Day 26: Battle Mountain NV

Highlights of Saturday morning:

• Jennifer Breet finally got a wind-legal run on her second attempt of the day: 72.42 mph.  Yay!
• Calvin Moes got his 80 mph Hat with 80.83 mph.  Yay!
• Karen Darke increased her own arms-only World Record to 46.54 mph.  Yay!

Lowlights of Saturday morning:

• Your correspondent driving That Shitbox Dodge into the rear quarter of Danny Guthrie's van in the car park.  Sturdy aluminium mudguard 1 - 0 That Shitbox Dodge.  Piss!

Arty sky photo through the rood of Paul Gracey's Tesla

Matthias waiting on the start line

After the morning debrief it was time for the annual photoshoot outside the Civic Center.  Fortunately the light shower we'd encountered while packing up and driving back to town failed to follow us.

Machines and riders.  CO2 was on its way home and Soup Dragon was absent because the LSBU gang read the schedule instead of being at the meeting to hear the revised timetable.  Bas de Meijer managed to 'shop them into his pics afterwards.

Officer Aten then showed up to nick various villains:

Ken and Karen about to get framed arrest warrants

These two have been inciting people to break Nevada's traffic laws since 2006...

The forecast said the wind in the evening would be Evil.  It was.  Valina was the only runner not to scratch heat one; she got Bluenose down the course OK but stacked the old warrior just after the bridge while slowing for catch.  She had a bit of a headache afterwards, having gone in hard enough to break the helmet she'd borrowed from Calvin for the occasion, but was more concerned about having crashed the bike than any damage to herself.

No-one ran in heat two, while Fabien elected to give heat three a miss too.  Mike Head, a long-standing member of the Scouse Mayhem Crew, wondered whether it was because his team-mates had rendered IUT Annecy's Catcher-in-Chief hors de combat after giving him a BEER, but apparently it was the wind.  Andrea made a slow pass in the windy conditions to show off Team Policumbent's latest tweak, the slacker:

Forza Italia!

Calvin actually managed to break Eta Prime's chain this time and thus couldn't get further than the grassy knoll and the culvert that Bluenose fell in last year.  Lieke got in one final bid for the record but, although the wind had now dropped to legal levels, she could only just over 70.  The Mgt and the teams had already decided to squeeze Matthias into heat three after he'd asked nicely (and later apologised for doing so, the daft so-and-so), so it fell to him to close the event, with another 75+ run.

Thence to the Awards Dinner at the Civic Center.  Taco buffet.  Nom nom nom.  Our table sat Team Wahoo (John Jackson and the three Lem siblings), Peter Borenstadt, the Ligtvoets and the Reicherts - Todd, Jenny and Bump.  While they know Bump will be a boy, they don't have a name yet.  Following the mirth that ensued every time Alice Krause tried to spell the first name of Annecy's chef d'equipe, I suggest "Guillaume".

Todd, Jenny and probably not-Guillaume

I picked up a Nevada Highway Patrol BEAR, advising me not to get into the blind spot of big rigs, and whom I shall call "Arthur", as a door prize.  Joyce Lem won overall, with a bottle of 12 year old single malt whisky.

Frank Lem gazes at a BEAR behind

Officer Aten returned to present warrants to the various violators of Nevada's traffic laws; Soup Dragon pilot Russell Bridge got a special one for operating an unsafe vehicle:

Back: Russell, Andrea, Calvin, Fabien, Ellen, Matthias, Valina, Lieke
Front: Ken, Karen, Jennifer

Marieke handed over 2D Thomas to Mike Sova to care for until next year.  Mikey is off back to his boat tomorrow.  In Grenada.  Git.

Hats for newcomers to the divers speed categories were handed out:

Back: Matthias (75), Lieke & Jennifer (70), Russell & Greg (55)
Front: Andrea & Calvin (80), Valina & Guillaume (55), Ken & Adam (50)
Couchant: Fabien (75)

And teh W1nz0rz from the various categories, excepting Ishtey, who had to head home early coz he's got skool on Monday.  Getting second in the men's multitrack was an unexpected bonus for Russell after the bloody awful time had by the LSBU team.  They're not bothering to take the fairing back home.

Standing: Fabien, Lieke, Jennifer, Ellen, Russell, Greg
Not Standing: Calvin, Andrea, Karen, Ken, Adam

The Young People looked set to party pretty hard so us old fogies went back to the Super 8 for a nice cup of tea and a sit down.  Also, no-one said my hair looked "awesome" this year, so I am sulking.

While Andrea clocked the highest speed of the meeting, I reckon most people would agree that Karen Darke, Ken Talbot and the University of Liverpool Velocipede Team were made of thee highest concentration ov Win.

My room is booked for next year.