Friday, September 4, 2009

SSMT Report

My apologies to any who have been waiting for the full recap. Driving across the country this past week took a good chunk out of me, but now I'm back to full strength. All things SSMT got started Friday afternoon, when I made it to Bozeman and met up with Eric who was finishing packing up the Mule Train. We got up to the staging area, parked the whips and started to attack all of the logistical tasks which needed to be done. Ben was busy twith the weed wacker clearing the timing areas, I set up the easy ups, Eric unpakced the Mule Train, and Cory was getting a massage.


Ben, Eric, Sten, Rich, and self headed out to go make sure all of the course markings were in place. Ben and I took the climbing portion, and in about an hour we had made it back to the staging area to begin the evening of eating, drinking, and good times. Rich, Sten, and Eric had a little bit more work, and didnt come back until after dark. While they were out, a fire was built, the Madison River keg was tapped, and brats were cooked. Jesse from Red Lodge had made the trip up early, and joined in the good times with his own fine microbrews. Once heavy drunkeness set in we headed to catch some quick sleep before the real work started.
The sun rose and work started to get taken care of. In the end a little over 50 people showed up for the mountain bike race. At the pre race meeting I told all the singlespeeders about the rules of SSMT. I told them that to go along with the Le Mans start, they would have to do it with their front wheel, then once they got to their bike they would have to put the front wheel on. I also told them that one they finished the cross country portion to hang around the start finish area, so they could also get their hill climb TT aspect taken care of. The race began with a bang from Rich's shotgun and Adam from South Carolina appeared to be the first singlespeeder to get his front wheel on, and start riding.

Since I wasnt participating I had no idea what was going on with the actual race. I do know that one singlespeeder got lost while doing his pre-lap, and didnt make it back to the road until after the race had started. I gave him a water bottle and an oatmeal creme pie, and told him to just ride two laps anyway. From what I did see of the cross country portion, Jesse killed it, beating all put one of the geared riders, Adam had to cut his day short due to a flat, and Ed was grateful for the cool cans of Olympia I offered to him.

Once the cross country portion was finished, all of the singlespeed folks went off to do their hill climb TT. It seemed simple enough, I told them where to start, and where they would finish. Each time as the rider began to ride to the start line, I stopped them and gave told them of the final wrinkle. They would have to ride the time trial wearing my backpack which was loaded with beer, and other heavy items. In the end Ed through down the fastest time, which gave him a tie in overall points with Matt. However, Matt had done better in the cross country race, which I considered to be the tie breaker.
Matt's tie breaker earned him the right to pick which one of the four Litte Debbie's treats would not be included in the decider Matt picked the Sweet Rolls, so the Decider for overall supremecy would be determined by who could eat the three Little Debbie treats the quickest.

In the end Sam, who was last in the cross country race wound up finishing his treats the quickest, and therefore was the big winner. He received his gold spinner hubcap as a prize, and all seemed to enjoy themselves, which is all I really cared about. Now I just have to figure out what to do in order to improve on it for next year.

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