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News coverage with different clips--on the rt side, click 'more' until you see the photo with the title "Twisting and Turning through the SkyWays:
www.wcco.com/video/
Most of you know about the RedBull Skyride—this was a race thru the St.Paul Skyway system that took place last night. It was announced as the “First ever event of it’s kind in the Universe!” 50 riders from around the state (and a few from the Superior, WI area) were invited to this event. We received FULL support from RedBull. There was no entry fee, they supplied the timing transponders (chips to accurately record your start and finish to the hundredth of a second—similar to the ankle bracelets some of you wear compliments of your probation officer and county), full-on inflated start and finish arches, a two turn-table DJ, free drinks and food at Patrick McGoverns Pub, and all the RedBull you could drink. RedBull also made beanies with the official SkyRide logo and hard number plates with the same for all the racers. They put a lot into this event!! They event agreed to repair any damages (some guys pedal gouged out a huge chunk of wood flooring and there were several skidmarks on the carpet).
WCCO, KARE 11, FoxNews, Star-Trib, Pioneer Press, Post Bulletin, and several independent/U of M reporters were on-site interviewing several of the riders. This thing got a lot of attention!
They released us one at a time in 1 minute intervals so this was like a time-trial/prolog. After every rider finished their first run, we all ‘slowly’ rode back thru the skyway, setup and did it again. The course started on the upper level of the Galtier Plaza above Loto Restaurant and finished on the upper level of the Excel Energy Center. The course had several tight corners, ramps, straight-aways, tight doorways all on a surface of polished marble, tile, carpet and wood flooring. About halfway thru, there was a 50-75 step/stairway descent (dismount required or you’re DQ’d) with a 30 or so step/stairway climb that finished with about 100 yard ramp to the end. Total distance I registered was about .9 miles. In total, I believe there was an elevation gain of an estimated 200 feet.
There were many racers set up with 40-50 lb downhill machines easily capable of plunging the stairs, but since that was terms for being disqualified, those poor guys had to lug their rides up and down the steps. On the opposite end of things, there were many single-speeders there that had light (sub 20 lb) bikes, but only one gear so they spun-out on the straight-aways. A geared 29 inch wheel bike ridden by Jay “Hollywood” Henderson (HollywoodCycles) won the race in about 3m29s (give or take some fractions). Interestingly enough, Josh Schwantes (SalsaCycles), took second place on his first run, but fell to 3rd on his second. Josh was on a single-speed 29’er. That has to be the most impressive ride of the night. Gene Oberpiller(?) took 2nd overall after two runs. So the top 3 after two runs were: Henderson, Geno, Schwantes. I think 2nd & 3rd place were .03 seconds apart. For me, I took 13th overall on my first run, improved my time by 5 seconds on my 2nd run, but they didn’t have the full results compiled by the time I left so I don’t know where I finished overall.
What sucked is that this was a full-on anaerobic race. We basically had to start completely relaxed with no warm-up and hit it as hard as possible from the start all the way up the finish ramp. My AHR was 178 on the first and 173 on the second (max was 185). My chest is still burning. My max speed locked in at 44. That may be an error. May have been more like 35, but it felt like 70 flying down those narrow corridors.
Overall, I feel very fortunate to have participated in this ‘first ever’ event and hope to get invited back next year (if it continues). If you haven’t had RedBull, try it—at least grab a can the next time you see it in a store to thank them for supporting this original ride.
Thank you Ton and Kerry, Scott, Adam, Matt, Collin, Cole, and a couple others for showing up to support. We attracted a lot of attention in the PCR threads. And a special thanks to my wife Carin and son, JC, for letting me drag them along and putting up with my cranky pre-race attitude (they shouldn’t get that till May).
And thanx again PC and Ton for delivering my fix of beans...
www.wcco.com/video/
Most of you know about the RedBull Skyride—this was a race thru the St.Paul Skyway system that took place last night. It was announced as the “First ever event of it’s kind in the Universe!” 50 riders from around the state (and a few from the Superior, WI area) were invited to this event. We received FULL support from RedBull. There was no entry fee, they supplied the timing transponders (chips to accurately record your start and finish to the hundredth of a second—similar to the ankle bracelets some of you wear compliments of your probation officer and county), full-on inflated start and finish arches, a two turn-table DJ, free drinks and food at Patrick McGoverns Pub, and all the RedBull you could drink. RedBull also made beanies with the official SkyRide logo and hard number plates with the same for all the racers. They put a lot into this event!! They event agreed to repair any damages (some guys pedal gouged out a huge chunk of wood flooring and there were several skidmarks on the carpet).
WCCO, KARE 11, FoxNews, Star-Trib, Pioneer Press, Post Bulletin, and several independent/U of M reporters were on-site interviewing several of the riders. This thing got a lot of attention!
They released us one at a time in 1 minute intervals so this was like a time-trial/prolog. After every rider finished their first run, we all ‘slowly’ rode back thru the skyway, setup and did it again. The course started on the upper level of the Galtier Plaza above Loto Restaurant and finished on the upper level of the Excel Energy Center. The course had several tight corners, ramps, straight-aways, tight doorways all on a surface of polished marble, tile, carpet and wood flooring. About halfway thru, there was a 50-75 step/stairway descent (dismount required or you’re DQ’d) with a 30 or so step/stairway climb that finished with about 100 yard ramp to the end. Total distance I registered was about .9 miles. In total, I believe there was an elevation gain of an estimated 200 feet.
There were many racers set up with 40-50 lb downhill machines easily capable of plunging the stairs, but since that was terms for being disqualified, those poor guys had to lug their rides up and down the steps. On the opposite end of things, there were many single-speeders there that had light (sub 20 lb) bikes, but only one gear so they spun-out on the straight-aways. A geared 29 inch wheel bike ridden by Jay “Hollywood” Henderson (HollywoodCycles) won the race in about 3m29s (give or take some fractions). Interestingly enough, Josh Schwantes (SalsaCycles), took second place on his first run, but fell to 3rd on his second. Josh was on a single-speed 29’er. That has to be the most impressive ride of the night. Gene Oberpiller(?) took 2nd overall after two runs. So the top 3 after two runs were: Henderson, Geno, Schwantes. I think 2nd & 3rd place were .03 seconds apart. For me, I took 13th overall on my first run, improved my time by 5 seconds on my 2nd run, but they didn’t have the full results compiled by the time I left so I don’t know where I finished overall.
What sucked is that this was a full-on anaerobic race. We basically had to start completely relaxed with no warm-up and hit it as hard as possible from the start all the way up the finish ramp. My AHR was 178 on the first and 173 on the second (max was 185). My chest is still burning. My max speed locked in at 44. That may be an error. May have been more like 35, but it felt like 70 flying down those narrow corridors.
Overall, I feel very fortunate to have participated in this ‘first ever’ event and hope to get invited back next year (if it continues). If you haven’t had RedBull, try it—at least grab a can the next time you see it in a store to thank them for supporting this original ride.
Thank you Ton and Kerry, Scott, Adam, Matt, Collin, Cole, and a couple others for showing up to support. We attracted a lot of attention in the PCR threads. And a special thanks to my wife Carin and son, JC, for letting me drag them along and putting up with my cranky pre-race attitude (they shouldn’t get that till May).
And thanx again PC and Ton for delivering my fix of beans...
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