Well tonight a kindly letter from a blog reader has me inspired, and in order to make sure that I follow through with the majority of these plans I'm going to put them out there and give you a heads up.
Here is the agenda for the Spring and early Summer:
4 track bike only alleycat races
Kind of bringing back the Spring Classics but limiting it to fixed gears only (brakes are a-ok). I was inspired by all the dudes still into track bikes that I encountered out in Los Angeles, and I've been bumming for a while about how most of the heavy dudes in the alleycats are now running gears. There was a time when that was considered a total puss move and was grounds for ridicule.
The issue arises when one person does it. I don't know about you, but I hate feeling like someone has an "unfair" (read mechanical) advantage over me. I race hard, and like to win and don't like being at a disadvantage straight out of the gate.
If we're all riding fixed, it's as level a playing ground as you can get.
I'd also like each race to be in a different style:
Race 1: known course mass start drag
I'm thinking Portland to Lake, Lake to River Road, River Road to Franklin, To University, end at Grumpy's DT
Race 2: Crit
I'm planning on dropping match sprints from this year's All-City Championship as no has been able to offer a serious threat to Trevor, pretty much ever. Dude kills you and that makes the sprints anti-climactic. The Red Hook Crit hype has made me want to bring this idea home to MPLS and I need to do a run before the ACC's to work out the kinks
Race 3: Trad Alleycat
Race 4: Time Trial
(anybody remember the Spring Classic TT course? holler at me)
4 Bandit Cross Races
We already had the one at Hidden Beach, all we need to do now is the dog park, Hobo, and Low-Road-Sibley to complete the spring editions.
Thinking about doing some on weekdays, to avoid the pitfalls of taking up a valuable weekend day. Any opinions on this? Would you be stoked for week day Bandit?
Regular Weeknight rides:
I'll be posting up some recurring rides, likely it'll be called something along the lines of Tuesday Night Bustle or some clever shit. Again, this is a harkening to want to bring back a little track bike steez. Ever since the demise of Tricks and Drinks I haven't had a regular week night event to force my tired ass out of the house and onto the bike during the week. Fastish ride around town with a finish at a bar.
I also want to do at least one planned weeknight ride of Low Road to Sibley while blasting black metal in the forest.
Stay Tuned for Fruition.
P.S.
I plan on posting a lot of the race stuff on the Bike Jerks Facebook page so fan that thing if you want stay up to date via the facebook
6 comments:
Awesome ideas about the fixed gear alleycat and the fixed crit. Please, please bring a fixed gear crit on a relatively safe and somewhat closed course to MPLS. But, don't drop the match sprints. If you put out the call for some contenders to the Robeast's crown I'm sure they will come. I can think of a few individuals that may blow the doors off and turn the tides. A lot of us dedicated fixed riders in MPLS have never lined up for the AC match sprints.
ay we should do a powderhown bandit cross! that would be dope!
Moving to MPLS in a month and am stoked by the notion of having cx well before September! Count me in weekend or weekday.
Yeah fixed alleycat! I'm so tired of riding acc and stuper fixed, only to be racing against gears...
Also weekday races? FUCKYEAH! I always miss out on weekend races because I work 8-7 (Monday/Friday? Or whatever...)
Speaking of group rides, the Hub bike co-op is hosting a couple rides this year - from women's only road rides on Monday and co-ed gravel ride on Wednesdays at 6 and a co-ed paved ride on Thursdays at 6. All of which are a blast.
"I've been bumming for a while about how most of the heavy dudes in the alleycats are now running gears" -- AGREE!
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