Urban Short track Race #1

Well the first race in the series is in the books. Well almost in the books, I still have to put up the results, but the racing is in the books anyway. The weather held out for us perfectly, and it seems like a good time was had by all. Congrats to Nick Barbieri(Backwoods Racing Project) and Debbie Baker (Bishops Bicycles) who won the Mens and Womens Pro/1 catagorys.

Despite some technical diffuculties on the back end and some vandals playing with course markings between races, we have received generally positive feedback and the serries will roll into its next race on December 3.

We will have a couple of changes for the next race, the biggest one is the way we do timing. This race we used a standart Criterium timing which works great when you have a large peleton of riders. As it turns out, the whole system breaks down when you have riders spread over the course. For the upcoming race we will use a timing format typically used in 12/24 hour races. You will have 30 minutes to do as many laps as possible. If you come through the start finish at a time less than 30 minutes you will be expected to go out again. Over 30 minutes and you are finished. This should clear up a lot of confusion. So our appologise to the riders who we accidentally made do an extra lap, (a list which actually includes or Cat3 mens winner), but we should have it fixed for the next event.

We will also be putting award cerimonies on the schedule for next race so we won't miss any of our finishers as we try to do improptu awards.

Anyone who has other suggestions for us, we welcome your comments, this was just the first time out and we have a lot to improve on, but at the very least this was a good jumping off point. See you all in December.

Urban Short Track Racing in LaGrange

A while back we tried to put a criterium in the downtown area, but there was just no good way to lay out the course without disrupting major traffic paths or cutting across the active train track. After leaving the idea on the back burner for a while we found the soulution...

What if we used Mountian Bikes instead?

This simple idea lead to the creation of the Urban Short Track series that will be going on all winter. Racing will be done primarily on mountain bikes but we expect a few yahoos to try them on CX bikes. Courses will run on roads, alleyways, sidewalks, ditches, down stairs, through buildings, on footpaths, single track, fields, yards, retaining walls, basically wherever we can get permission to ride, we will.

Short races will keep riders from freezing, and spectators will be able to jump into restaurants and shops to stay warm. Our first event will actually be able to seen quite nicely from the window of Karen's Book Barn and Java stop.

So if you are local you will need to come check it out either to race or just to spectate. I also need some volunteers to run crossings so if you are up for it, we will have some swag for the volunteers as well as the racers. See you out there.


Entry fee: $10/race or $60 for series
Online registration available here: http://store.goosecreekcycles.com/Product3062
Smack talk on the forums here: http://goosecreekcycle.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1340
We are looking for sponsors to sponsor either the whole series, individual Race days or individual events. Let me know if your business might be interested in cash, product or time donations.