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The iMD alleycat race and grand opening took place yesterday. It was probably one of the more eventful Saturdays that I’ve had in recent memory.
Photo by Trangalang
Trangalang took this picture of me before the race. He said that I was “carbo loading” before the race; stuffing my piehole with pizza and surrounded by balloons while sitting by myself. Sounds exactly like one of my birthday parties. Suc.
Riding the 50 some odd miles was c*ck brutal; I had a hard time keeping up with my pard’ners Darin and Matt. I remember shouting some pretty absurd obscenities the entire time. Suc this and suc that.
Photo by Anna Marie
It was all worth it because at the end of the race we were greeted by a table full of delicious food fit for a hobo. $5 buc suc pizza from Little Caesar’s, Natty Ice kegs, and $2 buc suc wine. Then Mark had to ruin it by ordering 7 gourmet courses of catered vegetarian food from Tofoo Com Chay. Haha.
One of the best moments of the night was when I heard my number called for the raffle. I was overcome with joy. My prize: the Macaframa DVD, which I have long coveted, but could not afford on my hobo budget.
I think the camaraderie between new and old friends from racing and mingling with friends afterward was the best part; after winning the Macaframa DVD of course. Just look at my facial expressions. Yes, I am very self-involved.
Photo by trangalang
Photo by Birdman
Photo by Birdman
Thanks to Mark, Anna, JP and everyone else for putting this one on.
I was all set to write about how to pack up your bike on the cheaps when I got a last minute call. A couple more friends decided to make the journey to Sin City, in a truck. So we can just throw our bikes in the back. My bike was all packed, so I took it out and put it back together in turbo mode.
What’s in Vegas this time around? InterBike, a few bike races/sprints, and of course the best clubs in the world. I’m super stoked. I won’t be back until the weekend, but I can assure you I will post when I get back
Can someone help me pack?
I cut my little vacation to Southern California short to attend the Race for the New Year in Pleasanton. The race didn’t seem like it was planned all too well, but I figured the company was good so the race would be good.
Tim and Dennis figuring out where to go.
There had to be at least 15 San Jose riders who made it to the Tri-Valley, which accounted for at least a third of the racers. When we arrived, things didn’t seem too legit, as none of the checkpoint doos contacted the organizer. The race commenced anyway, and about half way through most of us pulled out since there were no checkpoint guys. A few of the guys did finish, and Bennett ended up taking home the grand prize of $60.
I thought JP found the checkpoint guy; but no he just needed to relieve himself behind a tree.
Some girl in a nice little SUV shouted out Mark’s name, so we backtracked and flagged her gas guzzler down.
Luckily Ben lived in the area, so we rode over to his pad, where he graciously threw an impromptu BBQ. BTW, I’m sitting in my jammies as I write this.
Alright, I’ve been a little behind in updating with the upcoming holidays and all, so here is something that went down last Saturday.
Completed Winter Wipeout Manifest
The folks up in Stockton put on the Winter Wipeout Alleycat, which had seven checkpoints at Starbucks shops all over town. It was nice to see the boys from San Jose take home a good amount of prizes, in both the race and tricks competition.
I think we had more than a few riders finish in the top ten. Except for me, I came in 42nd place, which is funny considering there were only 30 racers. Whatever. I still got a prize!
I know I used the term ubiquitous in the last post, but Starbucks is ubiquitous. The entire race was based on the different Starbucks locations around Stockton. Shoot, I mean it’s like they completely saturated the coffee market everywhere. It was really funny/ironic, because I just happened to be reading a book about Starbucks, How Starbucks Saved My Life. I didn’t think too highly of Starbucks as a company before reading the author’s (Michael Gates Gill) memoir. After reading the book, it changed my view of da Starbuk doo; I don’t think of them as the Walmart of coffee shops anymore. It was actually quite the contrary. They treat their Partners well, by providing health insurance, education reimbursement, relocation assistance, etc.
Last Friday Mojo’s in San Francisco hosted a Goldsprints event to showcase the new electronic/computer gadgetry, and I must say it was pretty awesome. It was my first attempt at doing Goldsprints, and I was so incredibly slow that they officially changed the name of the event to Bronzedawdle.
Tim was able to break the sound barrier, with a time of 18.71.
Wilson learned the hard way, and found out that Red Stripe does not have electrolytes. He left a lovely acidic parting gift on the curbside.
The new Goldsprints design looked pretty cool, as it visually showed the frontrunner of each race in realtime, and had a bunch of different stats that would have made the CNN ticker jealous.
I was supposed to wake up in time for the 10am train to Sunnyvale, but almost missed it due to oversleeping. Luckily Tim called me at 9:25, and I shifted into turbo mode to make it to the station on time. Haha, I am sooo dramatic.
I carpooled with Tim to San Francisco, where the 3rd annual SuperMarket Street Sweep was being held. The sweep is an alleycat race that helps benefit the San Francisco Food Bank. How does it work? Basically each rider goes around to supermarkets in the San Francisco area, and picks up the items that are listed. Each participant was given a race manifest that included two different types of races; speed, where you try to pick up the items and complete the checkpoints as fast as possible; and points, where you try to purchase as much food as you can possibly haul.
Tim, Wilson and I decided to go with the points option, simply because it would be more laid back. Maybe a little too laid back. I have a few alleycat races under my belt now, and supermarket sweep was by far the easiest one. But the whole point is to raise food for the SFFB anyway. It was fun ransacking all of the stores for items, and then piling them into a shopping cart to take out.
The sponsors for the race donated some amazing prizes and freebies. Just for showing up to race, everyone received a Crumpler Bags cellphone holster case; which I used to carry my camera. Tim went balls out towards the end, and loaded up the Timbuk2 bag that he won from Goldsprints with cans of corn. He ended up winning a North Face hat for his valiant effort.
Tim's bag filled with food for the SF Food Bank.
Dirty Dave and a few others brought cargo bikes with big ass trailers, some so heavy that they were straight oakland scraping the ground.
Bennett trying out some crazy mini geometry cross hybrid flying car bike complete HED wheels.
After the race we jetted back down to San Jose, to watch the epic Manny vs. Oscar, aka Filipino vs. Mexican boxing match at Mark’s house. It was also Matt’s real birthday, so we celebrated in true epic fashion. There was plenty of food, vegetarian and otherwise, and “specialty dranks” to go around.
Hey look at the Filipino and Mexican punching each other
Celebrating the Filipino's victory and the Mexican's loss
