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

[KelOnWheels]

@consularrider 43049 wrote:

Uhh, Kel, January 1st was a Tuesday this year.

So it was! Where’d I get Monday from?

[vvill]

@rcannon100 43038 wrote:

I motion that we rename the competition:

Frozen Toes

or Frozen Pinkies, Frozen Digits, Frozen Extremities, etc.

I still haven’t solved the cold fingers/feet problem.

[Subby]

Hands have been fine with ski mittens on, but I can’t get my toes right. I have wicking socks under smartwool socks under bike shoes under hardcore barrier ELITE shoe covers and I’m still thawing my toes out after particularly cold and/or windy rides. I would do the chemical warmers, but I don’t think there’s any room in there for them.

Freezing Toes, it is!

[americancyclo]

@KelOnWheels 42963 wrote:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2383[/ATTACH]

I just discovered this. (may only be appropriate for those that have little kids, or continue to act like them.

[Dirt]

@Subby 43073 wrote:

Hands have been fine with ski mittens on, but I can’t get my toes right. I have wicking socks under smartwool socks under bike shoes under hardcore barrier ELITE shoe covers and I’m still thawing my toes out after particularly cold and/or windy rides. I would do the chemical warmers, but I don’t think there’s any room in there for them.

Freezing Toes, it is!

Is there enough stretch in the shoe covers to put the warmers between the covers and the shoes? When it gets really frigid, I tape a small chemical hand warmer to the outside of my shoe on top of my toes before the shoe covers go on.

Graber also makes chemical warming footbeds that go inside. They’re quite thin. Perhaps leaving off the liner socks and using those instead might help. Perhaps you can take out the insole that comes with the shoe and replace it with the chemical one?

I don’t like the disposable options, but sometimes they are really good.

[Subby]

@Dirt 43095 wrote:

Is there enough stretch in the shoe covers to put the warmers between the covers and the shoes? When it gets really frigid, I tape a small chemical hand warmer to the outside of my shoe on top of my toes before the shoe covers go on.

Graber also makes chemical warming footbeds that go inside. They’re quite thin. Perhaps leaving off the liner socks and using those instead might help. Perhaps you can take out the insole that comes with the shoe and replace it with the chemical one?

I don’t like the disposable options, but sometimes they are really good.

Excellent suggestions – will try both. Thank you!

[Dirt]

@Subby 43111 wrote:

Excellent suggestions – will try both. Thank you!

I’ve had great results by splitting a strip of duct tape in half and using that to tape a chemical hand warmer over the top of the toes of my road shoes before putting the shoe covers or toe warmers on. This works really well because the chemical hand/foot warmers stop working when they get wet. Being inside the shoe causes your feet to sweat and that can kill the heating properties rather quickly. Using a narrow strip of tape still allows air to get to the chem warmer. It is air that activates the heating properties.

[ejwillis62]

Okay it was cold tonight. I feel like an official freezing saddle member.

[KelOnWheels]

@ejwillis62 43325 wrote:

Okay it was cold tonight. I feel like an official freezing saddle member.

I’m melting! I haven’t figured out what to wear when it’s 30-35 and there ISN’T a 20 mph wind

[vvill]

@KelOnWheels 43330 wrote:

I’m melting! I haven’t figured out what to wear when it’s 30-35 and there ISN’T a 20 mph wind

Yeah I had goggles, legwarmers, knee warmers, MTB shorts, toe covers and extra gloves all in my backpack on the way home. Used them all this morning but none of them for my return trip.

[KelOnWheels]

I haven’t even gotten to try out my ELITE balaclava and my lobster mitts yet!

[vvill]

I know! I just wore my new shoe covers on their maiden voyage today and the sun was out. WAAAAAAAAAH.

They should be handy on Friday though.

[TrishN]

I accidentally uploaded some rides recorded on my Garmin that I’d already uploaded via the Strava phone app. I deleted the duplicate rides from Strava, but the duplicate rides are still being included in the “BikeArlington Freezing Saddles Competition” page. My YTD distance s/b 418, not 482. Is there any way to fix this?

Thanks!

Trish Newberg

[consularrider]

Trish, I think someone said this will sort itself out eventually with the updates.

[TrishN]

Thanks! I’d been so careful to keep that from happening until today!

[Author]

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