8 Hours of Lake Sonoma Race Report by Mike Gin What an epic weekend! As promised, one of the best events of the season (well, throw out about 25 degrees and it would have been perfect). The 8 Hours of Lake Sonoma again left people with the ol' split watermelon grin. It doesn't get much better than this. Does it? TWW affiliated people began arriving at the lake on Saturday. Lance "Starfish" Sanchez flew in from Denver. He was easily the first person to arrive, coming in about 3am. Then people straggled in the remainder of the day. Scott "Mr. Microphone" Schlachter had the most inventive entrance of all persons in attendance. The gates to the camping area closed at 10:30pm (this is new). Well, Scott arrived at around midnight. Dilemma. Scott did his best MacGuyver impression and found some wood and rocks to place on top of the "do not enter" spikes. He successfully navigated his vehicle over the makeshift bridge. Then he fought off three would-be terrorists with a toothpick and a magnifying glass. A bunch of us went out for a pre-ride around 4:30pm. This was a good indoctrination for many people who had never ridden there. The course was the classic loop. Good and technical as usual, and just a teeny bit dusty. Lance had marked the course in the morning prior to everyone arriving. Thanks Lance! After the pre-ride, a few of us decided to take a swim in the lake. Well, the lake was quite a haul down from the camp. It was a semi-white knuckle ride down, as we were in our swimsuits riding a gravelly road with water bars crossing periodically. But we all made it down safely and enjoyed the nice cool water in the lake. The idiot father in the boat calling his pre-teen daughter a "b_tch" was an extra special treat too. The hike back also was most enjoyable. The memories of the refreshing swim disappeared quickly. Sue "rider up!" Pickens volunteered to prepare the food for the Saturday night din-din. A pretty darn nice spread she put together. I imagine several people ate better that night then they normally do when they're at home. Thanks Sue for tackling this monumentus task. Bob "Dad" Knight and Lloyd "Mechanical" Ranola then jammed the night away. The mosh pit formed under the canopy and Ron "Mr. Clean Bike" Chai did a table dive into the crowd. Free entertainment to top off the free camping. Perty schweet dude. People then hit the hay. Rumor is that Pete "The Natural" Rudnick was heard throughout the night by more than one person, making various comments and other assorted noises in his sleep. RACE DAY After classic camping sleep (sporadic, with several trips to the facilities), people were starting to rise. Ryan "Wheelie Man" Murphy was heard pre-riding the course at about 6:45am. Coffee began flowing. Then the race promoter (Billy Cross Racing) showed up. They set up the start/finish area and began registering people. One of the cool things about low key racing is you can get away with doing fun stuff - like have every team make their own number plates. We should have had a contest for most original number plate. My vote goes to the plate that simply said, "Tony". The rumble around the start/finish area was the talk of the Le Mans start. A 50 yd. dash. A loop around the shitter. In typical overhype fashion, the Le Mans start was bagged due to the heat. There were 93 total people at this race, including 45 affiliated with TWW (and 16 of "The Hub" members). This was an all-time turnout for TWW as well as for the 8-hour race. Did I mention heat? It was hot as a mutha. The most heard response after the frantic first lap was classic Wayne's World - "I think I'm gonna hurl!" This is no joke; people were serious (including myself). Okay, enough build-up - let's get to the good stuff. Below is a synopsis of each team's race (from what I heard from team members at the race as well as what I determined from the race results - please don't get too excited if I goofed a little bit or didn't type as much about your team/yourself - remember, you can complete a synopsis of your team too!): CLASS 3 (Sport Level - 6-10 points based on the modified Stableford system) 1st Place - Team S.S./Two Guys, One Gear: Peter "Big Racer Boy" Donohue & Mark "I must break you" Weaver. These guys are hammerheads. Both are Leadville 100 finishers (one has a bigger belt buckle than the other, as we were shown - and in this case, size does matter). What can I say about them? Consistently fast times, especially Mr. Weaver. Pretty impressive when you consider they did 9 (Mark) & 8 (Peter) laps. A well deserved first place. And both on singlespeeds to top it off. 17 total laps. 2nd Place - Team One Way: Bob "Dad" Knight, Doug "we have a chance to catch these guys" Vrieling, George "you're going out on another lap but you don't know that" Sartor, Mike "Eagle Scout" Gin. We battled Team S.S. to the bitter end, only to finish just 2:30 off their pace (Peter, why did you have to spoil my glorious 5th lap - my fastest - with your 2nd best lap of the day? - I'm glad you felt some pressure from me though). Doug and George hammered (several 26 minute laps, nearly every one in the low 27's, and one sub 26 minute lap!). 13 of our 17 laps were sub 28 minutes. Bob was having problems with his chain falling off - later finding out that he had a broken tooth on his cog. And yes, we were all on singlespeeds too! 17 total laps. 3rd Place - The Fast Old Farts: Pete Rudnick, Scott Seery, Charles "WHERE THE BLEEP ARE MY BLEEPING TEAMMATES?!!!" Pickens, Charles "GQ" Price. Pete as expected lit up the course. When he wasn't tardy to his start time, he kicked ass. Two sub 26 minute laps, a 27:09 lap, and the three minute "I'm taking a dump" penalty lap - 28:57. Looks like it would have been three sub 26 minute laps. Smokin'! This team did really well - don't forget, we're talking 170 total years here. I think Charles Price was tanking it though, as he looked much too clean and refreshed for racing in this heat. : ) 16 total laps. 4th Place - Got Balls?: Scott Schlachter, Keith "damn you singlespeeder" White, Erik "I got my ass kicked by Mike Gin on a singlespeed/I never cracked the 30 minute lap time mark" Murrey, Rich Davis, and the other Keith (B.). Keith W. was the team leader by posting some great times - including two sub 27 minute laps. Way to go Keith! This team did surprisingly well, considering three of the team members were more DH oriented and they flatted twice. Erik did not do as well as expected - I think he choked under the pressure of our pre-race wager. : ) And at least four of the five members were able to answer to their team name. 16 total laps. 5th Place - Team Roadie: Doug "first casualty on the pre-ride" Jorgensen, Logan "watch out for that tree/Boy Wonder" Davis, Ron "if you were a climber today, how come you didn't crack 32 minutes once?/pretty slow for a Cat 3" Castia, Eric Hines, John Larson. Actually, the roadie team did pretty well. Simply put, Logan is a stud (and only 14 frickin' years old). All of his laps were sub 28 minutes. The remainder of his teammates, excluding one funky lap, finished between 31:36-39:52. Perhaps Logan you can teach these guys some dirt technique - treat your elders with respect. Sorry, but singlespeeders get bragging rights this time boys. We will think seriously about challenging you in a road race next year. 15 total laps. 7th Place - The Fat Bastards: Jeff "this ½ hour break time blows" Hane, Chuck "keep that motor running" Denning, Todd "purple haze" Harris. Hardly fat, this team was the pre-race favorite for this category. Todd the semi-Pro is a stud. Chuck recently won a Sport category race. And Jeff is a pretty fast Sport racer himself. The team had an interesting strategy - they did multiple laps before handing off to their next teammate. Chuck was a monster and did three laps in a row. But the race revolved around Todd. He had some smoking laps - two in the 23 minute range. Yikes. But then disaster struck. As he was exiting the singletrack and getting ready to do the climb, he seriously stacked it. He had forgotten about a dip in the trail when he went to lock out his rear shock. I knew there was a problem when I caught him and passed him. Possible slight concussion, as he was definitely in a haze. He finished the lap, but his day was over. While Jeff and Chuck are very capable riders, the conditions were pretty brutal for two guys to ride the last four hours. They eventually faded and finished with 15 laps. 9th Place - Team United Nations: Ron Chai, Lance Sanchez, Lloyd Ranola, Mark Davidson. Slightly overmatched in the Class 3 division, the UN team still performed strongly. Their times were pretty consistent, ranging between 30-39 minutes per lap. Of course, Lloyd had his typical drivetrain problem and broke his chain. This was also the highly anticipated return from racing retirement of Ron Chai. He's now kicking himself though for not going out on the last lap. Mark led his team with the fastest times. Lance conveniently had to cut out early to catch a plane. Sure Lance. : ) 13 total laps. CLASS 4 (Beginner level - 5 points and under based on the 11th District Cost of Funds Index) 1st Place - Team Pretty Fast MOFOS: Ron "six laps baby!" Goiorani, Ryan Murphy, Nick "I was the one who brought those annoying bells" Relampagos. This team was hindered from the start, as one of their teammates who will go nameless (he begged to be on a team too) bailed out less than a week prior to the race. We couldn't find a replacement, however, as it turns out, they didn't need it. They kicked some serious butts for a three person team. Their times were pretty strong and consistent, ranging from 28:02 to 33:52. They had some close competition from a team called Rocky's blah blah blah team, but Ron put the hammer down on his final lap to take the gold medal (and some cool Wild Woolies jerseys too). Ryan of course was his fast usual self too (not as fast as we are accustomed to, but still pretty fast). Nick did well too, and you can blame him for those fishing bells. : ) 16 total laps. 3rd Place - Team Neophytes: Tom "borrowed bike" Kramer, Mark Marrama, Justin "yes, I'm really done now" Suarez, and Jeremy "how old are you?" of Cal Bikes. This team was thrown together last minute and no one really knew what to expect. Turns out this was a pretty darn fast group. Jeremy, who we weren't sure if he was even going to make it, had some fast times. 26:49 was his best. 29:16 was his worst. Not too shabby. I'm still not sold on that "old enough to drink" statement though. Tom did well on a bike I loaned him just the day before. Sorry Tom, still not selling it though. Of course, everyone has his or her price… Mark was the catalyst for the team, as he was the one who asked if there was any space left. He did well for a commuter/non-racer. And Justin held his own too (also a non-racer). 15 total laps. 4th Place - Team Steaming Turtles: Adam "Flatmaster" Strunk, Rob "okay, so I've got a little race experience" Butner, Max "I have never raced" Shkud, Anthony "this is only my 2nd time on singletrack" Thaulad. The youngin' Rob led his team with some good times, including one sub 30 minute lap. Adam lived up to his past nickname and flatted at least once (I think maybe twice). Max had some good times too for a non-racer. And Anthony survived unscathed from his first race experience (and second singletrack experience). More than a lot of people can say after Sunday's race. These guys were organized enough to ride with each other twice prior to the race. That in itself should be considered a victory. They might have been the only team to accomplish this. 13 total laps. 5th Place - TWW T.O.S.: Dawn "I wish we had 5 racers" Weathersbee, Eve "Walkie Talkie Momma" McKay, Janis "Crashmaster" Yasinko, Karen "looking much too fresh" Kinser. What more do we need to say? The only all women's team. They kicked some serious bootay! Karen led the way with all of her laps sub 40 minutes, including her last lap of 36:25! Compare that to some of the men's last laps. Yup. Uh huh. Janis clearly won the "most crashes" award. There was some nice blood flowing there. Thanks for the wet T-shirt contest too (she said it). The banter between their walkie talkies was quite entertaining as well. My favorite response was the, "ughhh" from one of them suffering on the course. And of course, Dawn singing the Helen Reddy tune, "I am woman" could have been the moment of their race, had the racer on the other end not changed channels. 12 total laps. 6th Place - Team Meander: Chris "yes, you need to move up to Sport" Morain, Susan "remember, this team is supposed to be less competitive" Corkhill, Wes "Twisted" Taylor, Linda "you're not as slow as you keep telling us" Palmer. Team Meander kept saying that they were going to take it easy. "We're just a slow team, not that competitive." Tell that to Susan who nearly suffered heat stroke from hammering so hard. She finished her lap, but gave everyone a serious scare by suffering very badly. But she recovered nicely and rested the remainder of the day. Wes surprised everyone by posting his team's best times (sorry Wes). Although, if Chris was able to focus prior to this race, Wes probably would have taken a back seat. And of course, Linda talked about how slow she was and of course, she was faster than she said. Typical. Watch out for her if she asks you to a game of pool. : ) 10 total laps. IRONMAN 5th Place - Joel Northrup: Joel "Camper" Northrup decided to make a go at the Ironman race. Pretty brutal conditions for Ironman. Well, today wasn't Joel's day as he suffered cramping early on. He ended up doing six laps and called it a day. We all know Joel is more capable when everything is working correctly. It was clear that everything was not working correctly. He vowed to return with a vengeance next year. For TWW's lap times, click here.