buckley

As unconventional as the series sounds, many choose WNS as their first mass-start race. “I’m not a racer—I bike to go places,” says Josephine Liu of Alexandria, Virginia, who did her first race at WNS this year. “Riding around in circles and trying to go fast is not really my thing, but this was a lot of fun. Chaotic, but fun.”

One of the big successes of this year’s series was growth in women’s racing; WNS hosted a sold-out full field on International Women’s Day.

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Armed forces members and veterans wear their flair in Crystal City race heats, which include a Feds Vs. Contractors race on the final Wednesday of the series. Bruce Buckley

“The women in the DC area rose to the occasion and showed up in big numbers this year,” says Bill Schieken, owner and operator of CXHairs, which runs and promotes the series. “That, by far, was the highlight of the series for me—seeing so many women who want to race and compete.”

Evelyn Murcia first competed in WNS last year as a member of the Phoenix Bikes youth team. By the end of the year, she had competed in more than a dozen races. “I knew about the Tour de France, but I didn’t know girls could race,” she says. “I was really timid at first, but it was fun. I like how informal it is here. You can just hang out or give it your all, if you want.”

Evelyn Murcia showed up to ride hard and have fun. Bruce Buckley

It Takes a City

Bruce Buckley

Despite its underground feel, the series is completely above board. The driving force behind WNS is the Crystal City Business Improvement District (CCBID) —an organization whose mission is to promote the neighborhood’s business, retail and residential offerings. WNS is one of dozens of events that CCBID hosts annually to draw people to the neighborhood. As part of the event, CCBID secures all required permits and provides insurance.

Arlington firefighters keep things safe and enjoy being spectators. Bruce Buckley

“When we tell people that we host a bicycle race in a parking garage every Wednesday night in March, they look at us with a mix of consternation and shock,” says Angela Fox, president and CEO of Crystal City BID. “Then they get excited—and that’s exactly the point.”

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“We want the best of both worlds,” says Schieken. “People can come here, line up for a race, get in a good workout and compete for a series, if they want. At the same time, we have people who are out here for fun. We like to look at it as a happy hour with races going on.”

Crossing the finish line is emotional, no matter how serious the event. Bruce Buckley

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