BUSC 2013 Sunday Recap: Race Day

Raceday also began by waking up to a little bit of rain.  Not too bad though.  It was going to be a decent day to wear our required suit jacket and necktie.

As Todd and I left our hotel we saw Kevin, a rider we had met the previous evening.  He was already starting to ride before we had cleared the front doors, so Todd and I hauled ass to catch up to him.  After we caught up to him, we rode together to Lyndale Ave. & 34th St., the location of the race.

When we pulled up to the race, it was nice to see a lot of the familiar faces that we saw a day earlier.  We also met a lot of new people, mostly locals.  All told there were about 55 riders in the race, every one with a big smile on their face.  The spectacle was truly grand and a sight to behold.  We all gladly posed for pictures while we waited for the race to begin.  The race was kinda formal in that a race official was brought in to oversee the event, but also kinda informal since we didn't have timing chips on our numbers.  The only really important finishers were the top three (video was being taken in case replay was necessary).

If you are unfamiliar with the Brompton Championships, allow me to clue you in on the key points:

There is a Le Mans style start... our folded bikes are placed in a grid before the start of the race.  When the race starts, we have to run to our Brommies, unfold them, then get going.  I'm not sure if foot speed or unfolding speed is more important… they are probably equal.  Probably the most important thing is to try to break out of the grid quickly, doing your best to get around riders who are slow to unfold or are just slow.

Once you get going, it's pretty much like any other bike sprint.  Hang with the peloton if you can, then sprint at the end.  This race is six miles long… six one-mile laps.  Twelve turns.  It's easy to lose track of which lap you are on.  Here is my video footage that I put up in an earlier post.

I felt that I did pretty well, considering that I had a pulled hamstring two weeks prior and that I rode about 45 miles the day before (excuses, excuses!).  Here are the winners of the race!

The winners of the Best Dressed category was announced after the race:

I had an absolute blast doing this and can't wait to do it again!  

This is the summary of my race data:

started	Jun 23, 2013, 10:06 AM
route	06/23/2013 Minneapolis, MN
activity	Cycle
ride time	20:02
distance	5.98 miles
average speed	17.90 mph
fastest speed	25.31 mph
calories	336

Click here for my complete ride data.

Observations:

Racing Green is a really popular color.

Raw Lacquer, while greatly admired, was not very common.

The two-tone Brommies are awesome.

Here are other blogs about the race:

A Curious Endevour
Why I Ride
The Gear Junkie

Thanks again to Calhoun Cycles for their hospitality!  If you were at the race and have any photos, please share them at the BUSC 2013 Flickr page!

The next post will be about the folding contest.

BUSC 2013 On-Bike Race Footage

Here is my race footage from the 2013 Brompton US Championship.  The GoPro was mounted on the front luggage block as I've written about before here.  Enjoy!

Update:  When I posted this video earlier I had Youtube apply some sort of image stabilization.  The final result looked unnatural so I reverted it back to the original footage.

111 miles on the B, aka El Tour de Tucson

El Tour de Tucson is the biggest cycling event around these parts, attracting cyclists from all over. The main event is the 111 mile race that runs around the perimeter of town. I've done this ride twice before on a road bike, but of course this year I had to do it on the B!

Let me rewind a couple of days... I was getting flats on both tires a few days before the event (even though I had Flat Attack in the tubes).  I took the rear tire off and for the life of me I couldn't get it back on.  Had to go to the LBS to get it back on with a new tube and sealant.  The front tire went back on just fine.  I also snugged up my headset at BICAS since I could feel it coming loose.

Back to race day...

First of all, the weather could not have been better!  It was overcast all day, and the morning wasn't very cold.  As usual, all the participants were cheery and ready to roll.  I arrived to the starting area around 6:00, about an hour before the start.  I chatted up with a couple of guys who flew in from Kansas City.  I was able to park the B with the rear folded until just before the start.

Parked!

The B ready and waiting and getting some stares.

Riders getting anxious.

The dudes from KC checking their phones.

Testing out Apple's new panoramic feature

Let's go already!

Before I knew it we were off and running. I didn't see any other folding bikes... I did see an unicyclist and three elliptiGO-type bikes, along with a hand full of recumbents and hand-powered cycles.  It was relatively uneventful 100 miles in... I did spontaneously find my soccer teammate about 40 miles in, then we parted ways soon after, then met up again with about 15 miles to go.

Me passing the unicyclist

I was beginning to struggle at about 10 miles from the finish.  I ran out of water in my Camelback hydration pack with about 7 miles to go.  I stopped about 5 miles to go and ate another gel, which in hindsight was a mistake because I didn't have any water to wash it down with.  Another 2 miles down the road my body (and especially my arms) were getting severely tingly and numb...I had to pull over again.  A couple of minutes later a bike patroller stopped, gave me some water, made sure I was ok, and escorted me to the finish.

Crossing the finish line

Many thanks to Bike Patrol #11133, who gave me water and escorted me to the finish.  I made Silver status (under 9 hours) by less than 3 minutes thanks to him.

I was hoping to get some cool acquisition data using the GPS from the iPhone, but it didn't work out... the battery ran out before the finish and my external battery kinda malfunctioned.  Oh well.  Luckily the GoPro just barely hung on long enough to get the finish.

One lesson I learned was to keep eating and drinking!  I ate 3 Clif Bars, 3 Larabars, 2 half-bananas, 7 gels and a handful of pretzels, along with 3.5 Camelback's worth of water and it wasn't enough.  And I know that amount was way more than I had last year.

Healthy post-race meal!