Wors #1 Iola Bump N Jump

Iola, Wisco
Sunday May 17, 2009
by: Rick Walls

Iola ‘09 marked the first WORS race of the year, and the first WORS race in quite some time as a gearie.  I thought of myself as something of a wolf in sheep’s clothing, ready to use every bad line and dirty trick that singlespeeding had taught me in the past few years.

The Iola course lends itself to the 29er.  Plenty of soulful singletrack and rolling XC ski trails.  It is all about momentum and sweet lines.

The first mistake came by lining up in the back of the shoot with the intention of picking off riders one by one.  It didn’t occur to me that this was a mistake until we hit a sand pit shortly after the start, when 20 people bailed in unison.  It was then time to use every bad line, attack on the doubletrack, and rail the singletrack for all that those big wheels were worth.  It was almost a constant traffic for the entire race working up through waves of riders ahead.

After turning myself completely inside out,it earned me dead middle of the Comp pack. 

Let’s toast to mediocrity!

After the race, another rider rolled up and asked “What’s with the metal thing?”  It is just the Twin Six thing.  Remember back in the day when all those metal bands dressed in skin tight spandex and tried to look cool for the chicks, but in the end they knew not to take it seriously? Well… Keep It Metal.*

After that it was off to the impromptu team meeting for cool PBR’s courtesy of Mafia Racing, and race tales with the T6 Metal Race Crew.

*As always seems to happen, I didn’t think of this until about 30 seconds after she rode off.  So feel free to use it.

-Rick Walls