Day 10: Battle Mountain NV

Last day of racing onoz, o woe, o waily waily!  Climatically it was more of the same with low temperatures and light winds, at least for the beginning and end of the session in the case of the blowy Stuffs.  Before the runs on the full course Diego had another crack at the 600/200m record that currently stands to BRITAIN'S Ken Talbot at 33.81 mph.  Wind was legal but he came up around 2 mph shy and thus will have one final bash at it tonight if the weather is coöperative.  We're planning to send him off as soon as the road is clear after 18:30 tonight.

Cerberus at Badger Ranch Road.
Dachshund joke goes here ==>

Lizanne was first off on the full course but was again short of the ARION 5 record from 2019 with 54.38.  Next up the Morris twins in Pillbug, who upped their previous mark to 43.51 mph.  Having been posted to Badger Ranch Road to oversee the short course attempts I was actually able to observe the bikes at full chat for once.  Hurrah!

MQ2 at full chat

Lynn's Camaro at full noise

By the second heat the wind had started to muck around so Daniel's 57.48 in Cyclone wasn't legal but Ellen's 49.20 in the Milan RS was.  And also demonstrating the speed difference between even a sleekit velomobile and a no-compromise racer like ARION 5, MQ2 or the CO2 in which she set a Women's Multitrack record a Several of years ago.  She was followed by Kai in Tempest, who earned both a Hat and a chance to run in the evening with her just-legal 50.96.  It's her birthday next week too.

Ellen/Milan RS

Kai/Tempest

Having already completed one run as a warmup Lizanne came up to Badger Ranch for a crack at the Women's 600/200.  The previous record has stood at 37.04 mph by Alaina DeWit for thirty years and Lizanne duly mullered it until it was discovered that the wind had increased again, nullifying her 39.71 mph run.  Bah!

Attempt #1 for Athlete Lizanne

The third heat saw the two Toronto bikes running.  Neither Lincoln in Cyclone nor Christopher in Tempest bested 60 mph and neither had legal win either chiz, but by the time heat four rolled around it had dropped again.  Ethan ran Cyclone to 60.43 and Diego 49.54.

Lincoln and Cyclone on final approach

It was all a bit too exciting for some people at catch...

After which Lizanne had another attempt on the 600/200.  This time the wind played nice and she claimed the record with a 39.34 mph run.  This, by the way, is an outright Women's record for the discipline, regardless of vehicle type.

She's in there somewhere...

Final heat of the morning had Wild Bill doing a solid 54.70 and Bella and Gigi¹ in the Pillbug lifting their own record again, this time to 44.87 mph.  Hurrah!

Exiting Pillbug:
Above: Gigi
Below: Bella

That wasn't quite the end of the morning, though, as the much-advertised head-to-head velomobile race over the full six miles had yet to be run.  We'd hoped to get a substantial number of other competitors outwith the regular sprinting gang but with one thing and another we ended up with but three: Peter in his DF and Niklas and Weibke in the two Milans.

Riders slowly melt while waiting for Nik to get his drone up

The last-named took off like a stabbed rat with Calvin waved the flag² but the event appeared to get tactical for the first couple of miles.  With a somewhat blinkered view of his surroundings Peter decided to take off after that lest Niklas sneak up in his blind spot and launch a Mighty Sprint, and won comfortably.  I'm not sure of the finish order of the other two coz both machines are white and very similar looking in footage from a drone 50 metres above and half a mile back from the competitors.

Back to town for the traditional group photos and ritual shoving of someone up a chimney ladder.  Officer Aten was otherwise engaged this morning and so unable to cuff some hapless crim and haul them away to the hoosegow but we are assured that he will be on hand tonight to ticket the various wrong'uns and probably throw away the key in the case of David Van Erd.

Calvin surveys the rabble
Note 80 mph Hat...

Vehicles and teams

There will be an update to this post with Stuffs about the final evening runs but Dog knows when it'll get posted.  I'm stopping here until Monday morning to help with the takedown and packing of Stuffs though, so we'll see...

Edit #1:  New Aussie record for Adam: 75.62 mph.  New World Record for Women's Multitrack for Lizanne: 60.17 mph.  w00t!  More Stuffs to follow, Stuffs fans.

Edit #2, Sunday morning:

OK, so I've now had a lie-in until 07:15 and am back from the 305 where we've been throwing the straw bales back onto the trailer.  This is harder work than setting them up in front of immovable signs, mailboxes, culverts, bridges, Jun and Danny, ect &, moreover, ect but we had a few more people, most of them young and sturdy locals lads.  Thanks to David Van Erd for helping and Macquarie and Team Falcon³ for volunteering to help only to be told to clear off and have some fun instead.  But anyway, Saturday night...

Flat calm when John Jackson and I went out early to set up the distance markers but by the first road closure at 17:30 the wind was up to its old tricks again and only Wild Bill opted to run.  His 56.70 mph was his fastest of the week but with a mighty rushing crosswind.

The Milan now boarding at Gate A1 is for Catch

The second heat was again a tad on the blowy side, but both Toronto bikes ran, heeled over to port like pirate ships after the helmsman has been at the RUM.  Daniel and Cyclone reached 53.46 mph and Christopher in Tempest 64.30.  Peter made his last run of the week at 53.71 mph.

The 18:30 heat was run off with much much less wind as the sun began to dip behind the mountains and all runs were legal.  First up was Adam, who banged in a new Australian records of 75.62 mph.  He was followed by Lincoln in Cyclone at 62.50 mph.  Next up Lizanne, who finally got the magic combination of weather and Athlete and added the thick end of 4 mph to Yasmin Tredell's Women's Multitrack World record, leaving at at 60.17 mph.  w00t!

Adam en route to the highest speed of the week and a new Aussie record

The final run on the five mile course was Kai, who clocked 52.84 in Tempest.  Closing out proceedings was Diego, having a final pop at the 600/200 metre record.  Wind was perfect but he fell short with 32.90.  Bah!

Diego warming up at badger Ranch Road

To the Finland Station Civic Center.  After the world's most expensive burritos we'd had for the last few years this time we had pizza sent over from the Wol Club for 1/3rd the prices and BYOB⁴.  Much MOAR betterer.  I got roped in to do the announcements for the door prizes.  I do not think a new career as a game show host beckons.  Most of my photos from the awards bash are utter bobbins so if you want some decent ones pop over to Jun's blog where there a pics taken on a newer camera by people who actually know what they're doing, like Danny Guthrie.

Officer Aten then got hold of the mike and ticketed the Morris twins for Youth, Daniel for failing to maintain his travel lane, Adam for speeding and David for speeding, attempting to elude tha polis, the murder of Rasputin and walking on the cracks in the pavement sidewalk⁵.

A right villain an' no mistake, Guv!

Then the presentation of Hats:

50 mph: Jun Nogami, Kai Zabitsky

60 mph: Lizanne Wilmot, Christopher Koehlmann, Daniel Tykei

65 mph: Ethan Elbaz

70 mph: David Van Erd

75 mph: Adam Hari

Picture on Jun's blog because mine were a Rubbish

And prizes:

Collegiate:

3rd: University of Toronto

2nd: Team Policumbent

1st: Macquarie University

Velomobile Race:

3rd: Niklas Bostelmann

2nd: Weibke Last-Name-Missing-From-My-Notes

1st: Peter Borenstadt

Whatever class Team Pillbug was in:

1st: Bella & Gigi Morris

Men Arms-Only:

1st: Diego Colombari

Women's Multitrack:

1st: Lizanne Wilmot

Men's Multitrack:

3rd: Jun Nogami

2nd: Peter Borenstadt

1st: Bill Thornton

Women's Singletrack:

2nd: Kai Zabitsky

1st: Ellen Van Vugt

Men's Singletrack:

3rd: Ethan Elbaz

2nd: David Van Erd

1st: Adam Hari

Finally Jun presented a Special Certificate of Appreciation for general awesomeness to Al'n'Alice Krause from Lander County.  This year was my nineteenth time here; Al'n'Alice have been Organisators of Record for fifteen of those (as well as the two I missed because Reasons) and are now stepping down from running the show.  Everyone who has competed here since 2006 owes them a massive round of applause.  Though I am reliably informed that Alice will still be working behind the scenes on the project to build a track in the area while Al is helping with the proposal to get our stretch of Highway 305 resurfaced again after it's had fifteen years of bashing by harsh winters and heavy trucks.

Jun embarrassing the Supreme Leaders

I made my excuses and left after that.  I think the Cool Kids probably congregated at the Big Chief motel for further celebration, though someone was setting off fireworks outside the Super 8 some time after midnight.

So one more World Human Powered Speed Challenge done and dusted.  As of now interested parties are putting together a committee to take over the tasks to run again next year.  All assistance gratefully received, especially if you happen to live in the USA.  Lie in tomorrow followed by general tidying up.  I'll bung some pictures from Saturday pm up later coz there's more Stuffs to be done.

1. Actually Isabella and Evangeline, but because teenagers.
2. Actually a slightly grubby hi-viz weskit tied to a pole.
3. aka Adam and David Hari.
4. "Bottle" or "booze".  Not "Bombs", you System Of A Down fans.
5. List may contain slight inaccuracies.