The Last TNR with Brother David

We hesitate to use the word 'last', since we are quite sure this is not the last we have seen of David, nor was this likely his last TNR. David, like the TNR, is not something that just goes away never to return. Rather, much like the scars one might get from violently and repeatedly crashing one's bicycle, they become a part of us, never to be scrubbed away by time, distance, or copious amounts of Polysporin.

In spite of conditions that the Finnish might describe as 'Cold as Russian Hell', a sizeable contingency left their warm domiciles to partake in the farewell festivities. Organized by The Hipster, the night would include riding some trails, followed by an evening of revelry at The Good Will for (presumably) Good Times, Good Company, and Good Pizza.

It was, as they say, a Swiss watch of a plan.

We assembled at the Junkshon, where it was determined the weather was not nearly as despicable as originally anticipated. Here, The Inhaler gives the conditions the thumbs up, or perhaps flips me the bird. Such is the eternal mystery of the lobster.

Daniel arrived sporting a very large rack. Six pounds of rack, to be exact. While it impressed the crowd with both its size and weight, Daniel admitted the handling and manoeuvrability are not ideal.

The trails were in excellent condition, which made for pleasant and fast riding. The ice skating trails through the Forks are now finished, a fact we discovered by crashing spectacularly as our bikes mysteriously disappeared from beneath us. That gravity, she is a bitch.

When we'd had our fill of falling, we made our merry way to The Good Will to thaw out and rehydrate. We had reserved the massive wooden harvest table, no doubt laboriously fabricated by an army of hipsters and their dads' power tools.

Pizza Cat got the pizza ball rolling, as is her way, and before long, each of us had easily consumed our own body weight in delicious, thin crusted pizzas. It was decided that Liquid Smoke should be the official condiment sponsor of the FGBC and shall henceforth be put on everything.

It was also decided that after several unfortunate years of being passed over, Brad Pitt will be the subject of this winter's 24 hour race. It is anticipated that during the showing of Fight Club things might get a little weird.

Overall, the venue suited us just fine, and the vintage punk was a perfect soundtrack to the evening.

Brother David, Calamity Dave, Hot Legs, Cyclocross Jesus... no matter what we call you, know you will be missed. Like your namesake, we hope you come back soon.

Which is an appropriate segue to the interesting story of the image at the beginning of this post. The story is interesting only in that we are not entirely sure how or why it happened, but that it happened at all is a testament (ahem) to the good company and good times we had. Amen.

Nordic Cross News. What?

At a very formal and sombre gathering of the FGBC, to mark the passing of a member from our midst, some serious business was negotiated. Please pay attention and miss these notable meetings at your peril.

January 6 - Pizza Cross (planned by, obviously, the VP Pizza)

Jan 20 - Curry Cross

Feb 21 - 24hrs of Brad Pitt

The countdown has been attended to

With all the time spent around this...
http://winnipegcx2014.ca/
there's barely been time to pay attention to ourselves. No matter what goes wrong at CX2014, spring ride will come.

2014 Tour de France Pool

The 2014 Tour de France Pool is open for business. Good luck and have fun!

The Rules:

1. Choose a team of nine riders from the Rider List based on the criteria listed below. Your team must be submitted before the race starts on Saturday. Submit your team here.

2. Entry into the pool is free. There are no prizes.

3. The pool is open to anyone. Feel free to invite others to participate.

4. Points will be awarded based on the scoring system below.

5. Any rider who is disqualified from the race for a doping violation forfeits all his points. If he survives the race and gets busted later, you get to keep your points.

6. Daily results will be posted on The Twitter: @Dark_Red_Racing. Trash-talking and other forms of vicarious racing banter is strongly encouraged using this same medium. Official hashtag: #TdFPool2014.


Building your team:

1. Pick two GC riders. Their combined values (the numbers to the right of the riders name) must add up to six or more.

2. Pick two sprinters. Combined values must add up to five or more.

3. TT Men and Climbers - Pick one rider from each list. Their combined values must add up to five or more.
4. Pick any two Stage Hunters. No math involved in this one. Yay!

5. Pick one Wild Card. Again, no math!

Scoring Individual stages: 150 125 100 90 80 75 70 65 60 55 50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5
Final GC: 600 500 400 350 300 275 250 225 200 175 150 135 120 105 90 75 60 45 30 15
Final Points Classification: 120 90 60 40 20
Final Mountains and Classification: 120 90 60 40 20
Final Young Rider Classification: 120 90 60 40 20

Spring Ride 2014

The Beer indeed went to Ingolf. Good times were had:)

The Klubhaus gets it's due

Here's a nice piece on our Klubhaus. The FGBC was interviewed for it, but the writer tells me the sidebar we contributed to was left on the cutting room floor. Next time. Or not.

The beer is going to Ingolf

Tuesday night's agenda was important, in an annual sort of way. Some back and forth on the date of Spring Ride made it feel like the olden days... like around the turn of the millenia. In fact, this blog URL continuously references that first year, when we didn't know where we were going, some didn't have bikes, and the 'when' made our paper daytimers shake in fear (OK, I had a Palm Pilot, and I'm kind of proud of that... would still use it if they had put the phone in it right away).

At any rate, a subdued, mostly drive-in, collective, huddled at the middle table at the north end of the klubhaus... and when the topic finally came up, there was at first quiet, and then the DFL said, "just have it on the regular date, it will be easier", or something like that, and that was it. No debate, no balancing this conflict versus that... Almost like the year when location was so up-for-grabs we were almost paralyzed, and the President wrote, in the comments of this blog, "The beer is going to Ingolf", and it was done.

Now the phrase has become the call for keeping things simple, "don't fix something that's not broken" might be most analogous.

So, hey, the countdown is unchanged, the beer is going to Ingolf.

Spring Classics Pool

The 2014 FGBC Spring Classics Pool is open for business!

Same deal as usual, except there is no longer a distinction between the Adrennes guys and the rest of the riders.

The list of riders and team building options can be found here. There are no doubt plenty of people who should be there. And some who are listed who may not even race. Rankings are entirely subjective and in some cases completely random. Our subjectivities here in the Dept. of Vicarious Racing may or may not be well-honed. Take your chances.

Teams are due Saturday morning at 9am CST. Submit them by email to the Dept. of Vicarious Racing. And make sure to indicate which option you've used to build your team. Failure to do so may result in disqualification.

Entry is free and open to all.

There will be no prizes.

Spring Ride Anticipation

Using basic Maths, it appears we are only FOUR (4) months to the next spring ride!

Winter is long, but do not give up hope!

Remember the good times had at last year's spring ride by checking out these photos...and what the world looks like without a blanket of snow covering everything.