She looks harmless enough, doesn't she?

The first time I ran into Jaimie Lusk was at the start of one those wacky courier races. Here were all these guys, nervously joking around, making excuses in advance for the embarassment we were about to bring onto ourselves, while Jaimie stood there with a stone face and the proverbial Eye of the Tiger. It was obvious before the race even started that she was going to put everything she had into winning it. As serious as Polonium-210, she appeared to be visualizing her triumph and the terms of victory. It was impressive and, I'll admit, frightening as all Hell. When her speed and determination were made clear on the streets a short while later, most of the racers dropped out in shock, complaining of phantom mechanical issues [1].

At these informal races, it is typical that everybody start together, male and female, professional street surfer and hobbyist, track bike, road bike, etc. This gives the women a fairly unique[2] opportunity to show what they can do against a cocky, snot-nosed pack of dudes. Jaimie has been tearing egos and paradigms and traffic to shreds, shreds I say, in Denver for the past couple years as a messenger and alleycat racer. While outright victory had somehow eluded her -- bad luck, technicalities, stupid tasks at checkpoints -- she made it obvious to all competitors that she is one of the fastest in town. Last weekend she proved it beyond a shadow of a doubt by winning the 'Rollin to the Dome' alleycat, one of the hardest, most competitive of these races that the city has hosted. She completed a tough course, including a stop at the Purina pet food plant in Commerce City, faster than almost 50 other riders to take home an unusually juicy purse. Congratulations Jaimie, on a well-deserved, no-nonsense win.

That night, the air was heavy with deflated egos. Smells like burnt toast. [3]

Look for Jaimie to get all Eye of the Tiger on her competition at the World Cycle Courier Championships in Dublin August 4-5.

Robert

[UPDATE 8/2: Jaimie recently won her second in a row, the corporate-sponsored 'Swobo Alleycat,' and took home a complete track bike as a trophy. Second place also went to a female messenger. The photo above was taken the day after her first win, on lunch break during a 30-mile trail ride. She is smiling because she took your money, then went out and rode trails all the next day. She is living the life. -- R.H.]

[1] If a guy is bested by a woman, no matter how strong she is, his defeat becomes an occasion for ridicule. (For instance, this photo of Laura VanGilder outsprinting John Verheul for the win at a Pro/1/2 race in New Jersey caused Verheul to be cheerfully lambasted on an interweb forum to which he had been posting, even though he was the only racer in the entire field of shellshocked chauncies who came close to beating her, even though the guys who were doing the lambasting could never even dream of being half as fast as the slowest shellshocked chauncie in the bunch.) And if he beats her, it's not necessarily an occasion for congratulations and praise. It may still be an occasion for ridicule if he does not beat her by much. Recognizing this Catch-22 can sap a fellar's motivation to race hard against a strong female competitor, and no doubt has caused many a racer to drop out against Jaimie Lusk.

[2] This is also true of most mountain bike endurance races.

[3] See, an occasion for ridicule. Sorry fellas. You are all winners as far as I'm concerned.