AWBF/Lust Cross Report

If there were any lingering doubts about the awesomeness of Altona, yesterday's event will have erased them once and for all. I believe this was the 6th annual Altona Winter Bike Festival and Duke vs. Carolina Basketball Game. But it was the first time it was planned by the ABES. Johnny, David, the Dyck Bros. and their ABES brethren outdid themselves this time. Altona may be but a small prairie town. But in cycling terms, it outshines many an urban centre. There were 40-45 people on hand. That is already a good turnout. But to put it into perspective, the per capita equivalent would be a crowd of 10,500 if this were Winnipeg. So while the presence of some urban mag schwag in a town of 3000 may have struck some as odd, it could be argued that it was actually rather fitting.



After coffee and hot chocolate, the festivities began with a kid friendly bike ride. That is good, because the kids were out in full force.





This was followed up with the Hell Freezes Over Alleycat, presented by the Brothers Dyck. Appropriately, the race was based on Dante's Divine Comedy. There were pellet guns, snow angels, tequila shots, talk of Big Macs and dznuts, and much, much more. Good times. And they did their best to accommodate the visitors from out of town, which was much appreciated. If those guys are for hire, we should rent them for a race or two this summer. Good times.



And then it was time to hit the rollers. And hit them we did. Or rather, they hit us. Hard. 28 racers participated in a grueling tournament. Everybody was guaranteed two races, with draws determined randomly. The winners names kept going back in the that for further random draws. This system worked well, and gave us all kinds of interesting matches. Such as this one, which was my personal favourite. And no doubt Jonny G's too.




There were a few winces and grimaces, as exemplified by the Secretary, shown here in the midst of his first round race against Gavin.



But on the whole, it was pretty much smiles all around.















Erick and Tim deserve big thanks for making the drive out to Altona with the equipment. A nice way to say thank-you would be a significant FGBC/ABES turnout at the March 17 roller racing finale. The ABES almost owned the podium on Saturday, with three out of the four semi-finalists. A few head-to-head relay races pitting the ABES against the FGBC would be nice.

There were home-baked prizes:



Sweet socks:



Cute kids:





And, finally, a Duke victory.

The attentive among you will recall that the AWBF doubled as Lust Cross, the 4th race in the 2010 Nordic Cross Series. This was deemed appropriate in light of the venue that served as the HQ for the day:



The results were based on the combined points for both the alleycat and the roller races. The top three spots in the alleycat (two of which were teams) received points. We would go deeper, however, if full results were supplied. The quarter finalists in the roller race were also rewarded with points for their efforts.

Alley Cat

Darryl 10
Jonny G 10
Paul B 10
Jeff 9
Ben 9
Chris H 8


Roller Race

Johnny S 10
Chris 9
Gavin 8
Charles 7
Jonny G 6
Juan 5
Vic 4
Ben 3


Total points

Chris 17
Jonny G 16
Ben 12
Darryl 10
Paul B 10
Jeff 10
Johnny S 10
Jeff 9
Gavin 8
Juan 5


After 4 races, we have a new leader:

Jonny G 42
Chris 40
Juan 35
Vic 33
Brad 29
KK 28
Darryl 27
Tom K 22
Unger 14
Olli 12
Ben 12
Jonny B 11
Scott 11
Tomek 10
Paul B 10
Craig 9
Jeff 9
John Paul 8
Liam 8
Gavin 8
Colin 7
Adam 6
Graham 4
Thomas 4
Hal 3
Solomon 2
Ian 1
Nick 1
Luke 1


More photos and video over at the home of the ABES, including the roller racing finale that pitted the FGBC and ABES in direct competition. We prefer to work together. But that was still fun.