Friday Follies ~~ The Contest

There are all kinds of contests in cycling.  Some of them are formal, with rules, sanctioning bodies, scheduled events.  Some are a bit less formal.  Some involve speed, others skills.  Sometimes, we don’t even know we’re in them.

One of the better contests I’ve ever been in was a “Footdown.”  If you’re not familiar with this, it’s kinda like “Ghost” or “Hangman,” or “House.”  The idea is a bunch of people on bikes go into a relatively small, bordered area.  They all try to ride inside the area, without putting a foot to the ground.  Each time a rider leaves the area, or touches the ground with a foot, they receive a letter.  Once they’ve spelled out “Footdown,” they are out.  To add to the fun, riders attempt to force other riders into situations where they will leave the area, or bobble and step down.  Hitting is not allowed, but this is a full contact sport.  Riding next to another rider, and sort of herding them into a corner is a good tactic.

Several things are very useful to a Footdown competitor.  The rider needs good balance.  Excellent bike handling skills are a major plus.  Being able to track stand is extremely useful.

My personal inventory includes the balance part.  I’m not a “showy” rider, but my bike handling skills are pretty good.  My track stand is only mediocre at best.

So why did I get into this Footdown thing?  Well we were having a bit of a celebration at the shop.  We’d just done a major expansion, and we threw a party.  Many fun and games.  Then late in the day, we taped off an area in the parking lot, with traffic cones and event tape.  We had a large group of riders, so we organized it into “heats.”  Sort of.

We let about ten riders into the ring, and the fun started.  Every time we eliminated six or seven riders, we’d let folks who hadn’t been in enter.

I should mention that “rules” aren’t big on this kind of thing.  Each rider rode what they wanted to.  I was on my old and trusty hard tail mountain bike.  I did okay.

I managed to stay up and in through several “heats.”  Then they kid came in.  He was young, maybe twelve.  He was riding a small BMX bike.  He was good on it, and he was fearless.  He also had an unfair advantage.  It just wasn’t right for us larger types to really muscle him around.

So the little kid won, and I came in second for the day.

The best part of the whole thing was seeing that kid’s smile as he stood alone in the ring.