Sunday Ride

Feb 1st at Noon from Soma. Should be a mixed group with many different ride options available.

Yeah it snowed this week... a lot! However Saturday it'll be a balmy 35F so expect to see lots of riders out on the road particularly on SR446. This road is the one commonly used route that is always well cleared after bad weather so if you roll down to the Sample Gates or Soma at the top of any hour I have no doubt some riders will be riding that direction. Alternatively if you're desperate for company just loop around the Moores Pike-SR446 junction between 11am and 1pm and I have little doubt you'll be able to pick up a ride!

Definitely there is a Women's IUCC ride leaving Soma/ Gates at Noon with Randi Cox as ride leader. Out and Back on SR446, choose your own ride distance!

Further Underground

At 9am Weather.com stated it was 10F in Southern IN. That gave this author some pause about rolling out for the latest edition of the Bloomington Underground Cross series. However after the calm realisation that the other option was a ride on the trainer I rugged up and was off to Soma to meet the gang.

The 'gang' was severely reduced as just 7 hardy souls rocked up to the secret start place at 10am (at a balmy 14F). Race distance was reduced to 30minutes and the riders took off as if riding away from Jack Frost himself!

The first lap was a battle between Polish superstar Tomos, Bike-shop wrencher Adam (pictured in warmer conditions) and local legend Mike (showing a disturbing amount of skin) and the three stayed pretty much together as the feeling out process proceeded.

However as the race continued Tomos's ability to fully ride the gravel-traps on his MTB was the deciding factor and he inexorably pulled away during the race to take the win! Adam was kept honest throughout by Mike but repelled his advances to come in for 2nd. The author trailed in behind our excellent organiser Jim but was unlapped which was his only significant aim for the day! Angela and Meredith also toughed out the brutal conditions, putting the remaining male biking population of Bloomington to shame in the process!

Next race- Feb 8th, lets hope for warmer conditions!
Photo credit Jerry Jakucyk

Cyclo-Cross

The next Underground Cyclocross will be Sunday January 25th at 10am. Meet at Soma and then we'll ride out to the course.


Remaining Races-
* 08 Feb 09 @ 10am, SOMA
* 01 Mar 09 @ 10am, SOMA (Monroe County Championships)

IUCC ride

From Issac Neff-
Friday 23rd at 3pm from Revolution Bike and Bean. About 20miles, easy pace.

Group ride

From Matt Neibler-
Group ride leaving from the Wilcox House at 3pm. About 30miles probably a decent pace.

Too cold? Write blog, build robot!

Riding habits in the Bloomington winter are FAR more intriguing than during the summer months. Lets consider the reasons why:
Number of riders- In the winter there are a huge number of young (and dumb) cyclists in this town thanks to Little 500. The Peak- the majority of those riders are looking to be on top form by mid-April, much earlier than usual for a rider in these latitudes. The Weather- its ass-cold in Jan and Feb, maybe not like in Minnesota but hey it’s not exactly fun weather for biking.

How cold is too cold? When it’s below 23F this author thinks it’s a little too chilly to ride on the road. However I know that makes me sound weak to many people for whom the challenge is to get out and ride in weather as cold as possible. There is certainly no better way to find form than actually riding the bike outside but given the possibility of illness or an icy crash a rider must try to find a balance between riding and being ‘sensible’.

How to win the information battle? In these times of twitter, status updates and blogs the information game and by extension the mental game is even more crucial than ever before. This past Sunday the available information told us that there was a cyclo-cross race, a blogger tells us he rode 2.5hrs outside and then I heard from a friend that ‘about ten riders’ were seen out on Anderson Road in the early afternoon. Who were these riders? Wrapped up in black Pearl-Izumi it’s impossible to identify anyone at all. In many ways the most important thing is not to be out riding but for your competitors to THINK that you are riding. Someone who thinks someone else is out riding may be guilted into riding even when good sense might favor staying inside.

My advice to anyone who is contemplating riding outside when it’s sub-20F is: ‘Don’t, ride the trainer instead’. However don’t stop there- start a blog and let it be known that you did ‘a steady couple of hours` outside. The problem is that this needs to be independently verified so use the time you saved from not having to thaw yourself out to design a robot, dress it up in black Pearl-Izumi and send it up and down Cascades at the appropriate time. Easy!

So find your form on the trainer and let those competitors you have psyched out get ill as they try and ride all wrapped up against the brutal cold!

So just go and ride 'the orchard' will 'ya

Going Underground

The sanctioned US cyclocross scene might be put in a box by the start of the calender year but for the Bloomington Underground series no weather is too cold for a bit of racing. And so it was that about 15 riders gathered at the secret course to ride in snowy conditions where the wind chill was less than the number of participants. The atmosphere was jovial until racing began when it was full on from the start (well at the front of the race at least). The early running was made by Fred Rose (pictured in warmer times) and Issac Neff.
Running was certainly the word as the course included a few strength-sapping gravel pits and run-ups. After a couple of laps a mechanical issue put Neff out of the race leaving Rose to seemingly solo in to a solid victory. However no-one had told pint-sized powerhouse John Gatch (pictured below last fall), visiting from sunny Cincy who was steadily gaining on the lone leader.
As Rose lapped your author, Gatch was barely 20seconds behind and the inevitable junction was made with a little over a lap to go. Rose was by then running on fumes and the killer blow was delivered in the final half-lap allowing Gatch to take the victors plaudits out of Bloomington. The race-long battle for third went down to the final lap with our MTB-master Tomos getting the better of Adam Rodkey. Lower down the field rider were dropping like flies in the cold due to injury (Tom Cox), exhaustion (Adam Fryska) or a complete lack of riding (JP Krol)! Thanks again to Jim Kirkham for setting up the course and we'll all be at Soma 10 am next Sun Jan 25th for more of the Underground.

Photos courtesy of Jerry Jakucyk

Bloomington Underground Cyclocross

The weather outside is frightful but the hardy cyclocross racers of Bloomington will be rugging up and riding in the underground race series. All welcome and any sort of bike can be ridden. Its fun with a competitive edge.

When- Sunday 18th Jan, 10am at Soma.

Remaining races-

* 18 Jan 09 @ 10am, SOMA
* 25 Jan 09 @ 10am, SOMA
* 08 Feb 09 @ 10am, SOMA
* 01 Mar 09 @ 10am, SOMA (Monroe County Championships)

Welcome

Hi all thanks for navigating this direction!

This is an attempt to create a new resource for the Bloomington Bike Community where anything bike related can be posted and put out there for anyone who's interested to have a look at. For now it'll be maintained by me (geraint) but written by YOU! Anyone who has any ideas or information that they want posted they're welcome to let me know and I will most likely post it for you. This could be anything at all- opinions, new blogs, training rides, race results...basically whatever YOU want! Hopefully this can develop into a site that is useful for everyone in Bloomington and beyond!

Cheers,
Geraint, geraint.parry75@gmail.com