Winter Bike Fest 2015

It seems that winter may have finally arrived here in South Central Alaska, temperatures finally started dipping down towards average "normal" temps.  

almost normal temperatures

We received a little more snow, though as can be seen from this channel 11 graphic we are still way behind where we would like to be on an average year.

low snowfall

The little snow we have received has helped the trail conditions though. 

This little trail in North Bivouac has become my new favourite

What better way to celebrate the arrival of winter then than a party?  

Winter Bike Fest is a month (Bike month is actually February) of activities put by Bike Anchorage to encourage people to ride through the winter. This is the 6th year that Bike Anchorage has put on events through the winter.   If you have not signed up for Bike to work day on the 13th February here is the link.

The kick off party was last night, it was a social gathering which we were encouraged to bike to, due to family commitments we didn't ride though I had got a ride in earlier in the day.  Pizza, drinks and fun and games were all available. 

The pizza and drinks were fantastic as were the fun and games and all the local bicycle shops (The Bicycle Shop, The Bicycle Shop Dimond, Paramount Cycles, The Trek Store Alaska, Speedway Cycles, Off the Chain, Chain Reaction Cycles and Downtown Bicycle Rental) had donated something or brought something to this community event, this is really encouraging for Anchorage cycling community that all the local shops are willing to be involved in events like this.

So what did we do at the event, 

There were trivia questions which we put the answers to into a hat for prize drawing, painting by bicycle lights (pictures here), timed change a flat tyre(tire),  reflective sticker art and goldsprints.

Amanda, Fiona and I lucked out at this event, not only did Amanda win a t-shirt for answering a trivia question correctly and getting pulled out of the hat. Fiona won a bike bell for making a reflective mask, I managed to win the flat fix competition and second in the goldsprints.

Flat Fix races, Clint vs I

Goldsprints round #3

Reflective mask work in progress

Finished

Now about those goldsprints, I really shouldn't have gotten to the finals, I managed to score a bye through to the third round due to the number of people entered and some how managed to fluke my first and second race and wins.  My 3rd race David let me win as he couldn't be seen winning his own race event ;-)  Why do I think it was a fluke, well my times were around 28-30secs for 500m other winners including David were normally around 23-26secs for 500m.   

Although we were only sprinting for 500m it was the longest 500m I have ever ridden, today my legs are really hurting, clearly I am not a spinner. 

Although Stephen annihilated me in the final sprint which they upped the distance to 850m thanks to the crowd for that one! I am going with he cheated as he started before we got to the 0 count down and started at 2, I think a rematch will be on the cards once I get the Sustina100 completed. 

Sprint Final - Photo Credit Nick Leopard

Thanks to Bike Anchorage for putting on a great event (Photos here) and all my friends for helping look after Fiona whilst Amanda and I were playing.  

As a final note I for one am looking forward to seeing the rest of February's events, hope to see you all at some of the other events. 

Nick