A fun night was had by all at the Fusion Sport Goldsprints Invitational. Thanks to New Belgium Brewing, Fat Tire and Skinny Ale was on tap and flowing all night. The goldsprints competition was quite a display of not only fast spinning by good beer pounding. With the four bike setup, guests rode in qualifying heats to make the next round followed by a three up finals.
In the women’s competition Tanja Tamguney (Fusion Sport) and Birgit Cory (California Road Club) were impressive in their early qualifying heats. Jackie Zider (Lombardi’s Tri) wowed the crowd with her performance by racing her heat in her party dress and open toed high heeled shoes. But it was Joie Franco (Code 3 Racing/Hopkins Honda), Jessica Conner (Dolce Vita), and Meredith Obendorfer (Roaring Mouse) that eventually advanced to the finals. With a 2010 Cannondale CAAD 9 frame at stake, MC Murphy of West Coast Goldsprints increased the competition distance from 500m to 1000m and threw in a twist to the final race…
Women’s Finals Results:
1. Mo Obendorfer – Roaring Mouse
2. Jessica Conner – Dolce Vita
3. Joie Franco – Code 3 Racing/Hopkins Honda
In the men’s competition, Hendrik Pohl (Fusion Sport) set an early time to beat with the first sub 18 second time. Not to be outdone, Ben Stern (Roaring Mouse) also posted a sub 18. Maintaining consistency into their next round races both time setters advanced to the finals. Stern overcame a barrage of flying waterbottles thrown at him by his heckling mates. The surprise performance came from unknown and unattached British rider Christian Strobel who quietly made his way into the finals with his own sub-18 second time to challenge Pohl and Stern. Also racing for the Cannondale CAAD9, Murphy kept the same finals format as the women. It was nearly a dead heat in the pint pounding with the slight edge to Strobel, but Stern was faster on the initial jump on the pedals and built an insurmountable lead that neither Pohl nor Strobel could close.
Men’s Finals Results:
1. Ben Stern – Roaring Mouse
2. Christian Strobel – Unattached
3. Hendrik Pohl – Fusion Sport
With wins by Stern and Obendorfer, Roaring Mouse took top honors amongst SF teams.
The other winners of the event were the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition and Mike’s Bikes Africa Bike Project as the funds raised went to these organizations.
That was a real fun event. Thanks for hosting and to all the sponsors. Wish we could have stuck around for a chance to win, but alas the babysitter needed to get to bed. Next time we’ll plan accordingly! Cheers, Birgit and Gary