The Urban Assault Rides that pit 2-person teams against each other in fanciful bicycling contests will return to 10 cities in 2011.
They're the same cities that hosted rallies in 2010, except Seattle, Portland and Berkeley have been dropped from the list.
The New Belgium Brewery-sponsored Urban Assault Rides feature bicycle-oriented challenges at a series of checkpoints across the host city. The teams — male, female, coed and family — compete in such trials as bicycle jousting, newspaper throw, and human wheelbarrow.
The cities and dates for 2011 are:
Tucson — March 20
Madison — May 15
Chicago — May 22
Austin — June 26
Ft. Collins — July 17
Denver — July 24
Minneapolis — July 31
St. Louis — Aug. 14
Des Moines — Aug. 28
Charlotte — Sept. 18
Omissions
When I first saw that list, I was about to get all indignant that the New Belgium Brewery-sponsored affair had omitted the entire Pacific Time Zone from its bicycle party this year.
I wasn't the only one. The Facebook page for Urban Assault Rides has several comments from left-coasters upset about missing the party this year:
“What the….??!!! No Seattle or Portland?!! Did we do something wrong?? Are we not worthy? Total rejection and depression setting in…. life has no meaning ….”
“Urban Assault Ride has left Seattle in the cold this year =-(. That was one of my favorite annual traditions.”
Dismal showing
I fired off an email to a representative of Urban Assault Rides to find out why the West Coast had been left out. Waiting for a reply, I found the lists of teams for the 2010 contests and it all became painfully clear.
Out of the 13 cities that hosted events last year, Seattle, Portland and Berkeley were three of the four cities with the lowest participation.
While Austin, Des Moines and Denver had 400 or more teams in 2010, the West Coast numbers were pretty dismal: Seattle – 185, Portland – 138, and Berkeley – 122. The only other city with less than 200 teams was Charlotte with 170.
Here's the official response from a representative of Urban Assault Rides:
“We dropped from 13 to 10 events this year so we could better focus our efforts and present the best event possible. We had to make difficult decisions because we love the northwest, but in the end, we decided to keep the 10 markets with the best growth rate.”
For those of you lucky enough to live in the markets covered, you might want to sign up for the upcoming games to show your support. Registration is available at a discount now, but prices go up Jan. 1. See all the prices, discounts and subsidies at the Urban Assault Ride registration page.
Seattle
In the meantime, I wondering how many other bicycling events Seattle might miss out on this year. First the LiveStrong Challenge announced its three cities for 2011, and Seattle was missing from that list. Then the Urban Assault Ride.
Let's keep our fingers crossed that the New Belgium Brewery still brings the Tour de Fat to Seattle this summer.
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