Well, another TWW Olympics has come and gone - and what a great time! Kudos to Joel for putting together a great event (and the other folks who helped). We did fewer events than normal (due to the large turnout of competitors and the great food), but it still was totally fun and a good test of your skills.

Click here for complete results.

Sorry, the results got slightly mixed up - no nearby power made things a bit difficult. But they're all straightened out now. The only goof was that Pete and Nick swapped places - which is a bummer for Pete since he was initially in 1st, but a cool thing for Nick as he becomes the men's chumpion. We won't talk too much about the limbo though...

For a sample video of the good times, click here (1.3mb). There will be many more videos to come (including a few epic wipeouts).

I usually think that adults are supposed to be the role models for kids and introduce them to new experiences in life. However, after climbing into bed after 11:00 on Saturday I realized I had been tricked by a 9 year old! Kathleen's youngest had asked me for help doing some origami a few weeks ago and now I had just spent over an hour trying to fold a paper cow!! Anyway, I took my wonderful creation over to Kathleen's in the morning to show it off, deeming it my Lucky Cow and giving it a prominent position on the dashboard on the way up:)

I didn't realize that it was a mass start and just lined up with Rich and Brenton and the other that had "J"s on their number plates. We soon discovered this only put us behind about 50+ people. Oh well. I seemed to survive the chaos of the start, see a couple TWW jersey in front of me who I assume must be at least one of the Johns and I don't know who else. I'm just waiting for Nick and Rich and Brenton to catch me. We get to the steep little nasty climb and nobody has caught me yet but I'm sure they will. I'm grinding up the little steep and 3 guys in front of me fall over forcing me off the bike and walk. All I can think is, "it sure took you guys long enough, I was ready to walk way back there!" The rest of the lap is pretty uneventful. Mass lineups in sections of the singletrack and very few chances to pass.

Coming around for the second lap it has thinned out a bit, I'm feeling better than expected and the climb up doesn't seem as hard this time. We near the top of the harder climbing just before the singletrack and I catch sight of a TWW jersey. Turns out to be Brian. After catching up I feel obligated to pass him. I managed to get by Brian shortly after that and foolishly tell myself that now that I have caught and passed him he will be totally demoralized and I will never see him again. It soon became apparent that Brian was not easily demoralized! Try as I might I could never seem to open a gap on him. I just kept thinking if he would just give up then I could slow down. It was apparent that Brian did not give up easily! I don't really know Brian but at this point I know I don't like him:)

As we get closer to the end it is just too technical and there are still people occasionly blocking the way. Even when I managed to get around a few people so does Brian. And just to rub salt in my wounds, when I have to dismount to run thru a couple technical sections, I look back to see Brian and he rides them. That's it, I now hate Brian!

I know I have once chance left. In the very last section of singletrack we are stuck behind a couple of other riders so I get a brief rest. The course then crosses a bridge, climbs a short hill and then mostly downhill fireroad to the finish. As we cross the bridge, I shift, and explode out out of saddle. I blast by the two guys in front of me like they are standing still. I am so impressed with myself that I have a Keith White moment, my held swelling so big I am almost toppled from the bike, but as I crest the hill reality sets in and I remember I have about 1 mile to go. I hammer as hard as I can, never looking back until I am about 100 yards from the the finish and I see that Brian can't catch me. I cruise in for 6th out of 17, decide that I like Brian again and make a mental note to alway remember my Lucky Cow.

jeff

Results

More Pictures by Lloyd

Funny how I was 'elected' to do the start lap. Since my training has been somewhat lacking for the past 2 years, I wasn't too keen on it, but what the heck. So, we line up around 10 and take off at about 10:10. I hadn't planned on getting close to the front on the first climb, but I found it easy to end up about 8th into the single track.

Of course there was the slower guy right in front of me who couldn't ride anything rough and no place to pass for quite a while. Luckily I was right in line when we went through the little mud before the 'bridge' since I hadn't pre-ridden, I didn't even know the bridge was there and almost missed it. After about 12 minutes of doggin him on the creeks and singletrack he fumbled and I passed. But, shortly after to come upon someone else in the tall grass who couldn't cross any of the dips without dabbing. So, stuck again for a while but then the fire road opened up and easy to pass. Then it was all me, soon I caught up to Brenton right before the last singletrack. He's moving good for having a long day to go. I didn't even try to pass on the climb out and he kept a very good pace to where I didn't want to. Stand and hammer on the last climb and I'm back in 27 minutes. Tag your it.

So, we all are hanging around the shade waiting for our turns. I was really looking forward to a burger, but they weren't ready for another 2 laps. My second lap felt much faster. No one really in the way, passing seemed easy, everyone lets you go by now. Still nice and cool at 12:30. The course now seems very fun. Mostly singletrack, lots of twisty, rocky, dippy stuff to have fun on. Only about .2 miles of fireroad in the whole thing. Riding in the tall grass is a hoot. You don't know when the turns are comming. I feel like I'm riding much better than I should be. I didn't look to closely at the times of the next laps, but they were 26 or less, so faster it was.

Lap 3 was the hottest at 3:00 in the afternoon. After which I had a burger and a beer. This lubed me up for lap 4. The beer relaxed me just enough to rail the corners. Man that was fun. Now I know the course, so I let go as much as possible. Still hammerring on the last lap of the day. Need to fininsh quickly enough to get Scott back out for another lap. Turns out if Scott had finished 2 minutes earlier there would have been enough time for yet another lap.

Well, 5 man teams make for a nice 8 hour race. Not too hot like a few years ago. The course was fantastic. The organization was perfect. They had lots of food and lots of beer for everyone for free. At only $30 per entry, I don't think there is any other organized race that even comes close to these guys. Billy Cross rules the race promotion scene.

Side note: I ended up staying there over night on Sunday night. I went down to the lake after the race and went for a swim. After the long hike back, no other cars in the lot except mine. On the window was a t-shirt and a note which said 'Last one to leave gets a free shirt - Billy'. Man those guys are cool.

Thanks, Keith

More Pictures by Lloyd

I have to start by saying that the past weekend at the 24-Hours of Adrenaline at Laguna Seca was by far the most memorable racing experience I have had to date!!! This was an incredible event and the team we had was awesome. The original cast for the race was Mark, Dave, Loren, Robert, and me. Robert's back & pinched nerve issues forced him to drop out and as such we picked up Brenton Hamilton (B-Ham). Robert still showed up and not only did he do a 4 hour volunteer shift (count those hours for the TWW volunteer total), but he stayed around for the entire event!!! Thanks Robert.

We started by picking up our motorhome after an interesting shopping experience. Imagine 5 guys let loose in Albertsons!!! Need I say more. The best was when B-Ham said he wasn't going to drink beer so we did not need that much. Well, when I said how about after the race he said, "Oh, well after the race I'll have at least 4 or 5". Anyway, we arrived at 5:30 and went out for a pre-ride. The course was super fast and I was glad that I had a my WTB racing raptors and nanoraptors on the bikes. They worked perfectly! That evening was spent eating and drinking and laughing. Kirsten joined us in our RV for some pre-race talk and laughs.

The race started with Loren getting an impressive start. We figured that we would shoot for 50 minutes laps and for most of the day time we stuck very close to this with a good handful of sub-50 minute laps as well. With a short course the time between each lap went by really fast. Just when you thought you could relax you hd to get ready to go again. The night laps were slower, but a lot of fun. I realized that I must be getting better as I was passing people left and right. I even rode with Tinker Juarez for about 15 seconds!!!

When the morning rolled around we realized we actually had a shot at finishing in 4th place. Hane's team was right behind us and we wanted to keep it that way. We all started to pick up the pace and pulled in some fast times. Hane's team dropped to 6th and we had a big enough jump on them to not worry, but another team was only 5-6 minutes behind. Dave went out for his last lap to get in with enough time for Mark to go out for the final lap of the day to seal our 4th place. Dave pulled out a fast lap and Mark headed out. 55 minutes later Mark was back and we sealed 4th place out of 39 teams!!! What a glorious sight it must have been to see us all cracking open beers seconds after Mark crossed the line to toast to an awesome experience.

If you have never done a 24-hour race, get out there and do one. In the middle of the night it is painful, but by the end you will have the biggest smile on your face.

Peter

Results

An awesome day for one of the best races around. The good weather and the race's reputation appeared to have brought out the masses this year. Many of the classes had 60-80 people and the singlespeeders had about 50. Team Wrong Way made a strong showing with 20+ racers! As always, it's great to line up with your teammates, work together during a race and offer up words of encouragement when you pass each other during the race.

So a brief summary of the race highlights:

• Kathleen "The Machine" Meyer brings home the bacon once again with a second place finish DESPITE missing her start(first was only 40 seconds ahead).
• Street shows that the Sea Otter was not a fluke and rages to the fastest geared TWW time of the day and a near miss at the podium with a 4th place finish.
• Brenton makes another strong showing and grabs 4th place in the beginner class(time to move up!)
• Mike U. wins the singlespeed challenge and nabs the fastest TWW time of the day and Keith is so depressed by his loss that he drinks Mike's reward!
• Peter D. returns to the race scene and puts the hurt on the rest of the SSers(and an expert female and his inner-tube).

A few crashes, a few cramps but lots of fun by everyone. Like I said before, if there is one race you do every year this is THE race!!! I don't think I heard a single complaint about anything. The race is well run and the course is the best around. So make note and make sure you get out there and join in all the fun!!

Results

Pictures from the post race gathering

• Final Results!

• Lloyd's Photos
• Pete Fagerlin's Photos and wicked video!
• Assured Photos GGG Galery
• Chris Falk's Photos
• Heim 3Guide (sounds like Freeride)
• Send us feedback!

What an event! The Sea Otter is over for another year. Check your results at the Sea Otter results site

The battle between the TWW single speeders was pretty tight. What was supposed to start as a friendly rivalry and a "fun" ride turned into an all out smack fest with all trying to dethrone Big Head. We almost had a chance when Keith had a mechanical in the early part of the race. He came back from behind picking off Mike, Schlachter, Chinpokemon, Seery and Mark. Rematch in Napa Valley.

25 people showed up for the pasta dinner Saturday night at the campsite. The food was great and TWW are definitely the best fed mountain bike team at the Sea Otter.

More details and pictures to come soon....

Race report by Dave "long 'n' naughty" Longinotti

CCXC #2 As Henthorn alluded in his report I didn't ride well in the second CCXC race. I had to travel the week after race #1 and got sick. The next week I cut back commuting 1/2 trips, skipping the hilly part by driving to the valley and then riding the rest of the way to work. I rode my first full round trip the Friday and I felt terrible.

The Race Day I overslept getting up about 7. (I had planned to leave at 630 so I could preride before the beginner race at 9.. I was very tempted to stay home. I finally left about 8:15 and set a record arriving at the East Garrison in only 1:31. This was to be the ONLY personal best of this day.

I had just enough time to register and get dressed. At about 10:15 Obi-Ron Castia suggested I run my hard pack tires, which seemed like a good idea so I changed from knobbies to my hard pack tires. I should have check rear brake alignment closer because after the race I noted that the rear was rubbing a little on the pad.

My only warm up was to ride back to the paved road and back.. I staggered over to the start line.. There were about 20 35+ and 45+ sports starting together.. There were apparently 45+ riders. 806 who nipped me by 5 seconds in the first race, + a Bike Trip rider named Scott, and a Alto Velo (Roadie Club) rider that I remembered from Road Racing.

The race starts on a winding road big ring climb.. Normally a good thing for me but I was quickly dropping off the back of the group.. This was ODD I thought. I was a little tentative on the first lap having not seen the course before, but it was easy enough that I lost little time because of that.. Mostly I was just DRAGON ASS!..

The was a red jersey up ahead that I had eventually passed in the Race number oneŠ He had a very smooth cadence that I remembered. He was about 30 seconds ahead but TODAY he started to pull away again on the third lap.

On the FIRST lap the Sport Women Leader.. (She is a MAJOR SAND BAGUETTE BTW) passed.. ( Sooner than in the last race.) Second place was right on her wheel and I tried to learn from them in the single track. I think I got faster on laps 2,3 and 4 on the single track and DH sections but it just didn't seem to help.. I was practically DFL in the combined 35+ and 45+ fields.. Only managed to beat one of the 35's.. #806 was a minute and change ahead of meŠ He was a big strong guy and this course would have been better for him since there were almost no steep climbs which is where I was gapping him in race 1..

Anyway, Henthorn finished 5th in 35+ and was 14 minutes ahead of me which is Smoking.. Obi-Ron castia was practically WHITE HOT finishing 23 minutes ahead of me for second in 19-34 sport. \ Kirsten finished third behind the La Sand Baguette from AV and the other Bike Trip girl. Anybody that tears up a men's Sport field like those Deux Fems Do should be racing expert.

Another Silly Single Speed Sunday, January 2002

Mr. Toad and Chinpokemon was joined by McCrakkin and Screaming Eve. We rode along West Cliff drive under a full moon and arrived on Pacific Avenue. It was a mild evening - a fair respite from the rain earlier - and the freaks and hippies were out doing their freaky hippy thang.

German Beer was the theme of the evening at 99 Bottles. This time we all drank the same beers all evening. We were going to finish these cards toe to toe. The first beer we had was a very heavy double bock - 25 Oz!!!

As evidence from the picture of Mr Chinpokemon to your left, we wandered out of 99 Bottles just a little bent...

Click here for the full report...