After a couple of trial runs, we're now ready to launch our series of monthly Sunday races up and down Corkscrew.
The emphasis in these timed runs up to the skid, where we regroup before timed descents for a combined total, is on improving upon previous PBs.
There will be prizes up for grabs for the male & female who log the biggest improvements over the series.
We'll also have leaderboards for M&F fastest up, fastest down and fastest combined. We may even scratch something together for the end-of-series leaders but kudos will be your biggest reward!
In order to prevent the leaderboards being burgled by some passing pro, we're introducing entry criteria.
The first is:
You have to attend the Sunday morning working bee, prior the midday event, for at least one hour to qualify for entry;
And secondly:
You have to attend two Corkscrew Sundays to have your best time recorded.
Those who attended the first two events are counted as having attended one w/bee (how generous is that!).
Those of you who suspect that this is just a cunning plan to encourage you to come to a working bee aren't wrong. Our agenda is two-fold...
A. We want you to discover the sense of camaraderie and achievement that comes from track-building.
B. We want to build more track and need help to do it!
As well as linking Corkscrew Sunday to a w/bee, we're also introducing a major change to our w/bee schedule. This year our working bees will be monthly. We want these to become events in themselves, complete with refreshments (donated by Motueka New World), and finished with a fun ride.
Not only will these free you up your intervening weekends, it means the enthusiasts among us will be freed up to occasionally help our track-building friends elsewhere in the region - after all, we like riding their tracks, as well!
Meanwhile, there will be nothing stopping our local volunteers from working away on our track project at other times, whether evenings or weekends, so there will be plenty of opportunity to get your fix ;-)
Our first combined working bee and Corkscrew Sunday is on February 17.
It will run 8.30am - 11.30am, leaving time for a quick bite or warm-up before the time trial at noon.
Emails, facebook and the website calendar will help make sure you don't miss it. Details of where to meet, what the project is and what to bring will be posted.
We have one small and one major project in store for this year, both guaranteed to be popular additions to the network. The surveying is underway so you'll hear more about them soon...
I recently trawled our archives for an early w/bee pic.
This one dates from 4 years ago and the encouraging thing about it is the number of faces present who are still logging Sunday morning appearances!
They shared the vision then - and are still helping make it happen now...
Of course, there are lots of other ways that people support the project. Another long-standing contributor is David Konecny.
David manages our website, giving it the occasional fresh-up and is always happy to tweak it to perform the way we want.
Like many dads, he also likes to take his son Vincent for a spin in the Park.
The pump track, Easy Rider and Cruise Control are always favourites with those just getting the hang of their first mountain bike. My experience is - they learn fast and the window for passing on skills is brief!