Day 4: Battle Mountain NV

 I got fed up with the dangly fob wossname on the Kia's ignition key banging my knee:

So, first morning not without its little dramas, starting when we utterly failed to put up the distance markers on the short course for qualifying.  But at least the wind was OK for the early runners.  Less easy to cope with was Toronto running two almost-identical bikes with four riders, but they did a bang-up job of ferrying machines and personnel back to the start.  Heat one had three riders, starting with Ellen Van Vugt in the brand new many years in the making Orange Bullet¹.  Her 39.23 mph was explained as being due to husbnd Hans having moved the gear shifter wossname after pre-event testing back home and then not telling her.  Meaning when she came to change up she couldn't find it.  Lincoln McDonald in Toronto's Cyclone did 39.60 and Lizanne Wilmott in the MQ2 trike 43.54 with a certain amount of rubbing from a tyre.

Preparing to launch MQ2

Professor Sir Viscount Admiral Timelord Jun's got the results of heats 2 and 3 arse-about.  Hang on while I unravel them...  Heat two went according to plan with Ethan Elbaz in Cyclone clocking 41.89, followed down the road by Wild Bill Thornton in the Milan SL velomobile at 49.41.  Fellow velomobilist Peter Borenstadt in his DF was marginally quicker at 49.71 and Tempest, the second Toronto machine, clocked 41.03 mph with Christopher Koehlmann at the helm.

Calvin paying close attention to the legality of Peter's start

Heat three apparently only had Daniel Tykei in Cyclone make it to the far end of the course at 44.25 mph; David Van Erd's first attempt in the Orange Bullet resulted in a failure to launch while Diego Columbari in the Cerberus handcycle pulled up after half a mile with some kind of mechanical woe.  All riders who made it to the finish in the first three heats had legal wind speeds too, except Peter.

Oh.  Bugger.  David's run comes to a premature end.

By the time the fourth and final heat got going the wind had picked up.  Also picked up - off the deck in this case - was Adam Hari in Millennium.  Lack of launch testing with the full body on and a promise of coaching from Chief Starter Calvin Moes.  Regular start generalissimo Arnold Ligtvoet having decided to have a proper holiday in the south of France instead.  Bill made his second run, this time in the Milan RS, somewhat improved over last year's model, and clocked the morning's best run with 52.99 mph.  Next up teenage sisters GG and Bella Morris in Larry Lem's Pillbug, an extraordinary device built on the ruins on one of his earlier two-wheeled back-to-back tandems but with an extra wheel added on each side.  They did 42.46 and seemed happy.  Last up was Diego having a second attempt, clocking 30 mph exactly.  Well down on what he was doing last year.  No legal winds in heat four chiz.  The volunteer roster was bolstered by the arrival of Scott Wilson and the entire Henry tribe - Barclay, Beth, Oliver and a couple of dogs - necessitating a ratty old Sprinter van rather than Barc's usual ratty old Porsche.

Pillbug

Conclusion: OK for a first morning.  Thence to the Wol Club for second breakfast/early lunch.  Big surprise for me was the way the Kia resolutely refused to stop accelerating over the entire three+ miles from catch to the short course start.  This

does not look like a 130 mph car, does it?

As is frequently the case the wind picked up further during the day and by the start of the evening runs it was blowing a hooley.  This not helped by an Organisatorial error scheduling the heats half an hour earlier than the timetable suggested.  To a man, the Toronto Penniless Student Oaves elected not to run at all, leaving Lizanne the only taker in heat one.  Her 34.82 mph pass was unremarkable save that the wind was more than four time the legal maximum.  No runners at all for the second heat, so we sat around for a long time until heat three went ahead at the actual scheduled time.  Ellen made a flawless start but pulled up somewhere downrange with camera issues.  Top work by the team saw her recovered without the bike falling over.  Peter was next up and did 52.56 in spite of having to pass the stricken Bullet on the way.  Lizanne had another go because, in her own words "I'm an athlete!" but was also a DNF has the previous tyre rubbing issues had still not been fully sorted out.  We've had worse evenings, but not many.

First try of the evening for MQ2

Though while we were watching the clock at catch before heat three I spotted a silver Tesla drive past with an apparently familiar face at the wheel.  "Was that Paul Gracey?" I asked.  No-one else had even seen the car but when I got back to the Civic Center the first person I saw was Paul himself, who had been at every even from the start in 2000 until The Plague intervened.  Welcome back, Sir!

1. Which is naked black carbon fibre...