So, the Loose Nutters managed a strong third-place finish in the polo tournament at the Atlanta Midsummer Invitational and garnered the respect of many competitors who recalled the team's lackluster showing at the East Side Polo Invitational in Pensacola several months back. With a combination of smart tactics, well-honed mallet skills and clean play, the squad of Jones, Millard and Tavel cruised through their qualifying rounds, with their only losses coming at the hands of the teams from Richmond, VA and Columbia, SC(?) who were the eventual first and second-place teams. However, Mr. Tavel did not escape the competition unscathed. Through a bizarre combination of polo, trick bike douche-baggery and heavy-duty tent-tossing, Chris managed to crack some ribs. He's on the heal-up and will be ready to knock your teeth out with a slapshot before you know it.
In more current news, the Buddy System team alleycat took place this past Saturday here in Athens. Naturally, as the AMI alleycat was heavily tilted in favor of Atlanta locals, it was not difficult for Athenians to dominate the podium of the Buddy System. The two-person format was a new approach for most riders, who were tethered to their BFF at the start for a three-legged Lemans-Style start, forced to shuffle down a gravel driveway, disentangle themselves and mount up for the 2-hour long event in which competitors had to make it to four mandatory checkpoints and perform such diverse tasks as rope-jumping, 12" bike time-trialing, duct-tape leg waxing, tequila body-shotting, and trying in vain to score a goal against the infamous Dr. Jones on his home polo court. After that, there were a handful of optional challenges on tap for extra points. As in any urban race, a knowledge of the local area, traffic patterns, and elevation change was key, and the top teams combined an intimate knowledge of the Athenian bike scene with smart planning and high speed runs across town. In addition to the strong local showing (although the majority of Athens bigwigs were helping out running checkpoints) a handful of shredders dragged themselves down from hippie mountain for the festivities and made their presence felt on the road and by manning the grill and serving up about 10thousand delicious burgers for the post race party. Several teams also made the trek from Atlanta and made a respectable showing, especially in the late-night bar blitz that went down after all the free beers at Loose Nuts HQ had been cracked, drained and crushed. The temptation presented by dollar beers and 2-dollar shots proved to be a bit too much for some of the Atlanta faithful, who were left scrambling for a hole in the ground with cheeks full of upchuck. There were no official prize categories for out-of-towners, but when a plastic bag full of barely used bibshorts donated by a high-profile Athens cycling legend (who shall not be named here) appeared at HQ, the Atlanta boys were treated to a free lycra buffet and jumped at the opportunity like your fat cousin downing mac-and-cheese at Golden Corral.
All in all, it was a great race and one of the most fun alleycats in Athens history. Big props go out to all the winners, losers, DNFers, checkpoint workers, sponsors, and most importantly to Megs and Dr. Jones for organizing the race, buying a million beers and a thousand pounds of ground beef, and showing us all an awesome time.
Stay tuned for more information about the upcoming Bastille Day Cross-Crit race, July 14. Heads Will Roll!
Until next time,
RK
