Hey gang,

When it rains, IT POURS!

We have been forced to cancel the race for this weekend completely!

Don was at the Iola venue all day yesterday planning the route.

This morning the parking lot is under water and the chance for rain on Sunday went from 60% to 100%.

Enjoy the weekend. More Details to come.

Thank you all for your understanding! We know that late changes are a challenge, but rider and staff safety is our major concern.

Check out the race results and photos from Race #1 at Minooka Park.

http://www.wisconsinmtb.org/2016-race-results/

Hello team and families, (check your email for all the links)

We are approaching the first race weekend of the 2016 season. For some of you this is your first experience with high school mountain bike racing and for some of you this becoming a late summer/fall ritual. There are a few changes to the schedule from the last two years so everyone should read the schedule and make sure they are ready for race weekend!

Camping: You can camp at Minooka Park Saturday night if you would like. There is a $10 fee and the camping information can be found here. http://www.wisconsinmtb.org/camping-at-minooka

Race Flyer – Check out the Flyer for the race for directions and other important information

Schedule:
Saturday:
You must check in with the registration table and get your race plate before you can pre-ride! Coaches too!
Pre-Ride: Open from 1pm – 5pm you need to plan on being off the course by 5pm so make sure you start your pre-ride lap no later than 4:30pm
Team pre-ride lap: If you are able to plan on meeting at team pit zone (look for the Madison Westside Team tent) at 2:45pm with your race plate on and be ready to ride a lap as a team at 3pm.
Sunday:
Breakfast: Eat a good breakfast at home or at the campground: oatmeal, yogurt, fruit, whole wheat pancakes, bagel, etc..
Middle school boys arrive at 8:15 ready to warm-up up by 8:30
Rest of the team arrives at 9am:
Girls start their warm up at 9:30
Boys HS racers cheer on the Middle School boys
Middle School Boys to the staging area at 9:15am
Girls to the staging area at 10:15
High school boys begin warm up at 11:30am
At staging by 12:15am
Cheer on all of your teammates throughout the day (Bring Noise Makers!)
Eat as a team in the pits (I still need help planning and preparing a post race meal please contact me if you can shop and help prepare food. We need about 3-4 parents per race)
3/3:30pm Awards – Please stick around for awards if you can. It is important to honor the riders that made the podium even if you didn’t medal at this particular race.
Pits:
The team will have a pit zone (not the online PitZone) with our team tent set up.
Bring chairs, snacks, sunscreen, bug spray, and NOISE MAKERS
The pit will act as our home base. You can leave you stuff there, I will have a repair stand up for minor repairs and last minute tweaks to bikes.
We will have water jugs and various Clif Nutrition products
If you have another pop-up tent and can bring it let me know. We have a really big team and will need more than one tent.

Feed Zone
I need three volunteers to work in the feed zone for out team during the race
One in the girls race
Two during the boys race
I will train you how to give hand ups, it’s fun. At the first race I will make sure that a coach is in the feed zone during the first race.

Pre-Registration closes at 11:59 on Sunday, August 21st.
You can register the day of the race but it will cost you $10 extra, don’t pay $10 extra dollars!
Register in PitZone

Things to bring!
I look at this Equipment Checklist before every race that I do. Bookmark it, print it, and make sure that you don’t forget anything!

Volunteering: There is still a need for volunteers at the race. Follow this link to sign up to volunteer at the race. I will be there Saturday morning doing venue set up till 1:30pm and then I will be in the pits setting up out team area.

New Pre-Ride Rules:
Riders who are registered in the pitzone but not signed up to race have the opportunity to pre-ride the course with your team. You must stop by registration and pick up a “Pre-ride” plate. You will need to put a $25 deposit down. When you return the plate on Saturday or Sunday, you will receive $20 back. This process proves to encourage and settle the nerves of those a bit apprehensive. If riders DO decide to race, they can pay the additional amount and we will be happy to supply them with their race number..

Call or email with questions.

Bring this flyer to Ian’s Pizza on State Street this Saturday for breakfast pizza and they will donate a portion of the breakfast profits to the Madison Westside MTB Team. The more people that show up with the flyer the more they dough-nate! Coach McGarry will hand out flyers at practice and will email them to you all. You can also print your own from this image.

Holy Crap. We are only two and a half weeks from racing.

Here is a link to the race flyer for Minooka Park on August 28th. http://www.wisconsinmtb.org/wp-content/uploads/2016-Minooka-Race-Flyer.pdf

I will email and post a schedule for the whole weekend the week before the race, but plan on pre-riding on Saturday. The middle school boys race start at 9:30 Sunday so there will be very little time to pre-ride Sunday.

Practices have been awesome the last couple of weeks, we are almost ready for racing!

Kick Butt!

Coach McGarry