Fucking Hills Race 2009 – the aftermath
Posted on February 24, 2009 -- Edit Post
Filed Under .83, Bike Kwak | 2 Comments
It’s Tuesday. The race was Sunday. What a great ride. 33 miles of Hills on Bainbridge Island. So rad.
(map compliments of Monica)
Met up at Alaskan and Washington under the viaduct, paid our $7 and affixed our pirate flags. Derrick made 90 flags and ran out. I think registration was around 125 riders. And EVERYONE got a prize or two.
Gregg getting an early start on the day with a Rainier.
While waiting in line we worked with David Hiller of Cascade Bicycle Club to do some advocacy work by calling the Ballard rep. Here, Gretchen is doing her part to contribute.
Ginger brought Una. Though Una didn’t run the route, we’re all pretty sure she could have. She was pretty exhausted by the day though – didn’t like the ferry.
Donated Dahon Hammerhead 7.0
Derrick pulling the sag wagon full of messenger bags and schwag with the Dahon.
Ferry ride over was pretty smooth. Everyone was in high spirits. We hit the ground running and started racing immediately. Friction with Cascade was non existant. I got a lot of questions about the pirate flag and who we were. Thing of it is, we’re one of the most active bike clubs in town, I think there’s decent interest in finding a group that rides socially without a lot of bikey todo about it. I mean, beyond big events like this, normal Cascade rides seem to be sorta few and far between and relatively low grade. Rode with this girl Laura who’d registered for the Chilly Hilly for awhile. She’s been riding with a team of other tri-athletes. Had a nice conversation about it all, and then she left me in the dust on the next big hill. Heh. Hills, I loathe thee.
I’d stripped off the CETMA rack for the race – seemed like everyone was shedding weight for the race. not knowing what to expect, I followed suit. I also used the FHR as an excuse to strap on a pair of Shimano 105 brifters I found at Recycled Cycle for $100 about 3 months ago. Also ditched those Armadillo tires for Vittoria Rubino’s which were MUCH lighter and seemed to hold up just as well – made a big difference just in general ride quality and speed. Anyhow, not to bike-dork out about this too much, these turned out to be really good choices. With 30 gears (3×10) that bike has a lot of granularity, and a lot of room to squeeze some extra power/speed. And I’m fat and slow so need all the help I can get. This bike rode like a fucking champ. Couldn’t be more pleased.
Whatever – back to the race. It was fucking awesome. And Derrick met us about half way out with:
a manditory whiskey stop and helmet swap. Turns out we are a bunch of cheating bitches – later it would come to light there was a lotta shortcut takin goin on. Next time we need 3 of these things like alleycat check points. Fortunately nobody takes this shit seriously – especially us.
Cops put an APB out for Ben for riding without a helmet. Rumor has it Captain Nick also got nipped – this was a hundred meters before the whiskey stop here where they told them they had to walk their bikes the rest of the route. Whatever – as stated this was about 100m from the whiskey stop, so they walked their bikes over to us, helmets were donated to the APB’d riders and the ride ensued.
Not many pictures of the ride itself. It was beautiful and picturesque. The hills were insanely steep but relatively short. According to my computer I did 33.3 miles in 2hrs and 15 minutes, average speed of 14.8mph, maximum speed of 44.8mph!!! Those hills were hella steep going up, and fortunately they were equally steep going down – boy you just bomb em. Incredibly fun. I only stopped 4 times and I never walked up a hill. Once to strip off my outer goretex layer (I rode the rest of it in a Tshirt and arm warmers). Once to double check my bike for loose bolts – after that first hill you really really didn’t want anything flying off cause you’d be dead. Once to force myself to drink water – weather was cool and it’d rained that morning so it was sorta damp and nice but I was still sweating a fair amount. And once to try and help this Cascade fella with a flat tire. Radio car came and got him and I got back on the road. I ran into him at the end of the race and he came and shook my hand. Spreading a little pirate cheer. We’re not total dicks afterall.
Finish line was the dock behind Doc’s Cafe
Ryan was broke-dick beating up a drunk at a bar so couldn’t ride, but turns out he’s still got skills in the kitchen and was on this chilli action, compliments of Shannon and Nygaard – Nygaard who was not present for the race at all, due to sick wife and dog. 
Then it was time for the schwag give away
Derrick did all the work getting prizes for the most part. The Eastlake Zoo donated panties and shirts. Gretchen and Ashley walked away with the panties.
Dahon donated an entire Hammerhead 7.0 bike! Thanks Dahon! Raffled it off to a very surprised Bill Turner.
Freaky lookin but felt good – hell I was pretty disappointed I didn’t win it, and Bill was plenty stoked he did. Cass and Eric met us at the finish line on their boat The October – which strikes a singularly unique shape against the rest of the other boats.
Then, back to the ferry for most of us.
Home…
Sitting there we realized the October* was coming along side us, so we went out to say hello
And suddenly we heard from the sky like god commanding Moses:
“PULL UP YOUR PANTS OR GET OFF THE BOAT”
Across the ship wide intercom for everyone within a quarter mile to hear. We just fucking died. Funniest thing ever.
Apparently Margaret was on the boat and this was the view from there, as we were re-pantsing.
Big Sky
We all regrouped at the Owl and Thistle for drinks and dinner once back in the city, and later wandered home in the rain drunk, and fed, and tired, and happy.
BEST RIDE EVER.
I think there were an estimated 5000 Cascade riders – I think there were 125 pirates this year. The Seattle PI covered the Chilly Hilly with a beautiful photo spread you should go and look at HERE. What’s sorta interesting is with a ratio like that, they still managed to get a picture of one of us. Albeit blurry, the bike in the background is Andre, and you can see the pirate flag tied to his seat. Hilarious.
Oh yeah – in terms of schwag I scored pretty well. I got a Park bottle opener which is rad, a T-shirt with our spoke card logo on it (mixed blessing there, Jeff you’re a douche for this design btw), some tire levers, a star-nut replacement doohicky from FSA, a rain gear top, and a bunch of beer and food. I made out good, and others made out way better. There were several cranks, a set of pedals, some arm warmers, shirts, hats… As stated earlier Bill won the friggin Dahon. The list goes on. Big thanks to all the sponsors, to Derrick for organizing this travesty, and for everyone for making this a great fucking ride.
HERES A FACEBOOK GALLERY WITH NOTES AND STUFF
Onward.
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Sounds like a great time. Wish I was there!
Great post. Love the map graphic with the notes. I rode with a bib and took an earlier ferry, so I didn’t get to cross paths with any pirates. Glad you guys had fun. Never worry about about the grouches; there’s always bound to be a few. I might just have to do FHR as an unaffiliated rider next year.
David