To set the scene, we had been checking the forecast several times throughout the day in the week leading up to the event. Even on that Saturday morning, we still had rain coming down until about 10:00 AM. Daily anxiety for sure, but in the end the skies cleared. It turns out the fixie gods wanted this event to go on, but not until the track on Swift Avenue was washed clean. The track was a 0.2 mile segment on a street that was sandwiched between cars speeding down Capitol Expressway and private planes taking off at Reid-Hillview Airport. We couldn’t have picked a better spot. We did however wish we were on the other side of this pandemic, but fortunately for us our cycling family values our community’s health. Just about everyone set a great example masking up and keeping distance from others. Someday we will be able to have a proper after party but today we kept our planning focus on the race and safety.
Sprints are a special thing because during an alleycat race or a Tuesday Night Ride or even weekend rides there are plenty of times where you look at the riders next to you and wonder where you stand on the totem pole of speed. Not that we are overly competitive, but it would be nice to know given the chance to properly measure how fast one is. Luckily 37 racers from all over the bay, a crew of volunteers, and a fantastic group of vendors and sponsors came together to find out.
Some came to a SuperBowl Sunday Sprints preview the week prior to ride the track and calculate where would be the most strategic spot to put the best effort forward. One of those at the preview was our champion but we’ll get to that later.
After randomizing our list of racers, we started a qualifying round that had 4 to 5 racers in each heat. We had 9 heats and two racers from each heat advanced to the tournament. 1st and 2nd from each heat were put on opposite sides of the bracket.
The tournament was fun to watch, especially our cool down races that gave our riders time to rest between races.
The Weed Race was a crowd favorite because it gave our attendees a chance to sidewalk slam a beer, hop on their bike and race to the finish line where they could take home some of Yabba Dabba Extracts crumble samples. Yabba Dabba Doo! The winner of that race was Daniel. We had a longest skid contest where Nam slowly and smoothly skidded to victory. The wheelie race was something I really wanted to see this one make it down to the end of the race but Noah Lee made short work of just being the only one to hold the wheelie.
The Women’s bracket was fielded by 3 of our favorite bay area street riders. This was the closest finish we had all day where Bibi nearly took it from Natalia at the finish line but Natalia was able to get across the line by half a wheel. We had to look at it a few times and it’s easily our favorite IG story to watch.
The Overall bracket came down to some great races with Kevin Nguyen (San Jose) vs. Rony Guzman (San Mateo) and Taj (Oakland) vs Javier (San Jose). Taj and Kevin would advance to the Finals. Ultimately, Taj would beast through his out of saddle sprint for the 5th time earning the Overall Category Championship.
Here’s a link to the bracket to see how it broke down.
Each Champion took home $50, SJF mask and a choice of 2 items from the table. Prizes were distributed based on placing. There were so many prizes all of those that entered walked home with something from the table.
We took the after gathering to Park Station Hashery for a chill meal to end the day over smiles and beers.
| Place | Name | IG Handle |
| 1 | Taj Bradford | @otf_taj |
| 2 | Kevin Nguyen | @cancerousoranges |
| 3 | Rony Guzman | @dabarony_ |
| 4 | Javier Tapia | @javesec |
| QuarterFinals | ||
| 5th | Jared | |
| 5th | Wagner | @wagnersousa737 |
| 5th | Mike P | @mikeprestano |
| 5th | Candelario | @wesydebones408 |
| Knockout Round | ||
| 9th | Jeremy | |
| 9th | Brandon T | |
| 9th | Prince | |
| 9th | Rocky | @onlycyclingfans |
| 9th | Joel | @nevergetgot |
| 9th | Brandon R | @b.ruthless |
| 9th | Bong | @photo_224417.jpg |
| 9th | Winford | |
| 9th | Daniel | |
| 9th | Aaron |
Womens
| Place | Name | IG Handle |
| 1 | Nataila Cortez | @nataliusca_ |
| 2 | Bibi Enriquez | @bb.yayarea |
| 3 | Devon Foster | @dev0nf0ster |
Weed Race
| Place | Name | IG Handle |
| 1 | Daniel Smash | @deesmash_ |
Wheelie Race
| Place | Name | IG Handle |
| 1 | Noah L | @noah.reee |
Longest Skid
| Place | Name | IG Handle |
| 1 | Naman | @namanhunter |
Thank you again for coming out to support SJFixed events.
A big thank you goes out to our volunteers: Eli, Wagner, Mike P, JohnJohn, Mike, Tom, Kosal, Quincy, Devon, Martin, Drew and DeeMartez.
A huge thank you goes out to our sponsors San Jose Bicycles, Phil Wood and Co., Park Station Hashery, DELUXE Cycles, Bicycle Express, Retrogression, the Heavy Pedal, King Kog Oakland, Yabba Dabba Extracts, Palma Photography, Masks by @kosalflores, Tankshit Box Truck, AlleycatSewing, and @Nicorette666.
Check out our Sprints Announcement page to see all the prizes put up by our sponsors.
To our photographers @fweago_photo and @dfit3G for capturing all the footy, thank you.
Demetrius put together a video at his channel … check out the rest of the vides at his channel. phixie8edphix8ed
The photos are being hosted at the following links:
Fweago Photo Dump: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14OgzRVh2WMeYS6oh2VPVCUCSjRf2CVIB?usp=sharing
If you use a photo you MUST give photo credit and tag to our photographers.
It was a wonderful day for a race but an even better day to build a bike community in San Jose.
-Tanner SJF
sjfixed.org 