Day 6: Battle Mountain NV

 Alarm went off at 05:30 urgh würg kotz nochmal.  Also my left foot appears to have seized up during the night.  But at least I have my new cup to console me:

330 ml can of Fizzy Pop for scale...

It keeps Brown Drink at drinkable temperature for at least four hours and cost peanuts from Mr Sainsbury's House of Toothy Comestibles.

Once more unto the 305, dear friends, or close up the wall with, er, roadkill.  I'm not sure what it was and will spare you the photo snapped by a gleeful Larry Lem of the unfortunate critter's ears, because if you're reading this in BRITAIN it's probably breakfast time.  The morning weather was much the same as yesterday's, viz. chilly and windy at first before calming and warming later.  David qualified Orange Bullet successfully in the first heat with a 51.18 but Ken Talbot pulled ARION 8 up after less than half a mile, hearing "something hissing" and believing he'd had a visitation from She Who Must Not Be Named¹.  He hadn't, but the steering of the machine was wibbly-wobbly enough that something was rubbing little bits of tyre off.  Not good.

In the second heat Adam got Millennium down safely at 55.12 and Nathan Walker in the Cal Poly bike Woohoo at 39.84.  Although the latter has had a small window added to the nose overnight the main view out is to the sides, thus requiring the bike to follow a somewhat serpentine path to keep it between the white lines.

Woohoo under way and temporarily in the middle of the road

Three riders in the third qualifier with Ellen getting Orange Bullet down the road at 45.05 and Karen Darke in ARION 8 at 24.80.  The steering was still wibbly-wobbly and I'm told someone had neglected to plug in the cable supplying voles to the derailleur, leaving her stuck in one gear.  Not the first time this has happened to a Liverpool vehicle either...  Cobus in Mint Sauce had to back off to avoid catching Karen in timing but was in the traps at the same time as her chase car hence his ~43.5 mph was taken from his GPS.  None of qualifying heats had legal wind speeds but we were hoping for improvements after the pause to shift operations to the 5 miles start...

Karen & ARION 8

Cobus' team name...

...which wasn't helped by Muppet-Boy here getting his wires crossed and thinking the next road closure was at 09:15 instead of 09:00.  Hence I was still helping Liverpool clear their Stuffs from the short course start area when the road closed.  Fortunately Cobus stepped into the breach and did the sweep run in his truck, complete with Mint Sauce in the back.  In case you're wondering, thee Nissan ov Doom has hit an indicated 126 mph which actually makes it faster than a base model Mustang with more than twice as many horsepowers, on account of Fnord limiting the Mustang to 123.  Although last year's Kia Shed was faster.

Only one taker for the first 5-miler of the morning: Wiebke in the Milan RS at 47.91 mph, non-legal wind.  Two for the second, with the wind finally dropping to legal levels.  David made his second run of the morning and put Orange Bullet through the traps at 68.47; Slash earned himself a 55 mph Hat with a 56.27.

Slash passing the Grassy Knoll

Nothing much to report from the interim back in town except for riding Calvin's fatbike round the Super 8 car park.  It makes a funny noise when turning left and I missed the Brooks saddle and suspension seat post which are standard equipment on the Perfectly Good Gentleman's Mountain Bicycle that I use for shopping.

As well as wind, the evening session was beset with what at first appeared to be just haze but turned out to be smoke, presumably blown in over the Lofty Sierras from California next door.  No takers for the first scheduled heat hence we could all stand around at catch watching John Lucian, the BHPC's answer to Charlie Dimmock, mucking out Battle Mountain Mike's truck:

George Leone supervises operations...

...for this end result

Adam scratched from the second heat leaving Slash and Niklas to do the honours with 57.87 and 56.52 respectively.  With Hans and John Jackson taking the guesswork out of the 15 metre starting assistance rule:

Hans' foot, yesterday

We held off starting the final heat by ten minutes in the hope the wind would drop but alas it didn't and François decided not to run.  David had problems getting Orange Bullet under way and failed to start, leaving Russell as sole finisher with a personal best at 73.85 mph.  Though no wind-legal conditions tonight.  With this anomalous weather behaviour François has put his name down for a run tomorrow morning too...  For sure we will see.

Barney about to launch Russ on a PB run and garner much kudos from George Leone in the process

Tomorrow I may have to get up even earlier chiz because timing assistant Danny Guthrie and his car have to leave the building because Reasons.  Thus thee Nissan ov Doom has been coöpted to lug the timing kit out to the course and Professor Sir Marshal Baron Timelord Nogami like to get set up Well Early.

1. aka The P*nct*r* Fairy, obv.