The Red and Black

Issue date: 4/23/09 Section: Out & About

Media Credit: DANIELLE MOORE [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: DANIELLE MOORE Jody Temple spins his "rolling jungle gym" 360 degrees while balancing. [Click to enlarge]

Twilight Bike Week Film Festival

The 1984 individual sprint Olympic silver medalist Nelson Vails is returning to Athens to reminisce about when he used to race downtown during the Twilight Criterions of the 1980s and how many degrees of separation he has from Kevin Bacon.

Appearing as a special guest during Ciné's Twilight Bike Week Film Festival, Vails will be discussing the making of the Kevin Bacon film "Quicksilver," in which he was featured as a "maroon beret" wearing bike messenger, a profession that had helped make him into a Twilight VIP and carried him all the way to the U.S. cycling team.

"I don't ever remember them having any pre-limination races back then but they might have and I just never had to do them," he said. "I always just came in for the night race and never really had to qualify but apparently now everyone has to do that."

In addition to every biker having to qualify, Vails also will be discussing how the Twilight experience has changed as the event gets bigger every year.

"In the '80s, it was really anybody's game to win and it was just how fast each person could peddle that specific night," he said. "But now it seems that there are always some favorites and people almost know who will come out on top."

But despite the way the racers feel as the event and the University expands, there is one aspect of Twilight that Vails believes will never change: the students' excitement.

"I know when I was racing all of the students were buck-wild," he said. "It was wall-to-wall people and such an awesome atmosphere and that excitement and tradition is something that will never die."

"I don't know what the University students would do without Twilight."

The Gambler

Inspired by Kenny Rogers, The Gambler is a grueling 50-100 kilometer bike race is the only Twilight bike event that has absolutely nothing to do with speed or skill.

All that is necessary is that everyone know how to ride a bike and have a little bit of luck.

"The Gambler is a fun participation ride that has a nice mix of riders from people who are really fast to people who haven't ridden a bike in 15 years," Gambler organizer Micah Morlock said. "You get a playing card at the beginning and you can go through as fast as you can or as slow as you want, but you need to have a full hand at the end in order to win."

According to Morlock, there are three stops that riders on both the long 100 kilometer route and 50 kilometer route stop at in order to pick up a playing card to complete their hand. The first card they receive is at the beginning in downtown and the last card is when they return to start in order to have a hand of five cards.

In addition to the "sag stops" where riders can get snacks, water and socialize, the route also goes by the old house of the race's namesake, Kenny Rogers.

"The Gambler has been a part of Twilight since its inception and at that time Kenny Rogers was a part of the Athens community so the race was named after his 'Gambler' album and it goes by the house he used to live in," Morlock said. "The route still goes by that house, but Kenny Rogers no longer lives there and I think he actually sold the place."

After returning to downtown, the riders hand over their cards to a judge who puts them in order from best hand to worst hand. The person who has the best hand wins a prize, no matter if the route took them 2 ½ hours or six, which Morlock identifies as the fastest and slowest average times. All that matters is that they stayed on the bike and kept their poker face.

TWILIGHT BMX CONTEST

Although Twilight is all about riding bikes, one event is taking bike riding and turning it backwards, upside down and twelve feet in the air.

"People should come see the Twilight BMX contest because we do things that most people never even think can be done on a bike," local professional BMX flatlander Jody Temple said. "Flatland is a highly creative and individual sport that has so many different styles and ways of riding."

Temple describes flatland riding as "gymnastics on a bicycle" and "a rolling jungle gym" where the rider twists and turns the bicycle to balance and roll in different ways.

The Twilight BMX competition differs from what many people may have seen during the X Games or on television, according to local ramp rider Kent Pearson, because of the intimacy the venue of downtown offers for spectators.

"Twilight is unique because, in most places, the ramps are set up already and are a permanent place to ride," he said. "But in Athens we set the ramps up right in downtown so the people watching are right there and not far away in bleachers."

He also differentiates the BMX competition from all of the other Twilight events because there are less rules and more freedom for the riders to explore their runs.

"In BMX, you don't have to play by the rules," he said. "We don't have to all ride the same route and do the same tricks so its very creative and fun because it's different every time a rider takes a run."

According to Temple, the professional riders all compete for cash prizes that vary and depend on how many riders sign-up in each event.

The person who does the most dangerous, difficult and impressive tricks takes home the cash. Those who tried and failed go home with only bruises, if they are lucky.

Locos Cycling Team

Of course, the big pro race on Friday night is what gathers the most attention during Twilight. Dozens of the nation's and world's fastest racers will fly around downtown in hopes of being named the winner.

But, this year, Locos Cycling Team is keeping the recruitment local with two University students who have to concentrate on books just as much as bikes.

"I am very nervous, but it's a good kind of nervous," said Joe Collins, the team member pictured on the cover. "I feel like I am ready for it, but Twilight will definitely be the hardest race I have ever done."

According to team leader Morlock, Collins has proven himself to be very talented, but because the junior from Conyers has only ever raced in the amateur races at Twilight, he may be surprised at the difficulty of racing against some of the fastest racers in the world.

"We are not a pro team and some people get confused about this, but Twilight is open to pro-racers and category 1 racers which is what we are," Morlock said. "We race against the pros in all the races we do but my guys don't get paid and get less than half the support a professional rider gets."

"It's kind of like being on a farm team in baseball but playing the Braves every weekend."

But Collins does not let his classification, or the fact that he has only been racing for three seasons, stop him from being hopeful about the event and realistic about the caliber of people his team will be competing against.

"Having not done a race like this before, it is tough to say exactly what my goals are," he said. "We have a guy on our team that is really good so as long as I do my part and get to him so he can take the win we should do OK."

The other rider he speaks about is another University student team member, Rob Giannini, graduate student from Monroe, Conn.

According to Morlock, Giannini is one of the strongest members of the team due to his high level of experience in difficult races against professional riders.

In fact, in his opinion, Giannini could have been one of the professional racers that graces Athens during Twilight weekend if he hadn't decided to concentrate on his studies more than his race statistics.

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