Bada-Bada-Bop-Bop-Bop-Ba-Bah!*

edited by Jeff, photo courtesy of Big Ed. *didn’t get it?

First of many thanks need to be sent out. Cyclehawk. Squid. Marcus. John Campo. MacLean. Ceya. Big Ed. Billy. Dan. Mikey. And Candles (thanks for covering me).

Everyone claimed Kissena was “ol’ bumpy” for a reason. That’s no lie. The track has more rolling hills than bus stop blacktop. BUT, that’s not to say it was a bad thing. It was just, well, character. Call it what you will, it certainly didn’t stop any of us from having fun.

We rolled in early just to ensure we knew what we were dealing with. It was clear who the track geeks were when we got there a couple hours before the registration started and rolled around with some of the Saturday regulars. The list of races started with match sprints, 20 lap scratch, win-n-out, sprint semis, exhibition miss-n-out and sprint finals. Al talks a big game with his legs but will always come up with a nice race report to summarize the action…

“In the first round of match sprints (groups of 4), I think I went with 2 laps to go, Chazz sat on my wheel. I razored him. I went faster and faster and he had my wheel the whole time but wasn’t able to come around at the end.

The scratch race was AWESOME. Jeff attacked like a lap in. This fast road race dude from NYC, Dan, was really driving the pace to catch him. As soon as he caught Jeff, I attacked. Dan bridged up after a lap or two and we opened a decent gap. I look back and there’s my friend Chazz from SF. Who’s sucking his wheel? Jeff. I ease up a little so they can join up. The four of us trade pulls for a couple laps. I attacked with maybe 8 laps to go (of 20). Dan comes with, but he pulls up when I pull up. I sit up and come back to Jeff and Chazz. We trade some more pulls. I jump with 3 to go. Dan jumps and is chasing. He slowly closes the gap. Two to go. I head to the rails at full speed and jump out of turn 2. I get the bell with about 10 meters on Dan. I’m already going full speed. Try to hold it and Dan falls back. I take first. It looks like Jeff came around Dan at the end, but Dan held on for 2nd, Jeff 3rd.

We did a win-n-out. John Campo paced it on his bike like a keirin for 3 laps (maybe so we didn’t have 25 people of varying experience levels sprinting together). No one wanted his wheel at the start. They were all sitting like 20 feet back from it. So I took it. On the bell lap, I jumped as soon as he pulled off and I guess whoever was on my wheel fell back and no one was able to come up to me or they decided to go for 2nd or something.

We took the top 2 spots on both podiums. It was (Jeff and me) in the sprint finals. I kiloed Hugo in the (semi-final) match sprint. Took off HARD in the first lap. Don’t think he was expecting that. He said he was previously 11-0 in match sprints.

Jeff won the sprint finals, though. Perhaps he can tell that story.”

Molly and Christina also found their way to the match sprint final. Molly took top spot in every race while Christina never finished below 3rd. The big C-Peck also got 5th in the exhibition Miss-N-Out. Last of the ladies to be pulled. (Guess who won THAT damn race too…)

Big surprise announcement to the victors. No spoils for them. The tickets to Tokyo were always on the table but then Squid lets everyone know that Fuji bikes is throwing in a bike for each of the two champs! They will also have the chance to win some cash if they perform well at Worlds! Bravo to everyone. Don’t forget to pay your respects: Cyclehawk Courier, New Belgium Brewery, Blue Cycles, Pabst Blue Ribbon, Yojimbo’s Garage, LAKE cycling, Continental Tires, Sun Ringle, Chrome, Panaracer, COG magazine.

 TOKYO!!!!