The ride
At 1:15pm 31 cyclists ran to their bikes, mounted up, and bombed down Flagstaff Hill. From the top, Randy, Susie and I watched Ted sprint down the hill to an early lead. He held it through the first, second and third checkpoints, getting to Sandcastle only minutes after Ben (checkpoint volunteer) arrived.
(Photos by from Jeff from Urban Velo)
(Photos by from Jeff from Urban Velo)
On the way to the Mt. Troy & Hoffman checkpoint I SAG’ed Casey, who had lost her navigator. We drove through the downtown checkpoint staffed by Emily & Randy. We would later find out that Ted had been first through this checkpoint also, followed by Andy and Nathan.
Ted beat us to the Mt. Troy checkpoint, descending as we were climbing. 5-10 minute later Andy and Nathan rode through as a pair. The Tressler brothers were next, followed by Samson & Jon. I had hoped that the variety of climbs, descents & flats would allow for bridging, but this ordering held out until the end.
Casey kept working the checkpoint while I rode to the oval. I almost died halfway down Hoffman because I forgot to flip down the release lever on my brake after mounting my wheels.
Erin & Marc texted to let me know that Ted had gone through the Stanton Heights checkpoint; more specifically a cyclist who refused to give his number rode through. Turns out there was confusion: they thought he was a roadie, he thought they were yuppies. It happens. There was also some confusion getting Iris to her checkpoint in Wilkinsburg, but after asking an old man for directions she beat Ted to her stop.
(Photos by from Jeff from Urban Velo)
I got to the oval around 2:45pm and talked with Dave, who had ridden down for the after-party.
Around 3pm we saw someone enter the track, but it was Emily and Randy coming from their checkpoint to watch the end.
At 3:15 Ted rolled into the far end of the track alone and rode his laps, raising his hands in a victory salute as he crossed the line. He was followed by Andy and Nathan (Andy won in a not-very-close sprint) and Mark and Mike Tressler (Mark won in the best sprint of the day). It was a strong end to a good ride by the Tressler brothers who would have been competition for Ted were in not for a flat involving a broken valve stem.
Ted wins!
Rob–having come down the trail from Highland Park–made a surprise entrance from behind the bleachers. He was forthcoming about skipping the final checkpoint.
Rob shows up on the MTB
Next to arrive were Jon Lomax and Samson. Both clearly tired, they soft-pedaled their way around the track and Jon eventually taking 7th overall and first fixed. 5 minutes later Dan showed up and took 2nd placed fix.
Jon gets first fixed
Dan shows up
The rest of the field showed up over the next hour and a half. Arrivals of note: Erok whose knees were bothering him and technically has not finished since he refused to do his last lap; Mark Rawlings who is recently back from a broken wrist; Trisha as first female; Loren Sloan who rode with tendinitis; and Erin & Marc and Casey who showed up with cars full of food.
Given the length of the ride, there were surprisingly only 4 DNF’s: Casey (lost), Gillian (flat), Cody (just riding around and taking pictures with Jeff) and Eric (unknown).
The party
Thanks to Allegro Hearth Bakery, Whole Foods and the cheap prices at KML & the guy who sells fruit across the street from KML in the strip we had a feast (and thanks to unprotected dumpsters we also had Shearer’s chips and Fudgie-Wudgie chocolate).
Chillin’ at the party
No beer was provided (since I didn’t want to be busted for giving everyone beer) but luckily we had Stick & Linda. Stick came through with two 30-packs of Pabst thanks to bitchin’ leg muscles & a Griz bag. Linda was buying wine and came back with two more 30 packs. But it turns out that 30 people don’t actually need 120 beers, so we saved two 30’s for Casey’s birthday (update coming soon).
(Photos by from Jeff from Urban Velo)
Stick didn’t race but rode his single speed mountain bike and Chris entertained us by doing some tricks.
Special thanks also goes to Casey, Mark Rawlings and Lizzie for making tons of PB&J and some awesome banana bread.
The awards
Once everyone showed up we got to the exciting part: handing out money. As overall winner, Ted claimed his cobble and gave it a big smoochie. He also got a $100 which promptly went to buy beer (and later by Erok dinner. And Erok didn’t even finish his last lap!).
(Photos by from Jeff from Urban Velo)
Jon Lomax then came to the podium to accept his first-fixed cobble and free frame & fork powder-coating courtesy of Thick Bikes; and Trisha got her first-female cobble and $50.
The remaining prizes trickeld down through the ranks. Thanks to Thick Bikes, Iron City Bikes, Spokepunchers, Bike Pittsburgh and Planet Bike. Special thanks to Casey for painting the cobbles. And thanks to me for riding the cobbles back from the Strip. Via Stanton.
The after-party
I left the party shortly there-after and have no idea how long everyone else stayed. Around sundown some of us reconvened at Andy G’s house. He had a projector, a sound-system, and a sheet: everything you need to show A Sunday in Hell.
Before it started we reviews the race and listened to Ted’s stories about the owner of Via Bikes weave a penny-farthing through traffic.
The movie started and we all enjoyed the “PITTSBURG…. ROUBAAAAIX!” operatic soundtrack and anti-french sentiments. We heckled, drank cheap beer and shivered a little as the temperature dropped.
All in all, it was a pretty good day.
Some more pictures
I’ve got some more pictures in a Flickr set. If you’ve got pictures you want to share, email me!
Standings
| Place | Name (#) | Fixie? | Lady? | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ted King-Smith (#12) | First overall | ||
| 2 | Andy Grieshop (#41) | |||
| 3 | Nathan Shaffer (#9) | |||
| 4 | Mark Tressler (#18) | Beat Mike in the best sprint of the race | ||
| 5 | Mike Tressler (#15) | |||
| 6 | Rob Wolfe (#42) | Skipped a checkpoint | ||
| 7 | Jon Lomax (#22) | X | First fixie | |
| 8 | Samson McHugh (#1) | |||
| 9 | Dan Goldberg (#20) | X | ||
| 10 | Brad Quartuccio (#8) | X | ||
| 11 | Justin Flagg (#16) | |||
| 12 | Chuck Walton (#19) | |||
| 13 | Mark Rawlings (#23) | Recently back from broken wrist | ||
| 14 | Josh Siebert (#13) | X | ||
| 15 | Jerry Montesano (#7) | ss | ||
| 16 | Menachen Brodie (#2) | |||
| 17 | Harry Geyer (#44) | |||
| 18 | Adam A. (#25) | |||
| 19 | Trisha Keffer (#17) | X | First Woman | |
| 20 | Joeseph McFadden (#3) | Yes | May have missed a checkpoint | |
| 21 | Dan McClosky (#69) | Yes | ||
| 22 | Erok Boerer (#5) | Refused to ride 3rd lap | ||
| 23 | Ross Nugent (#31) | |||
| 24 | Caleb Morgan(#14) | |||
| 25 | Matt Kerpewski (#68) | I totally spelled that last name wrong | ||
| 26 | Terry Tomei (#4) | |||
| 27 | Loren Sloan (#33) | X | Recovering from tendinitis | |
| DNF | Eric A. (#11) | X | No idea | |
| DNF | Casey Droege (#32) | X | Lost en route to Sandcastle | |
| DNF | Gillian Goldberg (#10) | X | X | Flatted after Joncaire |
| DNF | Cody Williams (#6) | Just taking pictures and paid to support the race, whadda guy |
Let me know if I made any mistakes!
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February 1st, 2008 at 1:23 am[…] spent a bunch of time over the past few weeks organizing a bike race. Well now it’s done. Maybe that’s why this is my fourth post […]