Thunderdown in the Underdown: July 2010

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Friday, July 16, 2010

Bill Underdown's Cue Sheet

Get your dirt road bike out for Bill Underdown's Roubaix-style Group Ride. This is 77.7* miles including 49.9 miles on various kinds of DIRT that takes 5 to 6 hours - a good Wausau 24 tune-up, but not so long that you won't be able to pick raspberries and ride single track on Sunday.

Start from the Underdown parking lot at 9AM on Saturday, July 24th.

Not technically a race, this is a free ride that you attempt while taking all responsibility for your own support, safety, navigation, nutrition, hydration and evacuation upon yourself just as you would on any other training ride. One drop bag location will meet you half way.

Cross bikes are ideal, but not essential. A mountain bike with skinny tires or slicks will get the job done. An odometer is very helpful in this kind of ride. Below is the old beast I ride it with.

*I didn't plan such a cute number for the total mileage. It felt like 90 miles to me.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Trail X Boardwalk.wmv

Trail H Bridge.wmv

Now you can ride over 20 miles of single track with no mud (unless you cross a log landing after a downpour).

Downhilling Trail X.wmv

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Thanks Riders! What now?

Thanks everyone for your great comments, courage and efforts while facing the Underdown last week. After hearing from a lot of people and looking at the lap times, I'm left with the Underdown dilemma: too much trail. Though it's a shame to skip good trail and there is a place for the ultimate lap, the 2010 long-course format isn't something we can do every year and stay in one piece. I'm thinking of scaling things back to something like last year's distance and tweaking the existing trails before adding new ones.

What do we leave in? Tell me what trails you come to the Underdown to ride, and I'll try to put them together in a course that is still fun and challenging, but a little less brutal.

Monday, July 5, 2010

Clean-Up White Lightning

Weather permitting we'll be out Saturday morning (the 10th) to clean up the White Lightning trail after the clear-cut. Loggers are making an effort to keep debris off of the trail, and they were very kind to work around that trail before the race. I'm curious about the view after the trees are gone.

See poll at left.

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Duluth Boys Are Tough

4 laps of the long course for Ek and Buffington!

Let me know what you think of this year's all-the-way-around format. I know it's not for everybody, but there has to be a race where tough guys can show us what can be done.

Bill Underdown's Roubaix-style Group Ride

I will see you Saturday, July 24th at 9AM for the BURGR, a 90 or so mile dirt-road ride through the forests of Lincoln, Langlade, and Oneida counties. If you like single-lane forest roads like Horn Lake Road, you will have fun on this route. This is a great tune-up ride for the Wausau 24 that will make you strong, but leave you some energy to pick raspberries the next day.

Cue sheet here soon.

Google Earth Tour

Raspberry Ride and Hike

Come on out Sunday, July 25th for a ride or hike through the raspberry fields of trail C. We'll meet at about 10 AM at the small parking lot and proceed without much organization, picking and eating as we go. From Dog Lake we can ride or hike back to Loop Road on the Ice Age Trail, or explore other trails.