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....
Friday, February 29, 2008
Saturday, February 23, 2008
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.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
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.
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.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Tulip Notes 101
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.
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.
Check out another stoopid race
Looks like registration has opened up for another stupid gravel road race. Chris puts on a mean race. If you like miles and miles of loose gravel, into the wind; This is your race (is that the proper use of a semi-colon? probably not).
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Some Recon
We were out today in the "warm" weather doing a bit of recon on the second half of the course. What did we find?
1) I'm out of shape.
2) If there is an early Spring the odds are good that the roads will be in pristine riding condition. Most of the roads were pretty firm today so for the most part a cross tire would have been enough.
3) This race will be a challenge. Doable, but don't expect that it will be like a road century.
4) 90% of the dogs on the route are either nice and friendly or so old that they can't begin to chase you.
Some info that might actually be useful to some of you: The race notes will be roughly 4.25" wide x 5.5" tall.
Here is a picture of Jake dominating the crap out of a car. That happened to have been in the ditch for a long time.
1) I'm out of shape.
2) If there is an early Spring the odds are good that the roads will be in pristine riding condition. Most of the roads were pretty firm today so for the most part a cross tire would have been enough.
3) This race will be a challenge. Doable, but don't expect that it will be like a road century.
4) 90% of the dogs on the route are either nice and friendly or so old that they can't begin to chase you.
Some info that might actually be useful to some of you: The race notes will be roughly 4.25" wide x 5.5" tall.
Here is a picture of Jake dominating the crap out of a car. That happened to have been in the ditch for a long time.
Friday, January 4, 2008
REGISTRATION IS CLOSED!!!!
Thanks to all for freaking me out with the amounts of cards I was receiving. Happy New Year!
After some checking on Sunday I'll post up the conditions and final race card details.
After some checking on Sunday I'll post up the conditions and final race card details.
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