My gloved hands buried deep into my down jacket pockets as I curled my toes up and back endlessly hoping to keep blood circulating to keep frostbite at bay, I watched with wide-eyed wonder as bike mechanics wing it with their far-fetched creativity.
Never having skied nor snowboarded, standing atop Big Bear Mountain in the middle of winter felt odd in its own manner. Having come to cover bike racing, well, that simply felt nuts.
My mind could not wrap itself around the concept unfolding before my eyes. Those mechanics worked tirelessly inserting 2.5-inch wood screws into the knobby tires every two inches or so.
Traction, baby, they told me. It’s all about traction.
Yeah, sure.
Then I’d watch as the top downhill racers in the world would soar down the ski hill with those wheels spinning like the massive saw blades at a logging mill just inches away from private parts that hung back over behind the saddle in effort to gain just a little more speed.
Welcome to X-Games ’97!
Suffice to say I’ve seen some bizarre bike events of the years, the most curious always appear to sprout from the minds of mountain bikers like, say, the infamous Mount Snow Nude Criterium.
And I pretty well thought I had seen it all, until I stumbled into Hailey, Idaho one Fourth of July weekend a few years back.
Two-by-two cyclists rolled their bikes behind the starting gate that sat smack dab in the middle of Idaho’s Highway 75 that runs through the heart of Hailey, just a few miles from Ketchum.
With a population around 8,000, Hailey bills itself as Idaho’s Hometown in the Mountains.
With a crowd enjoying beverages and lining the fences as the sun dipped behind buildings, I’ve watched scenes like this unfold countless times.
Or, so I thought.
Suddenly this event known as the Sheeptown Drag Races took a bizarre and thoroughly mind-blowing twist.
Two big burly mountain men dragged over a couple of 20-foot logs and strapped a harness to the racers, raising eyebrows of the uninitiated.
Then things really got strange.
A firefighter dressed in his hot suit — despite summer temperatures well above 90 — soaked the logs with a substance that smelled like a combination of diesel fuel and kerosene. Another firefighter quickly followed behind with a blowtorch.
The logs burst into flames as the starter counted down, and with the flash of the green light from the Christmas tree, the cyclists sprinted down Hailey’s main drag to the roaring cheers of spectators lining the street.
As I wondered what type of warped mind could come up with this devilish endeavor, I heard a familiar voice barking over the PA system.
Former pro mountain biker Greg Randolph chirped spicy, off-color commentary as only he can. Of the countless interesting individuals I encountered over the years in cycling, Randolph stands out for many reasons that set him apart from the typical pro. To learn this borderline Jack Ass event was his brainchild made perfect sense to me.
“Yeah, we decided after hosting (NORBA Mountain Bike) Nationals here that we needed a legacy event of our own,” Randolph told me. “So I came up with dragging logs for the kickoff event. I had a blog, and one day posted, ‘Oh yeah, and we’re gonna light the logs on fire.’
“I got an immediate comment that said, ‘No, you’re not!’ It was from the fire chief! Didn’t even know he read my blog.”
Long story short, despite the warnings, they lit up the logs while racing in a back alley. They got called out by the city council and reprimanded, but somehow found support for the unique effort.
Then Randolph was asked by the city council what future plans he had in his diabolical mind?
“I’d like to shutdown main street and do it there,” he said.
The rest made history.
I caught up with Randolph only to find the Sheeptown Drag Races are on, well, hiatus. He hopes to bring them back someday.
And, who knows? Maybe it’ll end up being a nude race down one of the local ski runs in the middle of winter, the flaming logs lighting up the night sky.
Oh yeah, call me a dreamer.
Time to ride.
