2011 Bob's Backyard Pursuit Races:

BOBCAT’S RETURN, PETER T-BONES

SURPRISE GUEST & WOMEN RUN AMUCK

By Bob

It was that time again . . . to suffer intensely in four minutes bursts, to put away burgers and beer, and to sit around a fire pit and rehash the highlights of a fantastic year of cycling.  A report from the 2011 backyard pursuit races: 

1.      BOBCAT’S RETURN.  Andy “Bobcat” Stravers, the original backyard pursuit champion, returned to form to retake his throne over a strong field of local heroes.  Peter Tempest was a close second and Paul Barry was a very strong third on a fast course that featured improved banking on the turns and some spicy, new mid course rollers. 

2.     RANDOM HIGHLIGHTS:

a.     The ladies came to ride this year!  Jenny Van Drunen, Holly Herr, Eryn Hannick, Julie Bussewitz and Naomi Bruinius all rode well this year, but had some trouble staying on the course.  We’ll blame it on course marshals Chuck Van Drunen and Bobcat and say that they let the women run amuck.

b.     Chuck completely took Peter by surprise at the end of his narrow semifinal win over Paul.  As Peter rounded the 180 degree downhill turn around the juniper at the finish, he faced a foam board replica of the dreaded Bread Springs loop sheep.   Peter T-boned the facsimile of his arch-nemesis, went over the bars and almost busted another rib – this time from laughing so hard. 

c.     Greg Cavanaugh – the driving force behind the blog and this year’s jerseys and sponsors – completed an organizational tour-de-force by handing out awards for races completed and podium finishes and showed photos and videos from the season.

d.     Dirk Hollebeek spoke with such fireside passion about the Mount Diablo Hill Climb and the Valley of the Sun Stage race that you could literally see hard core, fat tire junkies being enticed over to the dark side as he spoke.  It appeared that a few were even looking around for a razor so that they could shave their legs!

e.     Chuck followed Dirk with equal passion to advocate that each member of the pack should buy a thirty three-compartment-Gallup-Flea-Market-camelback, but he seemed to come up empty on that one.

f.     A pack of Rez Puppies swarmed the playground, basketball court, and – after dark – roamed the course with head lamps and flashlights. 

g.     On the perpetual topic of “what’s next?”, the Zuni 50, completing the Rock Point to Many Farms route, Narbona pass and cross country skiing with Paul in Mancos garnered most of the talk.

A CONCLUDING QUESTION:   What was special about this season?  We’ll answer this one.  There were a lot of things that were special, but one thing stands out above the rest.  Simply put, “Every dog had his day.”