single speed world championships
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Race: Single Speed World Championships
Race Date: 08/24/2008
Race Cat: Open
Results: 13th out of field of 400
Teammates: Duncan (20's), Chris B (20's), Gabe (43), Glenn(20's), (Shane in the Feed zone)
Report by: Roger
So this is why I like hanging with the mountain bike crowd. Basically about 400 knuckleheads dressed up in dresses, capes, speedos, Boy Scout Uniforms, Afro wigs, tidy whities. All ripping redline; around a gnarly world cup course, railing nasty corners and whipping rear triangles around tight twisty single track. The purest form of nirvana. Did I mention Beer ?
This race filled up in minutes on New Years Day with entrants from around the world. I didn't get in but Shane did and after he had his nasty crash two weeks ago he gave me the call up . I had Fritz at NORCAL BIKE convert my EPIC into a single speed and lucky we went with a 32 front 18 rear because that helped me to get away from the crowd early before it turned into a literal parade of freaks wallowing in a dust bomb. Did I mention Black Boogers ?
Team mates Duncan, Chris, and Glenn all put on costumes and I honestly didn't recognize Glenn with his big hair wig and lycra denim tights. The start saw Chris leading the pack on a quarter mile run around a horse corral to our bikes . I was at my limit trying to stay with Glenn about 10 back and couldn't help laughing to myself about the silliness of running with all these costumed up single speeders.
Once on the first climb I was able to stay in the top ten just behind the likes of Barry Wicks ( yellow speedo and cape), Carl Dekker ( black Borat suit and Cape), Travis Brown and make it up the first hike a bike section with a gap on the charging field. I held it out there like that for the two laps just charged by the crowd screaming my name , throwing beer on me, and heckling me until the last lap when an elephant jumped on board. Some how I made it up the last climb and rode down the last bit of technical single track like a drunkard.
During the race there was an Easter Egg hunt with plastic eggs containing raffle numbers. The eggs were hidden along the course somewhat conspicuously. I ended up picking a winner that got me a very sweet set of CHRIS KING single speed hubs. If you go to the web site ( sswc08) you will find that there were literally hundreds of sponsors who kicked in for the raffle. Can you say SWAG ?
I don't think we will ever see results for this one. All that matters is who gets the tattoo for winning (Carl Dekker and Rachel Lloyd) and who got last ( patient of mine ,Steve Paschoal). We all got sweet finishing crank shaped bottle openers with our finish placing on it. NORCAL will be talking about this one for a long time.
Thanks for reading.
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