Freezing Saddles: Winter Bike Challenge (sign up open)

[krazygl00]

Damn. I need to do this next year.

[hozn]

@Greenbelt 47043 wrote:

I’d be up for ronwalf and hozn keeping their pages up and re-activating the updates so we can continue to track our miles throughout the year. It’s just a really cool easy way to see who’s riding where and find new routes, ride ideas etc. -Jeff

I’m happy to do that, though I’m gonna leave it in a “frozen” state for a few more days in case anyone wants to do any further analysis on just the data from the competition timeframe.

I have lots of improvements I’d like to make to the system — in addition to just cleaning it up and making it more general-purpose for other groups/clubs who may wish to run their own similarly-structured competitions. I enjoyed the opportunity to do some software development and learn a bit about both Strava’s APIs and the various weather APIs (and weather tracking in general). There’s a lot of interesting stuff that could be done on the geo and the weather front … e.g. leaderboards on who has ridden the most into the wind, find people who ride similar routes (but not necessarily at the same time), comment on Strava KOMs with windspeed/direction , etc. As well as improved forecasting for cyclists — knowing someone’s average speed and factoring in windchill, etc. could make for a great “what should I wear today” application (especially for those crazies like GuyContinental who refuse to wear a pack / carry extra clothing).

Thanks to everyone involved in organizing this — rcannon for putting it together, ronwalf for the software development, ArlingtonRider the happy hour, all the prize givers, all the participants, etc. This has been loads of fun. I certainly rode more intensely than I would have without the competition (so much for the plan of having a regular & mild winter commuting season). Mostly, though, I’ve enjoyed meeting new area cyclists — either in person or on the forums.

[bikenurse]

I just want to give a shout out to our amazing captain and the organizer for tonight’s happy hour – Arlingtonrider. Your example and daily kudos kept us all motivated. We were even in first place for awhile You are truly Badass!!

[Amalitza]

@Hancockbs 47045 wrote:

I may have been one of the worst sand baggers in this competition, but it wasn’t intentional. I clearly got caught up in the game and rode WAY more than I would have otherwise. I already have 45% of my total milage from last year. For this, I want to thank the organizers and everyone who participated. I won’t be able to make the event tonight, but wanted to offer my congratulations to everyone on an outstanding competition! Looking forward to the next one!

On a percentage basis? You’re the eleventh placed sandbagger. But it’s possible the top ten are all insane. Nice job!

[DismalScientist]

@acl 47085 wrote:

On a percentage basis? You’re the eleventh placed sandbagger. But it’s possible the top ten are all insane. Nice job!

Hopefully both the top 10 sandbaggers in both percentage and mileage terms will be posted. I want to earn all the snide comments that I will be receiving.

[Amalitza]

I’ll have the data (in the form of my laptop and a sortable spreadsheet) at happy hour. I’ll get it organized and prettied up to be printable/postable maybe tomorrow or at least over the weekend. Won’t have a chance today.

@DismalScientist 47088 wrote:

Hopefully both the top 10 sandbaggers in both percentage and mileage terms will be posted. I want to earn all the snide comments that I will be receiving.

[consularrider]

@acl 47101 wrote:

I’ll have the data (in the form of my laptop and a sortable spreadsheet) at happy hour. I’ll get it organized and prettied up to be printable/postable maybe tomorrow or at least over the weekend. Won’t have a chance today.

I look forward to seeing that. I guess it will depend on how you define “sandbagging.” I expect that I increased my riding by about 30% over my reported November and December 2012 totals. In my defense, those were the months with my lowest riding totals of the year in part because I was traveling for several weeks. I expected that would be the case during the first three months of 2013, but circumstances have conspired to keep me in town, so I actually ended up with my best winter riding totals ever! Still some credit has to go to the FSWBC!

[Amalitza]

@DismalScientist 47088 wrote:

Hopefully both the top 10 sandbaggers in both percentage and mileage terms will be posted. I want to earn all the snide comments that I will be receiving.

Apolgies for the format, I can’t quite figure out how to copy and paste a table from either word or excel and have it still look like a table in the post. But the respective numbers after each person’s name are, in order, their final score, their weekly handicap, their actual weekly average points, the point difference between the two, and their percentage with respect to handicap. Hopefully not too confusing.

By percentage of handicap

Trish Newberg: 1782 50 158 108 316%
Justin Antos: 3178 125 282 157 225%
Kathy Lewis: 2073 90 184 94 204%
Mark Williams: 2653 120 235 115 196%
Peter Kong 2099 95 186 91 196%
Karen Smith 1951 90 173 83 192%
Joe Birkenstock 644 30 57 27 190%
Christopher N. 2763 130 245 115 188%
Lena Varuolo: 2550 120 226 106 188%
Steve Claeys 2113 100 187 87 187%

By points above handicap

Justin Antos: 3178 125 282 157 225%
Mark Williams: 2653 120 235 115 196%
Christopher N. 2763 130 245 115 188%
Trish Newberg: 1782 50 158 108 316%
Shawn Dread: 2794 140 248 108 177%
Lena Varuolo: 2550 120 226 106 188%
Chris Randall: 3830 235 339 104 144%
Will Lynn: 3193 185 283 98 153%
Kathy Lewis: 2073 90 184 94 204%
Peter Kong 2099 95 186 91 196%

[Hancockbs]

I don’t know if I am happy or sad that my name didn’t show up on the sandbagger list. There is always next year!

[Bilsko]

Perhaps a little too hipster-riche for some of the BAFS riders, but I thought this little essay on winter riders characterized our BAFS efforts quite nicely:

http://www.rapha.cc/tales-of-the-winter-rider-by-matt-seaton

And yes, I did see Bikesnob’s teardown of Seabiscuit’s 47×17 video and I expect this’ll get the same treatment here

[ShawnoftheDread]

@Bilsko 47379 wrote:

And yes, I did see Bikesnob’s teardown of Seabiscuit’s 47×17 video and I expect this’ll get the same treatment here

That’s it. I’m shaving.

[CPTJohnC]

@Bilsko 47031 wrote:

Ah….I believe you are referring to the “Sniffling Saddles” competition that runs from today through May 30. Or perhaps the “Searing Saddles” competition that takes us from June 1 through August 31.

Yes! Let’s do it! (as long as someone else can organize it, that is…)

[jopamora]

Um, so this ended a month ago. So, why haven’t my miles gone down!! Bob what did you do to me?!!

[Arlingtonrider]

I just want to clarify that the Badass Banditos #BAFS2013 team was in no way affiliated with or related to the Banditos Motorcycle Club. That is all.

@KelOnWheels 47047 wrote:

This was SO MUCH FUN!

Thanks to everybody for all your hard work with websites and planning and stuff, and for riding in the freezing cold and luring unsuspecting folks… err… SUPPORTING your fellow riders in their insanity… um… endeavors!

The amount of awesomeness and knowledge and encouragement and just gosh darn ol’ plain niceness and sharing on this forum is really amazing. I am proud to know you all.

Y’all rock like a bunch of rock stars with rocks on their shoes with a side of rock sauce.

Team FourCuatroPho 4 LYFE!

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