Tom Kramer shows off his bunny hopping skills (or lack thereof).
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4th Annual Team Wrong Way Olympics Lake Del Valle, Livermore, CA June 17, 2000 Event Report by Mike Gin First of all, thanks to Ron Chai and Pete Rudnick for putting on another great TWW event. The location was great and fun was had by all (even with all those crashes). And thanks to Joel for rounding up schwag and getting sponsors to donate cash/merchandise to Trips for Kids. My apologies to the folks who couldn't make it - I have some video, unfortunately, the tape I put in the camera had a bunch of baby video already on it, so I wasn't able to fit much on the remaining tape. Duh. Also, photo shots are limited to non-action shots, since I was too driven to win this damn event. If you have action shots, please send them to me and I'll post them. Okay, now what you've been waiting for. Did I defend my title? Unfortunately I did not. However, I made a more than respective showing. This marks the fourth different men's and women's champions in the four TWW Olympics. Defending your TWW Olympics title is the toughest thing to do in sports. Here are the results: Men's
1 - Peter "I beat Mike Gin!" Donohue Women's
1 - Linda "I need to turn here... oops, over the handlebars I go" Palmer The top 3 competitors received the coveted TWW Olympics medal. These are quite possibly one of the nicest medals you'll see. Just ask Peter Donohue - he claimed it was the best medal he had ever received. First of all, due to some scoring issues, we only scored five of the seven events completed. Jon, you're lucky, because I would have taken you had we included the Bunny Hop (since I won it). The events counted in the results - slalom, hurdles, sprint, track stand, trials. Events completed but not accurately scored - bunny hop, limbo. Events not completed - hill climb (logistic issue thank goodness), balance beam, tire toss. People did have fun on that balance beam - all your work Ron didn't go to waste. The men's battle was fierce. The trash talking and smack running was thick. Peter Donohue showed that consistency over the events was more important than winning any one event - he had a 2nd, 2nd, 3rd, 3rd, 7th. Congratulations Peter. Of course, this was just charity to make him feel better for leaving TWW to head to Asia in a couple of months. Keith White was quite the performer - the one handed track stand was quite a show stopper. Why we didn't get this on video escapes me. Also, Keith put his mark on the TWW Olympics - he got an infamous "rule" named after him. He ran the entire cyclocross hurdles section and had the fastest time. So we decided that wasn't the spirit of the event (it really is to work on your dismounts) and invoked the Keith White rule - ride the first section, run the second section, and ride the third section. He went from 1st to 8th in the event. Now that's better. He did win three events. Jon Heim thrilled the crowd with possibly the most violent crash of the day. And on the bunny hop of all things (brings back memories of Ron G. at Redwood in '99). Fortunately no rib damage but I swear his back bent the wrong way and his feet went past his head (did that make sense?). Jon does receive the bonehead award for his mini-donut off road right after the ranger told us to stay on the pavement due to the very high fire danger. My performance - hmm... not bad, not good. I road my "OT" bike, with the seat slammed all the way down. This helped at times (2' bunny hop), but hurt during most of the pedaling events (especially the hurdles - where did that seat go?). Somehow, during the sprint, my rear brake pad nearly wore through my sidewall - looked like someone was "tinkering" with my bike. Sabotage? Wouldn't surprise me since I was a marked man. But overall I'm happy with my performance (lost to three guys who either are or should be Experts). Joel shot out of the gate hot - won the slalom and then took 3rd in the hurdles. But a poor performance in the track stand cost him. Joel definitely took the prize for the most colorful bike. Orange frame, red shock and cranks, baby blue tires, and more. Jeff Hane surprised several people, including himself. For someone who is lacking in technical skills, he held his own. Although, he did lead all attendees in crashes. It seems like every time I saw him, he was down. Jeff also gets a bonehead award for going the wrong way - headed back towards San Jose on Calaveras. Pete Rudnick did well as expected - unfortunately he was on his singlespeed which cost him dearly in the sprint (14th best time). He would have taken 3rd if he finished 5th or higher. Oh well. He also was all hopped up on gas fumes from changing his gas tank on his van the night before, so even standing on his bike was quite the accomplishment. Ron Chai was surprised with his result. More was expected since he had been practicing so much prior to the event (confirmed by his wife). His excuse was that he couldn't focus since he was timing, scoring, cooking, etc. Maybe next year dude - who's going to step forward to organize the event so Ron won't have this excuse? Nick Relampagos was one of the favorites entering the event. Claiming he could track stand forever and that he was going to take me down. Well, guess again. Nick pulled off the first crash of the day, trying to show off doing a front wheel stand a la Scott Seery (see the TWW video site). Unfortunately, we didn't have the camera rolling to see this. But trust me, there were plenty of witnesses. And his performance in the track stand? 8th place - 7.16 seconds. Things are much different when you enter the "box". Trevor Taylor is becoming quite the rider - sorry dad, it appears you time is over. Trevor tried pulling off one of the crazier moves of the day - a power slide under the limbo bar. Didn't make it, but still tied for first on this event. Now he just needs to work on his power - 15th in the sprint - then watch out! Tom Kramer's performance was pretty vanilla - Tom, you're too intelligent for these events - you need to try to pull off something stupid and then crash and burn. That way I'll have more to write about you. No crashes, just consistent riding. But the amazing thing was that his daughter nearly beat him on the slalom (25.62 vs. 25.94). Watch out Tom, she's breathing down your neck. Rich Henthorn's trusty steed for this event was his son's BMX bike. It's just a little different riding without clipless pedals, isn't it? But Rich had a good time of course. Boy, you need to work on the track stand - 2.57 seconds? Both of Tom's daughters beat you. Oh the humanity! Scott Schlachter didn't perform as well as expected - must have been that girl's bike you were riding. Scott also needs to work on his track stand, as he must have tried at least a dozen times to track stand in the box before the balance beam (no rolling starts). When he finally was able to track stand, he rolled all the way across the beam and then crashed in a blaze of glory. It was epic. Again, another Kodak moment lost... Anthony Thaulad had an interesting start to his day. From Hayward to San Jose to Livermore via Calaveras (just like Jeff). Is that like a 6-4-3 double play? And then to top it all off, he was the first one to ride the slalom. And promptly dropped his chain and had to use his mulligan (see TWW video site). Anthony has definitely come a long was since the pile driver move at P-ridge (although you've still got some work to do baby! - especially with your driving directions) Wes Taylor, you're getting passed by you son. Better take away his bike. Wes also didn't perform as well as expected - those DH'ers should have done better since this was a skills competition. Could it be that all that suspension makes up for poor riding skills? You be the judge. (man, I better really watch my back now) Mr. GQ Charles Price. Just recently joined the ranks of retired singlespeeders (myself included). Charles got his 2nd DFL of the year - you really need to stop this bad habit. But damn, he looked good doing it. That color coordination is second to none. Now the women. Linda Palmer came through for all the spectators. A crash on the slalom set the tone. A nice over the handlebars maneuver. 9.5, 9.5, 9.5, 7 (Russian judge), 9.5. She also did a nice crash on the balance beam too. Any others? I'm sure there were more. But she still took first among the women - and won the limbo event too. Kirsten McDaniel was dressed to pummel her competition. Of course, I'm not sure who her competition was... any thoughts from the peanut gallery? Anyhow, back to bike related stuff. Kirsten was too busy lounging and was always late for her start. The karma caught up with her with a good spill on the hurdles (TWW Video site). And then the shin bashing on the trials course. I tell you, if we could improve this girl's technical skills, she would be so freakin' fast it would be scary. Now stay tuned for the next challenge - Kirsten vs. me in a 100m sprint on inline skates. Date and venue TBD... Dawn showed up at 11am (allegedly) and did not participate in the games. But she still picked up a medal. What the..?!!! Hey, we had one already made, she managed to show up and brought some beer. What else were we going to do with the medal? Next time, maybe Dawn will be the organizer of the event so we can have a 3pm start time. I know, live a little, yadda, yadda, yadda. The kids were great - watch out for the Kramer kids. They'll be kicking your butt soon. And sorry Brandon, you can't have that full face helmet for free. Event winners:
Slalom - Joel, Kirsten Kid's Results:
Girls
Boys (Thanks to whoever brought the ribbons for the kids - that was a nice touch that we'll have to remember for next year) Thanks again to all that participated, showed up, brought fud, and had a great time. Looking forward to next year to try to recapture my title. Will Peter Donohue make a special flight back from Asia to try to defend his title? Mike
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PHOTOS!!!
| A beautiful view of the near lakeside venue. |
| Ron "Can Cook" Chai tending to the lips and a-holes. |
| Dawn, Charles, and Anthony making sure Ron really can cook. |
| Nothing but the best for TWW'ers. Mmm, mmm good. |
| These folks are hogging up the food (and the toilet paper too!) |
| Basically what Kirsten was doing all day - well, except for the food part. Next up, Kirsten. Kirsten? Are you ready? |
| Trevor thinking to himself, "Man, I'm gonna toast this guy next year." Jeff clearly is concerned, as he contemplates a bite of his hockey puck burger. |
| Pete thinking to himself, "Dude, what was I thinking about changing that gas tank last night? Then again, I'm feeling pretty good right now." |
| Nick at take off on the bunny hop. Just another challenger who fell to the mighty bunny hop king (that would be moi). |
| Here I am rigging the scoring. Guess I didn't rig it enough since I didn't win. |
| 1st Place Men's Division - Peter "I'm too busy looking at this sweet medal to look at the camera" Donohue. |
| 1st Place Women's Division - Linda "even though I crashed a bunch I still did better than you" Palmer. |
| Scott accepting the 2nd place award for Keith White. Keith, you're lucky it wasn't one of those "must be present to..." |
| Kirsten "I can do that... I can do that... I can do that" McDaniel showing off her 2nd place medal. |
| Jon "wearing his sponsor's jersey" Heim beaming after squeaking to a 3rd place finish. Next year, we'll invoke the Jon Heim rule - if you have a mechanical, you can repair it - it is not considered a modification to your bike. |
| Honorary 3rd place finisher Dawn "that move was sexy" Weathersbee. Man, wish I could win a medal so easily. Show up late, don't compete, lounge around all day, and voila - 3rd Place! |
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