All good things must end, or go on hiatus, and so it is for the Urban Assault Rides sponsored by New Belgium Brewery.
The obstacle-course/scavenger-hunt-style bicycling event that visits 10 cities every year has been put on hold, organizers say, while they use 2013 for a “planning and development” year.
“Now that we look to the future, we see that the Urban Assault Ride is poised for a rebirth. Our goal is for the UAR to be known as ‘THE obstacle race on BIKES’ and grow much bigger in scale.”
The cycling event hosted by New Belgium, the Fort Collins-based makers of Fat Tire beer, started 10 years ago in Austin and expanded to as many as 13 cities for several years.
The event came to Seattle for a couple of years, where participants got to enhance their skills at bicycle jousting (above), newspaper throw and human wheel-barrow.
Some cities, such as Austin, Des Moines and Denver, fielded as many as 400 two-persons teams. The event also was popular in Minneapolis, Chicago and Tucson.
Reactions from the Urban Assault Ride faithful were swift and strong at the UAR Facebook page:
“Boo. Not sure how the fun of UAR could be improved anyways? By adding more beer? Pretty sure we could have done that without a year off.”
“Glad to hear you’re trying to make it better but does that really take a whole year? You’ve already had the better part of five months since the last one of 2012! Let us loyal fans know if we can help.”
“Dude! Nooooooooo”
Here’s hoping that the event comes back stronger in 2014 and includes the bike-crazy cities in the Pacific Northwest.
Now we’re just waiting for word on New Belgium Brewery’s other bicycle event — the Tour de Fat. Last year, the traveling bicycle festival visited 15 cities across the US, including Boise in the Pacific Northwest.
Urban Assault Ride’s human wheel-barrow below:
1 comments
Let me know if you will be returning to Seattle. I would love to volunteer again. I would even be willing to go to Portland if you make it there. Thank you, Shirl