This first weekend of June Darkhorse Cycles hosted what was originally planned as a low key back to basics mountain bike race - Singlespeed-a-Palooza. The concept behind the event was to combine a good post race party with some great riding/racing and have everyone go home feeling great about their day in the saddle.
Always a believer is supporting your home cycle shop and looking for some early season action I entered with little expectation in terms of an overall results since there would be no age groups (at 51 this is important), I would be racing in pro division and this would be my first XC race ever. My focus was on the Stoopid 50 in two weeks time so the approach to the race was to get in a solid intensity training ride, take a first ride on my new deluxe lefty 29er and most importantly, after the rough past 9 months working in the financial markets, go out and have a good time.
The expectation was for 100 riders but the field ended up with over 200 riders, featured cash prems and lots of cold post race beer. Mike Montalbano scorched the 20 mile course in 1:25 followed by Jesse Jakomait (sporting a pair of Daisy Duke cutoffs and the sleeveless lumberjack shirt) and Roger Foco in third. As for yours truly I had a great time, got in a quality ride, finished near the back of the pro class and realized that races less then 50 miles or 3 days are not for me (you think I would have learned after trying Cross) but I am now ready for some good ultra endurance racing. Darkhorse Cycles once again showed how to host an event that surely will become the benchmark for single speed races on the East Coast, if you missed this one make sure you put it on the calendar for next year.