Eindhoven ECMC 2008 Report
First of all we’d just like to say, thanks for inviting us! We LOVE coming to Holland, we are always exceptionally well-treated and everyone we meet is so friendly…we’d also like to add to the growing throng complimenting the organisers on a fantastic event, slickly done, with great atmosphere and all bases covered….excellent!
Full Gallery of ALL Rollapaluza competitors at ECMC 2008…..Click Here
Caspar’s report and Full results and photos of Rollapaluza at ECMC 2008….Click Here
More photos below.
What a weekend! it had everything, fantastic weather, great people, great competition in all categories and the friendliest people on earth…we’d love to say ”Howdu” (spelling) to all the new friends we made and all the old ones we were meeting again but we can’t list you all there was so many.
Joelle: ECMC Rollapaluza Champion and new World Rollapaluza record holder.
We were always on a tight deadline to get to Eindhoven in time for the polo tournament, but the fact that so many teams entered meant we arrived in plenty of time to play our qualifying games. Our team consisted of two London polo regulars and Winston who doesn’t play at all…..we were super confident after a dominant performance in our first match but then came up against London’s “Moving Target” team who can only be described as “beastly”, it was all we could manage to turn the other cheek to their violent and aggressive play, a certain Mr Bingolo Bob was the worst offender wielding his mallet well above the shoulder and glaring a lot…….not to be out-done Eggpie of Rollapaluza hired hitmen to take this Bob character out of the competition…he disapppeared for a full 18 hours appearing later in a frazzled state, claiming that rather than being locked up in our canvas prison he had just been “tired and emotional”….however this did mean that we were able to infiltrate the MT team with our star player “Dogsballs” (his real name) in fact some would say it was actually a Rollapaluza team with James being in our club and Brian may as well be so yeah, we came second!
That evening saw serious socialising with Eggpie and Caspar being the social darlings of the party, gayly flitting between cliques of couriers and speaking in many different languages, Winston’s promise not to drink too much “coz” we’re working tomorrow didn’t quite work out as it was hot and the beer was cold, however top prize for beer consumption not just for Londoners but probably the whole of Europe must have gone to Rollapaluza’s “Dazzler” amazing seeing cider was not available. A great night meeting up with couriers and bike fans from not just Europe but the world.
Maarten, new World Rollapaluza record-holder.
Saturday has got to be one of the best days in Rollapaluza history…..we really mean it! The standard of competition was unbelievably high, with NO slow times, European messngers don’t just look like serious athletes in their copious lycra, they quite clearly are! guys were setting times that could win them a Rollapaluza in London but weren’t fast enough to even qualify here! It was obvious records were going to fall and the first to go was the ladie’s fastest time being smashed by Kym Perfetto of New York…..we’d only been celebrating a short time before Lena went faster, only to then be eclipsed just before qualifaction closed by Eindhoven’s very own Joelle with an amazing 22.62 secons for the 500m. In the men’s qualification, despite the multitude of super-fast times no-one dipped under the magic 20 seconds until Maarten of Dutch company Cycloon rolled up, from the start it was clear he was flying but when the clock stopped at an amzing 19.47 seconds we were stunned, a huge chunk off previous record set by World Junior sprint champion Pete Mitchell….the worlds’s number one sprint star Chris Hoy will be racing on the very same Rollapaluza rig later in August, will he be able to beat this amazing messenger from Holland? At 5pm Dazzler got up, by now Bill is half his original weight and his beard is two inches longer.
Rollapaluza at Area 51, through Brian’s eyes.
Winston was already struggling to keep up with Caspar’s energy so in between sessions we stopped off for a quick lentil burger with rhubarb! at a restaurant that took up a small corner of a huge empty warehouse in the same complex as the famous Area 51 skatepark…..which unfortunately was closed but it’s an amazing place to skate….absolutely huge…. It had been hot during the day but in the club at the skatepark it was hotter as was the competition, Caspar has posted a full report (see link above). The party was great including some “interesting” bands and plenty of debauchery supplied from the London crew. Maarten the new record holder faded throughout the knockout rounds and second fastest qualifier Rick from Eindhoven went on to win the men’s 1k final, however for the ladies, Joelle was clearly on a mission, giving it everything in every single round despite easily being ahead in most of them, she went on to win in the final making it a double win for the host city of Eindhoven….very popular! especially as this was the only event they were allowed to compete in in their home city.
We can’t report on the ”slowing down” or “standing still” competitions….we fell asleep when these were mentioned.
Rick, men’s ECMC Rollapaluza winner.
After a hot and sticky lie-in under canvas we arose to hangout with friends, drink coffee and watch the main race finals, we discovered the good news that Bill was still alive. More socialising while we waited for the main race, but there our report ends, we only got to see the start as we had various outgoing transport options to take….for results of this go to: www.ecmc2008.com
Winston still has saddle sores and swollen ankles from pedalling everywhere on the clown bike.
A few main race pictures below.
