Strategy and silliness meet beer and biking in street race

Urban Assault Ride gives teams chance to explore Austin by bicycle.

By Andrea Lorenz
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Monday, June 29, 2009

For a few hours Sunday morning, about 1,300 cyclists took to Austin streets in what organizers call the biggest bike scavenger hunt in the country. And possibly the zaniest.

When they weren't on the streets, racers in the New Belgium Brewing Urban Assault Ride strategized over maps and took part in challenges such as one that took place on tricycles.

Racer Gayla Harris, 59, and teammate Richard McCormick, 55, shared the strategy that helped them finish in a little more than two hours, about 30 minutes after winners Nathan Miller and Sol Frost: Constant hydration and a test run to efficiently navigate the 10 checkpoints across town.

"I think navigating (is important) and being able to think like a racer, like, don't dally," Harris said. "It's easy to get caught up in the fun part."

Josh Kravetz — who with his wife, Jackie, co-owns Adventure Fit, the company that puts on the event — created the scavenger hunt for cyclists six years ago in Austin. It has since expanded to 10 cities.

The goal?

Cycling teams of two travel about 20 miles across town to 10 locations. Teams have to find three "mystery" checkpoints, which this year were a mural on South First Street, Hyde Park Bar & Grill and the swimming pool at Metz Park in East Austin.

The winning team received two limited edition New Belgium bikes.

Intended to encourage sustainable living — the after-party's sound stage was solar-powered, and all waste was to be composted — former competitive cycling racer Kravetz said the event hopefully gets people to discover bikes as a form of transportation.

"They essentially teach themselves good bike routes to get around town," he said.

Another motivator?

"Free beer, lots of fun — on bikes," said Katie Joyce, 40, as she and teammate Rachael Rowray, 38, took off from the Run-Tex store on Riverside Drive, where the challenge required teammates to sit on a skateboard and use only a plunger to pull themselves through the obstacle course.

Even after teammates Fernando Mireles, 27, and Aldo Gardea, 26, lost one of their six beads — which served as proof that racers reached each checkpoint — the pair planned to continue on and hit the next four obstacles.

"Oh well, we're going to finish," Mireles said, and the two took off for their next stop, the mural on South First.

Sunday was Mireles' and Garcia's first try at the Urban Assault Ride.

Harris and McCormick, who have raced as a team for the past three years, had a strategy for keeping up with the beads: a plastic bag, which cost them three places at the finish line because they found out at the end that they were required to put the beads on a string.

Still, "I like the baggie strategy," McCormick said, adding they probably should have strung the beads while waiting in line at the last obstacle course.

Another strategy: "Don't fall down," Harris said.

"That messes your time up," McCormick said. "And your knees, probably."

alorenz@statesman.com; 512-392-8750