Race recap

Thanks to another crazy, stormy Friday night/Saturday morning (including temps in the 50s and 30 mph gusts), the rescheduled 2007 Beer-Bike was forced to become another Beer-Run. Held early yesterday morning, some colleges had only small groups of fans, but not us! The Will Rice stands were completely full of green “Mighty Drunks” shirts and the chanting was pretty loud…

The WRC goddesses were solid the whole way, with a quick, clean pit and smart runs (1 lap each). They took the lead somewhere around the 6th/7th runner and never looked back, winning by about a half lap. Woo-hoo! So that’s title #9 for the women (yes, Beer-Run counts … if it’s official, it counts).

The WRC gods started strong and built a small lead, but runner #8 got passed by Jones and then Brown. Jones led for runner #9, but Brown pulled ahead on runner #10. So finishing order was Brown, Jones, WRC. Maybe next year …

Will Rice Doc-umentary: Buy the DVD!

In honor of the 50th anniversary of the college system AND the 50th anniversary of Will Rice’s founding, a group of WRC students put together a documentary. It features interviews with Will Ricers of many eras, and the DVD version offers features like a sneak peek into Doc C’s room and a 1981 Beer-Bike video. The DVD is only $5; contact WRC coordinator Cece King at cecek@.

Beer-Bike featured in the Houston Chronicle

They didn’t mention Will Rice like I wanted them to, but it’s still a good story. See: Beer Bike’s 50th bash lets good times roll at Rice, The Houston Chronicle, April 14, 2007, page 1.

And for the artsy set, a bit of Will Rice poetry…

‘Twas the night before Beer Bike and all through Will Rice,
Not a creature was sober, not even the mice.
The bikes were all hung in the bike room with care,
In hopes that Clark Smithson soon would be there.
The students were nestled, all snug in their beds,
As visions of finish lines danced through their heads.

And I in my pjs, and Jim Tuttle too,
Had just settled down with not much to do.
When out on the patio there arose such a clatter
That I sprang from my couch to see what was the matter!
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Yanked open the window and heard a loud crash.

When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a smiling Mark Hurley and three kegs of beer.
With a heroic old biker who spoke in a way
I knew in a moment it must be Doctor J.
More rapid than eagles the Will Rice bike team came,
Drafting and pedaling, and he called them by name;

“Now, Liz! now, Carr! now, Jessup! now, go!
Chug, Zarling! Chug, Erin! Chug, fast, Marco!
To the track with the bikes, to the track for the glory.”
(That’s not what he said, but it works for this story.)
So out to the stadium, the bikers how they flew,
Alongside the chuggers and waterballoons, too!

The alums - how they balanced! Their peddling – so fast!
The cheering fans roared, Oh, what a blast.
The women had practiced, they knew that they must
To leave the 9 other folks trailing in dust.
And then out stepped Forman, to start off the race,
The bikers and chuggers were all set in place.

The stands were all hushed - the cheering was done.
The only sound now was the bang of a gun.
Beer Bike had started! We passed Hanszen and Brown;
The bikers were fast and the water went down.
Tyson was up last, and with a cock of his head,
Soon let us know that we had nothing to dread.

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And lapped all the others (even Jones, that jerk)
And turning to look as he pulled into the pit,
He breathed a deep sigh and he knew that was it.
The phoenix had risen, the deed had been done:
The alumni, the women, and the men had all won!

And we started to chant as the others all wept,
“We’re sorry you all, but Will Rice has just swept!”

Flickr is a popular photo-sharing service where users can upload their photos for friends or for the whole world to see. Flickr users classify their photos using “tags”—short keywords that help organize the whole world’s photography. They can also submit their photos to community photo “pools” based around common interests and subjects.

I bring this up because there are some great Beer-Bike photos on Flickr. Adam Baker has a nice Beer-Bike photo roll, to start with. From there you can explore all Flickr photos tagged “beerbike”, and then branch out to photos tagged “riceuniversity”. Finally, check out the Rice University group, which is always looking for new photos of the Rice campus, its inhabitants, and its surroundings.

Update: Other Flickr users with Beer-Bike 2006 photo rolls:

Beer-Bike 2006 from broken bones

Beer-Bike 2006! from keylemon

Beer-Bike 2006 from greenleigh

Beer-Bike 2006 from eyrieowl

Will Rice Beer-Bike 2006

Malt Disney: Bikety Boppity Booze

Alumni: 1st place (aka Larry’s Revenge)
WRC’s alum team featured gods & goddesses from FIVE decades · Drew Tucker ‘86 came out of the pit at the back of the pack, sat on a few wheels, and slowly gained ground – the wind on the back stretch was brutal. He finished with the leaders, and Jim Davis ‘77 & Hanszen rider #2 pulled away from the group. Aubrey Bergauer ‘05 grabbed the lead, and thenTommy Dang ‘03 extended it. We weren’t really threatened by Hanszen after that (everyone else was way, way back there) though the wind on the backstretch made the rest of our guys really work for it: Scott Whitaker ‘67, Amy Tucker ‘88, Ani Patel ‘03, Elliud Ramirez ‘02, Ben Gumpert ‘99 and the ever-steady Mark Jenkins ‘83 (riding in his 16th alumni race).

The chugging deities this year were captain Scott Selinger ‘05, Eric Williams ‘05, Mark Jeffcoat ‘98, Don Clayton ‘83, Richard Adams ‘04, Kevin Brown ‘03, Shay Har-Noy ‘04, Nick Henderson ‘05, Rachel Davis ‘05 and Jim Loudin ‘05.

Women: 4th place
The Will Rice women had a few weak riders at the beginning, but steadily made their way from last place to a solid 4th place finish. Brown, our eternal nemesis it seems, took the title again, and I can’t remember who got 2nd & 3rd.

Men: 3rd place
This was an exciting race to watch – the pack stuck together for the first few riders, and WRC wisely sat with it. Jones and GSA pulled away, and for a while GSA led the race, but Jones eventually caught them. Jones pulled away, and Will Rice made up a lot of ground on GSA, but finished just a few seconds behind the “old guys.”

Details
Check out the Beer-Bike Tshirt gallery that Dan Sandler ‘99 has helped me put together. If you’ve got a shirt that’s not currently shown, send me the digital file! And, yes, I am collecting shirt art from the other lowly colleges.

Also, my Beer-Bike stats have been updated and the RPC’s Beer Bike site should have final standings posted in a few days. FYI, check out the list of all-time winners – if you ignore Beer-Run in 2003 and GSA’s sole title in 2004, every Beer-Bike title since 1996 has been won by Will Rice, Jones or Brown.

Start making plans for Beer-Bike 2007 – the 50th anniversary of the original race. We’ll definitely have to do something special for that one!

See ya next year!

“I owe the Rice EMS people a big debt of gratitude. I should like to have thanked them personally, but I was unconscious while we were together.”

Larry Fossi (of the eponymous Larry-Bike) has an article in last week’s Thresher about his experience in this year’s race.

“The accident this year bears an interesting resemblance to one that occurred 34 years ago. In 1971, a car — whose driver escaped, never to be identified — drove onto the track in the middle of a race, sending rider Bob Bridge (Hanszen ’73) sprawling. After that, race organizers blocked the entrances to the parking lot where the race was taking place. No one then dreamed that pedestrians — and team members no less — would ever pose a similar problem.”

Will Rice Beer-Bike 2005:

Teenage Mutant Binging Turtles (really)

What a gorgeous day … it was quintessential Beer-Bike weather. Low 70s, blue sky with no clouds and a light breeze. Will Rice was decked out in neon lime green in keeping with the turtle theme.

Alumni

Will Rice’s team featured gods & goddesses from class of 1978 to class of 2004. Drew Tucker ‘86 came out of the pit with the pack and rode a smart race to put Ted Westerheide ‘89 in a great spot to grab the lead. After grabbing a wheel to draft and hanging back for the first lap, Ted pulled ahead on the 2nd lap to give WRC a comfortable lead ahead of Brown and GSA (who were actually taking the alum thing semi-seriously). Our lead wasn’t threatened after that …

However, the brilliant minds at Martel (yeah, that ninth college) thought it’d be fun to have runners instead of bikers for the alumni race since they knew they didn’t have a chance. I guess Martel doesn’t have any physics majors to explain what happens when someone on foot collides with someone going 30+ mph on a bike. Unfortunately, this kind of collision is what happened to rider #7 for Will Rice, Larry “the fossil” Fossi ‘79, just as he was finishing his first lap. Larry took a hard spill and suffered a concussion, but fortunately Rice EMS and our own Dr. Jenkins were on the scene pretty quick. Larry was quickly taken to Memorial Hermann Hospital, and thankfully was released a few hours later. Feel free to send him a “get well soon” email at lfossi[-@-]fossilaw.com.

The event organizers wisely called the race a few minutes after, and named the finishers based on where teams were when the wreck occurred. So Will Rice earned its 19th alumni title … but we didn’t rejoice much at the time since we were pretty worried about Larry. Suffice to say, we’ll always refer to this year as “Larry-Bike” in his honor.

Best alum times for the day were from Beer-Bike rookie Dave Garraway ‘93, who rode a sizzling 1:21, and Ted Westerheide ‘89, who returned after a 14-year absence to ride a 1:26.5. Other biking deities included Rebecca Tuuri ‘02, Anne Power ‘03, Amy Tucker ‘88, Mark Lai ‘04, Mike Leman ‘01, Elluid Ramirez ‘02 and backup rider/team photog Mark Jenkins ‘83.

Chugging gods/goddesses were captain Holly Williams ‘03, Bill Tanner ‘94, Richard Adams ‘04, Javier Garcia ‘04, Shay Har-Noy ‘04, Adam Baker ‘94, Johanna Lalka ‘03, Steven Caufield ‘03, Peter Mims ‘78, Mark Jeffcoat ‘98, and alternate Liz Jackson ‘01 who helped me time the bikers.

Will Rice now owns 19 of a possible 24 titles (if you count 2003’s Beer-Run). Many thanks to all the alums who offered to chug “just in case” we needed them …

Women

The Will Rice women toward the back of the pack and slowly moved up to to 2nd/3rd place for the first half of the race behind Brown and Hanszen. Solid rides from a few freshmen pulled them closer to first, but a wreck in the pit damaged one of the bikes. When the next rider on that bike went out, she had to fight a dragging brake pad and other mechanical problems that weren’t noticeable before she was pushed. The WRC women lost their chance to take the lead, but finished a solid third place between winner Brown (boo!) and Hanszen (I’m pretty sure). The announcer said we finished 4th, but he obviously wasn’t paying attention.

Men

Sitting with the top four teams for first several riders, the Will Rice men had solid rides but were eventually outpaced by Jones (and I think there may have been some pit problems). They held off challenges from Brown, Martel and Wiess to finish comfortably in second place, one of the few teams not lapped by Jones.

See ya next year!

jen cooper ‘90

Alumni
After a false start and then a botched start, the alumni race began. Will Rice’s team featured biking gods & goddesses from four different decades, and chuggers ranging from class of 1988 to 2003. Mike Leman ‘01 came out of the pit with the crowd and slowly gained ground to put second rider Larry “the fossil” Fossi ‘79 just within reach of the lead. He captured the lead by the end of his two laps, and Tommy Dang ‘03 took it from there. After that, it wasn’t even close. We lapped everyone! (Note to Todd Nix & Craig Mielke … you still have to come back next year!) Best alum times for the day were by Mark Jenkins ‘83, Carl Williams ‘00, Scot Salmon ‘97 and Mike Leman ‘01, all of whom rode around 1:28. Will Rice now owns 18 of a possible 23 titles (including last year’s Beer-Run).

Women
Will Rice started with the pack and steadily rose through the ranks to take the lead around the 7th/8th rider. No penalties and smart rides by all led the women to their first victory since 1999. Perennial rival Brown finished eight seconds back.

Men
Sitting among the top four teams for first several riders, Will Rice eventually pulled into first before an unfortunate crash on the turn near the pit dropped them back about 25 seconds behind the leaders – GSA, Brown & Jones. The men did their best to catch up, and eventually passed Brown but couldn’t catch Jones or the amazingly solid GSA riders, who led without challenges from that point on to capture their first-ever Beer-Bike title. WRC finished third after Jones, but beer penalties put us fourth behind Baker. Brown crashed late in the race so finished far back.

So… we were pretty damn close to a sweep. But hey, if we can’t win the men’s race at least no other college did! It seems only fitting that Will Rice be the last college to enjoy the presidential pool privilege (when Dr. Gillis steps down as president this summer, the house is being converted to offices and the pool will be closed forever).

See ya next year!
jen cooper ‘90

One large inflatable balloon in the shape of a pig with tusks. Color: Goldenrod or yellow. Markings include the words “TEAM WIESS” on the side in black block lettering. The pig was tied up at Rice University in Houston, TX. It’s filled with helium and we’re hoping that when it eventually leaks out the pig will fall back down without hurting anyone or damaging property, though “Trailer Crushed by Flying Pig” would be a fantastic headline.

Brian Dolecki (WRC ’00) reports that this has earned Rice a mention on general-purpose Web-mockery site Fark.com. Other War Pig links: Wiess College’s Beer-Bike Traditions page; Mark Maxham’s (Wiess ‘90) thorough exploration of War Pig construction.

Men: GSA (24:48)
Women: Will Rice (17:25)
Alumni: Will Rice (16:17)

Jen Cooper has the final times for each team (scroll to the bottom). [Update: the official Beer-Bike page now also has the results as well.]

It’s no secret that beerbike.com has been on a bit of a hiatus. (We’re sort of embarrassed about it, if you want to know the truth.) No more. Just in time for race day 2004, we’d like to present a well-rested and refreshed beerbike.com.

The old site served us well in 2000 when we first launched it. Eric Rechlin did a great job of keeping it running through the 2003 race (during which, coincidentally, all race participants ended up running as well). It will take some time to move the old content over to the new site, so for now you’ll still need to visit the old pages to access such items as Jason Boyd’s Complete Race Stats.

We have big plans for the new site, however, including a race day photo gallery and Beer-Bike t-shirt collection (which we expect to develop over the next few months). The bike coordinators will be able to post news items and stories throughout the year, especially in the weeks following the ‘04 race and leading up to race day 2005.

In short, welcome back to Beer-Bike—the Will Rice Invitational. Please enjoy your stay, but do remember: Will Rice Will Sweep.

—Dan Sandler