Sunday, October 7, 2007

Winter teaser

Mother Nature fired an opening salvo this weekend as a reminder of what is come. When we went to bed last night it was snowing hard and looking very wintry outside. However, the sun is already out and the snow will probably be gone by tomorrow. Perfect.


The warming trend forecasted for this week corresponds perfectly with my desire to get back into a riding groove as I have only ridden sporadically since the Targhee 24 Hour race.

Cycling has still been front and center though. The planning for a January snow bike race took a big leap forward this past week and I hope to make it official very soon. One issue I go back and forth on is how much support to provide during the race. Melting snow for water will be an issue for the 100-mile racers.

What are your thoughts?

Option #1 - Offer no suppport but allow racers to use any resources found along the route. 25-mile racers will have no resources and 100-mile racers will travel near a cluster of lodges at about the 70-mile mark.

Option #2 - Offer one aid station each for the the 25-mile and the 100-mile racers. Try to position the aid stations at roughly the half-way point on each course.

Option #3 - Offer an aid station for the 25-mile racers only at roughly the half-way point on the course. Treat the 100-mile race as a 100% self supported race.



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5 comments:

  1. EdOctober 7, 2007 at 5:56 PM

    And so it begins :-)

    A few flakes here today, nothing more.

    Ed

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  2. FixieDaveOctober 7, 2007 at 10:22 PM

    Dave~ whatever you decide on support i'll be planning on bringing a stove to melt snow anyway..not to mention the ability to sleep out if needed

    Just to be a little safer...

    I'd say for the hundy self supported!

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  3. DougOctober 8, 2007 at 7:42 PM

    I think I'd pick option #2 as my first choice, option #3 as my second choice and option #1 as my third choice.

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  4. Dave HarrisOctober 9, 2007 at 6:53 AM

    Options?

    # 4: head to the desert for the winter where there is only snow on mountain tops ;)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Jill HomerOctober 9, 2007 at 2:51 PM

    So do you have a scheduled date for this ride yet? I'm trying to talk my parents into Christmas alternatives since it's not looking like I'll get any time off in December. A week in January may be perfect ... and I have to fly into Idaho Falls and rent a car anyway because that's as close to Salt Lake City as my Delta airline miles will get me. So I'm thinking ... a day or two around Idaho Falls in January. What is there to do around there? Hmmm ...

    (By the way, I like the completely self-supported option.)

    ReplyDelete