How to Squealer, 2012

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On the same weekend as Paris-Roubaix, The Squealer had its day too. It’s a mainstay of a smaller circle. And this year it even saw a bump to nearly 80 riders. That’s not the most the event has ever seen of course, but from last year, which I think saw about 45 riders, that’s a lot more heads. And after 14ish years, it’s still filled with familiar good times.

I arrived to the startling line with 4 minutes to spare, already kind of pissed. In no condition to “race”, I can’t knowingly pass up this event no matter what reality says. If any race matters, it might as well be the race in your old backyard. I still had to try. Kirtpatrick in the pic above was my minute man. I stayed with him to the top of the Mormon climb, only to see him slip away as we came over the top. Next came Chewy. With a fist bumped, he pedaled on.

Then Bennett. Then Dejay. They were all flying. My money was on Bennett, but on the day, Dejay won the overall & SS posting up a 1:32. Holy balls that’s fast.

Jim, in the above pic, has been running this show for 14 long years. There have been highlights in that time that can’t be explained. For those of us who get to be a part of that history, it’s a pretty rad thing. It’s like our own little piece of underground and we love it.

Maybe it’s just another phase, but this year I ran a long travel AM bike; the Marin Attack Trail. At 160mm of travel, I characterize it as a good climbing pig. If I hadn’t been such a little bitch that morning, I might have been more man about pedaling it up the hill. This was a first ride of sorts given the bike. It’s capabilities were obvious and somewhat ridiculous. It’s a FR rig at heart. On any pitch down, it seemed all I needed to really do was just hold on. But damn the uphills.

Coincidentally, Mike Mahowald who also ran a 160mm trail bike tapped out a 7th place finish with a time of 1:39ish.

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