Thursday, June 27, 2013

Hand-Cycle Speed at Valmont

We were thrilled to be able to host a race for adaptive cyclists last night! Hopefully we can spread the word about how much fun it was so we can get more of the hand-cycle community out for the next one on July 31.

Last night, a friend even had his quad-rotor camera flying around to capture some footage. I should be getting a link to the video soon, and he may come out a few more times to record the other races too. Aerial footage of CU Short Track at Valmont can only look incredible!

The course last night had a little of everything, with a long section through the glades, a little climb, and the fast sweeping descent down the corkscrew. At 1.1 miles long, lap times ran anywhere from 4 minutes to 5 and a half. It seemed like a lot of people had fun with the course, especially coming through the finish area towards the parking lot. Brady Kappius took the hole shot at the start of the men's A's and had a LOOOONG drift through the first turn, spraying dirt and dust at the crowd. Mark Beaudry finished the single speed race with another insane wheelie.

Full Cycle was out there again with their awesome grill-bike. On Bike-to-Work day, they rode that and towed their tent all the way to Valmont. Seeing everyone's enthusiasm out there, showing huge 2-wheeled spirit, makes me happy to be able to put events like these on.

Results for "A bit of Everything" are up here, with updated overall standings here. Oliver Hart is closing the gap on Juniors leader Bjorn Riley, while Thatcher Wine overtook Tony Prete in the Men's C's. Erin Huck took the Women's A's win and overall lead in Ksenia Lepikhina's absence. In the Men's A's, Brady Kappius took the win, extending his overall lead from 1 point over Sam Morrison to 11.

Next week's schedule is back to normal. Being the evening before Independence Day, lets break out the red-white-and-blue kits! See you on July 3!

Friday, June 21, 2013

New Schedule Next Week

Wow, a lot of Boulder must really like hills! More than 160 racers came out Wednesday night for a lot of climbing - and naturally a lot of descending too. There were a bunch of first-time racers at this week's short track too. It's great to see everyone's enthusiasm out there. I saw some great wheelies out there too coming across the finish line. Maybe later in the summer we'll add a separate wheelie competition.

Next week, the 26th, we're adding a racing category - adaptive bikes for riders with disabilities. We're squeezing the schedule a bit to fit it in, but we're excited to provide a great racing venue for some extra-dedicated mountain bikers. The course for next week will have a bit of everything, some glades, some climbing, and of course, the corkscrew.

4:30 p.m. - Registration begins
5:00 p.m. - Kid's Race ages 9 and under (10 minutes)
5:15 p.m. - Women's B and Juniors age 10-14 (15 min)
5:35 p.m. - Men's C's (20 min)
6:00 p.m. - Men's B (25 min)
6:30 p.m. - Adaptive Bikes (20 min)
6:55 p.m. - Women's A and Single Speed (25 min)
7:25 p.m. - Men's A (30 min)

With the sun setting so late, I hope you A racers don't mind staying out a bit later. See you all next week!

Thursday, June 13, 2013

The Tour De Glades

"If I could only do one race for the rest of my life, I'd be perfectly happy w/local midweek stxc, especially the CU Cycling Team series."
    - Spencer Powlison

Thanks for the very kind words, Spencer! We are glad to be able to put on a fun mid-week race series for the community, and knowing how much you all enjoy it makes us even happier.

We maintained the same numbers tonight as the record-setting turnout from last week. Maybe it was the draw of a flat course, but the course was still plenty long. Lap times were coming in around 5 minutes, with the Men's A's topping out around 4 and a half minutes. There was plenty of excitement in every race - partially motivated by avoiding mosquitoes - I got eaten alive during tear-down tonight.

Sorry to keep this recap short - I need to pack and sleep before traveling tomorrow through Tuesday. (That's right, I plan my travel around being at Short Track). But thanks again for the huge turnout, and thanks to everyone who suffered through the mosquitoes with us to make cleanup quick and easy. Tonight's results are posted in the usual spots. I may have made an error or two in my haste. Let me know, and I'll fix any issues when I'm back in town.

3 more things:
1: Nothing's official yet....But EVOL...It's in the works.
2: Hills are on the schedule for next week - after two whole weeks with no corkscrew we figure it's time to play around up there again.
3. Hog Roast at Rocky Mounts tomorrow evening, supporting Community Cycles

See you next week!

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Schedule Change for Tomorrow

Tomorrow's going to be another hot one. Hopefully not quite as hot as today was. To keep you from overheating, tomorrow's race will be the Tour de Glades, a 1.3 mile course that avoids climbs while hitting plenty of berms, jumps, and drops.

As for the schedule, we're moving the single speed race to 6:40, with the Women's A's starting just after that. This should make scoring much easier, and we'll have cleaner, faster results for the Men's B's this way (hopefully). This will be the schedule for pretty much the rest of the season.

We'll have some more modifications with details we're still working out. We've been planning with the EXCITE program to host an adaptive mountain bike race category. The first one will be June 26th. We're still tinkering with how to fit the schedule in. So stay tuned for that.

One last note - Rocky Mounts is hosting a hog roast on Thursday, with Oskar Blues on tap. It doubles as a benefit for Community Cycles. Check out the details here, and we'll see you at Valmont tomorrow and at Rocky Mounts Thursday.

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Race number 3!

What a night! It seemed like every racer was having fun, getting big air off the rock drops and pulling wheelies across the finish line. We had a whopping 143 racers during the evening - 21 more than last week! I guess word is spreading about all the fun at Valmont. I'll have to check our racing records from past years to see if it's an all time best. It's gotta be close.

We had Full Cycle grilling hot dogs all night, which were very tasty and very much appreciated by hungry volunteers such as myself. A huge thanks to all of you who raced - we're really glad that so many people are enjoying the races we're putting on. And thank you to all the volunteers who came out to help - course setup, registration, marshaling, grilling, doctor-ing, and cleaning up the course afterwards. We really appreciate the help.

A few notes:

There were a couple of people who did not check in - I recorded some racers whose names and numbers were not on the start sheets. Be sure to check in with registration at every race, even if you're pre-registered and have a number.

We actually have a new waiver that everyone needs to fill out - it includes both the University and the City of Boulder releases on it. You only need to fill it out once this summer, but it is different from the waiver we had the first week. So please check in. Also, take a look at the results to make sure I got you placed correctly.

How the night went down:

Carden King has some new competition in the Kids race, he took 3rd to Luke Kreidl and Dale Boyer. An incredible 21 other kids enjoyed the course too! In the Juniors race, Bjorn Riley stayed with Nolan Stevenson until just before the last lap and managed to get a nice gap for a solid win. Not morally defeated, Nolan slowed down to pop a wheelie for a 2nd-place finishing photo-op.

After a strong win last week, Marina Lepikhina took 2nd to newcomer Brittany Jones, who started out a little slow in 4th, but got her groove and passed a rider in each of the last 3 laps to take the win.

This was the first short track of the year for 8 of our 12 Men's C's. Christian Long and Brendan Lee finished 1-2 with a 15 second gap over 3rd place Michael Bachman. Bachman has won the C's competition in past summers. Are these guys on form to upgrade and fight with the massive B field? The B's had 40 racers, which included a few riders who upgraded from the C's. None of them could keep up with newcomer Maxx Chance. Maxx says he's still looking for his form, but he might think about A's for the next short track. Racing against faster bikers gets you faster too, after all.

Brad Berger, a former CU Cycling National Team mountain biker, was flying through the back end of the B field, doing sub-3:30 minute laps. He couldn't shake Tom Hopper, but did manage to hold on to the win. Tom's 2nd place increased his overall lead over Mark Beaudry, who ended 5th on the night.

Our Women's A field is getting some good attendance now. Nicole Duke and Erin Huck have fought hard in past short track series for the over-all. Nicole was absent yesterday though, so the rivalry will have to wait. Diedre York started out fast, with lap times around 3:40 on the 1 mile course. She slowly let herself drift back towards the end, making sure she's well-rested for upcoming Worlds. Erin Huck capitalized on that and took the win (now tied with Nicole for the overall).

The 29 Men's A's riders were flying through this course, taking risks through slippery turns, and attempting a few passes with alternate lines through the obstacles. Their lap times were around 3:15 for most of the race, led by a group of 5 that included Brady Kappius, Sam Morrison and Bryan Alders. Bryan and Sam were able to drop the other 3 in the final 3 laps. Bryan, who is fresh off of a long rest due to injury, and with a lot of pent up riding energy, sped around Sam on the last lap to take the win by 5 seconds. Sam's 2nd place pulls him within 14 points in the overall of leader Brady, who finished 5th on the night. About 3 minutes after Bryan's win, Kurtis Barth held a very impressive wheelie over the line for 20th place.

We didn't keep count, but we think John Mansell did upwards of 50 laps on the night, who started his warmup during the C's race. We're going to have to keep track next week.



Thanks again for coming out, and we'll see you next week!

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Racing this afternoon

The light drizzle this morning is just enough to keep the dust down for later. The trails are looking great, so we'll see you all later! The course this week hits the glades, some optional rock drops, a bit of gravel, plenty of passing opportunity, and though you get a break from the corkscrew this week, you'll have a nice table-top jump on one short descent.

As for the schedule, we'll keep the single speeders racing after the B's today. We're still hoping to get some more feedback from riders today before making any changes. It looks like some options would be Single Speeders going before the Women's A's at 6:40, or Women's A's going after Single Speeders at 6:10, and Men's B's going at 6:40. Be sure to let us know your opinion on the matter at the race tonight!

Monday, June 3, 2013

Rider Poll: Single Speed and Women's A's

Since the Men's B field is always the largest, we were thinking that having the men's Single Speed field go a minute after them is annoying - both for single speeders to need to navigate the B field that they catch, and for us to score and keep straight.

So we've been thinking about having the Single speeders start at 6:40, with the Women's A's starting a minute after them. Thoughts?

Let us know in the comments.