Full KotM results

For the second edition of the 'Rok, we added a King of the Mountains competition to spice up things. We figured that a good way to get the 100 mile suffering started was to throw out the carrot of a climbers award. In the first 30 miles of the race there were 8 big (for MN) gravel road climbs that can hurt. Vegas had one of the LCR crew (either Heath Weisbrod or Larry Sauber) as the odds on favorites? Why? Because to win this award you had to be ready to suffer, and maybe not be the most strategic racer. Lots of matches would have to be burned to win this coveted prize.

Final Standings in the KoM competition:

1. Larry Sauber

2. Tim Ek

3. Heath Weisbrod

4. Charlie Farrow

5. Jeremy Fry

6. Brad Prudhom

Individual Climbs (10 pts. for first, 7 for 2nd, 5 for 3rd)

Climb 1 - Lehrbach

1. Larry Sauber

2. Heath Weisbrod

3. Tim Ek

Climb 2 - Orchard

1. Heath Weisbrod

2. Larry Sauber

3. Tim Ek

Climb 3 - County 45

1. Larry Sauber

2. Tim Ek

3. Charlie Farrow

Climb 4 - Hill Valley

1. Heath Weisbrod

2. Tim Ek

3. Larry Sauber

Climb 5 - Kolshorn

1. Heath Weisbrod

2. Tim Ek

3. Larry Sauber

Climb 6 - 240th

1. Tim Ek

2. Larry Sauber

3. Charlie Farrow

Climb 7 - 350th (Minimum Maintenance)

1. Larry Sauber

2. Charlie Farrow

3. Jeremy Fry

Climb 8 - Weibusch

1. Larry Sauber

2. Tim Ek

3. Charlie Farrow

I am fairly certain that we'll hold the KOM again next year. We may tweak things a bit. Any suggestions would be welcome (though who knows if we'll go with them....)

'09 Rok is in the books

Great job to all the racers that finished!

Quick post for now... more details later or tomorrow

Summary of results

Top 3 Overall

1. Charly Tri

2. Charlie Farrow

3. Jeremy Fry

Top SS

1. Heath Weisbrod

Top Female

1. Rebecca Sauber

Thanks to all who raced, helped racers, and have followed this blog... 

More complete results and photos to come later....

T-minus 10 hours?

HEY HEY

Should be an epic day... maybe not as epic weatherwise, but that'll just mean the speeds will be a little faster (but no less exhausting).

Reminders...

6:30 - 7:15 is the check in time. Please don't wait until the last minute to show up.

Start is at 7:30. 

Must finish by 7:30 pm.

Remember to be ready to fend for yourself, but if possible buddy up. The buddy system makes a race like tomorrow's doable.

Remember to be safe. The race is held on open roads and people won't really be expecting to see you. Downhills will be fast. Ride safe and ride smart.

Remember to have fun. It's hard. But it is also fun. The roads are pretty scenic and rustic for the most part and are some of the best Goodhue and Wabasha counties have to offer. 

See ya'll tomorrow bright and early!

Pre ride madness!

Well we managed to ride the course yesterday, and sorry for anyone that loves peanut butter roads and nasty decents, the whole course is in superb condition. The graters managed to get out on a couple roads but didn't make it much harder on us.

The tulips are spot on so if you get lost, not our fault! I have to say that even if it is perfect weather the course is still a bit more challenging than last year, so hope for nice weather.

Hope this finds everyone ready for next week! Be sure you carry enough with you to make it 50mi. at a time. We didn't see many cars but the ones we came across were not going slow, so make sure you remeber to be safe no matter the state of mind.

Stay healthy and see you next week!

Introducing KOM!

To start out with something exciting, we are introducing the all new KOM (King of the Mountain) challenge. A hand full of climbs, eight to be exact, in the first 30 miles will count in the KOM. The first three up the hill will score points. The best part is you get a REALLY cool prize!

Rules: You are responsible for you! Know your limits. Have an escape. The only outside assistance you can receive is in Zumbro Falls (half way check point). You will be disqualified if you receive help outside of the checkpoint. We ask that no cars follow your rider, if you do the rider will be disqualified. You have 12 hours to complete the race. Start is 7:30 am and for you that can't compute, that means 7:30 pm is your end time. Checkpoint cutoffs will be 1:00 in Zumbro Falls, 4:00 in Lake City and 7:30 in Red Wing. And you are responsible for yourself! You are on public open roads, follow the rules, stay to the right when coming to the top of a hill or on blind spots. You are in rural MN you might run across hillbillies or any other mostly intoxicated drivers. To be extra safe, have a rear red light and a small flashing front light. Once again you are responsible for yourself.

Registration: Registration opens at 6:30 and closes at 7:15. Plan well, the race will start with or without you. ONLY REGISTERED RIDERS WILL BE GIVEN CUE SHEETS!

Tulip Refresher Course

I know that some of you guys/gals are more the follow the course tape type of people, so this "race" will be a change. The course will be given to you in two halves. You'll get tulip notes at raceday sign-in for the first half of the race. Once you get to the Zumbro Falls checkpoint you'll receive the instructions for the second half of the race. Approximate size of the notes will be 4.25" x 5.5" (maybe a bit smaller).

Each instruction will include an instruction number, an overall mileage, a tulip diagram and an information cell. The overall mileage will count up from the start or any place where you are instructed to reset your mileage, such as a checkpoint.

The tulip diagram is a graphical representation of the location for the instruction. Normally this is an intersection of two or more roads, or a feature of a road. The tulip always has two features, the dot and the arrow. No matter how the tulip is oriented, you always will travel from the dot to the arrow for that instruction. Normally the tulips are drawn so you are traveling from the bottom of the tulip, but this doesn't have to be the case.

Here is a sample note:



The first tulip of instruction 1 ("Begin") shows that the mileage is zero, so you would want to zero your odometer at that instruction.

The 2nd shows that you will approach a T intersection (in this case it's County road 1) and take a right. This intersection is aproximately 1.0 miles from the last zero.

The third instruction shows that the road turns left, with another road branching off on the right. When a road is in brackets, ex. [350th street], it is indicating the intersecting or connecting road, but NOT the road you take. So in our example above, we stay on County 1 which bends to the left and 350th street intersects from the right.

Instruction 4 is similar. Since 210th street is in brackets [], it indicates the intersecting road is 210th street, but the tulip shows we keep going straight.
!! When in doubt, always follow the tulip and ignore the street or road names provided.

Instruction 5 shows a more complex intersection that we approach from the bottom right and end up taking a hard left a the delta.

Instuction 6 shows that the road we are on bends right, but we take 250th Street that intersects from the left.

When information is in quotes and a small dash is shown on the tulip, as shown in instruction 7, it indicates the text that is on a sign. That sign will be where the dash is shown at the intersection.

Instruction 8 simply shows that we take a right at a Y intersection and that intersection is at approximately 5.6 miles from the last odometer zero.

Tulip 9 shows the location of a checkpoint.

In summary, the text is normally there to provide or clarify the instruction, but the primary thing you should focus on is the tulip. 
Always travel from dot to arrow, no matter how the tulip is oriented on the page.