Some final notes

Just a few days away. The weather looks crappy, but not COMPLETELY horrible. PLEASE please please be prepared for wet, windy, COLD weather. Some final notes:

• A front and a rear light is required to be on at all times on the course.
• A Helmet must be worn at all times progressing down the course.
• You really should have a computer to help with navigation.
• A fully charged cell phone is also a very good idea. You will need some way of contacting the outside world. We will not look for you if you don't make it to checkpoints.
• Rain jackets/pants/whatever you need to traverse 100+ miles while in possibly drizzly, possibly windy, probably cold (think 35-40 degrees) weather.

PLEASE note that Colvill Park currently does not have any open bathrooms. As you head into town please take advantage of the many convenience stores or fast food joints to make that pit stop.

Here is a google link of key points - start and checkpoints

Some directions to Colville park (note that you'll want to go through town if you want to go to the bathroom):

Coming into Red Wing from the north on US Hwy 61

Once in or near Red Wing take Highway 61 through town towards the south.
Outside of town about 1.5 miles, you will want to exit the highway to the right (there is a sign for a city park).

(This is the first and only exit south of town on the 4 lane stretch. If you get to where the road goes back to 2 lanes, you just missed your turn. If you miss it, take the very next right hand turn into the correctional facility [MN 252], drive through the lot and keep going on that street. This will bring you back to the missed exit)

Take a right on the frontage road and another immediate right onto Nyphara lane.
At the bottom of the hill, take another right under the bridges.
Once in the park, keep to the right and look for the group of cyclists.

Coming into Red wing from the west or south on State Hwy 58

As you come into Red Wing, after the first stop light, the road will become two lanes at the bottom of a big hill.
Continue on this road as it heads towards downtown on Hwy 58/Bush street. Then you get to 7^th Street, you will take a right onto 7^th street

(There is a liquor store on the right and a Kwik Trip on your left.)

Take 7^th street for about 1.5 miles.
When you can see Hwy 61 on your left, take a left onto Nymphara lane.
Take another left at the bottom of the hill under the bridges
Once in the park, keep to the right and look for the group of cyclists.

Coming into Red Wing from the south on US Hwy 61

As you approach Red Wing, Highway 61 will turn into 4 lanes.
Immediately after it becomes 4 lanes, take the exit on the left.
Take a right on the frontage road and another immediate right onto Nyphara lane.
At the bottom of the hill, take another right under the bridges.
Once in the park, keep to the right and look for the group of cyclists.

T-minus less than one week

Well, Jake and I finally got out to ride the whole course yesterday. Conditions were about perfect (I should have had on sunscreen though!) and we can all only hope that they are close to as good next Saturday. Initial forecast for Saturday is slightly crummy with a chance of crappy. Hopefully the unreliable long range forecasts are unreliable. Regardless the course should be mostly firm for 95% of the way. Two sections of road are going to be pure slop at best (unless there is a deep freeze).

Some other tidbits before I forget:

- max descending speed - 39.8 mph (coasting... I'm a SSer)
- total dogs that ran out and chased us - about 10
- total dogs that actually seemed to care - .5
- number of weird looks from convenience store clerks - 1.75

One other surprise: There seemed to be decent cell coverage for most of the course actually. This is important if you have troubles or need to drop out etc. We (the organizers) will not be responsible for providing assistance in the event of something happening. You are responsible for getting yourself out of any trouble you might get into. Please have a plan if you need to drop out.

Conditions on course range from


to


Just thought you all might like to know. At least as it sits now almost the whole course is fairly firm. As you can see from the above picture, a few sections will probably not be too dry in a few weeks.

Updated and Official Race Roster

Not many dropouts yet.... please let me know if you aren't going to make it (comment works)

Female Open
Brokaw, Sara
Sauber, Rebecca
Waxmonsky, Nicole

Female Singlespeed/Fixed
Henry, Kate
King, Susannah

Male Open
Bean, Calvin
Beck, Bryan
Bell, Craig
Bell, Pete
Boecker, Sascha
Braasch, Grant
Cahalan, Joel
Dittmer, Dan
Elson, Brandt
Gustafson, Chris
Haberman, Paul
Herringer, Zachary
Jeppeson, Shawn
Karow, Eddie
Kinderman, Scott
Larson, Doug
Lawrence, Matt
Lawrence, Troy
Mahoney, Lonny
Meyer, Dave
Million, Porter
Muraski, Mark
Muraski, Matt
Omdahl, Rich
Peterson, Josh
Pitts, Justin
Pramann, David
Sauber, Larry
Sauber, Lonie
Stock, Pete
Tri, Charly
Zadra, Jeff
Zeigle, Paul

Male Singlespeed/Fixed Gear
Braun, Craig A
Dukek, Brian
Everson, Hurl
Petersen, Andrew
Pierre, Andrew
Robb, JJ
Skogen, Chris
Weisbrod, Heath
Zipfel, Jeff

If you don't see your name listed let me know. I may have missed it. I'd prefer to not let more people in until more people officially drop out, but if you make a good case and make me cry I'll probably let you in (as long as you realize that only a small percentage of people will actually think that this race is fun while the race is going on).

The Nitty Gritty Details

Registration - Colville Park 6:30 am - 7:15 am the day of the race

Race Start - 7:30 am

Zumbro Falls Checkpoint (Time cut-off) - 2:00 pm

Goodhue Checkpoint (no Time cut-off... suggested cut-off) - 4:30 pm

Finish (Colville Park, Red Wing) - 7:30 pm

You'll get the second set of race notes/directions at the Zumbro Falls checkpoint. If you don't get there by 2:00 you won't get the notes.

Hope you've been able to get out and train....

Road Conditions

Not much to say, just wanted to inform that at least for the moment the roads are in pretty good condition to ride. A bit slick in spots (ice) but generally firm grippy conditions. Cross bike would be ideal this weekend.... will continue to update the conditions as winter's icy grip might begin to yield to spring.

Bike Set-up

Hopefully everyones' training is going swell. Some of you might be interested in the set-up that I would use if I were doing this race (note: many of you probably have much more experience with these types of things, plus EVERYONE is different so there are quite a few grains of salt). Mainly I wanted to get something else at the top of the page so people know we're still here. Here goes:



For most of my longer gravel road excursions I use my mountain bike, which happens to be a steel 29er built by Walt at Waltworks a few years back. It started out life with a suspension fork and derailleurs, but then I lost brain cells and decided to simplify. Rigid fork and an ENO hub solved that problem. Gearing for the roads around here is a solid 34-16.

I like the hand/wrist position offered by the Mary bars. For longer rides/races I'll even slap on some barends to the inner portion of the bars for an added hand position. With some creative bar-taping that gives three unique hand positions, which for me is a good thing.

Tires for me tend to gravitate to semi-slick mountain tires ahead of cross tires. My favorite set-up is a Kenda Karma 1.9 in front, and a Bontrager Jones XR 1.8 (Front version) in the rear pumped up to maybe 55-60 psi.

Nice blinky red tail light and a couple little blinky white lights in the front are a standard gravel road accessory (front and rear lights - can be tiny and blinky - are required for the 'Rök). For incredibly long and hot rides I will throw a couple of Two Fish water bottle cages onto my fork legs to up my water bottle carrying capacity to 4 bottles (I don't like having tons of weight on my back).

I hope to get out on some of the roads on Saturday with the studs on. Maybe I'll post some pictures.