Red Bull Last Stand 2019 at Tulsa Tough | Bikes, Money, and Parties!

Words by: Scott Piercefield | Images from: Michael Cedeño

Another race in the books, another Uber driver threatened to blast System of a Down. Scott here with a race update! The 2019 RedBull Last Stand happened much earlier than its late-season past, joining forces with Tulsa Tough to produce a venue and course I’ll never forget. 

If you are a full fledged fixie foo you might not even know what Tulsa Tough is: it’s essentially a 3 day party for the City of Tulsa consisting of road criteriums on some of the most demanding courses I’ve ever seen- and did I mention the BEST road riders in the US come out for it? 

If you thought only the spectator's party, you are dead wrong. Tulsa Tough is essential Spring Break, summer version, for bike racers. 

Enough about the roadie stuff though- we are here to fixie. Though the RedBull Last Stand race is quite unique, it’s traditional in the sense that its a criterium and there’s qualifiers before the race. Qualifiers for the race began Friday night for the men’s and women’s fixed field. You probably know the drill here- fastest lap gets you the pole position at the front on race day, and that’s exactly where you want to be when the race starts. With several qualifying groups our team was quite lucky to have a few of us together in the same heat- that lead to a team WATT explosion which ultimately gapped the entire field by buss-lengths and lead to the 1st and 3rd fastest laps. Not to toot the SBC horn but I was very impressed with the teammies in this short effort:

MENS:  Tolley- 1st 🏆 ,  Scott- 3rd , Geffner- 10th , Josh - 11th ,  Cameron- 13th

 

WOMEN'S: Emi- 3rd, Jenny- 12th, Sam- 17th

Following qualifiers, the team showered and headed out for some amazing Asian food.  Team manager Scott isn’t threatened by Chris Tolley’s fashion flexing, he has a plan of his own. He might also be an unattached JNCO Brand Ambassador now. 

RACE DAY:

RedBull Last Stand was the banger race of the day which meant both women’s and men’s field raced last- 8:30 pm for women’s and 9:15 pm for men’s. This meant the event lights on and fireworks were about to be LIT. 

The women’s team warms up- they’re probably talking some mean race tactics at the moment. Pay attention, Jenny. 

A little plug never hurt NOBODY. We are stoked as ALL EVER to be riding the Bell Z20 this year- the MIPS really allows us to rest at ease that we have the best product if we face some kind of rubber-side-down dilemma. 

LOVE THEM SPARKLES

 

What’s a RedBull event without the stuff?

Emi on the start line.

Get it together, Sam. 

That’s better. 

With all the riders staged in their proper qualifying positions, the race directors go over the rules and the riders wait eagerly for the whistle to blow.....and they’re off!

I mentioned earlier that though the ResBull Last Stand is a fixie crit, it’s still a little unique. It’s an elimination race- essentially they eliminate the last 2 riders to the line each lap until 10 laps to go, then they eliminate 1 rider per lap. This means that you are sprinting ever lap until 1 person is left. Yea, it was hard. 

The women’s team put in a fine performance with Emi in finishing 5th, Sam in 17th, and Jenny in 12th. 

Now onto the men’s field!

Cam Dog gearing up for a grueling race.

So easy, a caveman can do it 

On or off? 

WE IN THIS TOGETHER! Much love for James Grady, the creator of the next best thing to the Internet: Mission Crit. 

Them boys line up, Tolley with eye of the Tiger. 

The whistle blows and we are off! James makes a first lap flyer to jazz the crowd and promote the Mission Crit.  Our team raced incredibly. There were only a few instances when we weren’t controlling the race. 

With 15 to go the pace kicked up a few notches. The field quality was evident, and the sprints each lap intensified. Good thing we were ready to throw down.

Tolley held the pace for another lap and retired for 5th. Overall our team did excellent given or work the entire race. Cam placed 17th, Andrew 10th, Josh 8th, Scott 6th, and Tolley in 5th. 

Before cleaning up and reporting to the afterparty we put our race winnings together to see how much we made. We didn’t do half bad. Tolley needs a new pair of Rick Owens something, I’m sure.  That’s a wrap! Thank you so much State and our sponsors for another unforgettable trip. The team will have the rest of June off, but report back in July because there’s tons of racing left! 

🙏 Thanks for the continued support of our sponsors Bell Bicycle Helmets, Endura Clothing, Vittoria Tires, Fizik, Easton, Floyd's of Leadville, and Hand Up Gloves. If you love the State Bicycle Co. Team, support these companies! 🙏