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WICK WINS THE OFFICIAL-UNOFFICIAL SINGLE SPEED CYCLOCROSS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP SIMMS DOUBLES THE VICTORIES IN TORONTO Kona-yourkey.com Factory Team rider Barry Wicks won the inaugural Official-Un-official Single Speed Cyclocross World Championships, held at the infamous Estacada Timber Bowl in Oregon. With an event title containing the official-unofficial everything was a bit sideways and all in fun. On a more serious note Kona Rider Wendy Simms was out testing her legs getting two wins at Centennial Park in Toronto this weekend at the UCI Pro-Am double header. “It’s good to get the legs back on track after being sick and support the Canadian races. They were pretty pumped to have both National Champions there,” remarked Simms. The following is the Oregon race report from the man himself, Kona team rider Erik Tonkin:
ERIK TONKIN Marko et al: All in all it was a success. Each one of the boys won a race on Sunday. It started with me. Since I didn't make it out there Saturday to "qualify" for the silly SS World Championships race, there was a last-ditch, winner-is-in qualifier for the victor of the Cross Crusade single-speed race. The Packers-Vikings game was on TV, so I watched the first half. I was conflicted to say the least. I tore myself away at the last second and arrived at the venue in my car only 5min. before the start. There was no time to change, so I stayedin my latest pair of super-pants and threw on my pre-pinned single-speed jersey. I powered the Kona Paddy Wagon--fixed-gear, of course--to a come from behind victory. I guess I did it the hard way. That's the good news. The bad news is that it toasted me a bit for the next event, the A Men's race. Trebon naturally won it. All I can say is I held it together enough to finish somewhere in the top-10, and I proved I have some speed left by taking the first lap winner's prime. I gunned it from, like, 10th wheel up to Ryan, who'd already dropped everybody, to get it at the line. Then he quickly dropped me, and I went backwards further. Of course, I had to save something for my third race of the day and itspremier event: the aforementioned silly World Single-Speed Cyclocross Championship. Barry took it in front of Adam Craig and Ryan. It really wasa blast. For me, I somehow rode into the top-10 by virtue of utilizing the Tequila Shot Short-Cutduring the race's middle laps. I'm not a big drinker, so I Chevy-Chased the shotmy first time thru, flipped-off the crowd gathered there, and was met with a barrage of whatever they could throw at me. The next time thru I said, "OK, OK: I'll do it for real this time." They force-fed me the double-shot, but I managed to choke up enough of it to spit what was left back into the crowd. Everybody loved that so much....I figured I'd better try to hide from the short-cut for awhile. I skipped it the next lap, but they were on to me: armed with head-sized rubber balls, one southpaw had pretty damn good aim, as he nailed me right in the nuts!But I kept her upright. My package still hurts, though. Little did they know I was taking beer hand-ups on the run-up, which I was mostly riding (except when I wanted a beer hand-up, which was every other lap, at least). I was pretty lit bytwo to go: again, I aint's no big drinker, so the alcohol and my sore solar-plexus tempered my "racing".I guess the cramping didn't help, either. A group of serious single-speeders caught me,so I don't know where I finished. All I knowis I completed the Hat Trick, so it was a goodthing I raced in my Team S&M hockey jersey. So, too, did Barry.Un-choreographed, we both showed up sportingthe old jerseys. It was sweet. I raced mine for all three events, and he wore his for both of his races. Barry rode his single-speed in the A race,buthe took it easy late in the race: he caught up with me and then sat up. Adam rode his sweet single-speed in the A race, too, and he totally schooled me. I guess I was barely fit enough to do the first two races, let alone all three. We also had a banner day at the shop on Sat. It was nothing but last-second 'cross bike sales and single-speed conversions.It's hard not to believe the hype these days. And I almost forgot: Green Bay went on to win 34-0. Itaped the second-half and watched it when I got home. The nice thing about being a football fan at a Sunday bike race is there's little risk of anybodyspilling the beans. We're 8 and 1: even though I'm from MN, the Pack is my team! See ya! ET
Next up time to get down to the serious business of racing our way back into the US Grand Prix of Cyclocross leaders jesey in New Jersey November 17 & 18th. Our Sponsors:
Your Key Mortgage, Stvenstad Dental, Big Agnes Our Equipment:
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