purplebike

Sponsors (thus far): Ahearne Cycles, Arena Baggage, MER, No Brakes, Peachtree Bikes, R.E. Load, SOPO, Swrve, Transit Bags
Website: www.sopobikes.org/therock

purplebike

Race details: the route is awesome: register at No Brakes at Rogers St (Arizona St area off Dekalb Ave), paceline to Stone Mountain (stay as a group--if you pass the pacer you're disqualified), drop your bike at the bottom of the mountain, run/walk/jog up the mountain (checkpoint at the top--it's an easy walk/run, you can do it in 30 minutes), run back down the mountain, grab your bike, and race back to chez femmestache for the radtastic afterparty.


I have sponsor e-mails coming in daily--bags and other cool things will be given away to the fastest, craziest, and most deserving racers. 1st fixed, 1st free, and 1st female (unless a woman wins for 1st fixed or 1st free, in that case, the prize will go to the 2nd fastest person in any category). Other categories are being devised. And I'm not saying what they are until the day of the race. Suspense!
Additionally, I have a super awesome surprise that you'll get for registering. The entry fee is only $10 and the extra cash goes to benefit SOPO. But you won't want to miss out on the surprise.
The afterparty will have a fire and beer and food.


I need one or two volunteers, so if you want to be involved without racing, please e-mail me at jmgearing@gmail.com.


Please race! I want this to be big, especially since I've got some super sponsors from Atlanta, NYC, Gainseville, and Oregon (just to name a few) lined up already. Not only will it be fun for you, it's for a great cause!

TimArchy

I'll be there. But you already knew that.

purplebike

The sponsor's list is blowing up!

Note for out-of-towners: We would love love love to have you come in for the race and we can put you up at my place or other people's places close by. Also, the Friday night before the race is critical mass and the Sunday after the race we'll have a bike picnic with bike polo, jousting, footdown, trackstand, etc. competitions.

purplebike

I've given in--the special surprise is a screen printed cycling cap from Swrve. Pre-register with jes@sopobikes.org by July 15 to be guaranteed a cap & spoke card.

Remember, it's $10 and for a good cause. You know you wanna do this.

TimArchy

This Weekend!!!
This past weekend the Cuban Bash race served as a precurser to the action in The Rock (like the Dauphine Libere to the Tour de France). At 12.5 miles of straight city riding it was about half as long as the Rock and didn't have any running, but it gave us an idea of who some of the strong riders are going to be. And it was hard as ****.

The Rock looks to be challeging for those going for the win, but there are also a lot of people who are going out for the ride and are going to walk the mountain. So come out to test yourself or just to have fun. And the afterparty is going to be awesome so show up even if you're not doing the race.

Already over 30 people pre-registered.
Only 50 hats will be made so get your registration in if you want one.

See you on the mountain.

andypants

Are you talking Stone Mountain Park? Like, the huge mountain with the engraving thing on the side of the South's greatest heroes? How far outside the city is that?

TimArchy

Yeah, thats the one. Giant confederate memorial disguised as a really crappy park.
Interesting fact: The Second KKK formed itself on top of the mountain in 1915.

The mounain is about 20 miles from downtown. The start and finish are a little closer to the mountain so the race is only about 30mi total with a 2.5mi run in the middle (don't worry if you can't run, neither can we). Very easy route for out-of-towners.
Is Tally gonna represent?!?
We've got places for you to stay and polo bikes for you to ride (games sunday morning)

andypants

I'm not really sure. I just got back in town and we're having a race friday. We'll see what happens, it sounds like a fun idea!

TimArchy

Wish I could head down there for that race.
This is going to be my last in atlanta and the after party is my going away celebration.
You'll be seeing posts for Thailand's first alleycat in a few months. The winner will be the first person who doesn't die riding in Thai traffic.

Nick D.o.a

Bummed I gotta miss this. That's a sweet idea for a race though.

Ride hard kids

TimArchy

Hopefully this won't be the only time this race happens

purplebike

Look for The Rock II next year!

Everyone come! I keep getting prizes...it's ridiculous...but awesome.

Come on Florida, road trip!

purplebike

Tomorrow!

purplebike

Thank you thank you thank you to everyone who supported or raced in The Rock last night. It was a phenomenal turnout, over 55 people registered, over 50 raced. Reports said the pace line was great (thanks to Todd for pacing it!) and the run up and down the mountain was painful. Either Brian Gross or Kurt was the 1st person off of the mountain and back on his bike to ride back to the finish. At the finish I got to watch everyone haggardly pedal up the Highland hill (the sprint of #s 2-10 was awesome to watch) and the manifests were absolutely gross with sweat. After everyone had rested, drank water, eaten some pizza, and swilled some beer, the consensus was that it was a great race. On my side, the planning went so much more smoothly than I could have hoped for (there were bumps, but they all worked out).


Thank you to No Brakes, SOPO, Swrve, R.E. Load, Ahearne, Mike Arena of Arena Baggage, Lynn of Transit Bags, MER, Peachtree Bikes, my chiropractor, the masseuse (sorry I can't remember names right now). A special thanks to Daniel for running the SAG bus which was run on biodiesel!
Below are the results. Jason walked away with yellow rims from No Brakes, Jon scored a free chiropractic workover, Stacey won a green bag from MER, Jenny won the most amazing bag I've ever seen from Mike Arena, Craig scored a(nother) bag from Transit, Linda won a free massage, Todd won a purple hip pouch from R.E. Load and a $25 gift certificate from Peachtree Bikes, and Amy won a top tube cover from R.E. Load, a R.E. Load t-shirt, and a $25 gift certificate from Peachtree Bikes. The custom bike flask holder and flask went to the Roswell guy who was hit by a taxi, and the guy who got the first flat won a tire.


Everyone who finished was a winner. And everyone who almost finished is too. It was a hard race.
This was also a goodbye race to Kyle, Todd, and Sandra. Kyle is moving to Thailand on Tuesday, Todd to New York on Monday, and Sandra to San Fransisco on Monday. They're all members of the bike community that will be sorely missed.


Once again, thank you thank you thank you for making this an awesome race. I couldn't have done it without everyone who was there.

Pictures!


Overall
1 Jason
2 Craig
3 Jon
4 Todd
5 Kyle Schultz
6 Yonathan
7 Austin Cren
8 Kyle H.
9 Lisandro
10 Phil
11 Brad N.
12 Jeff B.
13 BOG
14 Bobby
15 Kurt
16 Jake C.
17 John P.
18 Wade
19 Gabe
20 Geoff
21 Jenny
22 Stacey
23 Roger
24 Stephen
25 Matt R.
26 Chris S.
27 Hayden
28 Kyle A.
29 Julian
30 Nate G.
31 Garrett M.
32 Linda R.
33 Tom L.
34 Gabriel T.
35 Adam D.
36 Joseph
37 Tim L.
38 Chris H.
39 Matt M.
40 Johsh M.
41 Amy P.
42 Adrian
43 Anthony
44 Amy F.
45 Kate
46 Deck


Fixed Male
1 Jason
2 Jon
3 Kyle Schultz
4 Austin Cren
5 Jeff B.
6 Bobby
7 Kurt
8 Geoff
9 Roger
10 Matt R.
11 Kyle A.
12 Nate G.
13 Tom L.
14 Gabriel T.
15 Tim L.
16 Matt M.
17 Josh M.
18 Anthony
19 Deck


Fixed (Female)
1 Stacey


Free (Male)
1 Craig
2 Todd
3 Yonathan
4 Kyle H.
5 Lisandro
6 Phil
7 Brad
8 BOG
9 Jake C.
10 John P.
11 Wade
12 Gabe
13 Stephen
14 Chris S.
15 Hayden
16 Julian
17 Garrett M.
18 Adam D.
19 Joseph
20 Chris H.
21 Adrian


Free (Female)
1 Jenny
2 Linda R.
3 Amy P.
4 Amy F.
5 Kate

TimArchy

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.