New Sponsor!

Sibby's Ice Cream has become the newest Sponsor for this year's Viroqua Cyclocross Practice Series! Very cool sponsor, they have the first all-organic soft serve ice cream in the United States.

So look forward to ice-cream primes this fall on the barriers and hills at the new course! And check out the Sibby's Site and Store. They are sold in 14 states and have an amazing product, they make Ben and Jerry's taste like skim... We love it in my house, and if you come out to the series chances are you'll get your hands on some!

Casing the Joint...

This might be one of those posts where it makes no sense to anyone but the poster. Anyway, here are some shots of the new course for the Viroqua Series.
Okay, here are some shots of the new course area. Unfortunately, they are not the greatest pictures ever, but hopefully they will illustrate the course okay. The two shots above and below here show the very top of the hill. Above shows the softball field on the top of the hill where the course lies and one of the mounds that will have to be overcome by racers.

Below here is another shot of the top of the hill. The photog was trying to illustrate the grandeur of scale here, but it gets lost in translation. Note The Pines on the right... more later on those, but it is going to be cool in there.

Mostly, this course is just going to be bigger with more features than last year. There will be some wooded riding as well as some hills, descents and barriers. Very awesome...

Note the drain... This grass is going to be fast. It is think dandelion type stuff and is tough as heck. Also note the perfect spacing for a few riders and even some barriers? Looking good.

Again, the pictures on this post are doing what they want, so here are some shots of the trees. Neat.

Here is another shot, maybe to illustrate the size of the course and distance. With some twists put in it should be a much longer and more exciting course. you can kinda see how big the hill is in the right hand corner. It is big... But it doesn't look that big in the pictures. The course will be about the size of... maybe Estabrook? Little smaller than that I guess. Maybe a bit longer than Whitewater, certainly better terrian, features and faster grass. Should be a great cross course!

Well, these pictures are coming up backwards, so here is the Hill. As you can see the hill has some step ups on it that will make for some cool off-camber stuff and a natural run/ride up. Hard to see from the picture, but it has some little ramps on it.

Above is a grove of Pine trees that is about 75 yards long, 35 yards wide. The course will snake through there and do some twisting and turning. Should be fun...

Thanks Bob Knadle!

So, two posts in two days! Whoa, not too bad. Good news is that the meeting w/Bob went very well, and it looks like the Viroqua Cyclocross Series is going to have Bob and the Viroqua Schools fully behind it.

This is amazing as the school grounds immediately quadruple the length of the course and add some great elements like a grassy run-up and a grove of pine trees. A wonderful development, this is really going to be a boost for the series as there will be enough race to make things a bit more exciting!

So pictures will hopefully be posted before the weekend... Looks like the course is going to have the potential to be much bigger and have more fun natural elements to contend with.

Thanks again Bob for helping the series grow. Now we just need to get the word out and flood the races with 90 kids from the public school! This thing is only going to get better with the support of guys like Bob, Hank D., Wes Mack, Dan Marko, Pete and Alycann Taylor, all the parents and businesses that are putting time and money into this thing, racers who make the drive and even people who read this blog and think our series is cool. Cross is fun, and I think that's why people can rally around it without a great deal of static. So thanks everyone, and get ready... We are going to need volunteers and sponsors to make this thing go where I think it is going to go...

Long Time No Post!

Well it has been a while, and as a blog reader I can't believe how long it has taken me to finally get something back up on here. So there is news!

New Site for cross races?
This week I emailed Bob Knadle, the head guy over at the schools to see if we could do the series over there with the hope of attracting more kids to the races. He has responded and I am going to set up a meeting next week! Very exciting as Bob is a biker and I have been told by good sources, Wes Mack and Hanky D., that he is a cool guy. Very much looking forward to check out what we could do over there. It looks like the course has the potential to be really neat with some dense trees that are navigable for 2 bikes and long as well a few natural run-ups. Should be awesome!

Vernon Trails Club
In other news, we had a meeting at the BlueDog where Pete Taylor went through the summer schedule and the ground rules for the club. Looks like Mt. Borah has also offered the kids great discounts on kit, very nice this year too, Thom did a great job!

So if you missed the meeting and still want to be involved with the club, just swing by the shop and give Pete your information. Roll up your sleeves and get ready to work on some Trails!

New Trail in Town!
Steve Lawless and 5th grade class at Pleasant Ridge are going to start working on a new trail at the end of Maple St. in Viroqua. This is amazing news, as the dream of miles of connecting trail to Sidie Hollow is quickly becoming reality. Pete is stoked, and has done so much to make riding trail in the county even possible. It really is a big blank slate that is quickly filling in with cool little nooks. Good work Steve and Kids! Giddeon Hooper-Schmidt, member of the 5th grade, just got a new bike and will be tearing it up out there soon. The kids are going to have ownership over both the trails and the local race series, good for the health of cycling in Viroqua and promising for a great future. Again, Pete has really made it happen so far. Hope I can help out with the Time Trials this summer.

Pete has copies of the schedule on the BlueDog link, but here it is again if you missed it: BlueDog
I think you can just click on it... So click on it! Good calendar that is color coded and stuff. Again, a great deal of work has gone into making trail and now making events that use the trail. Great work Pete and Alycann!

Plans for 2008

Hello everyone! It has been a bit of a break around here with vacation followed by some dental surgery. Some fun followed by some pain. The good thing about being stuck in bed is that it allows for some time to think, and for me that always ends up thinking about biking and cross.

So, the big plan for next season is a Juniors Team. I have been thinking about this a bunch, and the best way to fund the squad, outside of sponsorship, is to use the race to create funds for the team and it's travels to races all over the state. The idea is to get any kid the funds to go to any race he/she wants to get to, without having to worry about the costs of travel and registration. While not every racer from our series will want to travel to races, at least they will have the opportunity to do so without incurring the huge cost of travel etc.

Now what I need to do is put together a meeting to see who is interested in being on the team, volunteering to help run the races and squad, and secure the fantastic sponsors of the race series! My goal is to have a community sponsored team and event that lets kids delve into cycling as deeply as they want to, without too much of what tends to ruin youth athletics in other sports. We have a good thing going here in Viroqua and I think it is only going to get better, but we are going to need all corners of the community to get involved.

Look for a team meeting in the coming weeks, as well as sponsor profiles and schedule updates.
Thanks for reading!

On Vacation?

So not much has been happening around here... The sun is out, daylight savings has come and gone, and people are starting to go outside. I know that I am at least grateful for the change in temps and the addition of sunlight and warmth to the menu. Lee V. of Viroqua Cross fame came up one day and I went down another to do some riding. It was a blast to get out on the road and ride with someone who could drop me at any moment, but chose not to. Fun, and Lee likes to do stuff like ride 50 miles of pave and gravel for four hours or so. My legs hurt enough that I couldn't really sleep. It was intense!

Daryl at BlueDog(one word), put together my new bike, and it is pretty. It is also a lot of bike, very stiff and awesome. Thanks Daryl! He is a great mechanic and cool guy. His custom frames are going to be flying out of the shop soon. He is one of those guys who is just super cool and super talented. I'm looking forward to getting some shots of his new bike on the blog.

Other than all that, not much happening round here. First group ride on Wednesday at the shop, 5pm. Will Beaty came in today to do some intervals on the bike, another reminder about the Jrs. team... When I get back from vacation I'll talk to the fellas about it. Should get something hammered out before the end of the school year.

Thanks for taking the Quiz!

The people have spoken! Thanks for all of your responses to the quiz. Looks like most folks have a hard time with the series because it doesn't fit their time-frame. To those of you who are too far to make it on the regular, it would be great on those odd off-days to get you to check it out. For the locals who have conflicts, stay tuned...

In other news, my boss, the wonderful Dan Marco, suggested doing several clinics locally to get those who consider the idea of jumping off a moving bike and then back on again dangerous into the fold. A good idea! So, look for the schedule of summer clinics soon. They will be fun and full of action, not too many words. So again, look for dates and times in the coming months!

Thanks to Will Beatty for continuing to ask about the Jrs. team! I am working on it! Things are moving slowly in that direction, but thanks to Will and the his enthusiasm I will work a bit harder to get it rolling, no pun intended.

Otherwise, Spring is coming or not? Get here already. That or I need to get some embrocation...