Great end to a wonderful summer series

Hawaiian shirts, cats, giant squirrels, and Ron Burgundy (Drew Hogg) made appearances at the last short track of the summer. Aaron Bouplon raced in his "skin suit" too. It was a fun evening in wonderful sunny weather (aside from a few short rain drops), enjoying delicious hot dogs from Chuck of Full Cycle.

To top things off, Peter and Chris designed an incredible course that covered the entire area, weaving back and forth, up and down every berm...on and on, with laps ranging between 4 and 5 minutes. Race results are up, both daily and overall results. The overall scores were counted by dropping the 2 lowest scores for each racer.

A huge thanks to all the volunteers and sponsors that made this summer such a success, including Justin's Nut Butter, the International Mountain Bike Association, Mix 1, and of course Full Cycle. Even more, thanks to all you riders for coming out week after week to support the series! We'll see you all next summer!

One Race Left!

The rain held off last week for 111 racers to take the starting line. Joe Goodacre took another win, this time in one of the biggest kids fields yet - 23 racers. Mike Bachman also followed up last week with another win in the C's. Check out the day's results here. Be sure to check the Total Standings as well to see how close some of the overall battles are.

In celebration of a great summer, we're declaring this Wednesday as a Costume Party! We'll have prizes for best costume in each race category. Just be sure the costume won't get tangled in the chain or brakes.

We'll see you all on Wednesday!

Retro Fun

Sadly, no pennyfarthings made an appearance, but some racers were sporting some classic jerseys. We saw Vinn Hludzinski in Thor Hushovd's World Champion's Jersey, Wayne Smith in some Team USA shorts, and Ralph Hart racing in a 1984 CU Cycling Jersey, back when the colors were blue and gold, just our 2nd year in existence! We had some great 80's music going all night too, including some fun movie-theme songs. Oliver Hart was the first to correctly identify Beverly Hills Cop as the movie for one of our songs, winning a water bottle; he informed us Axel F. is one of his favorite all time songs.

Peter O'Donnell and Chris Baddick designed the course for this week, starting off on a very fast straightaway, and plenty of tight turns throughout the rest of the lap. Even the kids course was super technical. There were a couple of crashes, but only a little blood and plenty of fun. Mike Bachman cruised to another Men's C win, about 25 seconds ahead of John Bliss. Eric Collins won in similar style in the Men's B's. Unfortunately lightning closed us down for the Women's A's and Men's A's. For all those A riders who registered but didn't get to race, your registration will go forth to next week.

Results for the rest of the categories are posted here, along with the overall standings. Be sure to share your pictures of Short Track Retro Night. Thanks to Jeff Stephenson for his photos of July 20. We'll see you next Wednesday, August 3.

Only 3 races left!

The weather's been great, not too hot, not too cold, and rain mostly holding off. Ksenia Lepikhina has not only closed the gap in the Women's A's overall, she's taken the lead from Erin Huck by 4 points! We've got tight battles going on in other categories too. Check out all the results we finally put up: July 13, July 20 and the Overall.

As the summer starts to wind down, we're gonna mix it up a bit these last few weeks. This Wednesday, we wanna see some retro! We'll give out prizes to the best retro bike, the best retro jersey, and the best retro costume. We don't recommend a Schwinn Varsity or Pennyfarthing for the course, but show them off by the tent, and race on your Fisher Joshua, in your Molteni jersey or your costume from Saturday Night Fever!

Rain couldn't stop the fun!

The timing of Boulder summer weather is rough...The afternoon downpour came at 4:30, just as registration was opening. It conveniently stopped at 5pm, so we dried off our equipment and finished setting everything up, delaying the Kids Race by 20 minutes.

The sun and heat thoroughly dried most of the course by the time the Men's C's started. So with 105 racers not discouraged by the previous rain, racing on the new trails, Chuck from Full Cycle still handing out Bratwursts and hot dogs, it was a good Wednesday. We also had plenty of prizes and stickers on hand from IMBA who generously donated to our cause, along with some more prizes from Justin's and Mix1.

Check out Jeff Stephenson's pictures from Wednesday. We should have more pictures, and some helmet-cam videos on the way too.

We've got the results posted. There were a couple of notable absences leading to some big changes in the overall standings. Cade Mead now claims 2nd over the missing Joe Goodacre in the Kids Standings, Ksenia Lepikhina's 2nd place finish behind Nicole Duke allowed her to make up a lot of ground on Erin Huck, who missed the Women's A's race. Brian Alders jumped past both Mike West and Brady Kappius, picking up his second win of the series on Wednesday.

IMBA sponsoring this week

Thanks for your patience on last weeks results. Now that I'm back in town they are posted here. The Totals have been updated as well.

A few big announcements:
The International Mountain Bicycle Association is sponsoring this week's race.
The new course is designed by Peter O'Donnell, back from riding the trails in Europe; race hard for IMBA prizes. Be sure to chat at the tent to find out ways to get involved too!

We've got a big prize in store for the Kid's Overall. Ethan Hatch, Cade Mead, Joe Goodacre! It's up to you to catch Oliver Hart! Hopefully the weather will stay dry for you.

A fantastic race, sponsored by Justin's!

Despite the potential threat of rain and wind, we had 141 racers out last Wednesday. It sounded like Justin's Nut Butter was a huge hit with everyone, sponsoring the day's prizes. Thank you Justin's for your support of the Short Track Series!
A big thangs also goes to Brady Kappius for designing last week's course.

I appologize for the big delay in results this week, as I've been out of town. I promise I'll have them posted by sunrise. In the mean time, enjoy the great shots of last week's race courtesy of Jeff Stephenson.
-Tony and the Short Track Crew

Justin's sponsoring June 29 race!

Get ready for some almond butter:
This Wednesday, Justin's is sponsoring the short track race, providing prizes all night.
Thank's Justin's!

Low turnout in week 4

The longest day of the year was a hot one, so maybe the temperatures scared off a few racers. Perhaps it was the Wednesday practice crit near IBM that took a few racers away. Perhaps its vacation time. We still had 104 racers show up, about 40 less than last week.

On the plus side, word of the Short Track Series is definitely spreading around. Of the 104 racers, we had 43 new faces! We also love the photographers and videographers that keep coming out to the races. Check out last night's Women's A race. I also believe I saw at least one helmet cam at the race. Hopefully we'll see that video soon too.

As for Wednesday's results, check them out here. The overall standings are updated too. We always appreciate feedback, so be sure to let us know if we made any mistakes in the results.

Also, what did you think of the long course? Fun? Challenging? Too long? How about the short lap to start the race? We figured that would help space out the riders enough before the technical stuff began. We did have a little mixup with the large Men's B field, who ended up doing 2 short laps before starting the full course, but it seemed to work out anyway.

There has been some darker news lately in the cycling community:

"Rich Miles was in an extemely severe bicycle accident on Friday [June 17] on peak to peak. Many broken bones, lung punctured. Operation today [June 22]. Vehicle that caused it left scene. Sue Ann Miles wants to get postings on all bicycle club websites. There were witnesses on bikes. In panic at time Sue Ann did not get names. Please help her. Please email her for details. Her e-mail is samiles@qwest.net"

If you have any info about the incident on Peak-to-Peak highway last week, or a blog or website of your own, please help out Sue Ann and Rich.

3 races down, 8 to go

It was a scorcher on Wednesday, with the sun beating down an intense 85 degrees, and still 145 of you showed up for some sweet and entirely injury-free racing. We had a special guest in town too, a big thanks goes out to the East Coast's Bruce Dickman for announcing all evening!

We had a little difficulty sorting some of the results, particularly the Men's B's, so check out Wendesday's results here, and let us know if something's a little off. We've corrected a couple of issues from last week in the standings.

It looks like in Margel Abel's absence, Erin Huck extended her lead in the Women's A's overall, though Nicole Duke ran away with Wednesday's race, a good 12 seconds over Cait Vestal in 2nd. The standings in all of the other categories are really tight, as Brady Kappius and Mike West continue alternating wins. 8 races to go, and anything can happen. We'll see you at the research park next week!

Race #2 in the books!

After a great turnout last week, another 149 racers . This included a bunch of new faces like Joe Goodacre, who was crushing it in the kids race. The question will be can he catch Oliver Hart and Cade Mead, who are currently sitting 1-2 in the overall, just as they were at the end of the 2010 series.
The big kids course featured a tricky hairpin and a bit of a cliff on the back side. Our medic on hand saw a couple of crashes, scraped elbows and knees. The clouds rolling through in the evening just intensified the racing, it seeemd everyone was going all out.

Erin Huck took the win in the Women's A race over CU Cycling's Women's Coach Margell Abel. History seems to repeat itself, as they are now 1-2 in the overall, just as they ended last season.

5 of the Men's A racers were flying through the course! By the end, Brady Kappius just edged out last week's winner Mike West. Mike still has the edge on Brady in the overall though. Last year's winner, Bryan Alders is close behind in 3rd.

Check out the full results here, with the total standings in their usual place.

Thanks to Jeff Higham for the videos from last week's races. And thanks again, Dave Wright for capturing this week's race in photos.

And the Series is under way!

The rainy season has passed, and the trails are dry. So CU's Summer Short Track Series has finally begun! And what a way to begin, with a whopping 154 racers, including 20 wicked fast kids!



As always, Chuck from Full Cycle was out grilling hot dogs and brats, competing with the Boulder Junior Cycles tent with their hot dogs and biker-friendly (healthy) cookies. Dave Wright was on hand photographing the Women's A and Men's A fields. Check out some sweet photos here. Thanks Dave!

Results are posted.
We still have a few bugs to work out, so let us know if there are any corrections.
Additionally we had advertised hosting girls Juniors with the Women's B's, and boys Juniors with the Men's C's, but ended up racing all juniors together with Women's B's - the way we have normally done it in the past. We apologize to the juniors who missed the women's B start and raced in the C's instead.

We also started the single speed racers 30 seconds after the Men's B race. On that long course, several of the single speeders caught up and jumped right in with the B's, with a few passing more than half of the B field. Let us know either in comments or emails how you felt it went, and which style you'd prefer. How should we mix the juniors? Should single speeders just start with the B's, 30 seconds ahead, or 30 seconds behind?

Thanks for your input, and a big thanks for racing! We'll see you next Wednesday!

Canceled again

Well, the weather is a little better this week, but the trails are still too muddy. So rather than race and potentially destroy the trails, the May 25 race is canceled. If you preregistered for today, we'll transfer those to next week. keep your fingers crossed that this weather will improve so we can get this series started. See you next week (we hope).

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

Aren't April shower's supposed to bring May flowers? Seems like that's changed to May showers and June Flowers...

From last night's rain, continued through this morning, trail conditions are not looking good at all. Add to that the expected afternoon thunderstorms, we unfortunately have to CANCEL SHORT TRACK TONIGHT (May 18).

We're definitely getting antsy for some mid-week racing. Hopefully the weather will turn favorable for next week.

First Short Track!

The Summer Short Track series begins tomorrow! Please feel free to print out our flyer and post it wherever you can. Bring all your friends out to race too! The more, the merrier, right?
There's a chance for rain, so we'll let you know here if the weather's bad enough to cancel, but we're really eager to get the summer going.
See you tomorrow at 4:30!

Summertime is here!

...And with the great weather and longer daylight means CU Cycling Short Track is back! We'll have the usual categories, starting with the Kids Race. Junior Girls will be racing with Women's B's, but scored separately. Similarly Junior Boys will be with Men's C's. We are undecided if we'll have a separate Single-Speed category racing with the Men's B's. Let us know your opinion in the comments.

We're looking to make this the best Short Track series yet, with plenty of prizes, a dedicated kids course, merchandise primes every week, an overall series payout, and...wait for it...
...and online pre-registration, courtesy of PreRace.com! Registration will be $13 on line and $15 on site, or $147 for all summer.

So get pumped, spread the word, prep the kids, and register now!