Dateline: Battle Mountain October, 2001
World Attention on Battle Mountain During Bicycle Speed Races
 October 1-6, the week of Human Powered Vehicle racing was a great success.
By the end of the week 8 new world records had been set.
The highlight of the week came Saturday night when Canadian,Sam Whittingham (Varna Team) came away as the grand champion with a blistering 200 meter speed of 80.55mph.
As amazing as it sounds it was even more amazing to see it.
A new tandem rider record was also set 68.36mph by the Double Gold Rush Team-riders Fast Freddie Markham and Chris Springer.
During the week records had been set and broken 21 times, making for an eventful and exciting week.
The racing was fun and interesting enough by itself, but as fun and exciting
as the week turned ou to be the best part of the whole thing was the way the
community supported this event. During the week we tried to keep the racers
occupied with different activities.
Business owners and civic groups brought refreshments to welcome the racers,
Newmont provided a mine tour, Lander Gun Club had the teams out for
shooting, The Basque Club put on a dinner for the race hosted at the Owl
Club, TS Ranch set up a day tour, local cowboys demonstrated bronc riding
and team roping, Horses were provided for riding, Assesmbly of God Church
provided their bus and driver, individuals offered vehicles and materials to
assist the racers, The Sheriff's office facilitated the daily road closure,
NDOT allowed us to close the road and profided proper highway signs, The
schools filled the Civic Center with students while the bikes were on public
display, The golf course hosted an awards bbq on Saturday the final night,
the list goes on.
I don't know how many time I heard the members of these teams complement our
community for the way they were accepted and made to feel welcome here.
So, what did all of the work put into this event get us? How about
international TV, radio and Internet coverage. We had BBC film crews here to
film a documentary and for spots on a prime time British TV program called
Science Shack. BBC radio was here to do daily radio broadcasts and NOW.com
did film and radio, The Washington Post sent out photographers and there
were daily reports on the wisil web site.
There were approximately 70 people here for the entire week to watch and
participate in the week's activities. Five teams from the United States,
Canada,and the United Kingdom competed. People came from England, Canada,
Los Angeles, the bay area, Reno, Carson City, Florida, Colorado,
Mississippi. Travelers got off Interstate 80 after hearing about the races
on the radio so they could watch.
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