The Bulldog Romp! Kittatiny!

ah kittatiny! it sounds so much cooler when you say it like groundskeeper willie!

so the boys from Darkhorse, and lady, saddled up this weekend to head on down to kittatiny state park for team bulldog/campmor's bulldog romp. this race was not only on the AMBC calender but also served as the NJ state championships. so if you were able to prove you were from dirty jersey and possessed a norba licence you could get yourself crowned king or queen of the garden state! thus big crowds were to be expected, and big crowds there were. while checking out the pre-reg list the sport singlespeed class looked like a darkhorse training session! a veritable whos who of the 1 gear crowd with el hefe himself, big george, ditching the gears and joining the pain train!
i hitched a ride down with our westchester representative, voodoo tony. we arrived a bit early so we saddled up for a pre-ride/warm up. the trails were in excellent shape. swoopy and fast! with just a few roots and log overs to keep you awake. one of these log overs had its way with tonys rear wheel and he burped a bit of stans and some 02 back to the atmosphere! pre-ride abridged and back to the car. after a quick tube insert back out we went to scope out some more of the singletrack. we ran into rasta paul, a fellow singlespeeder and eventual member of the darkhorse ss syndicate, and spun around the singletrack. with the exception of some sweaty rocks the course looked primo.
the rest of the crew trickled in and we all held court under a tree awaiting the start. eventually we lined up and resigned ourselves to the fact that we would indeed have to do a bit of racing. they sent us one gear folk off the front and we all fell into pace. i grabbed rossi's 650b wheel and let him run crowd control. the first few miles went by in an anaerobic blur. bobby and sal were off the front with the big boys, tom was my pace man and tony came up shorty to take over. george was letting his internal diesel come up to speed a little ways back.
the next lap and a half or so went by smooth. i was enjoying the singletrack and getting into a good rhythm. i would see a flash of a darkhorse jersey from time to time and was working my way up. riders passed me and i passed a few. all in all it was a good singlespeed course. there was one rooty climb the needed to be dismounted for but other than that, if the line was clean it was all rideable. coming into the last few miles i came up on none other than the distinquished mr rossi and quietly sat behind his wheel. i eventually announced my presence and he let me know that tony wasnt far up the road. we paced together and spun out the last few miles. when we entered the field i thought i saw tony and we agreed to make chase. of course it wasnt tony and so tom backed off and i spun ahead. now here things will get a bit snarky. you see there was this little climb to the finish and it had some rocks and roots and you had to pick your line. i hit it in front of tom and he claims he called the left. i drifted left and may have blocked him out. we will have to consult the video for a play back. i can only console tom with the immortal words of Harry Hogge, Cole Trickle's crew chief in Days of Thunder.
Cole: he bumped me!

Harry: he didnt bump you. he rubbed you, and son rubbin is racin!

so i concede that i "may" have impeded tom's line slightly. i may even have rubbed him. but "rubbin's racin!

all in all the darkhorse crew had a strong showing. i didnt stick around for official results but i believe bobby was 5th, sal was not far behind 6th/7th, followed by tony, myself, then tom, and george sliding in not long there after.

if anybody has official results for the other guys send them our way and we will get them up. as well as anybody with ride reports from those classes that they allow to run gears! send them this way!

the series takes a break for july and august. there's plenty of action in the area and we will be busy in the lead up to the 40! start getting those endurance miles in!