“You do that in 2.5 hours on that bike?” I asked.
Jamon instantly replied, “Fuck no!”
The “that bike” was of course his rig he will be using in the upcoming Townie World Championships in Gunnison, Colorado in two weeks. The bike is a Voodoo hardtail set up singlespeed. It has full fenders, a front and rear basket. The rear one has a crate that he straps a lunch box into that carries all of his support stuff, like extra water, tools, tubes and of course, beer. All of this doesn’t seem too bad until you realize that he will be racing this thing for 24 hours on dirt and it only has Vee brakes. You remember those right? They were the brakes that we had before disc brakes that either locked up the wheels or didn’t. So you know, he’s got that going for him.
KB and I were in SLC. This is something that for unknown reasons only happens once a year and it tends to be an up and back in 24 hour type of trip. This years sojourn in our state’s capital coincided, due to hasty planning, with the Cutthroat Racing‘s Beer Bash. And we had to get Jamon his Rocket Box back that he had so generously let us borrow and then we never needed.
For us, the Beer Bash started with a 10 mile ride over to the Uintah Brewing’s Brewery type headquarters. This sounded fine until about half way there we realized that we had been coasting pretty much the entire time and it was confirmed that we could probably get to our destination without ever pedaling. This made us question the return trip but we were assured that it wasn’t as much down as it seemed.
About a 1/4 of the way there, we swung by another house and picked up the rest of our pack. Which included Greg Steel, proprietor of Beehive Bicycles who had recently dislocated his shoulder. This meant that he would be rocking the stoker seat of the tandem.
From that moment on there was pretty much hijynxery in the highest possible forms.
One of the most important parts of the evening was the autograph session with current reigning Singlespeed World Champion. You didn’t know such a thing existed… And that some dude who resides in Utah won it just a few weeks ago. Well, shame on you. You can read about it here. In the true spirit of SSWC, the autograph signing was a bit rowdy.
The party goers began to dissipate. The bikes that had been lined up outside began to disappear. The parking lot had been empty when we got there so that didn’t change. Slowly our rag tag group of beautiful people gathered back together and we began what was feared to be the slow, painful slog back up to Holliday. We spun along at a nice pace and then suddenly we were at a Mexican joint that was still open and quite busy. Some people ordered one of everything. And others didn’t.
We hit the soft thing known as a bed at 2 AM. Seeing that the Church of the Holy Alliance of Mooseknucklers is a very serious group that doesn’t like to miss any Sunday worship, a ride for the next morning had kind of been planned. We were supposedly meeting in Park City at 10. The night ended.
The ride had been pretty much organized by Jamon. The text exchange went like this:
“We could get in an Armstrong/pinecone/crest/ambush lap in Park City if we start around 10ish.”
“That sounds long”
“3-4 hours + 3k vert. Could go easier thought.”
“K. I’m not saying no, but your 3-4 hours is probably closer to my 6-7.”
“It’s actually 2.5 of my hours. :)”
It’s always good to know my reputation proceeds me.
We hit the middle of the 8ish mile climb. I was feeling the effects of the elevation and the fact that I don’t usually have the opportunity to climb that much sustained mileage when Rob mentioned that the second half was much worse, way steeper. Thanks Rob.
The trail really wasn’t that bad. I didn’t have to walk anything but stopping was needed on the steeper section that Rob had referenced. And just when I thought I couldn’t possibly want to climb any more, we topped out to the amazing view above. It was like starting in Cedar City and ending in Yosemite. I hadn’t been to the Wasatch Crest trail yet, but I am glad that we made the pedal. Both KB and I agreed that we needed to make sure that our yearly trip was at least doubled to semi-annual.
The beers that the sag wagon had been hauling up for us were handed out and we enjoyed the views.
We then followed the Crest trail as it headed down the spine. There were a couple more punchy ups and then we finally made it to the spot that we were told marked the point of almost exclusive downhill. The townie rider placed himself in the back and I knew at that point things were going to be fast. Richard was gone and I did everything within my power to keep Ali in sight. If you didn’t know the K Nuts are fast.
When the arm pump and grins needed a rest we would stop. We could always here Jamon coming before we could see him. Considering how tired my legs and hands got on the rigid bike, I can’t imagine what he felt like with the added weight and Vee brakes. Huge props. Hopefully he’ll bring home the W at the World Championship. God knows I would show up for another autographing session…
P. L. and R.