I ran into Chad Rathbone, bike messenger and mountain biker extraordinaire, the other day at Crossroads Coffee and Ice Cream. He was telling me about a somewhat underground, somewhat aboveboard mountain bike race — the Richmond Baja 100 — he’s organizing to “help pay a couple months’ rent.”

I meant to look up the website he told me about, but I forgot. Then a friend sent me a link to the site randomly the next day. I guess word is getting out. This has the potential to be very cool. It sounds like it could be a ride or a race and riders/racers can do as much of it as they like. Start/finish is at Crossroads with a $40 fee for catered barbecue and beer.

From the site: The RB100 course consists of a 50 mile on/off-road loop around Richmond that riders will complete twice. Crossroads Coffee & Ice Cream will be the main headquarters for the RB100. The course route will be posted and described on our website before the race. The course will be live! The RB100 will have many secret checkpoints along the course to keep the racers honest.