Like I mentioned in yesterday’s post about the Pugsley Worlds Championships, this really seems like a multi-day event. On the main PWC event day, Saturday, there are two distinct flavors to the day. Some folks participate in the race, some participate in the party and “Feats of Strength” and a few stalwart folks go non-stop all day.
It should be noted that, up to this point, no race winner has ever gone on the claim the PWC Axe. I’m not even sure that the top 3 race winners from any year actually produced a PWC Champ.
While the racers recovered from the physical effort of the race we had a nice afternoon of awards ceremonies, conversation and rides around town and trails.
Spinner tallied up the results of the race and dolled out the $$$ to the winners while last year’s PWC, Ron “Chewy” Moffit mulled around in his brain cavity what event would be run to determine the new PWC. The Glowing balls and the Hockey stick/Bike Polo sticks gave us some hint.
Before we got going with the main event, we had to wait for dark and there was plenty of drinking to be done, Spinner and Kelsey worked on awarding a plethora of raffle prizes including hats, t-shirts and a pair of awesome wool Hoodies form Sov and Surly, hats and such from Bike Iowa among other prizes like a half full flask of bourbon and gloves with a removable snot wiper from a local Decorah business.
A good spread of food was available and these guys brought Pizza from Mabe’s, one of Decorah’s least well kept secrets as far as pizza goes.
By the time we got outside for the “Feats of Strength” the temperature had dropped to about 2 degrees but the action on the improvised race course was hot and heavy. Basically you had to use your hockey-stick-bike-polo mallet to hit the glowing ball around a course of cones, score through a goal and sprint back to the start all on an icy, slippery course that had competitors and spectators alike guffawing like kids.
With the cold weather stinging noses and biting tosses, we went back into the Elks after each heat so Chewy could redo the brackets and we could have a bit more libation. To be honest, the the rest of the night is kind of hazy but Spinner, after rerunning the final heat 7 times for various “infractions” was finally declared this year’s Pugsley World Champ, a title he now holds along with his Singlespeed USA belt. Quite a year for Spinner. He said “It is a great honor! I thought we’d keep running those heats until I lost but, in the end, I prevailed!” Spinner showed his generous side by sending the traveling axe home with Mike McColgan to Omaha so the axe didn’t have to spend another year in Iowa. It has traveled to Wisconsin and Minnesota as well. Long live the PWC!
