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Due to the aforementioned illnesses (Alex joined the flu
fun late in the week), I was the only one able to make it to Bend to race the
USGPs. Cold but sunny days combined with a dry fun course to make the racing
great. I got smoked by a few, smoked a few, broke some poor soul’s will to race,
and had the ladies oohing and ahhing (at least I’m pretty sure they were
ladies: everyone was bundled up so it was hard to tell, but I’ll take the
benefit of the doubt). And thanks to Maria Patla for the pictures below:

 All in all, it’s been a super successful season for us:
we’ve demonstrated the durability of the Gates Centrack belt drive design,
photographed well, and proven that racing a singlespeed cyclocross bike against
geared competition is a viable option (we put 2 guys in the top 20 of the final
standings of the A class for Cross Crusade: and yes, the A means that’s the
fast class!).

And with that, I’d like to present a few end of season statistics
and awards for the Gates Belt Drive/River City Bicycles team!

Number of riders: 4

Number of badasses: 4

Number of races: 76

Number of times the drivetrains required maintenance: 0
(ask any cross racer: this is a very significant digit!)

Best Performance: John at SSCXWC (see 2:42 of this clip
as he takes – and celebrates taking – the hole shot: http://www.pelotonmagazine.com/Special-Features/video/10/1125/Single-Speed-CX-World-Championships
)

Best race write-ups: Alex and John. Totally sweet: read them
here:  http://teamrcb.com/shop/

Best race results: Ryan and Seth, 20th and 7th Overall in
Cross Crusade category A

(full team results here: http://obra.org/teams/25923/2011
)

Best Costume: John with the pumpkin head at Halloween (with
Seth a distant 2nd in the sumo suit)

Best supporter: Maria Patla – great picts, design, and
printing

Best Sponsors: All of ours!! Gates, River City Bicycles,
Nau, Giro: thanks for making this season the great time it was!

Best video: Seth http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QV13u2mB4ZQ

Best headline: http://bendbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20111031/NEWS0107/110310368&nav_category

Best Photos:

Friday morning we loaded up the van with bikes, belts, booze, and 5 dudes. We pointed ourselves South and 12 short hours later, hit San Fran. We did go out that night, but none of us recall where, so it must not have been noteworthy at all.

Fast forward to Saturday morning’s “feats of strength” qualifier. We rode all over the city with groups of people that we didn’t know, but who, most likely know us now. Stairs got run, hills got climbed, dolla billz got snatched, beaches got run, score cards

Looks fake, but itʼs not. We were debuting our newly designed and installed anti-gravity center track belts . Yep, they work and they are awesome, and no, you canʼt have one.

We all qualified. Some of us in a more traditional fashion than others, but we alltoed the line for the main event. Thatʼs good because we sort of ʻforgotʼ togoto the Last Chance Qualifiers Event on Saturday night. In the end, I think itʼs good we werenʼt there for a variety of reasons that you shouldnʼt know about. Poor Seth spent the entire weekend trying to kick some sort of ailment and hadto behave himself, he was in amazing shape and ready to go earn a tattoo (Winner getsa tat. Donʼt want the tat? Donʼt win – more on that later.) Little did he know that his weekend would only find more misfortune. Sunday morning we woke up and shook out the cobwebs – of which there weremany – and rolled out to the race. Seth, Dave , our buddy Jake, and I drove while Ryan and Alex trenchcoated up for the wet ride:

Pics courtesy Colla Bone Productions by Jake Brimlow

Upon arrival we registered and got our finalrace prep done. Again, different methods for each of us to get in the kill zone for therace:

Donʼt be alarmed, most of this blood is fake.

Thanks for pics Jake B.

They yelled GO and, aided by some tactical cunning , I took the hole shot. First to the bikes, and best bike in the race – I won the 2 categories that matter most to me.

Seth though, metanother fate. Some big dumb lummox accidentally smashedhis rear wheel duringthe start. This shot is after it got “fixed” – fixed means that it now could rotate through his frame.Not good.

As a result, Seth did a lot ofrunning. The fools at the front end of the race are lucky that he messed aroundin the pit for a while. I would not like to have Seth pissedand running after me.

Where did the other riders go? Oh yeah, Weaver just ate them. With no remorse.What are you gonna do about that? Nothing.

◦ Thanks Plattyjo for the pic.

My major issue was dealing with heat management, after getting the hole-shot, the Carbon Drive allowed me to go way harder and faster than my body was capable of. What did I do? Hang out in a bath and drink beers, and then sit on a log and drink beers.

So I got distracted by something shiny. Seth got his wheel smashed by a Sasquatch. 1/2 the team was down, but the other 1/2 were thriving. After less than stellar starts (I will be giving tactical clinics), they threaded the gauntlet of shattered dreams:

How

◦

All in all, the weekend was a success. The winners of the race – who shall gain no print from me – refused the ceremonial tattoos. The are forever damned to race with gears against people who have their priorities all wrong. Personas non grata.

It took a few days to recover fully from our various forms of exertion. We would like to offer up a formal apology to anyone who fell foul of our weekend efforts. A huge thank-you goes to Dave Guettler who was a champ and drove after putting up with us all weekend. Big thanks also to Gates Carbon Drive for supplying the best drivetrains on the best bikes in the whole world. We can’t wait to up the ante in Santa Cruz next year in conjunction with Gates – it is so gratifying to blow by someone with a broken or dropped chain out there – which happens really often! Let’s start planning 2012!

This just in: Mountain Bike National Championships Moves East for 2013 . That would be my hometown, by the velodrome I grew up racing on, and at the ski resort where my Dad works. Let’s fire up some 29ers and make it happen all over again!

Blind Date #2 was the first muddy Blind Date race ever (3rd year of the series: pretty good record so far!), and boy did we make up for lost wetness! A downpour during the women’s race turned the course into a muddy, messy, hard-to-handle, crash-filled little piece of cross heaven. We had a blast and avoided any major wipe-outs, and gave the Gates Carbon Drive the first major mudding of the year: they performed admirably! Although the drivetrain got just a muddy as the rest of the bike (and us!), it rode as smooth as silk and power transfer was spot on. There was no grit grind like I get when riding a chained bike, and the belt seemed to shed gunk from the inside very well. (Post-race pictures showed that while the belt definitely was muddy, the outside of the belt was way muddier than the inside: apparently the gears help to shed debris really well!)

And even better for me and my laziness, cleanup was easier as I only had to spray off the bike and belt, then be on my (as opposed to before, when I would have to worry about cleaning chain, then re-lubricating, then checking for rust and re-lubricating again!). Overall, a five star rating for the belt drive on this outing!!

Woohoo!

Mark Gyulafia brought home not one but TWO silver medals from the US National Paralympic Track Racing Championships for the Paralympic C5 category 4K Pursuit and 1K time trial. The races were September 29-October 2 in Carson, California. Mark did three races and a qualifying 4K pursuit. He had the best time, which gets him onto the US team for the World Paralympic Track Champs in February, which will also be held in beautiful Carson. That will be the last chance to qualify for the London Olympics, so Mark is well on his way. “Everything is falling into place,” he says, with the casual air of someone who just happens to be really fast. Mark is happy to have finally filled out a full set of medals: one gold, two silver and two bronze.  Nice work dude, good luck in February!