The Richmond Bike Polo Club is a major outfit in the budding arena of bike polo. It is comparable to the likes of clubs from NYC, DC, Philly, and others. The main difference is not the quality of play - Richmond Bike Polo recently won 1st in a inter-club tourney - it is that Richmond Bike Polo has no sanctioned home court. That may change soon, but for now, The Turducken, a large tournament featuring the eponymous mixed-poultry dish and dozens of teams from all over the continent, remains the most visible event in local bike polo. And with $1000 on the line, it's quite serious.
Bike Polo, much like polo and hockey, uses lightweight mallets to strike a street hockey ball into a small net. Three players are on either team, and all must remain on their bikes at all times. If you do fall, you must return to the center of the court as a penalty. The bikes are usually hyper-customized bike polo bikes, often using equipment specially made for bike polo.
It is simple in concept, much like hockey, but is actually full of strategy, talent, and skilled “moves” that make spectators ooh and aah with the best of them.
Bike Polo is a real sport. RVA Bike Polo president Sean McCormick told me as much. I suppose this is important, as perhaps common misconception would say that Bike Polo must be some sort of weekend activity for bike couriers and their friends, a hip game often played semi-ironically. It is no such thing.
“A lot of really good cyclists will come out, being mountain bikers or road cyclists, and expect to be really good at bike polo because they're good on their bikes.” McCormick said. “The second they pick up a mallet and jump in a game, they're like- all that skill that they have- it's a totally different feeling.”
This past Sunday, during the final round of the Turducken, the skill was very tangible. While the crowd of people watching consisted of some non-players, the overwhelming feeling was everyone there knew what the hell they were doing. After a few minutes I was already in Sean's camp.
This is no game for cyclists to play on the side and expect results.
I honestly expected to see some newer players and teams struggle to stay upright against their competition, but the pairing was extraordinary. Every game was competitive, most were close. The complexity of maneuvering a bike, along with a ball, along with a team, along with three folks on the other team trying to stop you, was a jagged ballet of maneuvers as impressive as what an ice hockey player could do with a puck. It is actually not too unlike hockey in its ebbs and flows.
The crowd, composed of players and spectators, was not apathetically watching their friends play a novelty sport either. Eyes were locked on the courts, whistles and cheers weren't awkward or ironic- it was like a real, paid sporting event, except that it was void of the commercialism usually dripping from the walls of such events.
The court at Abner Clay Park, where the final round was held, was constructed by RVA Bike Polo and friends using tennis nets and plywood corners to form two rinks adjacent to one another. There were red cups, a chalk bracket with the (usually hilarious) team names written on it. And there was a seasonal and ceremonial Turducken.
McCormick, in charge of the event, participated as player with his team Seanasaurusdactylpede, and they placed 3rd in the tournament. He is one of many talented players representing Richmond Bike Polo, and he described the process he and others like him went through to get serious about bike polo.
“That looks like fun, it's rough and tumble, it's a cool team sport, it's using your bike.” McCormick told me about his thought process first observing Bike Polo being played at alleycat races, which are unsanctioned urban bike races popular with messengers. “But it's no longer the fixed-gear, urban messenger crowd.” he said.
Bike Polo was birthed around bike messenger culture, so thinking it's still found mostly along alleycat races makes some sense. But the sport is absolutely in its dawn, in terms of being a sanctioned, legitimate and self-sufficient event.
“For the sport to grow, and for us to be able to cultivate it into something that people take seriously, it's gotta be its own thing.” McCormick said.
The game really is its own thing. Watching the semifinals and finals of the tournament, the communication between the players on the court and the pure stamina and skill associated- it is obvious that this is something these players really care about. This shouldn't detract from the fact that fun is at the core of the event. Daniel Sebring, a Charlottesville native and member of the Rim Grippers squad, described why he has been playing for going on 4 years.
“Exercise, and, I've always been prone to doing stupid shit on a bicycle” he said. “And it just sort of perpetuates that. It's always about the challenge of getting better, playing with different people. It kind of reminds me of going out-of-town, going on tour.”
For those of you who are interested in playing- the culture seems fun-loving and receptive, so long as you are about playing some polo.
“I honestly just started showing up” Charlie Sprinkles of Richmond Bike Polo said about his early experiences with bike polo.
Richmond Bike Polo is trying to raise money to get the city to let them convert a tennis court into a full-time bike polo court. Richmond, being a small city, has yet to do so, but the size of their bike polo community and it's growing reputation indicate that they deserve that type of legitimacy.
In a recent tournament in which the three-man roster consisted of a rotating 8-9 person roster, representing different cities polo clubs, Richmond took gold. RVA can play. Richmond doesn't always win (the first place team, 7 Strips Of Kevin Bacon, came from Seattle), but the event was nonetheless a win for Richmond Bike Polo. They are getting closer to getting a court of their own. The pre-Turducken party helped raise these funds, and increasing membership also helps.
The website has lots of information on events, but the sentiment among players was that folks just show up and end up staying, often checking their cycling background humbly at the door.