Tornadoes you say?

Well unfortunately the weather put a damper on the ride last night. Five of us showed up, sat around while it poured, and finally decided to ride anyways. We got poured on, but short rain rides can be fun.

The bigger deal is the cancellation of the first night of the Sprint Series. It’s OK though. I already have a plan: next week will have a double sprint. We’ll do a very short ride and end up at the Coliseum where we’ll do the first sprints very quickly. After that we’ll ride around, very leisurely, to the next sprint location and finish the night off with some sprints. After that we’ll ride some more to a location at which we can partake in par-tay.

Tuesday Night Sprint Series!

Tuesday night marks the start of the first Tuesday Night Sprint Series. From this week, May 24, until Tuesday, June 21 every regularly scheduled Tuesday Night Ride will be followed by sprint races. Each week will be handled differently, depending on how many people choose to race that week. The sprints we’ve been doing sporadically for the past two months or so have generally started with two heats of 4-8 riders and winded down from there to a final heat of 2-3.

Every week 105 points will be given. 40 for first place, 30 for second, and 20 for third. The fourth, fifth, and sixth place racers will get 5 points each. You can probably guess how it works from there: whoever has the most points after the race on June 21st wins. However, to be eligible to race in the final race a racer must have a minimum of 20 points.

Every course will be announced at the start of the Tuesday Ride, and every ride will end at the sprint location. After the sprints, we’ll retire somewhere to party.

Crooked Crust and the Bicycle Path have offered to give us some prizes for the lucky winners, and I’ll probably buy some goodies out of my pocket.

Tell everyone you know. I’ve been telling everyone about this for awhile, I just suck about getting online and making it known.

See you Tuesday! Come ready to race, even if you think you’ll lose. It doesn’t matter if you do. It’s all about the fun. All bicycles are welcome.

-Owen

(Race 1 is at the Coliseum, I’ll say it now.)

5/17: Summer 101

It’s summer for all you college kids. That means it’s time to stop having excuses for not riding.

We’re gunna go do a variation of the airport route and then a special event after.
-Owen

5/10: Taking South Lakes by Force

It’s been awhile since we’ve gathered our troops and hit the south side of town. South Lakes Park is a fun little place. We plan to invade on Tuesday; we will make it our own.

The ride is a little less safe than some of our others. I’ll be up front about that. If you have lights this would be the one ride to remember to bring them. We’ll ride on Bell/77 and Teasley. It’s important to keep the group in one pack on both roads. It’s worth it though. The park is a fun place. Play ground. Tennis courts. hiking trails. All off-limits at night. Unless you decide to go anyways.

Meet at the Language Building at 9. We’ll ride around 9:30. Same deal as always.

-Owen

5/2: Cool Front

Get ready to ride tonight. The rain is gone, we’re on a reprieve from the usual May heat, and it’s Tuesday: the perfect storm for riding bikes at 9PM from the UNT Language Building.

Drew’s got the route idea tonight. He’s thinking about it as I type this. He thinks it’d be cool to like go through campus. Then umm…after we go by Clark we’ll head up to the Coliseum, hit Eagle, go down NTX by West. Head down Oak to Bonnie Brae and then hit up North Lakes Park. Then we’ll go towards 77 on Windsor. Maybe head up Windsor towards the baseball fields / library. Then abruptly turn right on Locust and head back into town. Maybe cruise the square? Then we’ll get creative.

That’s all you get for now. We have more in mind. We’ll probably do some sprints.

-Owen.

Tuesday Bike Night. Meet at 9PM on Fry St at the UNT Language Building. We usually leave around 930.

Jump Starting the Ride Step 1: Posters

If you haven’t seen any of the posters we made for the ride around town and campus, you should try to. We still need to print more so we can more fully cover the town, but so far we’ve put out a lot.

Part of this whole process will be in the form of a video. You may remember A Taste of the Toast, if not check it out:

We’re going to follow in those lines and work on small web edits about our lives cycling in Denton. We decided to start those off with a few videos documenting us bringing the Tuesday Night Ride back from near death. Let’s face it: The Ride isn’t what it once was. We want to see that changed.

Here’s the first edit in what should turn into a good little series over the coming months (we all have busy lives). Dylan Voisard and Patrick Perkins did this for us and we appreciate it.

Making the prints:

Prints by Daniel Garza. Printed by Daniel Garza and Drew Elam. Filmed / Edited by Patrick Perkins and Dylan Voisard.

-Owen

All Call for Sprint Ideas!

If any of you know good sprints to use for the Tuesday Night Sprint Series I’d love to hear them! The only way to make this awesome is with lots of participation, and the best way to start that out is by getting as much input from people who ride this town as much as I do.

I have a good list so far, but throw ideas at me. And, if you haven’t heard me talking about this in person or online, cruise to the newly added page on the site regarding the Tuesday Night Sprint Series!

-Owen