Getting down to crunch time

Hello from the Ragnarok Central Command....

Some info for those interested about the 4th edition of our little sufferfest.

I'm a bit of a mendicant with the computer, trying to attach the elevation profile from our drive/walk-run from yesterday...



The Garmin says 6909 feet of elevation gain... who knows how accurate that actually is.

Some notes on changes from previous years:

1) We will have three tulip note sheets. You will get one at the start. One in Zumbro Falls. One in Lake City. Each sheet will be 8.5 x 11, and if folded in quarters will be the same size as our previous format, but should be much easier to deal with and less likely to fly all over the countryside. There will also be a map of the leg on the back of the tulips in case you get lost or need assistance or just like to see pretty pictures.

2) The course is a few miles longer this year. 111 miles to be exact. Why? We found a few more sweet roads that we wanted to include and that added a bit. The first leg will be the standard 40-45ish miles and be Red Wing to Zumbro Falls. The second leg will be about 40-45 and get you from Zumbro Falls to Lake City. The third leg will get you from Lake City to Red Wing.

3) The minimum maintenance road sections could be in marginal riding condition. We could jog on snowmobile tracks on roughly 1/2 of them... snow cover ranges from 2-3" in sections to maybe 2 feet. (update, had some good melting until our current snow accumulation of 3")

The course this year I think is the best yet (though conditions have yet to be good enough to ride it fully). Still has our signature climbing, with a bit more off the beaten track factor...