Never has there been more lycra or so many gears at an Atlanta alleycat.
I'm stoked that this was my last race in Atlanta. 30 miles of riding and 2.6mi if trail running. A 50 bike peolton full of street riders and fixies (with a few roadies thrown in for good measure) left from No Brakes, our new track shop and was something to see as it flew down the road.
I never expected half of the group to keep with the pace (averaging over 15 mph for about 12 miles), but every time I looked around they were all still there. People were really giving all they had for this race. That was, of course, until Todd, the pacer, jumped at a light about a mile and a half out. About 12 of us made it back onto his wheel. According to him, we were pushing 30mph for a good part of that. Some kid on an mtb with 2" knobbies somehow kept it up at the front the whole time.
Then we hit the mountain. I changed shoes and dropped all the stuff in my jersey pockets and took off. Jon and I had a plan that we were going to take it easy until another fixed rider passed us. Two did about halfway up so we picked it up a little. They ended up making it to the top before us, but we knew they weren't going to work together to get back so we had that on our side. (Trying to keep a good pace while making sure my feet didn't fall into any cracks or simply slip back due to the grade was nearly impossible. The reward was the view from the top, looking back at the city 16 miles away through the smog and knowing that when I got back down I'd have to ride there as fast as I could.) I ran back down the service road. A little longer but it didn't require climbing over boulders and jumping down 2' ledges. I got down a little before Jon and changed my shoes back as I watched about 10 poeple leave. Jon made it back down and we left the park with 4 people in our paceline. Two fixies, an SS and Todd on his geared bike.
For those who have not seen Stone Mountain:
The walking trail goes up the mountain on the left side in the picture. It is 1.3 miles one way and covers over 800 vertical feet. Upon hearing about the race my mom wrote to me "...be careful not to trip over the bodies of your fallen comrades on the way up..."
As soon as we left the park we brought our group together and pulled into a tight line. We kept the pulls short and continued to rotate. We were joined by one kid who hung on the back for a bit. when we were almost back I noticed that he wasn't there anymore. I later found out that he had dropped back and got hit by a cab while trying to catch up. The broom wagon picked him up later. He was ok but his fork was trashed. We started overtaking people about a third of the way back. Some stayed with us, some couldn't hold the pace. Our group grew to 6 or 7 and we kept pushing hard.
The last obstacle in the route was a nasty little hill half a mile from the finish. It was at the bottom that we caught two more riders, a fixie and a geared. Nine of us started the sprint up the hill and we all knew it well since it was at the end of the loop of last year's urban 24hr race. All I wanted to do was beat Jon. We had agreed that at the bottom of the hill all bets were off. The best rider took the prize. I jumped and got a lead but he came back right at the top. From there to the finish was a slight grade but still uphill. I pushed out the last that I had and got in front again. And as I passed the checkpoint I realized my mistake. I dropped my bike and turned around in time to see Jon handing in his manifest. I ended up in 5th overall, 3rd fixed. Jason left the mountain about 4 minutes ahead of us but only beat us to the end by about two to get first place and first fixed.
Yanaton, the kid in the middle of the photo up top in the red and blue team kit left the park before us but crashed when another rider cut into his line. (Yanaton came to work at the SoPo bike Cooperative a year ago as a summer work program from the refugee rescue service he was with. He used to race on his middle school cycling team in Eritrea before his family made it to the states. He found a good frame at the CoOp and saved money to buy a 105 group off ebay. He built the bike entirely on his own and was able to start racing with the Aaron's Youth Team with kids whose parents buy them $2000 bikes and have them maintained at a shop. This was his first alleycat.) We caught him while he was riding with blood pouring down his knees and a tweaked shoulder. He stayed with is until the end and got 3rd geared, although he said he couldn't feel his arm anymore.
This race was how I always thought it could be. People working together, strategy, crashes and finishing despite them, pacelines, sprint finishes. I may have to stop back though atlanta next year to try it again. Jes says she has some new tricks up her sleeve that she may throw at us next time.