Tuesday, April 14, 2009

First race of the year!


Tonight was the first of the New Belgium/Fort Collins short track races (held in the big vacant lot behind the brewery). Fuentes and I made the drive up to Fort Fun to represent. I rocked the old school black and white kit, Fuentes rocked a rear blinker, and we laid some smack down. Fuentes won it easily, and I managed to hold off a hard-charging 16 year old (never get beat by someone half your age!) for 3rd.

Thanks to Junko for the pictures!

They made us ride over some old paving stones through a couple of trees. I almost crashed on this section a couple of times - my bike handling is tres rusty after the long winter.

Yuki was 6th or 7th, I think. He was riding his 26" Waltworks from 2006, because his new team (Topeak/Ergon) hasn't managed to get their act together enough to get bikes yet. He rocked/ran an 8 year old Manitou and v-brakes!


Fuentes, about to lap yet another rider. The field size was good - I'd estimate 30-35 riders. And the top 10 or so were all pro/semipro caliber, so it was pretty competitive. Fuentes and I, along with the other washed-up and current pros, had to start at the back, and the tight course meant that the first lap was a fairly humorous trackstanding contest part of the time. Fuentes managed to throw a few more elbows than me at the start and I didn't see him again until the finish.

Putting on the gun show, just to make sure the local lads keep their grubby paws off my sweet prize - Ergon grips.

3 comments:

Feldy said...

Wow. That's an awesome prize for a professional framebuilder who I've known to not even bother with grips some of the time.

Brian Andrew Fuentes said...

whoa- are those hutchinson pythons??

Ed said...

So that's Brian.

Met Brian and Mike out along the res today. As they passed me I thought I recognized the chainstays on one of the bikes. Nice to meet/see you guys.

Just so you know I'm still out there rockin' the Walt :-)

Ed