June gets it HOT!

So we're still waiting on news updates from the Atlanta Midsummer Invitational Polo tournament and street races, but the Loose Nuts team of Tavel, Jones and Millard and the Mallets of Athens squad of Sakai, Magner and Bushnel have qualified for the 8-team finals to be played on Sunday, June 21. This report from the Duke of the Mallet himself, K Sakai:

• 16 teams descended on the 2009 Atlanta Midsummer Invitational on a sweltering Georgia summer day capped by the temperature & humidity at over 9000. Athens arrived with 3 teams and moral support from the holligans of Athens and parents. The tone of the day for Athens was set with Loose Nuts (Athens-1), MoA (Athens-2) and Random (Athens-Composite) each winning their respective games in round 1. Loose Nuts dominated their games with strong play by Tavel, Millard & Doc Jones. They would later go on to topple Call to Arm's Tournament Champions, Ft Lauderdale, in a physical death match with casualties including lost fingernails and broken spokes. MoA (Athens-2) of Magner, Bushnel & Sakai kept the fire stoked with tournament newcomer, Magner, scoring a hat trick and the team pulling off a flawless record winning all four matches. Both Loose Nuts and MoA-A2 qualified in today's finale.

More information will follow as it is received.  

The next couple of weekends will carry the bike-citement generated by the AMI back home to Athens with a full docket of racing and rabble-rousing brought to you by a virtual whos-who of local two-wheeled celebutards. 

The first event to put your life, limb and potential happiness in jeopardy is The Buddy System, a team alleycat organized by UGA road racer and Loose Nuts cyclocross superstar Mighty Megs Denision and Loose Nuts track racer, polo killer and web mastermind Dr. Benjamin Jones.  

$10 for an afternoon of racing, food and delicious beverages?  Count me in!  Maybe we can get a big bicycle squaredance together and Madison Handsling our partners round and round!  If you don't have your buddy yet, don't worry.  There's always time for making new friends.

Then, on the very next weekend JohnDeere/UGA road bike crusher and stem-creak-freak Rigoberto Simpsoni presents his long-awaited Bastille Day cross-crit.  

I'm not sure what lies in store for racers on that fateful day in July, but you may rest assured that your pale-skinned, soft-bellied, weak-legged, lamb-eating, lassiez-faire, bourgeois ass will be humiliated and laid to rest in a mass grave with the rest of the upper-crusters. If you aren't tough enough, that is. This one's for the people in the streets, not the people City Hall.

Stay Loose.  We'll see you at the races.

-RK

New Website Under Development

So we are slowly moving towards a fully functional website. You can now find us a Loose Nuts Wheels

If you have any suggestions or comments please feel free to shoot us an email.

Also, look for us at the Atlanta Midsummer Invitational. We are a proud sponsor and will have more than a few teams competing in both the polo tournament and the various alleycats through out the weekend.

LN

B43's Built

Built up last Tuesday to All-City Hubs. Built up well and ride great too--

Mayhem Alleycat Win

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.

Athens has been taken to the HNL

The newest ride rolling around Loose Nuts HQ--

Steamroller frame, DMR Trailblade Fork, Truvativ Cranks (about to be changed to 165mm FSA's) and a bunch of other used parts.

LN