SSUSA

After the Growler last week, I decided to go for a change of pace with racing.  I gave up 20 of my 21 gears and any form of suspension and headed to the Front Range to race Single Speed USA.  It's 4th addition was run in my former hometown of Boulder, so I couldn't resist heading back to see what the race was all about.

All we knew headed into the race was to meet at a park in Boulder on Friday night for a cruiser ride and round one of the hosting competition, a series of contests to decide who got to host the event in 2012. Round one was a tube race down the kayak course in Boulder Creek.  With run-off in full force, I can't imagine the water was warm.

The motley crew of single speeders than proceeded to various Boulder watering-holes to receive a map to the race start, ride mechanical bulls, and to pre-race carbo load with some of the fine micro-brews available in Boulder.

Saturday morning brought a race start at an altitude which favored the mountain dwellers.  Shawn Lortie did a nice write-up of the actual race over at Mountain Flyer which I highly recommend checking out.  To sum-up, everyone got at least a little lost.  Even I, who learned how to ride on these trails, got turned around a time or two.  It was a rollicking good time with a happy combination of dirt roads, trails, and post-holing through snow.  Winning the race was just an added bonus.

The post-race party was also the venue for the infamous foot-down bike-derby competition and the last round of the hosting competition.  I took a non-violent approach to the derby and was able to outlast all the boys who took great joy in running into each other with their bikes.

Vermont won the hosting competition.  Guess I'll have to travel out there next summer to defend my belt and title.