Freezing Saddles 2014 Rules

[rcannon100]

Consensus:

Freezing Saddles: Winter Bike Challenge
Never Give an ELITE Cyclist an Even Break

Freezing Saddles! The Epic Adventure of a band of ELITE Cyclists, facing the challenges of the wild wild winter bike paths. Confronting the darkest of evenings, the coldest of mornings, and the stupidest of Ninjas – these brave cyclists challenge each other because, if they didnt, they might have to actually do some work during the day.

The saga runs January 1 until the last day of Winter, March 19. There will be a Happy Hour at the end with many pointless trophies.

* Tribes (teams):
** Composed of ~8 riders or less
** For riders from the WABA / Bike Arlington forum
** Volunteer Captains (captains will address any data problems, negotiate or cause confusion, and provide motivational seminars);
* This is a ten-gallon hat tournament. Riders will be randomly assigned to tribes based on self declared average weekly mileage and days cycled. Tribes will be created so that each tribes’s average weekly point score is roughly equal to everyone else’s. To achieve this, tribes may be composed of differing numbers of riders.
* No late sign ups (this year absolute – I have other things that I will have to be attending to).
* Interested cyclists must sign up by December 24 Midnight – Tribes will be announced within a couple days.
* All rides must be logged by DATE in order to be included
* No sandbagging.
* Communications will be through the forum.

Scoring: Riders will receive 10 points for each day and 1 point for each mile ridden. Minimum ride is 1 mile. The tribe’s score will be the sum of the tribe members (indoor trainers do not count- you must be freezing in the saddle outside).

La Strava
* We will honor the “trainer” checkbox in Strava; those rides will be ignored. As will rides with #NoBAFS (case-insensitive) in the ride name.
* Any rides with kiddos on your bike can be tagged in the ride name with #Kidical for a kidically pointless prize.
* In order for rides to be counted, the athletes will need to authorize the Freezing Saddles application to read their Strava data. (Details coming very soon on how to do that.)
* Also, riders will need to be a member of their “tribe” Strava club in order for their rides to count (we’ll only be showing riders that are on one of the competition teams) — and I will need the list of those team IDs for configuring the scoreboard. Of course any recorded rides will be counted retroactively if any of the team captains are late in getting the clubs formed (or late in getting me the ID of the clubs … or I’m late in updating the app configuration).

Freezing Saddles is a self organized effort of the participants. Freezing Saddles is not sponsored by anyone (it is not sponsored by Bike Arlington or by WABA). There is no organization. It is just a bunch of people coming together to be silly and ride bikes when it is really really cold. Your participation in Freezing Saddles is voluntary and at your own risk and you have not paid anyone anything to participate. Please volunteer to help make this self organized effort succeed.

Be Brave. Be Bold. Be…. questful! In the words of Hedley Lamarr:

Men, you are about to embark on a great crusade to stamp out runaway decency on the bike paths. Now you men will only be risking your lives, whilst I will be risking an almost certain Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor

.

Topic

[rcannon100]

@peterw_diy 73562 wrote:

Isn’t the point to encourage folks to ride?

The rules were created by consensus months ago. The rules are not changing at this point (except by consensus – probably through the captains).

There is no point. Seriously. This is a self organized spoof among friends who ride a lot. It is our way of laughing and having fun. Freezing Saddles is not sponsored by anyone. It does not have a purpose. It does not have a mission. It is us having fun.

We call it a sleaze ride because we have made our own rules, and then we are gaming our own rules. It is a way of laughing at ourselves. We have create a game that has no real point, has no real prizes, has no real meaning – and then we are laughing and taking it all serious for no point other than we like each others company and comradery. The term “sleaze ride” is just a laugh at and by those of us who love to cycle.

[ShawnoftheDread]

If you do a sleaze ride, you will be harassed. But you’ll be harassed more if you skip a day. If you boast about not missing a day, you will be harassed even more.

[Arlingtonrider]

My concern was that we not change the point system. I have no problem with being sleazy!

[dbb]

@Arlingtonrider 73593 wrote:

I have no problem with being sleazy!

I’ll drink to that!

[cvcalhoun]

I’m announcing in advance my intention to be sleazy! I accurately stated when I joined this contest that I normally ride only two days a week, for a total of about 30 miles a week. The other five days, I normally go to the gym, which is about 2/3 of a mile from me. While I simply do not have the time to go on a long ride every day, I figure I can do a lot for my team’s points if I just start biking instead of driving to the gym. So, I’m not going to avoid sleaze rides, but will not object to random trash talk. To paraphrase Patrick Henry, “If this be sleazy, make the most of it!”

[DismalScientist]

I don’t think sleaze is really meant as term of derision.

As for the trash talk, I blame Mr Cannon for not including the question “How crazy are you?”

[rcannon100]

@DismalScientist 73609 wrote:

“How crazy are you?”

Well, doctor, I was born at a very young age….

…. and I have these friends. Their names?? Well their names are Dismal, and Dread, and Dirt, and AmericanCyclo….

…. and I ride laps around Hains Point….

…. and I would rather be riding down the MVT in a blizzard than in one of those damn, four wheeled sofa tin cans with heat and tunes…

… and one of our patron saints is “Crazy Ivan”…

… and I like spandex…

… and I spent more time this weekend cleaning my bicycle chain than talking to my teenager….

[DismalScientist]

Why would you talk to your teenager?

[rcannon100]

@cvcalhoun 73599 wrote:

To paraphrase Patrick Henry, “If this be sleazy, make the most of it!”

That’s not sleazy…. THIS! This is sleazy ->

[ATTACH=CONFIG]4412[/ATTACH]

[rcannon100]

You are missing bilsko, vvill and JAntos.

Some names are inherently more suspicious then others :rolleyes:

[ShawnoftheDread]

@rcannon100 73612 wrote:

… and I spent more time this weekend cleaning my bicycle chain than talking to my teenager….

Of course. Chains are more responsive than teenagers.

[Fast Friendly Guy]

@ShawnoftheDread 73619 wrote:

Of course. Chains are more responsive than teenagers.

…and less greasy

[dasgeh]

@peterw_diy 73556 wrote:

My shortest grocery route is 1.9 round trip. With this proposed change, I’d only need treat There and Back separately (Finish/Record rather than Stop/Resume). Doesn’t seem right, especially since it means more work on your part. Better to invent me to take the scenic route and get a wee bit more saddle time.

But it’s not a sleaze ride if it’s errands. Strava told me so. http://www.strava.com/activities/104000897

[jrenaut]

@dasgeh 73636 wrote:

But it’s not a sleaze ride if it’s errands. Strava told me so. http://www.strava.com/activities/104000897

Exactly.

It’s not a Freezing Saddles “sleaze ride” if you drag this up a big hill by thetejon, on Flickr

[Vicegrip]

@Fast Friendly Guy 73622 wrote:

…and less greasy

And far more useful.

[Author]

Replies