Day 23: Battle Mountain NV

Friday morning, or, The Return of Evil Frank.  Almost everyone was out there this morning as the number of opportunities shrinks rapidly.  Only the Annecy team elected to have a lie-in.  The first heat had Matilde in Phoenix, who has gear shifting and was nearly caught by Chris in Bilby.  The wind had other ideas and decided to beat up on Aussies this morning, nullifying his 68.82 mph pass.  He nearly caught Matilde, who trundle through at 38.72.  Diego's run was also curtailed by gear issues; in this case the PSO responsible for plugging in the cable supplying voles to their fancy-schmancy moving-cassette system failed to do so, causing Cerberus to come to a halt just over a mile down the road.  Mortification ensued.

Thee Unruly Mobb

Matilde ran again in the second heat and promptly set a PB with 71.57 mph.  Daniel ran the Milan over 90 km/h, which did please him mightily - 56.79 mph.  Diego had another go and had a successful run at 48.39.  As soon as he'd passed Badger Ranch Road we launched Alyssa (12) who set her third World Record of the week at 24.55 mph.

Monash, loafing

In heat three the Sprockettes went off first.  I believe they're still experimenting with acceleration profiles an' t'ing which meant they managed 59 mph dead.  Oscar's run in Bilby - 69.48 mph - was also mullered by the wind but Diego's second full run of the morning saw an increased speed - 48.66 mph and less than 3 mph behind Ken Talbot's 2018 record.  And Alyssa (12) ran a second time too, increasing her own record to 24.72.  Wearing leggings instead of jeans probably helps, young lady!

Alyssa (12) sets off

The final heat saw Enzo making a perfect start, unless his launchers exceeded the 15 metres allowed for launch assistance.  Did they?  Evil Frank Lem wasn't saying, to the great consternation of the Policumbent PSOs, until I called him a rather rude name.  Whereupon he allowed as to how it was legal after all.  Sadly the wind had got up by this heat an none of the riders got a legal run, including Enzo's 69.47.  His only wind legal run so far has been his 2.5 mile qualifier chiz.  The Sprockettes ran a second time, but could only hit 56.68.  A recovered Wild Bill made his first appearance on the five mile course this week and hit 54.12 - slow by his standards - and Peter in the DF was again the Lanterne Rouge with a 52.42 mph clocking.

Cows, Nevada, Friday.  Supremely indifferent to the action on the 305.

Lunch with the timing crew, the Krauses, Arnold and Joyce.  Jun paid for everyone.  Note to self: take back some of the terrible things you've said aboot Canadians.  We'd been told that the furniture shop on the way back into town from out SEEKRIT lunch location could sell us Battle Mountain Longhorns T-shaped shirts¹.  This turned out to be Not True, but Marieke bought A Thing and Joyce found a veritable plethora of Wols.

Wols!

MOAR Wols!

Continuing the handegg theme, a coachload of high schoolers from Tahoe City rocked up mid-afternoon to play the Longhorns this evening.  Their coach says that if the start acting up we can do what we like with them - beat them up, throw them in the pond² next to the high school, throw them over the fence onto I-80 ect, ect.  Hopefully it won't come to that.

Or we could bung 'em in here...

Evening runs.  Enzo was first away but he managed to bin Phoenix at V > 100 km/h, apparently from a rogue gust of wind.  Nether bike nor rider damaged to any great extent as the team did a rapid turnaround and got Matilde on the road in the next heat.  Daniel ran a wind-legal 56.70 in the Milan but Diego's 48.50 was not favoured by the Weather Piskies.

Enzo before all the trouble started

In heat two Kit's legal 72.32 mph performance is a new Aussie record for a bike, elbowing out Adam Hari's best from last year in Larry Lem's Wahoo.  He's still a little shy of Gareth Hank's outright national record.  Matilde's 69.16 was wind-afflicted but the indefatigable Diego made his fourth full run of the day, a legal 48.66 for the second time.

Kit heads off to become Australia's fastest bicyclist

As befits the world's second-fastest human François was first off in the third and final heat.  He improved over yesterday, but only by 0.01 mph.  86.40.  Bah!  Al in Bilby ran 72.11.  The newcomers from Captain Cook's Mistake have built a bike that is officially Not Slow, and deserve much critical acclaim.  Note to self: take back some of the terrible things you've said about Australians, except when they beat us at cricket.  The two velomobiles completed the evening's entertainments, with Niklas refitting the lights to the Milan, doing 50.49 mph and then blowing past catch and continuing back to town.  To the considerable consternation of both the race officials in catch and local lad Mason Mauldin, on traffic control duty down the road.  The latter almost attempted to stop the speeding machine, but fortunately the situation was cleared up before he could belt Niklas with his STOP sign.  Peter closed the night with a 55.61 mph pass in the DF.  All winds legal for the third heat.

Frank being Not Evil

So, one day to go.  Might we see François get up early and take advantage of the morning calm?  How many more times can Alyssa (12) break her own record?  And will she be carted off to the hoosegow as a serial offender?  Can one of more of the Monash à quatre™ snaffle the outright Australian record?  And can the Sprockettes put in one last mighty run and take the Multi-rider Multi-track title off the Vector tandem?  Stay tuned for more wizard high-speed LOLZ0RZ...

1. High school handegg team.
2. Which has both ducks and Horrible Gooses.  In it.