We are sorry to say it but the White River Remix scheduled for June 27 has been canceled. Its too bad, because it is such a rad place too… big gnarly climb, bomber downhill, old school mtb racing at it’s finest. Also a great venue to hang out, camp, and ride even more rad trails the next day. Unfortunately though, we get our lowest numbers at this event. It has been a break even affair at best. Add to that the fact that NWEpic Series has changed the date of Capitol Forest from late Aug to, you guessed it, June 27 and there’s just no way it can survive. Again, sorry folks, hope to have a strong showing at FTR this year and come back swinging next year!
cycling and event promotion
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Why the Limit of 200?
With Gran Fondo Ephrata filling up so fast we are often asked why the limit of 200. This is a question we’ve had to ask ourselves lately too. Sure 300 or 400 would be great, more money, more happy customers, win-win right? Believe it or not this limit is not set by any agency, this is our own limit set by us to maintain the integrity of the event. What the hell does that mean? It means 200 is the most we can handle: SAG, aid stations, meals, etc. (Hint: volunteers are the backbone of events like these. Want to see them flourish, get involved). It means these rides are supposed to be epic, rugged, REMOTE rides. You’re riding through some pretty spectacular terrain, in the middle of nowhere, that’s what this is about, not how many people I can sell an entry to. It means that these rides are HARD, and intended for experienced cyclists. We don’t want Mr weekend warrior showing up on his sweet gmc denali road bike because he heard gravel is the new road (although it’s true). One of two things will happen: he’ll fail miserably, and/or crash and we’ll have to scrape him off the course and haul him back, or worse yet, he’ll insist upon finishing, and we’ll have to babysit him until 9:00 at night when he finally finishes. Our number one priority is our participants. If they’re not happy and stoked with what we’re doing then we’ll do something else. Maybe ping pong.
Crabby Hundo Ride Report
After the snow from last weekend followed by a warm week, our Saturday group opted to stay out of the hills again. The plan for today’s ride was a big loop south, through the Crab Creek area. Despite the dreary conditions we had a strong group of six. The ride was supposed to be about 85 miles. We set out with a great pace on Dodson road all the way down into Crab Creek. This is a cool area that I haven’t explored much. We figured it was a good time of year to be there because the gravel road would likely be sandy and not much fun in the summer. There were big basalt cliffs almost like Palisades, with a lot of bird life around the water. This was pretty much the highlight of the ride, from there it was onto Beverly Burke road and a 12-15 mph slog the rest of the way back. I’m not sure if the wind shifted directions slightly or it was a slight up hill grade, or we went too hard on the way out… or all of the above, but it sucked. The only thing that got me through was knowing we would stop in George for lunch. Ahhh but that was not to be. Nope, not for this cowboy, by the time I got there I could see I didn’t have time and would have to skip lunch, leave my buddies, and keep truckin’ to make my [wife imposed] deadline. The tentative plan was my lovely wife was to pick me up 15 miles south of Ephrata on her way home from kid’s bball game to save time (and my legs). I messaged her to confirm I would make it there right on time, knowing that I would have to go hard to pull that off. Easier said than done 80 miles in. As I get to the pick up point I am right on time, only to find that my lovely wife is not there. My choices at this point were either to continue the final 15 miles home or curl up and die. I could’ve went either way but I opted to continue. It was slow going, I was cramping bad and crabby. Just outside of town, low and behold, look who decides to show up, my lovely wife. I had just hit 100 miles. I tried to gather my jumbled thoughts and explain why I was crabby, but it just didn’t quite come out as it had played out in my head earlier. She took me home, made me a giant sandwich and chocolate milk and I forgot I was crabby.
Making good time with thoughts of Crab Creek and blue skys dancing in our heads.
Rolling through the thriving metropolis of… I can’t remember, but it was quite memorable.
You know what they say: where the pavement ends the fun begins.
This is it, as good as it gets. I was too crabby to take any pics after this.
Festive 500
The Festive 500 is a Strava challenge that was cooked up by our friends at Rapha to ride 500k from December 24-31. It doesn’t sound that bad on paper… it comes out to approx 40 miles per day, much less if you do a big ride or two (or three). But it is harder than one would think. I did it last year and remember feeling like it was all I could do just to keep up. Not to mention if we actually got real winter weather (not complaining). I’ve been looking forward to the Festive 500 for awhile now, studying maps, planning routes, scheming. On Dec 23, the night before it begins (in classic Jake Maedke style) I was servicing bikes and came across a nasty crack in my carbon cx bike. That brought my excitement level down a notch, now I will be riding the entire 500k on my winter bike which is a heavy turd bike that is fine for commuting around town but not very enjoyable for long days. Then I notice that the tubeless road tire that I had planned to run was looking like it should’ve been replaced about 400 miles ago. All of the time I had to prepare and I wait until the night before… kids there is a lesson to be learned here. (more…)
Saturday ride -Crater Lake Epic
Awhile back a few of us decided to keep riding through winter. Other than the bitter cold, snow, ice, and lack of daylight, we could thing of no reason not to do at least one substantial ride per week throughout the winter months. Even though it’s not even winter yet it has been wicked cold all week so this was as good as anytime to get this thing started: our first official unofficial winter Saturday ride of the season. (more…)
2015 Tenative Schedule
Okay folks, here it is, our very preliminary 2015 schedule of events. Have a looksie and let us know what you think. Nothing is set in stone yet, but this is the way things are shaping up.
tentative 2015 Vicious Cycle Events:
March 15 – Gran Fondo Ephrata
March 28 – FTR Beezley Burn
April 12 – Gran Fondo Goldendale
April 25 – FTR Beacon and Legs
May 16 – Roslyn Rush
May 31 – Gran Fondo Leavenworth
June 6 – Bike and Brews
June 20 - Gran Fondo Ellensburg
June 27 – FTR White River Remix
Sept 27 – Gran Fondo Winthrop
We are thrilled (and maybe even a little surprised) at the reception of our Gran Fondos. We realize these are not easy rides. Then factor in weather and other variables and they’re downright epic. But this is what it’s all about! You will notice a new one in Ellensburg which is going to be right up there with Leavenworth. And we have moved GF Winthop all the way to Sept. This could be a big gamble with all the cx going on, but fall in the Methow is unreal!
We (I) would love to add to FTR. And we actually had two new venues that we had hoped to slip into 2015. But our FTR numbers just aren’t quite there to justify it. 2014 was a step in the right direction, but we’re still not quite there. Rally the mtb community and lets get this thing going so we can grow it!
Angel’s Staircase
This is one of my favorite times of year. There’s a ton of cyclocross to be had, which is great fun, but even better (sorry) is the amazing mountain biking! The small window of time when the high country is clear of snow, often only a couple months. I’ve had this particular ride on my short list for a few years now. So Friday evening when I saw the opportunity to con my friends into it (after a couple beers) I jumped on it. Sunday morning we all piled in a rig and hit the road! (more…)
Darkside
Summer in Ephrata sucks. At least for mountain bikers. Hot, dry, and dusty, yuck. I turn to my cx bike and take to the gravel roads. But sometimes I forget to get back on my mtb. And that’s where the Darkside ride comes in. (more…)
Season Recap
Wow, that happened fast… So here we are, it’s nearly August. Just wanted to thank everyone for a great season! ( I actually wanted to do it quite awhile ago, in addition to keeping up on my rad blog, but it sorta slipped away from me). As we look forward to next season we would love to hear from you. Let us know what you would like to see from Vicious Cycle in 2015. So far I can tell you (very unofficially) that we are planning to keep FTR a 5 or 6 race series, with probably a few new/old races to keep it fresh. On the gravel side of things we are thinking of adding another “spring classic” style Fondo as well as another mega mountain one. It would almost be like two seasons of fondo: an early spring block of three, where what the course lacks in crazy, obscene terrain mother nature makes up for in the form of pnw spring weather, then a break, then the big mountain epics.
I would also like to thank the small army of loyal volunteers that we have, much love, couldn’t do it with out you! On that note, I’d like to mention how important volunteers are to these events, without them it simply cannot happen. If you or someone you know would be willing to volunteer do it! It will be everything ever dreamed and more!!!
Goldendale recap
Still riding out the Goldendale buzz, so much fun!
We arrived in town at around noon on Saturday, got our base of operations set up and got to marking the course. I brought Brooklynn along to help. She was great, anytime I needed someone to sleep in the passenger seat, or say “wow, look at that mountain” she took care of it. Marking took a bit longer than I expected, there’s lots of turns. We got back just in time to turn around and head out to the Windy Ridge Saloon for an Irish Death and early check in (in that order). Any excuse we can come up with to hang out at a cool bar with bike friends. After that it was off to bed. At 4 am I was up to do one last preview of the course (Brooklynn wasn’t interested in coming). I got back at about 7 and the ladies had reg all set up with not much left for me to do.
We got our speech out of the way and got started right on time at 9 am. Looking in my mirror at this mass of cyclists behind me as we roll through town is always one of my favorite parts of the day. From there I tried to be a little bit of everywhere, but not anywhere too much. It was a lot of fun seeing everyone out there enjoying the ride. It’s always a little scary with a new ride. I made it back to the finish line just in time to see the first rider of the day Rusty Dodge come in. Everyone looked pretty tired and at the end thanks to Horseshoe Bend climb, rollers on top of roller on top of rollers, and a little headwind for a bonus. The ladies at the Grange did a great job of feeding us, big thanks to them! Also to our Lyle aid station and Horseshoe Bend aid station volunteers. Great support from the community!
