July 24 Cancelled!

Well, it was bound to happen some time. We had lucked out with weather so far, but tonight is looking grim. We've got some rain and lightning at the bike park now, and radar is showing more to come. So no racing tonight. The sand pit will have to wait for another week.

If you already pre-registered for tonight's race, we'll carry that over to next week for you.

Also note that next week has an augmented schedule. We'll be putting on another adaptive bike race, so the schedule will be adjusted like last time:
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)

See you on the 31st!

Clunk, Clunk, Clunk, Clunk....

That was the sound that accompanied chain-slap as you all sped down the Belgian Steps last night. I must say, it was fun and impressive to watch. I think there was only one casualty from the steps, though at least one rider slid out on the surprise mud at the bottom. Yann Ropers has some pictures from last night.

Of course John Mansell was there -- as always with his cyclocross bike. He dismounted and sprinted down the stairs, and showed us all how to remount and speed off again. He'll be ready for the fall/winter cross season for sure.

Josh Whitney provided some entertainment throughout the evening - he brought a bunch of prizes for the night - t-shirts and burrito coupons from EVOL, delicious chocolate from Pharmaca Life, and drinks from Good Belly. The entertainment came in the hand-ups of chocolate bars and burrito coupons. They both proved very challenging to hang on to. The entire crowd cheered loudly when finally one racer successfully pocketed a burrito coupon.

The results are posted, and with some tight moves for the overall in a few categories - the top 3 in the Men's C's are all within 30 points of each other. The standings will be interesting in these last few weeks. Remember that we're dropping the 4 lowest scores for the entire 13-race series, so with 9 races down, the rest will go to improving older scores.

We apologize for the terrible delay at the start of the evening. But it was awesome that so many racers were patient and even happy to help us with the final course adjustments. Thanks a ton to all of you who helped out so much there. We'll do everything we can to make sure the shortage of course setup staff and park construction don't occur together again.

Don't forget about Valmont Trail Work, tonight (Thursday) at 5:30, and we'll see you next Wednesday.

Valmont trail work on Thursday

Hi everyone!
Up this week, we have a super technical course, with rock-drops and stairs, and a fair amount of climbing. The course looks something like this:

We'll also have prizes from EVOL, PharmacaLife and GoodBelly Drinks, so bring your A-game, even if you're racing C's!

The other big announcement is that Boulder Mountain Bike Alliance is doing a trail work day at Valmont, Thursday evening. The short track series has seen unprecedented race numbers, which has been awesome! We love that so many people show up to race and enjoy the park. Of course, having so many racers does put the trails under some extra stress. 

So please come out Thursday to help out for a bit. Tools will be provided, so just bring some work gloves. Sign up to volunteer here.

Thanks, and see you Wednesday and Thursday!

Technical course next week!

It was a hot one last night, and attendance was a little low for it. However, we had a few highlights on last night's smooth and flowy course:

• Kevin Bracy-Knight out racing on a Fat-Bike
• Single Speeder Mark Baudry finished with his signature wheelie
• Scott Gurst (a long time veteran of the series) got his first short track win!
• 5-year-old Joshua Lucas did his first mountain bike race ever, a single day after taking off his training wheels!
• Two legendary A riders almost went into trackstand mode in an awesome duel near the finish of the Men's A's -- Brady Kappius and John Mansell duking it out in a manner of sorts.

We also had a few changes in the overall standings! Results are in the usual places - check 'em out. Also check out Dejan's pics from July 3rd's race (among others).

A few things to note - with how smooth this week's course was, we're making next week's course very interesting. We'll have forced rock drops (no go-around options) and a descent down the Belgian Steps. This will be a course for the full-suspensioners. (We'll of course have some options for the kids race.)

We're also working out specifics with EVOL for some prizes, as well as a series-end party.

Themed races: We might add a bmx/dirt-jumper race for August 7 - it'll be one heck of a race. We're also inviting costumes for August 14th, as usual. Prizes for the best costume.

We've been taking note from Barry's Thursday-night crit series in Longmont with the fruit spread. We've been happy to supply the watermelon for racers every week. However, would you prefer some other fruit too? Perhaps oranges?

See you on next week's technical course!

Happy Independence Day!

Thanks to everyone who was still around for the holiday who came out to our 7th race at Valmont. The watermelon, courtesy of Charlie Liu, was very refreshing throughout the hot evening. It was also fun having some sweet gear from Nite Ize to give away as prizes for the races. We'll have some more for next week too.

There were a couple missed attempts at the cash handups that we had, but a couple riders grabbed and pocketed like seasoned pros. The bunny hops and wheelies made scoring the finish entertaining for me too.

The results are posted in the usual spots. There are a couple of big shifts in the standings since a few key riders were missing this week. Brady Kappius, Bryan Alders and Allen Krughoff in the Men's A's were all missing, though Sam Morrison was turning some really fast lasps and may have gotten the birthday win anyway. However, the worst 4 races get dropped, so we'll have to see if their absence remains to be a factor.

Enjoy the holiday and long weekend! We'll see you at Valmont next week!

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!

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!