Official Results - 2018

Place	Number	Name	Finished	Time
1	333	Ian Hoogendam	12:48	4:18
2	351	Dustin Gaffke	12:50	4:20
3	331	Ted Loosen	12:50	4:20
4	374	Drew Wilson	12:51	4:21
5	370	Nathan Wentz	12:54	4:24
6	324	Steve Marshall	12:55	4:25
7	332	Brian Delaney	13:07	4:37
8	389	Sam Berkland	13:07	4:37
9	362	Rick Curtis	13:14	4:44
10	377	Derek Van De Velde	13:16	4:46
11	328	Scott Ehlers	13:16	4:46
12	349	Todd Foster	13:16	4:46
13	388	Franz Rinkleff	13:34	5:04
14	342	Ryan Stringfield	13:36	5:06
15	335	Matt Kurke	13:36	5:06
16	334	Kyle Sobota	13:36	5:06
17	314	Lee Zettler	13:37	5:07
18	348	Aaron Johnson	13:38	5:08
19	308	Aaron Halfaker	13:42	5:12
20	387	Scott Hippen	13:52	5:22
21	322	Steven Soltis	13:52	5:22
22	358	Lukas Eklund	13:56	5:26
23	350	Nathan Kremer	13:56	5:26
24	361	Luke Wood	13:56	5:26
25	378	Paul Carroll	14:02	5:32
26	381	Todd Shanafelt	14:04	5:34
27	343	Shane Maxwell	14:11	5:41
28	357	Ben Mullin	14:22	5:52
29	372	Lindsay Wentz	14:22	5:52
30	382	Randy Brendal	14:23	5:53
31	316	Ted Clausen	14:24	5:54
32	393	Andrew Haala	14:29	5:59
33	363	Jonah William Hudson-Erdman	14:30	6:00
34	315	Zach Guse	14:30	6:00
35	317	Isaac Weeks	14:30	6:00
36	330	David Weeks	14:30	6:00
37	341	Kurtis Wilson	14:34	6:04
38	344	Darryl Shoemaker	14:34	6:04
39	310	David Bell	14:41	6:11
40	326	Eric Hathaway	14:42	6:12
41	327	Mike Watercott	14:42	6:12
42	345	Rob Chose	14:42	6:12
43	352	Rob Mosiman	14:47	6:17
44	390	James Kauth	14:50	6:20
45	379	Matt O'Laughlin	14:51	6:21
46	355	David Strachan	14:57	6:27
47	366	Michael Landreville	15:02	6:32
48	364	Charles Parsons	15:04	6:34
49	313	Eddie Karow	15:04	6:34
50	353	Brian Simon	15:06	6:36
51	391	Robert Green	15:08	6:38
52	367	Jim Garrett	15:08	6:38
53	339	Luke Brager	15:08	6:38
54	306	Ray Nickles	15:11	6:41
55	392	Jeremie Van Ryswyk	15:11	6:41
56	303	Cody Condon	15:11	6:41
57	318	Jennifer Youngwerth	15:11	6:41
58	360	Michael Groskruetz	15:11	6:41
59	301	Joel Benton	15:11	6:41
60	369	Dan Funke	15:13	6:43
61	336	Jay Schneider	15:13	6:43
62	340	Patrick Sheedy	15:13	6:43
63	321	Madalyn Gibson	15:14	6:44
64	368	Jeff Bushendorf	15:14	6:44
65	319	Daniel Ayala	15:23	6:53
66	320	Erin Ayala	15:23	6:53
67	354	Alan Eastlund	15:24	6:54
68	356	Chad Millner	15:24	6:54
69	359	Grant Braasch	15:24	6:54
70	376	Ken Zylstra	15:24	6:54
71	312	Gregory Ivey	15:24	6:54
72	304	Jon Anderson	15:40	7:10
73	375	Nick McCulloch	15:44	7:14
74	307	Matt Webb	15:44	7:14
75	383	Neil Cary	15:45	7:15
76	305	Andy Weinzierl	15:47	7:17
77	380	Chris Gauron	15:48	7:18
78	365	Nicholas Quinn	15:48	7:18
79	325	Leah Gruhn	15:53	7:23
80	347	Amanda Jorgenson	16:01	7:31
81	346	Jeff Shupe	16:01	7:31
82	309	Gary Lindberg	16:02	7:32
83	338	Chris Symons	16:14	7:44
84	337	Nate Eide	16:14	7:44
85	302	David Sundheim	17:19	8:49
86	385	Max Dingemans	17:27	8:57
T-87	323	Nathan Good	DNF
T-87	329	Justin Canup	DNF
T-87	371	Meredith Rambow	DNF
T-87	373	Joe Black	DNF
T-87	384	Dave Knox	DNF
T-87	386	Ben Cox	DNF

Ragnarok 2018 - Quick Talking Points

Some talking points:

1) Lack of MMRs - While these roads have become synonymous with the race itself, the complete lack of ridability meant that they were always going to be a problem. I don't mind making folks trudge through 6-10" of snow if it's warm enough to not cause hypothermia or frostbite/etc. I did not think it prudent to force what could have been 200+ riders through that.

2) Shorter race - I personally dug getting up an hour later and being done 1.5 hours earlier. BUT this is still the Ragnarok... so unless we hit the trifecta of cold, snow, and lack of any real spring again don't get used to it (unless there is a groundswell that says otherwise)

3) Cue sheets ahead of time -  This is where I'll be the angry old person yelling get off my lawn. Never again. I am also going to attempt to change the race every year. No more blasting through checkpoints. We have them for a reason. I could go on a huge rant, but i'll just leave it at that.

I'll try and crunch numbers this evening. All in all it was an enjoyable day and I am grateful for all of the riders who came out. The weather didn't prove to be too horrible, and the roads outside of a few later in the day, have never been faster.

This Year's Tulips

I'm attempting to put up this year's tulip notes. We won't always do this, but if people want to do their technological thing and see where you are going, I'm ok with it when temps will be about freezing in the middle of the day.

Hopefully this works!

Google Drive with Tulip Notes - YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOU

If you aren't in the event, please respect our wishes to not have everyone just "poaching" the course. Obviously they are open roads, but if it is rampant there will be less chance for a Rok 2019.

Thanks. Let me know if this works or not....

One day to go

Here is a quick synopsis of where we are at:

- Jake is out driving the course and making sure the hot off the presses tulips are spot on. The one MMR just might be passable by car (we made it up before we got 5 inches of snow with a Jetta wagon). We'll update you with road conditions.

Night before checkin at Red Wing Brewery. We'll set up around 7:30.

The start is now 8:30! We'll try and be set up no later than 7:15.

Where is the start? Mississippi National Golf Links in Red Wing, MN... head south on Highway 61 through Red Wing (there is a new light after downtown to access the bridge to WI, don't be alarmed... keep going straight). There is a huge sign for the golf club so it is really hard to miss... take a right off of 61 and you'll see us set up near the lower parking lot. I have a feeling that the clubhouse will even be open nearer to the start since we're an hour later, but don't count on it. There should be a few port-a-potties down there for the event for #1 and #2.

Where are the checkpoints?

Zumbro Falls - There is a park in "downtown" Zumbro Falls. It's hard to miss... off of water street. Sort of behind the BP gas station. Note that there are convenience stores easily accessible from the route. One pretty much right before the checkpoint, one right after. They aren't huge, but have bathrooms and coffee/snacks/etc. Typically there hasn't been a port-a-pottie at this checkpoint. You CAN have support folks meet you here and give you a change of clothes, food, water, etc.

Lake City - There are some soccer fields off of 10th street where we sit. We are generally at the far "entrance" to the lot. In the past this checkpoint has had water and bathroom services, but it cannot be counted on. My guess is that it is still off until it stops being so darned cold. There is a nice Kwik Trip at the corner of 10th and 63 that you pass on the route a bit before the checkpoint. Assume that the checkpoint is without water and plan accordingly (we generally have people backtracking for stuff).

Mississippi National does have food and drink available after the ride (hot food might be nice!). I'm not sure about hot chocolate...

Updated Start Time and other tidbits

Thanks to some intelligent comments on Facebook (it's not a complete waste of time after all!) we've decided that we'll move the start time back until 8:30 am. What does that mean?

- We'll be setting up between 6:30 and 7:00 in the golf course parking lot ready to get people checked in.
- We'll try and start at 8:30, so please be checked in by 8:15-8:20.

The course is also changing. We've decided that trudging up frozen (at best, slushy wet snow at worst) MMRs probably wouldn't be an enjoyable thing for anyone so we've concocted a revised course. It's short on MMR flavor, so we apologize for that, but it still has enough climbs and small roads to get the real "taste" of the Rok.

We may tweak our cut-off times a bit too. Usually we try and set the cutoff at 9 mph average maybe giving folks a bit more leeway do to conditions, that would put as at:

- Zumbro Falls checkpoint - 32.5 miles in - 12:15 am CUTOFF
- Lake City checkpoint - 58.1 miles in - 3:30 pm CUTOFF
- Red Wing Finish - 80.0 miles total - 6:00 pm

As always... YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOURSELF! I believe that the roads will be pretty decent to ride on actually (we'll no for sure when the full course is driven tomorrow morning), so if you are ready and prepared and dressed to ride in 30 degree weather for 6-9 hours it should be a fun challenge. If you are not ready for that either please don't show up. Most likely there will be a v12 next year and I doubt the weather will be colder. OR have someone ready to pick you up at Zumbro Falls or Lake City and have a fun morning on your bike. We will not be able to ferry tons of people from all over the course back to the start. The compressed timing of the checkpoints is going to cause us to be "racing" around to make sure we are where we need to be, when we need to be there as it is.

Thanks!

I may try and post a GPX of the course... or whatever format people use.... I'm such a technological luddite. If I can figure it out I will this year only. Probably. Or I'll find out that it doesn't hurt anyone and we'll just do it for ever and always... who knows.