bikecentric

SSWC '05

bikecentric


I don't really know what to say. The Single Speed World Championships were a blast. That was a cool as anything weekend. The single speed outlaw/riderx/sailor ripley/dave stoller took care of the driving duties and organised the first nights stay. Around 20 D.C. area cyclists ended up staying in one of the nicest houses I have ever been in, belonging to the most hospitable hosts I have ever met. The cooked, they brought round pillows, they let us swim in their pool.

On Saturday afternoon 9 of us headed out together and pre-rode some of the course. Wow. Its my favourite kind of trail. Beautiful singletrack littered with big rocks, but all rideable as long as you think more about getting over the rocks than how much skin you might lose if you landed on them. And just from the 10 miles so we covered that day (out of the 25 total for the race), I knew the course was going to be too much for some. Of our group that day one guy bailed out about half way through and a couple of times it took many minutes of waiting for us to re-group.

Frankly I was pretty done after that little ride. I couldn't wait to get back to the house and drink a beer by the pool in the gayest swim trunks I could lay my hands on, patterned with cross sections of kiwi fruit..... YUM! Our hosts make us burgers and send us off to the bar in town. This is all where my memory starts to fail. I always forget that D.C. has the worst bar prices in the known universe, so I have to celebrate the discovery of $2.50 beers. We hang around the first bar for a while, I was awed that Gary Fisher and Jacquie Phelan were there. To the uninitiated these were two of the mountain bike pioneers whose enthusiasm and grit shaped the sport. It is perhaps a bit disturbing that Gary looks a bit like a giant lanky yoda with his white goatee and sparse head hair, more disturbing was that Jacquie seemed to wear the same clothes for three days running.

Anyway at some point in the night for some reason we moved to Zeno's to see Angry Jonny and the Killbillies. A three dollar cover and $2.50 60 minute dogfish head made me think I had gone back in time 10 years. The bar was cool. I remember seeing my buddy Zak double fisting beers and doing the drunk, talk far too close to people and spit on them thing. He is bound to suffer. So I move to the furthest point of the bar away from him and six of us or so manage to get a table. I look up and there is a guy behind me who looks real familiar. But there is no way I could know anyone from out here. I have never been here before. An hour goes buy and I see him motion for the check. I am drunk and stupid enough that a light bulb flickers. The signature white shirt, check, Oh it must be someone I met through the 930 club. The guy involved in Tour Vote (http://www.tourvote.com/). "Hey, your that tour vote guy, aren't you" The guy stares at me blankly and I start thinking, I just said something really odd to someone who might or might not be who I think he is. Fortunately it is Liberte and the world just seems a whole lot smaller to me.


We left the bar got McDonalds on the way home, my first golden arched meal in over a year. Good, God it was good. Back out the house and Ricky D demos what is to be his race outfit. A gold skin suit. It might have be the funniest thing I have ever seen. I pass out on the floor and dream of mountain bike pioneers.

Sunday was raceday. I wake up feeling queasy and nervous. The butterflies start instantly. Keep calm , relax. Eat the breakfast our ever thoughtful host supply. An hour before the start time we head to the start point, no biggie, it is where we started riding yesterday. Wrong. we miss a turn, get a bit lost. At one point we see a sign for entering state correctional facility land. The Single Speed Outlaw, known to be scared of such places, does a quick about and gets us heading in the right direction. We start seeing people on bikes and then as we pass a couple speeding along on a sweet ibis tandem. I ask "where is Tussy mountain ?" and with a big grin the couple point straight ahead. We get there with 30 minutes to go. Gotta get everything ready. Ricky umms and ahs over the skinsuit, but the laughter going on around him assure him that riding in 85 degree heat in a gold skinsuit is the right thing to do. The outlaw, calls out and says I am locking the car in five seconds, I start to ride off, "this is nice". Oh yeah, about turn, no helmet...


A short ride up and 400 or more cyclists meet in a car park. Man, I just want to get riding. But we stand around awhile and then we have to put our bikes down and then walk to a further carpark.... This is sounding fishy.... We get our pre-race talk. 5 hour limit, "If it is going to take you longer than that, you are not having fun, stop and have a beer" Then the start. We have to run a loop of around a mile or so to get back to our bikes then we start riding. I hate running. I start out running alongside Ricky D. But JoeP overtakes us. I dont like being overtaken so as we run though a section of rocky singletrack I take a few big risks and run round the outside of a few trees to get ahead. When I get back to my bike it is moved. I guess I left it right in the middle of the race course. It is all tangled up with another bike. But the other bikes owner untangles the mess just as I work out what is going on, and we hit the trail. The first mile or so is a firetrack climb. Gotta get a move on up here as it is singletrack ahead and it is going to be real difficult to pass. On the fireroad I breeze past the outlaw. This is bad, I am going to redline it and explode. So I keep the adrenalin in check a little and ease back. At the end of the fireroad the outlaw blows by and is about three people ahead of me. One more brief glimpse of him and I wont see him till the car park at the end. Through the long section of singletrack and the riders are all bunched up. The technical rocky stuff has people walking and in the way and I just want to motor. Any opportunity to get round. any foot dab from the person in front and I jink by and take a place. But there are people doing the same to me the whole time. I love this section.

The race becomes a blur of pain for me soon after the end of the 10 mile section we had pre-ridden the day before. I had given too much in this section and was left feeling spent. Still I am not the only one and I seem to be ambling by people as often as people blow by me. The course was taking its toll. I have never seen so many dropped waterbottles, punctures or people puking by the side of the trail.

A little bit further on and I hear a voice behind me, "did you get that bike off of ebay? "Err yeah" "Did it come form a guy in Pittsburgh?" "errr yeah". At this point I was expecting you bastard you have my stolen bike. Instead I get to meet Eric, the bikes previous owner, who sold it only to get a sweet looking Independent Fabrications bike. We trade a few words and then places throughout the race. At one of the aid stations I make a quick getaway and leave him behind. Then I get overtaken by a woman in a team Luna outfit. Ahh it is Marla. There is no chance for me to keep up with her, so I just settle in to my own pace. We ride some fireroad climbs that seem never ending, the vistas off to the side remind me of why I am here and distract me from my legs that are on the verge of cramping. This is with a long way left to go and my mind starts telling me to rest and then stops remembering stuff in the right order. A little later up towards the end of the course I see a citybikes jersey. I seem to follow it for miles. I pace myslef by it trying to keep the distance even or, I hope, slowly shrinking. After following for two miles the guy takes a rest and I get to catch him. It is one of Rickys friends whose name I can't quite remember or if I can I don't think I can spell it. He gets back on the bike and we trade places for a little while. I get ahead of him and then Eric catches me up. As the citybikes rider comes to overtake us he locks bars with Eric and the two almost go down. If I had any strength I would sprint off at this point. I don't. So the citybikes rider gets by and my legs start to cramp real bad. If I stand my one muscle cramps if I sit and pedal a different muscle. So I am moving up and down the whole time. Then Joe P goes by us. If I didn't have the cramp I might have made more of an effort to stay with him. But I decide it is better just to try and finish. Fortunately Eric gives me some goo and distracts me with stories about my bike. He paces me beautifully up the climb and right near the top we go by the citybikes rider again. I offer to let Eric go first down the last downhill. He then reminds me that I watched him crash on the previous downhill and brake the hydraulic line to his front brake. I go first and give it all I got. I am going to try and catch Joe P. I see a bit of his jersey in the distance. I get excited. I pass someone thinking for a moment it might be him, then I plant my front wheel on a rock and come to a complete stop. I put my leg down and it just cramps completely. Shit! I could stop and massage it or I can try catch Joe. Right lets go.... I throw myself down the rest of the course. I guess in the end Joe P finished a minute ahead of me. Apparently the outlaw finished at 1.30pm About 30 minutes ahead of me. I thought it would have been more. Then all my cycling buddies started rolling in. I can't believe I get home before Ricky, then he did have that skinsuit.....

But for the strong riders the fun wasn't over. The Single Speed World Champion is decided not by who finishes first, but by a Go Kart race. The top twenty men along with 10 random riders duke it out in the Karts. A dude with a taxi driver haircut wins, and has to call his wife to see if he is allowed to get the victory tattoo, how punk is that? Marla wins the female race... But the highlite of this part was the streaker. He wore a red G-string, unfortunately it was not working too well so he kept falling out of it as he was running across the race track. Nice!

Then I drank beer.


I am twice as sore today, (Tuesday than I was yesterday) I cannot wait for tomorrow or the SM100 in 11 days time.

posted by markie @ 8:22 AM