New Year's 50/50

Sunday, January 2, 2011 7:00 am

The brainchild of Scottie D., and nearly his unravelling in last year's inaugural edition. Nobody deserves this. Personally, I was so deep in the hurt locker last year, I didn't thaw out for about 2-3 days. Attrition rate was approximately 70%. Got me a nifty bottle opener for completing the assignment (and just used it seconds ago).

If your name is Brad "the Snowman" Trans-I-owalter, you probably need this meager level of suffering. If your excuse out includes the phrase "I haven't been riding...", save it. If you have scheduled a colonoscopy immediately before or after, shame on you. For the rest of you, lemme 'splain how this works: The goal is to cram 100 miles of cycling, divided into the referenced formats, in to one of the shortest (and coldest) days of the year. If you are lucky there will be a bowl of soup and a cup of coffee in between. If you are real lucky they will be warm. Useful daylight is estimated at 10 hours, 7am to 5 pm. That equals 10 mph, including stops. Everything else is bonus time (or night riding). In that vain, the ride proceeds with much haste, and without dilly dally. It is always advisable to stay near the front. As it helps keep the pace rather spirited, poaching is encouraged. Some 50/30, 30/50, 30/30, just 30 and just 50 groups may form. 30 miles is about 50 kilos and so we'll let it slide. Thus, you, cracker jack cyclist, can notch your musket with the ole' 50/50.

A few big questions:

Who will keep the co-ed classification alive?
Who will go DNS out of the gate this year, Metro, or No-Showalter (or both)?
Who will bring Scottie D in?
Who will finish the secret Stage 3?
Who will host?

We will narrow the details in the coming weeks. Meanwhile...I leave you with LAST YEAR's tutorial on how you work this out on the home front. (Note some minor details have changed).


Sir Tony Brown sets the tempo in the road stage of the 1976 edition of the New Year's 50/50