Loose Nuts Cycles: May 2009

In a desperate attempt to get out of Athens the Loose Nuts Race crew traveled up to Asheville to compete in the Mayhem Alleycat put on by Independent Fabrication mountain bike ripper Kylie Krauss. Expecting the air to be patchouli laden and the vibe to be chill we were thrown a curve ball at the beginning location in the form, of multiple undercover cops and a full squad of back-up, uniformed, police. Officially, the harassment stemmed from the ever horrific crime of selling t-shirts in a public park without a permit. After 15 or so confusing minutes of background checks, stern warnings, and not so truthful address given the race regrouped at Kylie's house for a slightly late and slightly altered start.

Consisting of multiple mandatory checkpoints spread out all over Asheville and a plethora of bonus points available at other undisclosed locations, the race appeared, at the start, to heavily favor the Asheville locals. After desperately scrutinizing the map and trying to orient ourselves in an extraordinarily disorienting city, Dr. Jones and I were as ready for racing in a city we'd never ridden through. With the tactics of the Giro fresh in our minds, we immediately hopped on some local riders wheels (which later proved to be immensely frustrating for them) and let them, guide us to the first few stops.

Feeling ever more confident with a belly full of whiskey and wet jeans from a slip-and-slide (compliments of the first few stops) we turned off by ourselves for the remainder of the race. We ended up hitting all the mandatory checkpoints pretty quickly and without to much backtracking. We did however spend a little additional time at the super sweet pumptrack (one of the mandatory stops) trying to throwdown some fast times for additional points. After looking amazingly ridiculous we managed to get our perpetually spinning feet timed somewhat well and made it around the course at a decent clip-- even managing to catch some air on the new B43's.

After spirited ride back through town towards the race finish, Ben and I got back first and immediately started rehydrating with the perfectly cool PBR's waiting for us. As the rest of the racers hurried back before the 7:00 cut off time the grill was fired up and many beers were emptied. After the scores were calculated, and recalculated a couple of times, Kylie announced the results before a befuddled crowd. In a stroke of luck, and thanks to the second place team, (the guys who lead us out to the first few checkpoints) Dr. Jones and I managed to squeeze out the win. After a few minutes of disbelief and incredulousnesses the murmur died down and everyone refocused on recounting the race, and their beverages.

Huge props go out to Kylie for throwing an extremely well organized race, and handling the ridiculous police presence at the start of the race. Hopefully some of the Asheville crew will be able to come down to Athens soon and beat us on our home court.