Saturday, May 31, 2008

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!

Thursday, May 22, 2008

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...











Wednesday, May 21, 2008

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...

Saturday, May 17, 2008

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!