Freezing Saddles: Winter Bike Challenge (sign up open)

[rcannon100]

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

Official Frozen Scoreboard

NOTE: Excluded activities: If you post an activity to Strava during the competition period which is not an outdoor bike ride, then it should have the string “#NoBAFS” in the activity name.

Freezing Saddles! The Epic Adventure of a band of ELITE Cyclists, facing the challenges of the wild wild wild 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 20. It will conclude with a March Madness Playoff that someone will probably design. There will be a Happy Hour at the end with many pointless trophies.

Tribes (teams):

• Composed of ~5 riders or less
• For riders from the #bikedc, Washington DC Bike Forum general community (Washington DC greater metropolitan area)
• 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.
• Interested cyclists must sign up by December 25 Midnight – Tribes will be announced within a couple days.

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).

Backend: STRAVA (please sign up for an account, and join the “Bike Arlington” club on STRAVA – you should be able to enter data manually or automatically. Additional information will be posted here on the forum.)

This is a self organized group activity based on consensus. No one is in charge or running this thing. Participation is voluntary and entirely at your own risk.

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.

Here are the teams with the new subs

Team one
http://app.strava.com/athletes/126281
Matthew Whatley
Shawn Dread
443749
John Fisher – 608636

Team Two
Pete DeNitto – 768183
Steve Appel
James Hoofnagle
Jason Kyzer
Mega Beth – http://app.strava.com/athletes/136523
Joe Birkenstock – 1154396

Team Three
Trish Newberg
randy napiza 313677
Mark Blacknell
essigmw
obenlandk@gmail.com – http://www.strava.com/athletes/1564295

Team Four
EKR
Kel Moore
Chris Shue
Crystal Bae
Elizabeth MacGregor

Team Five
http://app.strava.com/athletes/benbhsu
307483 (Mark Williams)
Christopher Niebylski
vvill
Kevin Ulrich – http://www.strava.com/athletes/kevin_ulrich

Team Six
Arlingtonrider
sjclaeys
ejwillis@yahoo.com
http://app.strava.com/athletes/302448
feomike@gmail.com – http://www.strava.com/athletes/feomike

Team Seven
Henning Schulzrinne
klizotte
Brad Hancock
Ron Alford
Chris Randall

Team Eight
Ken Buja (1224809)
Kevin Williams, Strava # 580756, BA “GuyContinental”
Lena Varuolo
Hans Lellelid

Team Nine
Steve O
jopamora
Justin Antos (Strava 1473093)
http://app.strava.com/athletes/488016

Team Ten
certifried
strava name Karen Smith (forum poster acl)
Cyndi Janetzko
Rod Smith

Team Eleven (Freezing Saddles Team Mongo (11) on Strava)
Greg Ba
cptjohnc
rcannon100
mdevoll
Sarah Dots
Sean Chisham

Team Twelve
Calpike
BonzaiBuckaroo
Daniel Alexander
ochsendorf@gmail.com

Topic

[Justin Antos]

Jopamora – your interstate CaBi routes have been equally motivating!

[rcannon100]

@Certifried 39943 wrote:

My Garmin mounted quite easily to this, but I did lose GPS signal on the train. I’ll have to manually edit the ride. This is allowed, right?

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2233[/ATTACH]

As long as you were riding your bicycle up and down the aisle.

[Subby]

This competition has been extremely meaningful to me. After a good start bike commuting last year, I really fell off as the kids’ (I have 4) after school activities cranked up in the spring. Then it was just one excuse after another. THEN THE WEIGHT GAIN.

Anyway, the mileage I sent in was based on what I *should* have been doing, not really what I *was* doing. And I know that if it wasn’t for Freezing Saddles I might have ridden to work once this year, then given up. Instead, I’ve ridden every day – partly because I love challenges but mainly I don’t want to let my kickass team down.

And I am RIDICULOUSLY the happier for it.

[Amalitza]

@Certifried 39894 wrote:

Team 10 has jumped in to the lead only because we’ve all motivated each other to ride more than, I think, we normally would.

sshhhh…. don’t give away our secret!

[vvill]

I noticed there were a lot of commuters out there this morning too. In fact, even the bike rack at work is about half-full, which is no different to most of the year.

I think the calcs for the weightings etc included the # of riders per team? The only thing I wonder is if we should’ve had fewer teams overall. That way it’s easier to handle one or two riders doing a lot less or more than expected. I vaguely recall saying something in favour of small teams when this was all being discussed, but I don’t remember anymore.

When does this thing finish up anyway? Edit: Oh, March 20. Dang!

Next up: Team V group ride!

[crysb]

@vvill 39959 wrote:

I noticed there were a lot of commuters out there this morning too. In fact, even the bike rack at work is about half-full, which is no different to most of the year.

My work’s bike rack has only one other bike most of the time – the one that’s been abandoned there for awhile. Sad. I’ve gotten two of my coworkers to start bike commuting occasionally, but that went on hiatus once the weather started dropping.

[DismalScientist]

@vvill 39959 wrote:

Next up: Team V group ride!

Quick spin to Purcellville? (Non-group V hangers-on will have their tires deflated and pumps hidden.:rolleyes:)

[vvill]

@crysb 39961 wrote:

My work’s bike rack has only one other bike most of the time – the one that’s been abandoned there for awhile. Sad. I’ve gotten two of my coworkers to start bike commuting occasionally, but that went on hiatus once the weather started dropping.

I love looking at all the different bikes people ride into DC. I’m constantly in la la land when walking along K St and 19th St because I’m too busy looking at every bike. My bike rack tends to have either old beater road bikes or boring hybrids/MTBs although there is sometimes one Iron Horse MTB with a race number on it, an older Specialized Allez with a nice wheelset and more recently a Redline and another Kona.

I got one of my coworkers to commute and after being hit by a car in Dec he’s still riding in through the winter. He even donated his old partly broken bike to Phoenix.

@DismalScientist 39963 wrote:

Quick spin to Purcellville? (Non-group V hangers-on will have their tires deflated and pumps hidden.:rolleyes:)

Or just Hains Pt laps. Then people could come and go as they please, and it would be about as boring. The only shame would be not having Carolina Brothers to stop at.

[vtben]

Well I’ll add that I’ve been pulling down Team V’s numbers as I’ve been unexpectedly out of town dealing with a family medical issue (not to worry, everyone’s fine now). I should be back on the saddle by this weekend and posting some non-zero days

[Certifried]

The battle for the top spot is sure HOT! And it looks like team 9 is busting more than just bollards!

Sadly, it appears that Crit My Pant’s streak of perfect attendance will end as KayakCyndi has some business related thingy that will keep her off the bike (don’t want to violate her privacy or security by disclosing what it is, the rumors are that she’s a super secret government agent going on a clandestine mission to ensure world peace). That’s not to make excuses why team Crit will slip out of the lead, especially since my wimpy and sickly body keeps slapping snooze in the morning and I’m definitely not pulling my weight on this challenge, but whatever. :rolleyes:

[KayakCyndi]

@Certifried 40081 wrote:

The battle for the top spot is sure HOT! And it looks like team 9 is busting more than just bollards!

Sadly, it appears that Crit My Pant’s streak of perfect attendance will end as KayakCyndi has some business related thingy that will keep her off the bike (don’t want to violate her privacy or security by disclosing what it is, the rumors are that she’s a super secret government agent going on a clandestine mission to ensure world peace). That’s not to make excuses why team Crit will slip out of the lead, especially since my wimpy and sickly body keeps slapping snooze in the morning and I’m definitely not pulling my weight on this challenge, but whatever. :rolleyes:

It will only be “super secret” if I can’t get my Garmin Edge to work from me tomorrow morning when I plan to rent a bike and explore in my few hours of downtime!

[rcannon100]

@Certifried 40081 wrote:

The battle for the top spot is sure HOT! And it looks like team 9 is busting more than just bollards!

Yeah, it sure is too bad all those teams with only four members are sooooooooo disadvantaged (First place, Third Place, and Fourth Place at 11:30 am) :p

[GuyContinental]

Whoohoo! I’m right in front of the guy with the broken leg… (no offense Vince…)

[dcv]

@GuyContinental 40092 wrote:

Whoohoo! I’m right in front of the guy with the broken leg… (no offense Vince…)

not so broken any more, just got back in the saddle

[TwoWheelsDC]

I took yesterday off from work as I wasn’t feeling well…not so good for my points total, but great for my legs, which felt really fresh this morning.

[Author]

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