By Dane Grant
Qualification Saturday:
Five Feats of Strength were scattered into a tour of SF to cut the 250 entrants down to a manageable 150. Small groups of 10 were formed at random with designated ride leaders in charge of the competitors and sent off in waves every 10 minutes. Cisco and I were volunteered to be ride leaders (surprise!) and we lead around our group that included four riders who either are pros or are former pros (Mary McConneloug, Don Myrah (current MTB National Champ), Tim Cannard and Christina Begy) and an elite level rider from Rock Lobster named Alex. There was also a girl who was recovering from a knee injury (note: Single Speeding may not be the best knee rehab available). Three rides did not show up. We also had a couple along for the ride who had actually ridden the course, so we would not get off course.
First Feat of Strength:
Race to the top of California Street, west bound. There were no rules, we disregard the law, hang onto cable cars, whatever it takes. First Block was not very steep and there was a red light with tons off traffic, so we all stopped and waited. Then Alex jumped through a small gap in front of a bus and held opened up a big gap. Second hill was steeper, 3rd and fourth were STEEP! I ran block #3 because I didn’t know if I could make it to the top and remounted for the last hill. “Death wish” Alex won, then Tim, then Myrah. I came in just behind Mary Mc who was slowing down to a crawl.
Second Feat:
Run 50 yards to your bike, put on your front wheel, hook up brake and run or ride over mulch and grass another 50 yards. I came in third for this one thanks to my wheel/brake install going surprisingly well. I can say I beat Don Myrah at something!
3rd: Race three uphill blocks on your bike to the bottom of Lyon Street steps, shoulder your bike and run the two blocks of steep steps. These steps are famous and I can see why, gnarly. I fell into 5th place and again was gaining on Mary but couldn’t close, strong with the force is this one! Pros are ruling.
4th: Dollar Grab: I practiced this on my bike before the race and was so ready, then I found out we had to do it on foot, game changer! I had a bad course strategy and left my gloves on. Two times I looked in my hand and there was no dollar there after a grab and half way to the next beer bottle. D'oh! A costly 6th place on this stage.
Riding through Sea Cliff, knee recovery girl was apparently in tears climbing up to the Palace of Legion of Honor and pulled out.
5th: Beach run. Yeah I can do beach runs, Ocean beach is my turf. They had us stand in calf deep 53 degree water (shoes optional, I chose barefoot) with our shouldered bikes, then run all the way across the beach (fairly far!) and then up a sand dune. I had a good start, but Christian Begy was showing her Colorado high country running form and was leading. Tim Cannard passed us both by the bottom of the sand dune and I was neck and neck with Don M. We finished in that order and they gave me the tie with Don for third. Another victory over Mary who tried to ride the wet part of the sand.
After the last feat, we pedaled back to Mojo Cycles through Golden Gate Park and turned in our score cards.
This qualification ride was super fun and we all bonded pretty well under the banner: Lucky Group 13.
Points were awarded for your finishing place in the feats of strength (1 point for 1st, 2 for second etc.) and the lowest point totals had the best shot at making the Sunday World Champ race. If you ended up in a strong group, you had a very hard time making the qualification. I figured you needed an average feat score of 4 to get in and I had 4.4! So I figured I was right on the edge of qualification.
Turns out I didn’t make it (Damn group of pros!) and had to try to get in with the sixth feat at the part Saturday night. I figured this would be drinking games, but I was way off: Pixy Cross! They made a tiny taped off CX course in the Sports Basement Parking lot and had us compete on tinny bikes (one step up from strider bikes, I mean freaking tinny!). I was in heat three and got a back row start (four riders per heat, very little passing opportunity). I had worked my way from last to second when others crashed, but my forward progress was undone by a band of plastic food wrap held across the course after the downhill. It stopped you dead and I failed to break it fast enough and the people behind must have gone under it and got past. Game over, no qualification.
Then along comes my guardian angel (Dennis from our team) and said Roaring Mouse has a couple of entries to the Championship race since they are a sponsor, and boom, I’m back in! I didn’t feel too bad getting in via the back door because my qualification group was so stacked and some people had very few people show up in their groups (as little as four in one case guaranteeing qualification for all!) making it much more easy.
Sunday:
World Champ race, 2:00. Sheepishly accept my entry to the main event, hope to not embarrass myself and sponser. Weather report said “Showers in the morning then clearing in the afternoon”. Well, I don’t call steady rain from 7:00 to mid-day “showers”, but it was sure wet. I heard the course was sloppy and getting worse. During my warm up on the polo fields track with team mates TIMEEEY and Mike, I was not feeling very warm in the rain and was glad my costume of choice was a wetsuit! It had short arms and legs so I would not over heat, but it was looking like that was not going to be a problem. The rain also undid the hair spray keeping the wig hair out of my eyes, so I was battling the shaggy dog effect on my vision. Right during staging for the main race, the sun burst out and the rain stopped, incredible timing, but too late for my hairspray! The video copter buzzed the cheering racers and the mood was high.
Paule (race director/dictator) started us down in a meadow of grass before the “run up from hell” with our bike laid down on the street above the run up. Someone said go (Paule?!) and we all took off. The muddy, slippery run up was not very wide, so you can imagine the crush to get through to find your bike. I followed a couple people up a side path and made reasonable time to the bikes. It was a good day to have a day-glow green bike and I could see it from a mile away. Once on, it was still a traffic jam though with many riders and still some bikes still on the ground. We finally started rolling and soon experienced mud…
Deep, gooey, sticky mud with riders going everywhere, pretty crazy. We then looped back in front of the finish line and our laps began. Right off the first turn we met the “log barriers from hell” (Note “from hell” theme here). Three waist high, big ass logs in a row on an up hill. how do you approach that? Not on my skill practice list. Once over those, I begin to settle into a more of a rhythm. Many riders are flailing in the deeper mud sections and I found I could take things at medium speed and maintain momentum and make a lot of sections that others couldn’t. I started the general trend of passing people and only a few riders got by and stayed in front of me. I came across Timmy who was have been having sand/speedo chafing problems and encouraged him to grab my wheel. Then I came up on Mike who’s pink bunny “Onesie” PJ’s were causing core melt down as well as no traction on the run ups. I started overheating too without the cooling rain and pulled my wetsuit down around my waist while riding (another skill not on my practice list!) leaving only my Lycra rash guard on top, much cooler. I was liking my costume choice at this point!
The cheering in certain sections on the course was amazing, I’ve never experienced anything like that in my racing days. The biggest noise was at the water tough where you had to run through knee deep water about 20 feet then climb out the other side. There were some pauses for beer drinking in the water for some, but I wasn’t up for that, so just slogged on through. Many people were calling my name out, but the crowds were so big I couldn’t even begin to see who was cheering, thanks every one! Another unusual obstacle was a tunnel made of scaffolding over a mud bog that you had to get very low on your bike to avoid getting smacked in the head. Two people did hit their head including Andrew Yee from CX magazine who had a nice gash on his nose and overall win contender Aaron Bradford.
I made it through all the obstacles without incident but managed a few “oh shit” moments when I slid out from my line and almost hit a tree, and once when my wheels slowly slipped out from under me and I fell onto my hip in the soft mud in slow motion, pretty funny.
I finished the race without any other drama other than having about five of the leaders pass me in the last lap. Pretty amazing to see how fast these guys power through the muck.
Mary Mc ended up getting 3rd place in the women’s championship race, so I don’t feel too bad losing out to her on California Street and Lyon St. Stairs, go Lucky 13!
Then came course teardown till dark, tired yet?
This was one fun weekend, and I’m definitely glad I coughed up the money for the el-cheapo single speed conversion and wig!
Thanks to Paule, Julie, Dennis, Murph, Emily and Lauren Fletcher who worked their tails off.
