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Red Bull Beat the
Streets Campus Mountain Bike Race Sun 26th May 2002.
 "If you always thought that serious mountain biking only takes place in the muddy terrain of the countryside, then think again. For the second year running, Red Bull is bringing an exciting mountain bike contest on to campus.
"Five regional competitions will take place throughout the UK and around 40-50 aspiring riders are expected to enter. The action will unfold right in the heart of specially selected universities and beating the clock is just half the challenge - the course will incorporate natural obstacles and features of the campus, certain to provide a few tests and thrills.
"Competitors will not only get the chance to demonstrate their skills in front of the crowds but the top three riders will win the opportunity to spend a weekend in Coed y Brenin, training with the world famous Giant Team.
"Red Bull Beat the Streets is set to be an event to rival all urban sports events. So whether you're a mountain bike fanatic or just enjoy cycling for fun, this is a challenge not to be missed. "
The red bull weekend probably needs no
introduction, as our own Phil has been talking non-stop about it for the past
term…
But for those of you who have been
living under a stone (or just have just stopped listening to Phil), Red Bull
have chosen Lancaster University to hold the north west region heat in their
Beat the Street competition. The race is fairly simple, two riders race down the
course, which is throu gh
our campus. The fastest time
on the day wins.
For the cycling club the weekend started
on the Friday with our riding (yes bike clothes not bondage, thanks Paul)
clothing bar crawl. This gave us a chance to take out all that nicely clean gear
and get it covered in a variety of nasty substances. I am afraid that I cant
tell you much more about the night other than it’s a
bitch to get welsh snakebite splatter marks out of Fox jerseys!
Saturday was the pre-race faffing day
with most riders tuning their bikes for the race ahead. We then all had an early
night to give the best chances for the race…urmm well that didn’t really happen
at least two bikes were crippled (yep my bottom bracket snapped), and we then
all went out to various pubs/ bars/ clubs and again got wasted.
The early start complimented those of us
due hangovers quite nicely as we were still drunk! The beautiful sunny morning
was also encouraging for the race, but this was not too last. As soon as the
other Uni’s had arrive then the sky grumbled and it pissed it down. It took quit
a while for everyone to arrive so we all had a chance to try the course at speed
before the race. If you want to know the route then have a look at map, but the
highlights were the sharp corners, the Alexandra square steps and a couple of
grassy drop banks.
Once everyone had arrived and the
marshals had been positioned (which took forever) we were ready for the group
test run, this was to let everyone have a roll down the course with excellent
commentary from Phil. The idea was then to start the heats, but the weather had
other ideas as it began to rain even harder. At this point the race was would
have been cancelled, had it not been for the bending of health and safety rules
and the rider consensus to race.
After a bit more faffing (for you can
never have enough) the runs started, Phil put in the first run as “car 0” to set
the pace. Following him was Paul and Matt (LW), Paul showed everyone that he
wasn’t as slow as he looks by setting the fastest time that was held till the
end. The heats continued with many offages and a couple of bike failures with
the fastest rider really showing everyone their stuff, but still no-one beating
Paul. That was until the last run which was Simon, who of course “just cruised”
(yeah right) down the course to pip Paul to the post by less than half a second.
As for me I came in third (yes from
last), with a fantastic race of smashing myself into a pillar at Alex square,
body slamming my opponent into a wall by engineering
(sorry dude), and to top it off falling off on the finishing strait
and loosing my chain. Oh well there is always next year…
As for the day though it was a great
success with a fantastic atmosphere (chilled yet racy) and crap weather! In true
student style as soon as the prizes were presented we headed strait to Furness
bar where we collapsed for the next seven hours…
Werdz by Alex Hazle.
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