End of year greeting

And then it's december already. The past year has gone by quickly. Some highlights we would like you to remember.
Sjaak Bloemberg had his first kilometers in the Cygnus Beta and drove at DEKRA a personal best in the 200m sprint flying start with 94.4 km/h.
Jan van Steeg rode a new record for the 100 miles with an average of 76 km/h and a new personal best in the 200m sprint flying start with 95.5 km/h. He was the fastest rider of the weekend.
Jan-Marcel van Dijken captured the third place at the World Human Powered Challenge.

A warm thanks to all our supporters and sponsors/donors.

The Cygnus team wishes you happy holidays and a happy 2016.

We will start making plans for 2016

Still enjoying Battle Mountain we will start making plans for 2016.
foto made by Jonathan Woolridge

Todd broke the worldrecord again!

Three times a winner! Congratulations Todd!

Saturday: meeting and group picture

After the ridersmeeting on Saturday morning a group picture will be made. First the runs for this evening were filled in during the meeting. After the meeting pictures are made of all the bikes and the teams together.

Saturday morning

We took our rest this morning and did not head out for the 305. Instead we are back to sanding the bike and getting it ready for tonights run. Cygnus Chronos will be sporting some more red spots tonight.

Friday evening runs

Jan-Marcel was the second bike in the third heat this night, right after Damjan,  and before Ellen and Florian. It took a bit of time between the second and third heat, because of a midway catch in the second heat. The sun had already set, and the temperatures were dropping.

That was not the only thing that dropped. We decked the bike twice before we got Jan-Marcel started properly. He did a nice run, came out of the bike all cramped. It took a bit of time before he could step out of it.

At catch we heard that Todd in the first run of the first heat had beat his own world record, he went overe 86 mph! Way to go Todd!

The actual speed is measured at 86.50 mph.

Jan-Marcel reached 76.24 mph / 122.7 kph.

Friday afternoon

First we went to the riders meeting for the distribution of the runs this evening and tomorrow morning.

In the afternoon there will be drag races near the High School, organized by Robert Barnett.

Friday morning

We are sanding the bike and getting everything ready for the evening run.

We think that Jun must be looking for our missing 25%.

Thursday evening run

Jan-Marcel was in the third heat tonight, after Todd, Damjan and before Ellen in the trike. We tried to start him nicely, but decked him. Looks like we will have some sanding to do tomorrow.

Thursday afternoon

This morning we were on a tour at the Newmont Phoenix Mine, which is located off the 305. We recieved a vial with some gold flakes. The mine has a height difference from top to bottom of about 400 meters. Enormous dump trucks with tires as hight as 3,5 meters drive around. Impressive to see.

We are getting the bike ready for tonight. The brakes have been taken care of, they were a bit loud yesterday evening. And some sanding. We practiced starts at the parking lot of the hotel on Sunday and dropped the bike once.

Thursday morning: Congratulations Todd!

This morning Todd Reichert set the new world record to 85.71 mph! Well done!

Wednesday: evening runs

Jan-Marcel was the first rider in the second heat tonight. The weather forecast was reasonable, but with a lot of wind. When we arrived at the start, the wind was very strong. But as the start time approached, the wind dropped. Todd had decided not to run tonight.

We had 3 riders in the first heat, 4 in the second and 4 in the last heat.

Jan-Marcel did 75,31 mph during his run with a legal wind.

We are going to skip the thursday morning run, so we can sleep a bit longer. We will go to the tour of the Newmont Mining Company from 10.00 to 12.00.

Wednesday: time for lunch

As our room is being finished by house keeping (they are doing a really great job!), we are having lunch in the breakfast area. Jun is posting messages again, always up to date.

When we came back from the track yesterday, we could not resist peeking into Mr. Larrington's wheels.

Wednesday morning: no runs

All runs were cancelled due to rain. We'll have a riders meeting at 11.00 in the civic center.

Tuesday evening: no runs

The weather wasn't looking so good at the start. Rain and some lightning in the distance, and a lot of wind. All runs were cancelled. Another try tomorrow morning.

Show and Shine

On Tuesday afternoon school kids come and have a look at the bikes and ask for autographs.

Tuesday, day 2: Qualifications and a 5 mile run

This morning the weather appeared a lot better than yesterday. All runs were cancelled yesterday, because of strong winds and a bit of rain. This morning everything appeared a lot better. We got up at 5.50 and got everything ready. At 6.15 it was clear that the morning runs were held as planned. We headed out to the 305.

Jan-Marcel was the first rider in the first heat. He came through the timing traps with a speed of 57.66 mph. The chain did come off again during the run. This time on the left side. We immediately got it fixed after the run. Fortunately tools were available to us. Some we brought ourselves, some were borrowed from others, like the files and a big plier. Now the chain is a bit tighter.

Then we went to the start of the 5 mile run. Jan-Marcel was in the second and last run, together with Liz. We could use the warm-up bike from Liverpool, really appreciate that guys!

The 5 mile run went fine, he had a speed of 76.02 mph. Running twice in the morning is a bit tiring, especially since we're a bit short on sleep. Todd did 81 mph this morning, Ellen has a new female trike record.

Jan-Marcel is on the list for the third run this evening. Not for tomorrow morning, a bit more sleep would be nice.

Team selfie

Monday Day 1: Qualifying

This morning was used for the qualifying runs. 5 heats were planned with a lot of riders in them. Some bikes fell over, but most qualified. Todd was very fast with 72 mph (115km/u). That is a new qualifying record.

Sjaak and Erika taped Jan-Marcel in and started him, Dave drove our chase car. Jan-Marcel went nicely through the traps, sailing a bit, for his chain came off during the run. He was timed with 39.4 mph.

A new unfaired handbike record was set by Liz. Also a new Junior trike record by Florian.

Jan-Marcel was not fast enough to do the 5 mile run, so he will have to qualify tomorrow morning.

Sunday in Battle Mountain: Day 0

Today was spend with putting the bike back together again. Tonight the first meeting will be held. More on that later.

During the meeting the heats of the morging qualifying runs were filled in. The first run will be right after the Schoolbus has passed. That will be around 7.20 in the morning. Jan-Marcel is in the 4th heat (there are 5) together with Todd, Alan (both Toronto), Andrea (Italy) and Genna in the Micro Moby.

Tomorrow morning the meeting will be right after the runs and start around 11.00.

We arrived in Battle Mountain

We started the day with a good breakfast in Reno, a nice lunch in Sparks, and ended with a wonderful dinner at the Chinese restarant in Battle Mountain.

On our way to Battle Mountain

Team Cygnus has arrived safe and sound in the US of A, including the bike.

Our flight had a bit of a delay, and picking up the rental car took a lot of time. We are staying the night in Reno. The first two hotels we tried were full, the third one, Best Western, did have a room for us.

Our plane from Amsterdam to San Francisco arrived later than planned from Parimaribo. It was originally planned to leave at 9.50 in the morning, When we arrived at the airport before 7, it already had 40 minutes delay. We left Amsteram just after 11, and arrived in San Francisco at 12.20 in the afternoon, after flying for about 11 hours.

Another plane had arrived before ours, so we had to wait in line for the customs for a bit. After a pleasant chat with the customs officer, we walked on to fetch our luggage and the bike. The hard shell suitcase had seen a bit of sliding, it had a bit of scratch marks, but the rest of the luggage and the bike look fine. The bike appears to be handled better than last year, when the bag was all torn. After a pleasant chat with the cabin crew from the plane, we took the Air Train to the Car Rental. It was very busy there, and we had to wait in line for quite a while. Around 15.30 we left from San Francisco to go to Sacramento. The roads were busy. In Sacramento we got some groceries at the supermarket and a bite at Chipotle. Then we drove on to Reno where we tried the La Quinta first, then another hotel which was packed as well. We were directed to the Best Western hotel near the airport where we arrived around 21.45.

We had a good nights rest and will go out for breakfast when we are ready here.

Preparing for Battle Mountain 2015

The preparations for Battle Mountain are already in full swing. Last minute details always take up more time than expected. And since we have full-time jobs, we are quite busy at the moment.

Schwalbe

A fresh delivery of tires by Schwalbe for the new summer season. This time a surprise: the Schwalbe One in the size 406 and 571! The 20-inch 406 tires have already been tested in the Cygnus Trike. A significant improvement over the Ultremo ZX! Team Cygnus would like to thank Schwalbe for their sponsorship and for the great development they have done!

A new year

The new year has already begun. Time for team Cygnus to briefly look back at last year and make plans for the coming year. This weekend we will meet again for discussion and doing some odd jobs.