2014-10-04 - Parkour Ride

Just spoke to Millar as the first qualification TTs went round! He's doing it on a road bike. This is definitely a course for the bmx, very tight turns

Awww gawdddd I'm scared!

My money's on Tom Dowie

My money's on a BMXer.

It's actually pretty cool here, worth coming, especially as it's raining.

deets

Disappointing time for me :(
Definitely going back for the racing, it's a cool set up and should be a really fun evening. Limited opportunity for racers to overtake I would say but maybe I'll be proved wrong

Fun enough evening, interesting venue.

I think they could have compressed the whole event into 3-4 hours (inc. qualies) to make for a way more compelling audience experience.

We didn't get enough excitement at the event so ended up doing a Circle Line ride afterwards..

Agree that they could condense the racing a bit. They were worried that there might be more crashes and so built in extra time.
They are really keen to get feedback - rider and visitor- as this is the first running. If anyone wants to put their thoughts here I'll collate them and send them to FACE.
My suggestions will include going amateur riders two runs and taking the best time to go forward, better integration between the start line and the remote MC and a large screen up on the roof.

I thought Millar did really well on his timed run. He sounded a bit disappointed with it at first but 57" on a road bike when the BMX'ers were running only 2-3 seconds faster at that point was really impressive..
Ryan Stack getting through from the amateur qualifying all the way to the final was a good story too.

what bike won and any pictures ?

Liam Phillips on a Yess BMX won. Here is a picture including @Scoot, who won a prize for being top lady

1 Attachment

yay scoot

I think best of 2 rides would be good. From the left start gate you had to work extra hard to pass by the first right-hander.

I meant two goes at the individual time trial but I said the same thing about the start gate positions last night. I'd like to think that's why they moved to Best of 3 for both the semi's and the final..

a day ago • #53
Alkali
My money's on Tom Dowie

Edit

4th place for the bearded wonderman

I only won fastest amateur female rider, not fastest female rider overall! Ha, I felt so cringe being up there considering I hadn't even qualified for the final event, and was way at the bottom of the overall times, but from what the MC said it looked like I was faster than the two pro women!

Improvements on next year from a riders point of view:

• Longer orienteering time. 30 minutes to practice the course as many times as you like not just one practice go. On my qualifying run I overcooked the first corner of the chicane level and had to put my foot down to avoid crashing into a barrier, but if I'd had more than one test run I would have remembered that there was a sharper corner there. I think other people also did their qualifying run slower than they could have because they weren't familiar enough with the course.
  
• A course that gives fixed gears half a chance...not a single one qualified for the top 20 I don't think? It was definitely a course for technical bmx and mtb people. Had there been more uphill sections (like starting from the very bottom) or straight sections where you could sprint it out then it would have made it a bit fairer for fixed/road, and more exciting during the racing too as you'd get riders catching up on the parts that suited them and falling behind on others
  
• As hms said, more than one qualifying TT. Putting my foot down on mine was obviously annoying and I lost precious seconds that perhaps I would have made up in a second one.
  
• More girls! Me and Sam were the only girls in the amateurs. As pleased as I am to have won lots of swag it didn't really feel like much of a fair competition, especially as we were both fixed and had pretty much identical times. There's loads of girls who should have entered that and could have done really well.
  
  

From a spectators point of view:

• Less time between races
  
• More screens everywhere so you can see what's happening on other levels/finish line. There needed to be one on every level really.
  
• WHERE WERE THE BURRITOS
  
• If they needed to pad out time to make the event last longer, which is understandable since each race usually lasted less than a minute, perhaps there should have been some fun races/other events happening between the main knockout rounds. Having Rollapaluza there as a side show was perfect as you could go and watch/do that when there was a lull...more of that kind of stuff. The 'Swatch Lounge' should have had something actually happening there not just some bean bags.
  
  

But overall it was a really cool event and I really enjoyed both riding and watching it. And drinking quite a lot of cider.

There are some amazing photos here by Jake Lewis, including one of me holding aloft my swag in front of the crowd like a twaaaaat.

There are some amazing photos here by Jake Lewis, including one of me holding aloft my swag in front of the crowd like a twaaaaat.

Did you shout out the names of the sponsors, too? :)

Second the burrito gripe. Food there was a bit shit, defo need more than one food stall too.

More screens dotted about, less time between races. Spent a lot of time standing about getting cold doing nothing.

So the rider who designed the course, and got to practice on it, won?

Jks

I enjoyed the event, took a few grainy pics, did the rollapaluza.

Would like to race it one day, maybe fixed, maybe BMX, maybe 700c freewheel.

Needs more burritos.

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/gallery/2014/oct/06/parkour-ride-in-pictures

The highlight for me was when Jess Varnish (British Track Champion) asked me if I raced already and how did I do. Only now I realised who that girl was.

Ahh she's amazing! And she goes out with Liam Phillips, the bmx champ guy.

I squee'd when I found that out, love a good cycling power couple <3

And she goes out with Liam Phillips, the bmx champ guy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I66aySW4le8

Would rep if I could