TNR + Grass Track #3--Updated

[Update - 12:26 pm] We have a plan for tonight's ride. Part Alleycat, park DarkCross poster blitz. For those who aren't doing grass track, let's bump up the meeting time to 9pm at my place. Bring a staple gun if you have one. Good times.

Final Grass Track Race of the season today at CMU. There is one very important thing to note: we will be on the North Campus, not the South, where we have been. You will find us on the baseball field.



We will debrief the racing with beverages in my porch before riding to the klubhaus for further debriefing and much DarkCross talk. Wouldn't it be sweet if tonight also featured a sock release party? Cross your fingers.

Shortest Vicarious Racing Report Ever

Vuelta.

GP Ouest France Plouay.

Stages 6-8

Chris O won stage 6. I took stages 7 & 8.

The announcers from Universal called yesterday's finish the steepest in grand tour history. As if grades of up to 28% weren't bad enough, there were cobbles as well. It felt like took half an hour for the field to finish the final km. Thank-you PVR. But you can watch the highlights here:



KK still leads the overall GC. He's at 1381 points. I am in second, 73 points back. And King Andy has moved up into third place. He sits at 1094 points.

Also not to be missed is the exciting battle for the lanterne rouge. It has changed hands in each of the last four stages. Matt, Randy, Adam, and now Steve. Andrea, Val, and Brad are in the mix as well.

Full results and overall standings here.

In other vicarious racing news, the Fall Classics Pool continues today as well with the GP Ouest France - Plouay. Can King Andy make it three wins in a row to start the season? Can anyone stop Philippe Gilbert?

Vicarious Racing Updates

Let's start with the Vattenfall Cyclassic in Hamburg, a city that is rumoured to host the World Championships some time in the next few years. Andy, our beloved King, won that one thanks to Eddy the Younger. Andy is now two-for-two in the Fall Classics Pool. His lead over Jonah is already over 500 points. Watch out for the King.

Full results and overall standings here.

Over in the Vuelta Pool, Graham got out to an early lead. But KK has taken it over with wins on the last two stages. Is this the beginning of the FOKK? He went for a bike ride today too.

Full results and overall standings here.

Thursday Anticipation: Special Tuesday Edition

Thanks to the Cycle Chick and her crack team of designers, the Sweetest Cyclocross Race in the World now has a poster to match its sweetness rating.


Please disseminate widely and wildly. And if you would like a hard copy to post somewhere, just let us know.

This event is going to raise the bar so high we may have to ride tall bikes to reach it.

TNR

Anyone up for a bike ride?

9:30 pm at my place.

Vuelta Pool: Deadline Extended

The deadline has come and gone. But the race starts a little later than I thought. The first team off the start ramp for the opening TTT leaves at 10 am Winnipeg time. So we'll extend the deadline until 11 am.

We have a good number of teams, despite the short turnaround. There are 17 teams in the pool so far. Can we make it to an even 20?

Chris H
Jonny G
Andrea
Pete
Brad
Kim
Randy
Andy
Val
Greg
KK
Dan
Chris O
Matt H
Rachel
Miriam
Jonah

Vuelta Pool

Here it is. Sorry it is late. The FGBC HQ is a busy place these days.

Teams are due Saturday at 9am. Send them here.

The basics: pick a team of 9 riders using the following criteria

Pick two GC Men - combined values must add up to 5 or more
Pick two Sprinters - combined values must add up to 4 or more
Pick one climber and one ITT - combined values must add up to 4
Pick one Stage Hunter - no values here; just pick one from the list
Pick two Wild Cards - no values here; just pick two from the list

The rider list is here.

The scoring system and the rest of the rules will be the same as the Tour de France Pool. See them here.

As always, it's open and free. Feel free to invite others.

Good luck and have fun.

Thursday Anticipation

Do not despair, boys and girls. The 2011 FGBC Vuelta Pool is coming soon. By the end of the day, for sure. Check back later.

Also on the vicarious racing front, the 2011 FGBC Fall Classics Pool continues this weekend with the Vattenfall Cyclassics race in Hamburg on Sunday.

And on the real racing front, DarkCross is now less than one month away! The DX crew has been busy. The roster of sponsors has taken shape nicely. Be nice to them, because they have made $1500 in cash prizes available for you to win. We are putting up $500 for the each of the Mens A, Mens B, and Womens races. The prizing will go 10 deep. So there is no need to give up racing if the front of the race should ride away from you. Original FGBCer Marls will be on hand offering free massages to help you get Fixed after your race. And we will be announcing the band soon. A draft of the final poster showed up in the DX HQ yesterday afternoon. It looks super sweet! Good thing there is not a roof over the speedway. Because DarkCross would blow it off. Your task is to spread the word far and wide, whether through Facebook, Twitter, or pointing people to the official race website. There is no reason anyone should miss out on this one. And just to show how much we mean it, we have decided to take out day insurance for the race.

Grass Track #2: The Good Photos

Thanks Stefan! Be sure to check out the others here.

TNR + Grass Track #2 Report

Gianni the Grass Track Czar came up with another fine program. And it was enjoyed by the best turnout ever. Counting the kids, there were around 20 racers. We are all now just a little bit more ready for cyclocross season to start. Or scared by the reminder of how much it is going to hurt. Good times.









The TNR got off to a late start on account of the good times at the grass track. But we did manage to ride over to the klubhaus. On the way over, we stopped to check in on the new project at Omand's Creek. It is always nice to see our tax dollars being put to good use. I wonder if anyone has any regrets about turfing the initial bridge proposal?



The Secretary and President joined us at the klubhaus. Which is good because we had lots of DarkCross business to go over. Things are going well. Very well. The VP Style also brought a report on the status of our socks. It seems they have hit a production snag. We are still waiting. The tunes were different. We believe this is the first time the English Beat has been on the hi fi at the F&H.

Grass Track is On

7pm at CMU, South Campus.

The forecast calls for good times.

TNR + Grass Track #2

Once again, we begin early with the round two of our homegrown Grass Track Series. So long as the weather cooperates. If the ground is too wet, we will have to postpone until next week. Hopefully the forecast is correct and the rain stops early enough to let the grass dry up a bit. We will head out to check the course later in the afternoon. Check back around 5pm of so to see if the race is on.

Gianni the Grass Track Czar has come up with the following program:



The TNR is not weather dependent. We will ride even if it's pouring buckets. There is lots to talk about as we begin the transition from the SOB to the FOKK.


9:30 pm at my place.

Back 40 Report

Good times, bad times, all rolled up into one hot and sweaty four hour package. Those trails are so sweet, it was hard not to get excited about dropping in for another taste of flowing singletrack every time we came through the start/finish area. But that brutish grassy climb at the end of each lap did not get any easier. So after lap 5, nobody was sad to be finished.

Charlene made sure the Dark Side got a taste of victory. But not without some polemica. Something about an illegal bike change or something like that. JP was also impressive, riding to a solid fifth-place finish. The rest of us were happy to settle for mid-pack mediocrity. Brad took home the Butter Belt and KK supplied some special SOB Ale, so everyone left happy.

We have no photos. But Johhny S stopped slapping high 5s and put down his ubiquitous can of Kokanee long enough to capture the only moment that really mattered.



With that, Operación MUERTO is done and we now officially have nothing but cyclocross on our minds. We are not exactly ready yet. But we're getting closer. In fact, the 5 lap race was really more like four consecutive cyclocross races. Half the season in one afternoon. Bring it on.

Thursday Anticipation: Special Friday Edition

Lots going on these days. It's pretty much a full time job working on our two cx races right now. Everything is coming together nicely. More on that soon. Lots more.

But before we get to cyclocross, we have to finish off Operación MUERTO. We will do that this weekend with the Back 40. It's always the best mtb race of the season that isn't a 24 hour race. And we expect it to live up to its reputation this year. The Tinker boys are excited to debut an all new course, now with more climbing! The forecast calls for good times.

Jonny G, the Cricket, Charlene and I are confirmed for the Dark Side. Maybe JP too. The J-Train and Little M will be riding for the Junior Dark Side. RRR is also showing up, with KK and the Impaler set to SMASH! the course. In case you have been living under a rock for the past 6 months, you will know that this is the big goal of the season for Brad. He's had his heart set on the Butter Belt for a while now. We will all be working for him, or at least not against him. Or will we? Jonny G might not be willing to let it go so easily.

TNR Report

The airport was circumnavigated. It was awesome.

TNR

No racing tonight. Just a straight up summer night ride.

Jonny G is back from his holidays. He has lots of good stories to tell.

9:30 pm at my place.

Geese sock news

Our order was supposed to ship August 1, but our rep. informed me there has been a production delay. Apparently, they ran out of black wool.

It should ship out Monday or Tuesday and he has promised an upgraded shipping speed at no additional cost to us.

More news as it happens...

Speedway Recon Report #1

Good times. Very good times. Our confidence that the speedway will be perfect for cyclocross was only confirmed last night. KK could barely contain himself.

Harry was a little more restrained. But he also loved it.



It will be quieter out there with a bunch of bikes racing around. And probably a little bit slower too. But it will be no less fun. The venue has all the elements to string together a perfect cyclocross course. And it will be especially great for spectators, with some of the best parts of the course bringing racers right into the very heart of the crowd. Call it heaven for hecklers. Brad the Impaler and Johnny S will not be able to contain themselves. Remember how much fun it was at the hill in Altona last year, both on the giving and receiving end of the attention? Here you can have all that and still take in the rest of the race. You won't have to stray too far from the beer garden either.



Spread the word, boys and girls. This is going to be a good one.

It was also nice to see that the lighting will be sufficient to hit all the areas we want to use.



JP and I are heading out there again this morning to see how all those sweet course features actually roll on bikes.

Thursday Anticipation

From Grass Track to the dirt track, there's lots of left turns going down these days. Preparations for DarkCross continue tonight with a visit to the Speedway to take in some stock car racing. It should be an interesting cross cultural experience.

There is still one ticket available for tonight. First one to drop a comment gets it. The racing starts at 7:30 pm. Send me an email if you want to coordinate rides.

Tomorrow morning JP and I are riding out to the speedway to start working on some potential course options. Join us if you like. We are leaving from my place at 9am sharp.

Cyclocross is only five weeks away. Yes, we are starting to get very excited.

More Grass Track Goodnes

Stefan Isfeld showed up with his fancy new camera. That was very awesome. Thanks Stefan and see you on Aug. 16.

Lots more photos here.

TNR Report

Good times at the grass track. The Cricket put on a show. He was pretty much unbeatable.

Post-race rehydration program at the TNR HQ. We were joined by the VP Style who reported that the socks have been shipped. That is exciting. There will be a sock party when they arrive. Stay tuned.

We rode straight to the klubhaus, where we talked about some stuff. The Impaler spent much of the time worrying about his long ride home. He was counting on the Secretary showing up. That did not happen.

Can someone remind me who is planning to show up at the Speedway on Thursday to watch some stock car racing? Remembering is hard. We have six tickets. We could probably get more.

TNR

Another week with an early start for some racing. Can you tell cyclocross season is just around the corner. If you haven't done so already, it's time to break out the cx bikes.

This week's TNR starts with a grass track appetizer. Gianni the Grass Track Czar has prepared a program we think everyone will enjoy.


It will take place at CMU's South Campus at 600 Shaftesbury (southwest corner of Grant & Shaftesbury). Enter the parking lot off of Shaftesbury. We will be on the field to the south. Racing starts at 7pm.

If, for some reason, you cannot make it to Grass Track, we will meet at my place at 9:30 pm. Just like we always do. Whether we ride or head straight to the klubhaus will be determined later.