Argentine soccer team, Racing, rushing for post game juice boxes and Rice Krispie treats.

Racing for local windsurfers.

Racing. We know to most of you it brings to mind that great Buenos Aries football club - 16 time champion of Primera División as well as the first Argentine team to be world club champion. Perhaps it's because Racing was promoted back to the first division after defeating Atlanta in 1985. Of course, who wasn't beating Atlanta in any sport in 1985. But this, in fact, was an Argentine club, Atlanta, which allegedly got its name after our city of Atlanta was struck by an earthquake.

Cursory searching of the interwebs doesn't show any earthquakes hitting Georgia in 1904. There was a minor earthquake in Maine that year. Perhaps, they heard about an earthquake in Augusta (Maine) but confused it with Augusta (Georgia) and then thought, after looking at a map, that Atlanta (Georgia) would be a cooler name. Who knows...

But, the comedian Earthquake was performing in clubs around in Atlanta in the early 1990s, so there is that...

While we hate to disappoint our Hall County readers by switching the conversation away from futbol, there was a bit of racing in our little community, and, in fact, in Hall County last weekend. Timed to roughly coincide with the End of Days, our 34th Atlanta Fall Classic & End of the World Spectacular took place on the scenic grounds of and waters off of the Lake Lanier Sailing Club. Organized by the now legendary Chris Voith, it was an event blessed with wind in a place not often blessed with wind.

After all, this is Atlanta: Where Wind Goes to Die™. (Our new catchphrase)

The forecast leading to the weekend looked promising and the wind was kind enough to blow Friday afternoon to allow our visitors a chance to get the cobwebs out beforehand and Saturday for the racing. The wind died off on Sunday but there were enough blisters and sore arms from Saturday that few minded.

Fall Classic Results

While family obligations didn't allow us to race Saturday, we did make it up Friday to rinse some Hatteras salt off of our sails and find a good spot for our new camper. We were looking forward to getting the camper on the road and this seemed like a great opportunity to get it up to the lake since we had a good tail wind.

Pedaling up Buford Highway on my way to the Fall Classic.

As good as the racing was, it wasn't the highlight of the weekend. No, that honor belonged to Saturday night. After an excellent dinner featuring, much to the chagrin of the Chick-fil-A cows, beef, the fireworks began. Literally. The music all evening had been End of the World themed and then moved outside to choreograph probably one of the largest private displays of pyrotechnics ever set off over the shores and waters of Lake Sydney Lanier.

Since we've already done REM's "End of the World", The Doors "The End" (FF Coppola Remix):

While there wasn't enough fireworks to knock the earth off its axis and fulfill the Mayan prophecy, we can say that the name Voith is spoken in reverent tones in fireworks stores all along Georgia borders. Clerks will talk about the day the tall stranger, Blondie, walked in and made off with most of the inventory (after paying, of course).

Chris (Blondie) Voith outside of Shelton's in Fair Play,SC.

If you weren't there, you'll have to settle for years of us who were retelling the story. Years from now, small children will ask those who were there to tell them, one more time, about the night when the skies above Lanier were ablaze.

Fall Classic fireworks as viewed from Aqualand.

It's interesting that the kind of board that performs best in races around here is one that hasn't really been produced in significant numbers in years. Boards from the golden years of longboard racing (1988-2001) are what work best here because even in stronger winds, lulls and wind shadows can be so significant as to wreck a planing board's chances. Presently, if you buy a new longboard, you can either go classic (resurrected IMCO, Windsurfer One Design), hybrid (KonaOne) or exotic (Exocet, Starboard, etc.) Several Konas and a new Exocet were spotted on the beach.

Of course, one of the complaints about new boards is their expense. We can understand that. We've seen the same thing happening in cycling. It's very easy to drop major coin on a top of the line bike.

We must say that the whole Affair du Lance Armstrong left us depressed and morose - at least we think it did. We couldn't tell if it was that or the exhaustion of shortboarding (usually on a sail one size too big) at Hatteras everyday for 5-6 hours that week. Was it the 73rd hard cranking jibe of the morning before breakfast or the revelations of smuggling, witness intimidation, bribes and wholesale fraud?

Wallowing in despair over Lance's betrayal of our trust. Photo: moredownhaul

Returning to Atlanta, we decided to sell our more sporty (read: racing) bike and pick up a little round town bike for casual use. Whatever funds remained, we'd put towards a used IMCO or Fanatic 'cat since an Exocet RS D2 Elite (henceforth to be referred to as D2), like we saw on the beach this past weekend, is out of our budget with an MSRP of around $3400.

Even though we spent more than $10,000 on our Trek Madone 7, it's resale is severely impacted by two things: 1) a nick in the carbon fiber which possibly renders the frame suspect and the warranty isn't transferable 2) the likelihood that Lance will have to liquidate anything Trek related to pay his likely legal bills as the line to sue him to reclaim past earnings and prize money is starting to wind around the block.

We'd heard that folding bikes are now hot amongst the hipster crowd, having followed them through the fixie and cyclocross fads. Now that there's been a fixie movie (Premium Rush), the restless cognescenti are moving elsewhere. Being the type of person that can appreciate a premium windsurfing equipment (only our spare masts are anything less than 100% carbon) and cycling gear, we knew that we needed a quality folding bike like a Moulton - synonymous with folding bikes for many. This one looks pretty cool: folding yet racy. Practical yet lively.

A racing bicycle that fits on your, well, bicycle.

Oh, crapola. We could buy another Trek AND my Exocet for what this sucker costs. Must be the titanium frame. Nope, just good steel. Electronic shifting? No, steel (cables) there, too. Granted, the space frame is a work of art but...

Okay. Maybe we need to scale back our ambitions and get a less expensive bike. To tell the truth, maybe not a racer but more of an about town bike. The same web site features another pretty British design. Basket. Step-through frame for our dress kilt and Sturmey internal gears like our old English 3-speed racer.

Pashley Sonnet Bliss: Built of carbon fiber steel with 22 speed electric 5 gear drive train. Shown with standard light and ding-dong bell.

Thirteen hundred dollars? Well, that is a bit more than we had in mind but let's not overlook two of its finer points. 1) It's hand built by British artisans - despite assertions by some that the British make very little that the rest of us want to buy, and 2) it has a "ding-dong bell".

The Exocet D2 may still be beyond our price range for the time being - we've pinned our hopes on Powerball - but, perhaps, Exocet are marketing it to the wrong crowd. By putting a ding-dong bell and fenders on it (don't ask me how, we're just the idea people around here), they could appeal to an entirely new crowd.

Think of it as an artisinal board, add bell, fenders and basket and you could charge twice as much. Or, not.