Not that he wants to brag about it, but TBD‘s Editor Erik Wemple accomplished a major feat over the weekend when on Sunday he completed the Capitol Criterium celebrity race – on a girl’s bike with a basket and training wheels. (The picture above gives you an idea; the video below gives you the real thing.)

And man, did he look masculine.

When I asked him about it, he explained over e-mail, “I used the bike ’cause my daughter had just outgrown it and I’d always wanted to take it for a spin. Plus, the race was grading people on “enthusiasm” and “spirit,” so I thought that the little bike would help me in that area. Also, I just didn’t see the point of riding my adult bike for just a few blocks.”

Finally, was the girl’s bike easy to ride? “It was not, alas, terribly easy to ride,” he said. “I was positioned like a jacknife as I made my way around the course, the result being a fair amount of quad and lower-back soreness.”