Day 10: Battle Mountain NV

Time to start our newly-extended period of staggering bleary-eyed about the Nevada desert, calling for caffeine like half-crazed, er, coffee addicts.  I predict a national shortage by Thursday.  Your correspondent was on chase official duties both morning and evening, which means I get to make sure the chase car obeys Teh Roolz and advise race control of any incidents, of which happily there were none occurring to any vehicle I was behind.

Mount Lewis soars fairly majestically above an improbably low cloud base

The scheduled 07:00 start fell by the wayside until such time as a duff wire connecting the sensor at the start of the 200m to the electronic box of tricks at the finish line had been diagnosed and replaced.  Nibbled by an okapi during the previous twelvemonth or something.  We managed almost to catch up in time for the NDOT-mandated 10:00 deadline to reopen the road for the day.  Not too many problems for the opening overs of the event, though Adam Hari in N-1 and Kazuhiro Takei in Haruka 2019 had run-curtailing starting problems, both Yasmin Tredell and Ken Buckley were obliged to pull up on the course when ARION5 shed its chain and Ilona Peletier decked Altair 6 after arriving in catch at R17, mowing down a couple of catchers as the bike spun down the road.  She seemed pretty shaken up by the incident but it was hoped that the damage could be fixed in time for the evening runs.  Jennifer Breet in VeloX 9 nearly suffered a similar fate, but ace sprinter/catcher Barclay Henry performed one of his trademark heroic saves.  Toronto failed to appear, although they protested that they had tried to contact various members of the Politburo to let us know.

"Wild Bill" Thornton waiting beside his Milan SL velomobile

Yasmin Tredell gives her head a wobble before the lid goes on ARION5

Josh Gieschen awaits his turn in Ambition from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo

John Jackson stands guard over Peter Borenstadt and his DF velomobile

Highlight of the session was undoubtedly the launch of the Sprocket Rocket.  They load the riders into the machine, which is suspended from the main beam of their trailer, bring it to the launch area, lower it onto the road and fit the flexible upper body panels which the truck and trailer disappeared down the road.  Then go.  Their speed of 52.13 mph was perhaps a little disappointing, but apparently captain Chris DeMarchi complained of too much chat between the riders at the expense of power output, and more Discipline will be applied tomorrow.

Fitting the upper body panels to Sprocket Rocket prior to firing the missile

Although Andrea Gallo in Taurus was undoubtedly the fastest, a hiccup with the timing gear has him at 72 mph while the onboard GPS reckoned about 69.  Next up was Rosa Bas in VeloX 9 at 64.97.  Rosa's team-mate Jennifer, and both Altair 6 pilotes Ilona and Fabien Canal also cracked 60, though the wind was somewhat variable.  Not that it really matters in qualifying runs anyway.

Debrief at the Civic Center and warnings of Mighty Rushing Winds, followed by a late breakfast/early lunch at the Colt.  Finally managed to repay Arnold and Marieke for the dinners they bought me last year.  Uploading photos didn't seem as slow this afternoon, even though my attempt to use the wifi from the Scottish Restaurant next door to the Super 8 was unsuccessful.  Loafing around took care of the rest of the afternoon until it was time to head back out to the desert.

So, your guitarist used to be in Evil Gazebo...

The forecasts of Terrible Gales scared off a fair few people, to the extent that only eight of the twelve available start slots were filled.  Eight then became six, when IUT Annecy scratched Ilona and Fabien, I think because they hadn't yet got the bike sorted after this morning's tomfoolery.  We elected to compress the normal three evening heats into two, the first of which saw Rosa the sole runner after Denise Koronek discovered that the backup video screen in Wahoo had stopped working.  She clocked a thoroughly respectable 71.03 run before the team performed a quick turnaround to get the bike back up to the start for Jennifer to ride.

Jennifer gets plugged in and switched on

Heat two saw the remaining four riders all get away successfully, with Andrea laying down a marker with 80.8 mph at the first attempt.  Jennifer ran 64.17, Ellen van Vugt in the VeloX XS 68.05 and Vittoria Spada in the all-new Taurus-X 64.38.  She then overshot the catch crew, banged on the brakes and fell over at low speed.  Barclay almost caught her...  And all five riders had legal wind speeds.  Arf!  Professor Sir Viscount Timelord Nogami has stepped down from his post as Meteorological Prognosticator with immediate effect.

Arty picture of Vittoria closing today's racing,
taken over Paolo Baldissera's shoulder from the back of the van

We get an extra 15 minutes in bed tomorrow because we have to wait for the school bus to pass before the first road closure, but I'm still going to try to get an early night.