2008 Jay Winter Challenge

Friday February 8th 2008, marked the beginning of something so crazy, you have to be there to truly get it.
It was the commencement of the 2nd annual Jay Winter Challenge. I attended the event last year, invited by the race director himself, Dan DesRosiers. Over the last year, we have gone back and forth on various crazy bike race ideas, and I'm quite pleased to have gotten a chance to know this man. He is a very twisted individual, and quite crazy. My kind of people!


He's the same guy that brought us the Jay Challenge, the ultimate endurance triathalon. 70+ mile bike ride, 30+ mile off raod marathon, 20+ mile kayak across Lake Memphromagog.
The winter challenge is no stroll through the woods. It is a bike only event, a 30 or 10 mile ride on snowmobile trails, and new for this year, a 25 lap figure 8 ice crit. Oh boy!
When I saw the course I was shocked, amazed and utterly flabbergasted. There would most certainly be carnage!

The crit was Friday night. A crew of snowmobilers had groomed a figure 8 out on the frozen lake. A couple of road contruction generators and lights and voila! A race course. I must admit, I wish I had brought my bike. Watching the 25 laps around this moebius loop af death on ice was some of the most amazing bike riding I'd seen in a while. Among those that raced, were some folks I know, Brook Scachard, Racin'Rick from ME, and to my amazement, none other than Captian Dondo. Yeah, that's right. THE Captain Dondo. For those that don't know, he's one of the originals to the sport of mountian biking. I used to read his atricles back in the day when he used to write for Mountain Bike magazine, roughly 14 or so years ago. We share many of the same values as cyclists, but I digress...

The race started with blast from the air horn, and the fury around the 8 began. I figured it would be about lap 6 when the opportunity for carnage would rear it's ugly head.

Fortunately (alas?) it didn't come, but it was pretty close a few times. Cooler heads managed to prevail, as the lead group were left to charge through the darkness, and those pushing from behind, were kind enough to let the flyers ahead of them at the crossover. I had a powerful personal moment, standing on the ice in the calm 8° night air, as I realized that while some were there to race, all were there to have fun. How rad is that? I almost cried.

Saturday morning I left Waterbury at 6, dragged my buddy M2 up to Newport, and set up for the main event. The weather was better this year, warmer, more snow.Well, may be not better for the riders, but better for those of us that stood around in the snow, as the daytime temperatures climbed, the snow got really soft. There were 2 road sections that were removed from last year's course, which would add about an hour ot the race time.

(Racin' Rick)

There were a couple of guys who didn't let it bother them, and managed to crush the field in record time (results at the end). The race temperatures started in the high teens, and warmed up to the mid 30s by noon. The weather in VT can be quite unpredictable in February, we've had quite the snowfall this season, the event was perfectly nestled between two major winter storms.




The Results:
Brian King was the first to finish, riding an ice spike Specialized full suspension bike in the 10 miler
Alec Petro finished the 30 miler shortly thereafter on his Pugsley.
Lea Davidson (Trek pro rider) was the first to finish the 30, and Rebecca Van Dyke finished the 10.

The complete details can be found here.

Good job to everyone who came to the race. I hope to see you all again next year.

Holy Crap!

Boy did we ever manage to squeeze a lot into 2 1/2 days.

Friday afternoon, I headed up to Newport VT to check out the "ice crit" portion of the Jay Winter Challenge. Newport, is practically on the other end of the universe from us. I started my day in Burlington, and drove 2 hours in the afternoon to reach the crit in time. I'll have a detailed post on the event in the next day or so, there is simply too much to talk about in one post! I spent Saturday morning at the big race.


And speaking of events, we had our first annual Big 2.9 sale this weekend. We did a lot of work on the front end of this, as we knew we wouldn't be able to physically manage the sale, as we were double booked. Luckily, everything went smoothly. The website did what it was supposed to do, and we'll just say that I'll be busy over the next couple of days shipping everything out.
Having only a few free hours this morning, it was spent on the mountian, where an overcast morning turned into a serious blow down storm. In our last 2 runs, our tracks were quickly being covered up by the pounding snow. I estimate that it was coming down about 2" an hour, maybe more.


At the end of this week, I head to Minneapolis for Frostbike. It's a trade show put on by Quality Bicycle Products (QBP, or The Q as it may be known to shop folks). It's a distributor that pretty much has it all, and every year, they have their own mini trade show. I hope to actually meet up with the infamous Guitar Ted this time around! I'm also hoping to spend some time with our friends at Twin Six.

Well, back to the grind for me...

The Big 2 . 9

Yeah, it's coming. Some might say it's already here...
Sorry for the radio silence, it is a monumental task to get everything organised for this 1 day sale, and work, and have a kid, and get some time to enjoy lifeto stay sane.
I have updates for the demo Spider, tomorrow is the Jay Winter Challenge, and this morning Mandy and I shredded some serious gnar.
Gnar means powder for those that are unfamiliar with the term. We snowboard too, and this morning, we were blessed with 18" of fresh on trail, and sometimes chest deep off piste. It was awesome. It was the perfect release for us, the answer to many long days and nights staring at a computer screen.
Even though it isn't bikes, it's still flying through the trees! Beleive me, there would be pictures, except that digital cameras don't really like snow that much. I haven't had turns like this in years.

The BIG 2.9 happens on Saturday, but the savvy shopper could score some deals early if they were savvy enough. Ironically, I'll be away from the computer and phone on the big 2.9, I'll be up in Newport, VT, covering the Jay Winter Challenge. With any luck, all the time we've spent getting the website in order will be worth the effort. We've gone to great lengths making sure that the web is up to date, and able to handle the traffic.

Up next, the Jay Winter Challenge!

Jay Winter Challenge

Friday February 8th will mark the beginning of the 2nd annual Jay Winter Challenge. I attended the first race lace year, and it was a lot of fun. You have to have a certain amount of crazy in you to find stuff like this fun, but there you have it. I like it because it proves that with the right attitude, the human spirit can prevail in any conditions. It's in this spirit that Dan Des Rosiers created this race.

This year, the event is slightly different.
There has been the addition of n "ice criterium" on Friday night. Sounds fun, but the word "ice" makes me think that some of these will be absolutely necessary. I must admit, I'm tempted to join in the madness. We'll have to see when we get closer to the event. It consists of 20 laps around a 1/2 mile course in the dark. These are the sort of shenanigans I truck with.

Saturday the 9th features the main event as held last year, a 30 miler on groomed snowmobile trails over rolling hills, or a shorter 10 mile race that follows the final 10 miles of the course.


An important note to keep in mind, is that the course is on private land, and it is asked that no one pre-rides the course, or rides it after the event. There is a special arrangement with the local snowmobile club and local land owners that make this event possible. I don't even need to say that anyone disrespecting this arrangement could jeopardize the future of this event.
Lecture over.

Bike 29 will be there for the crit and the race the following day, offering tech support to anyone that needs it. I'll follow up with a full report on the event itself. I expect that turn out will be pretty good. Last year drew 50 or so riders, I imagine that number to double this year. Everyone had a blast, myself included.

Race info can be found on the race blog.
If you want to sign up, the info is on Active.com. You have until Feb 1 to register.

Up next, Spider update!