Single Speed World Championship
Encyclopedia
The Single Speed World Championship, or SSWC, is an annual event. It is only open to bicycles with a single gear ratio. Those bicycles can be either singlespeed
Single-speed bicycle
A single-speed bicycle is a type of bicycle with a single gear ratio. These bicycles are without derailleur gears, hub gearing or other methods for varying the gear ratio of the bicycle....

s or fixed-gear
Fixed-gear bicycle
A fixed-gear bicycle is a bicycle that has no freewheel, meaning it cannot coast, as the pedals are always in motion when the bicycle is moving....

s. Most of the bicycles used in these races are mountain bikes however some people choose to take part in the event on cyclo-cross
Cyclo-cross
Cyclo-cross is a form of bicycle racing. Races typically take place in the autumn and winter , and consists of many laps of a short course featuring pavement, wooded trails, grass, steep hills and...

 bicycles, racing bicycle
Racing bicycle
A racing bicycle, also known as a road bike, is a bicycle designed for competitive road cycling, a sport governed by according to the rules of the Union Cycliste Internationale...

s and bicycles defying easy categorization.

History

The first SSWC of any kind was held in 1995 and called "W.H.I.R.L.E.D.". The first official Single Speed World Championship was held in 1999, however, it was less of a race and more of a bike rally focused on fun and not competition. About 260 people showed up for the 1999 event.

World Champion bicycle races usually award the victor a title and the right to wear a special jersey denoting their win. The SSWC does award a titled but instead of a special jersey winners are forced to accept either a tattoo or branding. Most race promoters and organizers have always issued the warning to competitors, "Do not win, if you do not want the tattoo." As of yet no winner has attempted to fight off the tattoo or branding artist. Some other organizers have attempted to move the focus from racing to make it more of an event, but each year the event becomes more like any other race.

Unlike most World Championship bicycle races, the SSWC is not sanctioned by any governing body. This recurring event has little organization other than the individuals putting the race on each year. The right to host the event next year is usually decided with some sort of drinking contest.

Results Summary

Year Country Location Male Winner Nation Female Winner Nation
2012 South Africa
2011 Ireland Ballyhoura Niall Davis Ireland Heather Holmes USA
2010 New Zealand Rotorua Garth Weinberg New Zealand Heather Logie Australia
2009 USA Durango, CO Ross Schnell USA Heather Irmiger USA
2008 USA Napa, CA Carl Decker USA Rachel Lloyd USA
2007 Scotland Aviemore Adam Craig USA Kelli Emmett USA
2006 Sweden Stockholm Sveinung Bjørkøy Norway Tiffany Allmandinger USA
2005 USA State College, PA Brian Keich USA Marla Steb USA
2004 Germany Berlin Florian Eschenbach German Linda Eckhart USA
2003 Australia Castlemaine, Victoria Clinton Jackson New Zealand Linda Eckhart USA
2002 USA Downieville, CA Travis Brown USA Stella Carey USA
2001 Wales Afan Argoed Jeff Wherlock UK Alison Rushton UK
2000 USA Minneapolis, MN Jay Hollywood Henderson USA Stella Carey USA
1999 USA Rancho Cucamonga, CA Travis Brown USA Marla Streb USA
1995 USA Big Bear Lake, CA Adam Briggs USA unknown

1995

Big Bear Lake
Big Bear Lake
Big Bear Lake is a reservoir in the San Bernardino Mountains, in San Bernardino County, California, United States. At a surface elevation of , it has an east-west length of approximately 7 miles and is approximately 2.5 miles at its widest measurement, though the lake's width mostly averages a...

, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...



The event was presented by Bob Seals and called the "W.H.I.R.L.E.D." (Wasted Hairy Insanely Retro League of Enlightened Degenerates) Championships. The first part of the race was not to run to your bike or start riding, but to finish a beer.

2001

2 June - Afan Argoed Country Park
Afan Forest Park
The Afan Forest Park is a forest park in Britain. It is set in the Afan Valley in Neath Port Talbot, in south Wales. It is well-known for its mountain biking and hiking or hillwalking trails...

, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...



The event was held in the Afan Argoed Country Park, near Port Talbot
Port Talbot
Port Talbot is a town in Neath Port Talbot, Wales. It had a population of 35,633 in 2001.-History:Port Talbot grew out of the original small port and market town of Aberafan , which belonged to the medieval Lords of Afan. The area of the parish of Margam lying on the west bank of the lower Afan...

, in southern Wales
South Wales
South Wales is an area of Wales bordered by England and the Bristol Channel to the east and south, and Mid Wales and West Wales to the north and west. The most densely populated region in the south-west of the United Kingdom, it is home to around 2.1 million people and includes the capital city of...

. The park is within valley's forest, which has the distinction of being the largest urban forest in Europe. One of the most memorable prizes were awarded to the fattest and skinniest racer. These titles were determined by the crowd's cheering at the award event. Prizes were also awarded for best seen crash, most vomiting during the race (4), person most in need of a new frame (award a new Bianchi frame), best male legs (decided by the top ten women), pimp-est bike and most hungover.

2002

Saturday October 12 Downieville
Downieville, California
Downieville is a census-designated place in and the county seat of Sierra County, California, United States. Downieville sits at an elevation of...

, California, United States

The 2002 event was the first to awarding the winners branding instead of tattoos. Stella Carey said the branding hurt much less than the pain endured during the race. The brands were applied by professional brander, Michael Hare, of Exotic Body in Sacramento, California
Sacramento, California
Sacramento is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat of Sacramento County. It is located at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River in the northern portion of California's expansive Central Valley. With a population of 466,488 at the 2010 census,...

. Additionally, Stella and Travis were each awarded a pig trophy. The trophy's frames were made by welding expert and bike frame maker Rick Hunter. Steve Smith assembled dissected piglet embryos into cylinders of formaldehyde and/or urine, that were held within each trophy.
Sixth place women took home a stock Independent Fabrications frame with custom paint and 66th place men took home a custom Independent Fabrications frame with stock paint. Bay Area favorites Three Years Down were supposed to play the after party, but broke up on the Friday before the race. Sticker Guy Pete (who also owns 702 Records, Three Years Down's label) drove from Reno and spin records in their absence.

2003

9 November - Castlemaine
Castlemaine, Victoria
Castlemaine is a city in Victoria, Australia, in the Goldfields region of Victoria about 120 kilometres northwest by road from Melbourne, and about 40 kilometres from the major provincial centre of Bendigo. It is the administrative and economic centre of the Shire of Mount Alexander. The...

, Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....

, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...


2005

21 August - State College
State College, Pennsylvania
State College is the largest borough in Centre County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It is the principal city of the State College, Pennsylvania Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Centre County. As of the 2010 census, the borough population was 42,034, and roughly double...

, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

, United States
The 2005 SSWC course was a single lap of approximately 25 miles (40 km), within Rothrock State Forest. It featured three major climbs and four descents and a total elevation gain of approximately 3500 feet (1070 meters). The race started with a 1 mile (1.6 km) trail run to separate the field of 400 plus riders.

The 2005 event was organized by Eric Roman and Jim Malta who both worked at a shop in the local town. The 2005 event highlight was not awarding the title of World Champion to the winner of the bicycle race, but to the winner of a Go-kart race after the primary event. Winning or finishing well in the bicycle race (top 20 men and top 10 women) only qualified you for the Go-Kart race. This caused controversy within some portions of the single-speed community. The World Champions were each awarded a Gary Fisher Rig 29"er single-speeds with custom Jennifer Green head badges and a tattoo of the event's official logo.

Only first and second place were recorded and released for the bicycle stage. First two men were Jesse LeLonde and Travis Brown, first two women were Abby Hippley and Tiffany Mann. Jesse and Abby both failed to win the championship, despite their starting Go-kart pole position. For their first place finishes they were awarded bottles of 15 year old scotch. Other prizes were awarded for the person requiring the most stitches, drinking the most the night before, riding another person's bike to the end, having to ride somebody else bike since took yours by mistake, and doing the most damage to your bike during the race.

Surly Bikes won the derby, allowing them to choose the venue for the 2006 championship race.

2006

19-20 August - Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...

, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....



The right to decide the location for SSWC06 was determined via bike derby
Bike derby
Also known as "Foot Down" a bike derby is a contest, the goal of which is to be the last person still riding their bike. Modeled somewhere between a Demolition derby and a Roller derby, a bike derby adds the element of maintaining balance on a bicycle while causing other contentants' to lose their...

, at SSWC05. Applications were submitted and evaluated, with the winning entry (an application and video submitted by Tobias Jönsson and Joakim Simonsson of Stockholm) announced on the Jan 6, 2006 Surly Blog. One of the primary motivating factors for the choice was the proximity of world-class trails, within easy riding distance from the city center, making it a car-free event.

The event was organized primarily by Tobias Jönsson, Phil McNaughton (a.k.a. Dr. Spoke) and Dane Thomas. Pre and post-race activities were based at a local art, music and design market called Street.

Pre-race rides were organized via the SSWC06 website and HappyMTB forums, so that local riders would have the chance to show guests the wide variety of trails available.

Race day saw a gathering of approximately 300 riders moving from Race Central to the start and finish area, at the base of Hammarby Ski Hill. Just over 200 participants from 15 different countries were issued race passes. The race course covered two 12 km loops, consisting primarily of root covered rocky technical single-track, through an area called Hellasgården.

Female:
1. Tiffany Allmandinger (United States)
2. Alison Rushton (United Kingdom) - Winner of SSWC01
3. Johanna 'JoJo' Reeder (Sweden)

Male:
1. Sveinung Bjørkøy (Norway)
2. Brian Keich (United States) - Winner of SSWC05
3. Luca Mara (Sweden)

The race winners were tattooed directly following the event by Theo Jak and were also awarded certificates for custom Retrotec steel singlespeed frames to be built by Curtis Inglis, the primary sponsor of the event who also attended and raced in Stockholm. Second place riders won their choice of hub-sets from Phil Wood, while third place riders won WORD rear hubs by Paul Component Engineering. All other prizes were awarded based upon factors, other than finishing position. Some examples being a bottle of Scotch to the older gentleman who managed to negotiate one full lap of the course on his ancient Swedish military bicycle
Swedish military bicycle
Swedish military bicycles , or Swedish army bicycles, have been used in the Swedish military for over a century.-History:The first bicycles in the Swedish military were privately owned or bought for testing purposes. Bicycle infantry were first introduced in 1901, when a Gotlandic infantry...

; tires from WTB to those who flatted on the course or pre-race rides; a freewheel from White Industries for a competitor who destroyed his freewheel during the race; cogs from Phil Wood for all competitors who completed the race on fixed-gear bicycles; wool Brooks riding jerseys provided by Cykloteket for those competitors coming from the farthest south and north.

The selection process for the location of SSWC07 was held on Sunday, 20 August. Contestants were told that it was to be a boat race and that those nations wishing to be in contention should present four person teams. The "boat race" turned out to be a beer drinking relay race which was handily won by the team from Scotland, winning them the right to host SSWC07.

2007

2 September - Aviemore
Aviemore
Aviemore is a town and tourist resort, situated within the Cairngorms National Park in the Highlands of Scotland. It is in the Badenoch and Strathspey committee area, within the Highland council area. The town is popular for skiing and other winter sports, and for hill-walking in the Cairngorm...

, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...



Athletes competed from Germany, United States, Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

, Australia and many others. Drinking Cairngorm Brewery beer, the course was specifically modified by local trail builders Andy, David and Nash, resulting in an array of prizes from a range of generous sponsors.

Kelli Emmet and Adam Craig took home top honors, acquiring Custom Inc. Tattoo Studio tattoos. Kelli won the Sycip custom singlespeed frame, with Adam winning the Black Sheep custom titanium frame.

Females:
1.Kelli Emmett (United States)
2.Jenn Hopkins (United Kingdom)
3.Sinead Fitzgibbon (United States)
4.Tiffany Allmandinger (United States)
5.Rebecca Tomaszewski (United States)

Males:
1.Adam Craig (United States)
2.Carl Decker (United States)
3.Travis Brown (United States)
4.Gareth Montgomery (Scotland)
5.Sveinung Bjørekøy (Norway)

2009


19-20 September - Durango
Durango, Colorado
The City of Durango is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of La Plata County, Colorado, United States. The United States Census Bureau said that the city population was 16,887 in 2010 census.-History:...

, Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...

, United States

New Zealand won the right to host 2010 championship. The quarter final contest was a Karaoke/American Idol event that eliminated Canada and Hungary. The final was Italy versus New Zealand. New Zealand prevailed in a tough game of smash-mouth basketball resulting in the championship going to the Southern Hemisphere
Southern Hemisphere
The Southern Hemisphere is the part of Earth that lies south of the equator. The word hemisphere literally means 'half ball' or "half sphere"...

 for only the second time.

2010

23 October - Rotorua
Rotorua
Rotorua is a city on the southern shores of the lake of the same name, in the Bay of Plenty region of the North Island of New Zealand. The city is the seat of the Rotorua District, a territorial authority encompassing the city and several other nearby towns...

, New Zealand
The event was held within the Whakarewarewa
Whakarewarewa
Whakarewarewa is a geothermal area within Rotorua city in the Taupo Volcanic Zone of New Zealand...

Forest and hosted by the Rotorua Singlespeed Society. Whakarewarewa boasts a trail network of over 80 kilometres that is built and maintained by volunteers. When entries closed at midnight on September 30 (NZST) nearly 1000 had registered from 30 countries. Rider numbers are around the same as the previous high in Durango, 2009. However country numbers were well up on the previous best of 17 at SSWC04 in Berlin.

2011

Ireland

Riders faced two laps of a 12 mile course in South West Ireland at the Ballyhoura trail centre. 580 riders signed up. Last years champion Garth Weinburg finished a close second to Davis the male winner.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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