While I can’t possibly make it out to every cycling-related event, my readers can. That’s why I gladly accepted State Bicycle‘s offer to report on the Woldpack Hustle Marathon Crash Race 2 event. Enclosed below is a full race recap of the events, including links to various facets of the race.
Check out the Wolfpack Hustle Marathon Crash Race 2 Recon by State Bicycle below!
People started converging well before 3 am on Tang’s Donut Shop in Los Angeles’s Silverlake district. The weather was in the mid- 40’s and raining. It was a mixed crowd anybody from full road bikes with teammates/race wheels etc. to full race setup track bikes, fixie kids, commuters pretty much all sorts of cycling enthusiasts. Riders were cold, in good spirits, but there was definitely a nervous tension in the air. Almost everyone there was there to win it, “LA’s most coveted prize”, the dog tags. By 4 am, 300+ riders were in attendance and ready to go.
Race headed to with a neutral roll out from Tang’s to Dodger Stadium. At this point the LA Marathon officials had just begun to mark off the course, so the lead group definitely had some challenges following the route. By some accounts on Twitter “Just saw a cyclist get tackled by an overly violent LA marathon staff member.” (see screen shot) By mile marker 7 the lead group had created some significant separation for the rest of the pack and were making great time.
At approximately 5 am the lead pack of 6 riders turned the corner and sprinted towards the finish line at the intersection of Ocean & Montana in Santa Monica. The Men’s results came in as 2 clean podium sweeps. In the geared category : John Gabriel, Fabian Vazquez, and Fritz Bottger from SHO-AIR took 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, respectively. The big surprise and buzz of the night was in the Men’s fixed gear category. Out of towner’s from AZ team State Bicycle Co. had a clean sweep with Craig Streit, Jesse Robles and Scott Piercefield taking 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, and (2nd, 3rd, and 5th overall!) Beating the next fixie rider to arrive at the finish line by minutes. Both cheers and boo’s came through as the dog-tags were awarded and Roadblock (the event organizer) announced that the dog-tags were “leaving LA”… This references the WOLFPACK HUSTLE website that clearly states: “Hey Los Angeles…. THE DOG TAGS NEED TO STAY IN LA.”
Start / Tangs:
Start 01
Start 02
Start 03
Start 04
Start 05
Roadblock – Organizer WOLFPACK HUSTLE
Top 3 fixed (Left – Scott Piercefield 3rd, Middle- Craig Streit 1st , Right Jesse Robles 2nd) – All from Arizona / State Bicycle Co. Team
Top 3 men’s geared: (Left Fritz Bottger 3rd, Middle- John Gabriel 1st , Right – Fabian Vazquez 2nd) – From Sho-Air team
Many, many thanks to Mehdi Farsi for supplying the great coverage! Check out State Bicycle for more information.
