A Good Idea at the Time

The “Trifecta of Singleness” ending up being quite an entertaining ride. Fayetteville greeted us with a dark and cloudy sky, but the rain held off and left the course in perfect condition for the entire race. The crew that showed up was a random SS mix with tons of costumes, some cross dressing, lots of pink, and even a guy on a fixed gear. Announcing and commentary was handled by the capable and styled out crew of Nat, Yuri, and Rebecca.

The first round of the race was a 2 lap XC race on a modified version of the 12 hour course. The SS course cut out 2 miles and 2 big climbs. I really didn’t have any interest in hurting myself since I had the 12 hour the next day, and had a nice spin around the course. I had remembered the course as being kind of rough, but it seemed a lot rockier than I remembered. Fuzzy didn’t seem to be interested in pushing anything the day before DSG, so I spun behind him for most of the race. After the first lap, we were required to drink a cold PBR before continuing on. I’m not really much of a PBR guy, but it sure was cold and tasty after riding a hot lap on the course, went down fast, and stayed down. A lap later and I finished up the first stage somewhere around 10th-ish. This was good enough to put me through to round 2.

Round 2 was a hill climb competition amongst the top 15 guys from the first race, and the top 8 went on to the final round. After a neutral leadout, I found myself in the middle of the pack at the base of the climb, fought through the traffic, and was in 4th right behind DJ about ¾ of the way up. My legs were letting me know the entire time that the hill climb was not a good idea for tomorrow. A look over the shoulder saw only Ohio Rob anywhere close, so I hopped off and ran the last pitch to save my legs and get to the top in 5th. However, I apparently missed the unsaid rule of not getting off the bike, so that ended my SSUSA aspirations.

It was all good though, as round 3 would likely have seen me bested by a girl or a strong breeze in the gladiator style SSUSA feats of strength. It was pretty entertaining watching a bunch of skinny bikers in spandex chugging PBR and attempting to joust while Yuri, Nat, and Rebecca hopped around in their sweet costumes. Congrats to Ohio Rob on his jousting victory and to the LaLonde Brothers on their crushing victories in both the XC and the hill climb. Those guys can fly for sure. So overall I got out of SSUSA exactly what I had hoped for: a lot of laughs, a nice pre-ride, and a heaping scoop of randomness.