On Sunday, Point Area Bicycle Service held the third annual Bicycle Adventure Extravaganza. John Pawlak, the mastermind behind the BAE, told me that approximately 250 people participated. Adventurers rode around Stevens Point for about three hours looking for checkpoints and objects that allowed their teams to accumulate points. The finish destination was at Lakeside Bar, where an after-party with food, beverages, and live music awaited the Adventurers.

Adventurers were contending for this coveted crown signifying the Pokiest Pedaler in Stevens Point

One piece of the BAE was the Pokiest Pedaler in Stevens Point challenge and tournament. The checkpoint at Goerke Park provided a slow race challenge to each team who showed up.

One member of each team had two chances to ride their bicycle on the 20-foot-long course as slowly as possible, using the best (i.e., slowest) time from the two runs. The basic rules were that you could not travel backwards, you could not put your foot down, and you could not touch either lane side marker.

An Adventurer tackles the slow race challenge at the Goerke Park checkpoint

Points were awarded for the slow race challenge as follows: 50 points for at least 5 seconds, 100 points for at least 15 seconds, and 150 points for at least 25 seconds. Times for all Adventurers were recorded, and the slowest riders over the afternoon participated in the Pokiest Pedaler in Stevens Point tournament at the after-party.

Fifty-eight teams took part in the slow race challenge at Goerke Park. Here are some stats from all these runs:

• 11 teams took 25 seconds or more and were awarded 150 points,
• 31 teams took at least 15 seconds but less than 25 seconds and were awarded 100 points,
• 14 teams took at least 5 seconds but less than 15 seconds and were awarded 50 points,
• no team with at least one qualifying run took less than 5 seconds,
• 2 teams were disqualified on both runs and received no points,
• the slowest time was a remarkable 59.2 seconds, second slowest was 34.5 seconds,
• the median time over all teams was 19.0 seconds.

Fresh from his victory in the finals, Jared earns the honor of being crowned the Pokiest Pedaler in Stevens Point

The slowest eight Adventurers from the challenge at Goerke Park qualified for the Pokiest Pedaler in Stevens Point tournament at the after-party. The tournament course was about 35 feet long, almost twice as long as the challenge course, and featured head-to-head competition.

After a few preliminary heats, the finals were held before a roaring crowd of Adventurers. The finals included the Adventurer who blew away the field in the challenge with his time of 59.2 seconds, and he was the clear favorite. But as fate would have it, he touched one of the side lane markers early in the finals and was disqualified.

The final slow race continued, and in a close finish, Jared was the last Adventurer to cross the finish line, thereby earning the honor of being crowned the Pokiest Pedaler in Stevens Point.

Adventurers and judges shared a heap of Bike Fun during the Pokiest Pedaler in Stevens Point challenge and tournament. Congratulations to Jared and to all Adventurers on an outstanding day filled with Bike Fun on the Bicycle Adventure Extravaganza.

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