Urban Assault!

Take the Amazing Race, boil it down to a half day, two wheeled biking adventure across the city featuring checkpoints and obstacle courses, finish with a generous helping of craft beer on top, and you’ll wind up with the New Belgium 2010 Urban Assault.



Sunday, beer makers, beer drinkers and bike riders gathered in the heart of Minneapolis to compete in a zany, pedal-Olympics, featuring human bowling bowls on slip and slides, Mario Kart Big-wheel antics, mini-bike limbo, and a host of other Quack-tastic events.



Prizes included bicycle paraphernalia like messengers bags, helmets, Keen cycling shoes, and even a customized New Belgium Fat Tire Cruiser, featuring a stow and go rack capable of holding a case of your favorite brew.



FULL DISCLOSURE: Johari and I were on hand for the event, not as competitors, but as volunteers. Shucking the hefty entry fee, we scored some free “Crew” t-shirts, lunch from the grill, and of course beer. The best tasting beer possible. Now, what kind of beer, you ask, is the best tasting kind?



Free beer, of course! And we had unlimited access - as we showed up we were immediately deemed responsible enough to operate the beer tent. SUCKERS! For several hours, we poured gallons upon gallons of Fat Tire ale for heat weary thirsty competitors (stopping only to take a sip for ourselves here and there) with no breaks.

As the day drew hotter and the kegs ran dry we spilled the uber-hoppy Hoptober seasonal on our shirts, and got the Ranger IPA on our sandals. My personal favorite was the 1554, a dark ale reminiscent of a stout but without the thickness associated with such a full bodied beer.

A close second was the Mothership, an organic wheat beer, very light and smooth that proved to be one of the most popular of the day as the first keg to run dry.

The real joke, of course is that Johari doesn’t drink beer - she’s more of a strawberry daiquiri, strawberry margarita, strawberry shake kind of girl. While I enjoy craft beer, I don’t usually partake of more than 1 bottle per sitting, and since I’ve been laid off, I’ve all but cut myself off from this luxury beverage.

Still, I managed to enjoy a sampling of everything provided by New Belgium despite 500 sweaty riders breathing down our necks, and a dew point in the mid-70’s. We finished our posts drinking more water than alcohol to cool down from the effective 100 degree heat, and made our way home to relax with cold showers, air conditioning and ice cream feeling as though we had won an endurance competition all our own.