Evans Cycles Urban Dual - Report
30 October 2012 | By AngusMcIntoshIn a Dark and Cold multi storey car park in central Cardiff last Sunday there was something a pretty special and revolutionary going on... The Evans Cycles Urban Dual.
The event saw 103 riders from all backgrounds on all sorts of bike battle from the 5th floor down to the 2nd of the Dumfries Place NCP car park through a series of tight flat bends on the polished concrete floor. The course incorporated a flight of stairs and multiple ramps between floors with not a single berm in sight.
There was even a chap tearing it up on a brompton folding bike
The format on the night saw every rider get a seeding run against the clock to find the fastest 16 guys. From there on it would be head to head over 2 runs with the rider with the fastest time progressing through to the next stage until only one remained and they left with the main prize of £1000.
Times were ludicrously tight with only 0.7 seconds separating the entire top 16 qualifiers.
Emyr Davies set the early pace with a 41.043 that seemed to stand for an eternity until 40 riders later Nathan Parsons set the fastest seeding run of the night with a 40.742. Scott Beaumont qualified 2nd one hundredth behind Nathan Parsons with a 40.756. Max Robinson and Guy Gibbs finished in 3rd and 4th respectively with early pace setter Emyr Davies rounding out the top 5.
Fastest qualifier Nathan Parsons gets the power down out of the hairpin.
The head to head finals were fast paced and quite frankly absolutely mad with do or die overtakes being thrown in at any oppertunity. The main spot for action was after the super long straight nearly the entire length of the car park on the 4th floor into the stair drop and in the tight switchbacks that followed. The polished concrete floor was absolutely lethal when cornering flat out so slide outs were a plenty!
Martin Ogden leading Leon Rosser out of the hairpin
The 4X racers were having a field day with the elbow to elbow style of racing and start gate so come the semi-finals the 4 who remained wouldn't of looked out of place on the start gate of the elite finals of the Schwalbe British 4x series.
Lewis Lacey on his way to beating Scott Beaumont in the 1/4 Finals
Lewis Lacey took home the top honours and a big cheque for £1000 from Nathan Parsons in 2nd with Alex Metcalfe in 3rd rounding off the podium in 3rd.
Check out the rest of MoreDirt's Gallery from the event here...
Video Credit: Liam Murphy Films
