Urban Assault: Austin
This weekend was one the highlights of my racing season: the New Belgium Urban Assault race in Austin!
As described by the race organizers:
“The Urban Assault Ride™ is a truly unique cycling event…and quickly becoming one of the biggest in country! Here’s how it works: You and your teammate will set out on a city-wide quest for ‘checkpoints’ on your favorite two-wheeled steeds. At each checkpoint, you’ll drop your bikes and complete a funky/adventurous obstacle course, then remount your bikes and hit the streets for more.
The goal is to complete all the checkpoints in the shortest amount of time. You choose your own route and checkpoint order. This means that the most clever are often the victors. Of course, it may also help if you can pull a mean big-wheel powerslide and fly across an inflatable slip-n-slide 
”
We had the following checkpoints:
- Bicycle Sport Shop 517 S. Lamar Blvd
- Rowing Dock 2418 Stratford Dr.
- Ozone Bike Dept. 3202 Guadalupe
- REI 601 N. Lamar Blvd
- Jack and Adams 1210 Barton Springs Rd
- Pease Park 1100 Kingsbury Street
- Metz Pool 2407 Canterbury Street
Plus there were two mystery check points. To find the first one, The Daily Juice on Lake Austin Blvd, we had to solve a crossword puzzle online. The clue for the second checkpoint (which was underneath the Congress Ave bridge) was at the Daily Juice.
Our strategy was to go first to the Daily Juice so we could discover the 2nd mystery checkpoint and make a decision from there about where to go next. Since the second mystery checkpoint was near some other check points, we decided to do the remaining checkpoints in this order:
- rowing dock
- Bicycle Sport Shop
- Jack and Adams
- Congress Ave bridge
- REI
- Pease Park
- Ozone
- Metz Pool
At each checkpoint the teams have to complete a challenge, and collect a bead to put on a chain to provide at the finish time to prove completion.
At the rowing dock, we had to jump into the water, and then one person rode a giant rubber ducky while the other pushed the duck to a certain distance and then back.
At Bicycle Sport Shop, one person had to ride a bike and throw newspapers like a paper boy while the other person caught the papers in a box.
At J&A, we rode tricycles (sort of like a Big Wheel) around a track. A personal favorite of mine. Lots of spin-outs!
At REI there was human bowling. One person lay down on a longboard-style skateboard and the other person pushed the skateboard to knock down bowling pins.
At pease was human polo. One person rode piggy back on the other, while hitting a ball around some cones with a polo mallet.
At Ozone, we had to solve a puzzle. Harder than you think, when you have been riding hard and are in a rush.
At the final checkpoint, Metz pool, we had to jump in the deep end and swim to the middle to collect beach balls (that had numbers written on them), enough to add up to 12.
At the finish line, we had to launch ourselves down a gigantic slip-n-slide and then present our beads along with showing bat teeth in our mouths (the bat teeth we collected at the Congress bridge, symbolic of the bats who live under the bridge).
After the race, there was New Belgium beer, which always tastes great after this race! If you have a chance to do one of these, I highly recommend it. Lots of fun!
