Thanks to Lili for the tip -- over at Fixed Gear Fever there are some first hand accounts of what, er, happened, this being pilfered from the most detailed account:
30 min later, he ended w/174 laps....7 laps short of the record.
During his event everyone was murmuring about wondering where was David Z? Well, he was dressed in jeans and a tshirt sitting in the front row of the stands next to Floyd Landis. Most of the 50 specators wondered why he was not warming up as they expressed anticipation at seeing him ride.
The second Dr. Kays was done, everyone applauded and half the audience got up and left.
The rest of us stood around waiting for Zabriske to ride. After waiting about 10 min we all watched him get up and amble across the track to the apron to chat w/the other VIP's while the officials packed up their gear, put away the starting gate and left the bldg.
Huh?
Turns out "Zabriske did not have the correct bike with him so the ride was cancelled."
anyway....While we were still mingling and confused, Flyod (who has never ridden the track before) took a twirl around the black line on the blue accelerator bike and nearly crashed when he tried to coast to a stop at the starting gate....uh....the pedals and bike kept moving as he momentarily lost his cool! Just as he began to recover, he ran into the sponges that were still on the blue band and had to get up to the black line....w/almost enough speed to stay on the track. All's well that ends well?
With that the VIP's packed up and headed down to San Diego.
Wrong bike? Sounds about right.