The End Approacheth

The end of 2010 is nigh. Be sure to get out in these next few days (which should be warm but rainy in Iowa) and make sure that your cup runneth over with dirty metrics and centuries. Then let me know about it!

Drew Wilson Cupdate

Here's a list of rides completed by Drew Wilson, as well as a few photos he sent me. 22 metrics and 15 full so far, and, "Will likely pick up a few more before the end of the year here as I'm riding more again now." Good work already, Drew, and keep it up.

Dirty 2010

1/6- 63 miles on Douglas Trail
1/14- 62 miles on 2009 Almanzo course
1/21- 106 miles to Mystery Cave
2/11- 107 2009 Almanzo to St. Charles, explore, return
2/14- 63 miles to Byron, Spring Valley
2/17- 65 miles soft snow, to St. Charles
2/28?- CIRREM 65
3/12- Spring Training Decorah metric
3/13- STD century- HARD, end of first ever 20+ hr week
3/18- gravel metric (fixed)
3/26- metric to Spring Valley (fixed)
3/27- century, part of a 157 mile ride
4/11?- Ragnarok, only made a metric, fell hard!
4/18- metric
4/24- BALLS day 1, 104 miles
4/25- BALLS 65 miles
4/29- 103 mile gravel ride s of Spring Valley
5/9- Sandwich 50, broke bike/two laps on cruiser! also rode to bars later, metric
5/15- Almanzo- fast for me at 5:45!
5/22- Cheq 100, beyond lost 107 miles
5/29- rode to Elroy, WI 177 miles (dm and dc)
5/30- 67 miles, end at wi dells
6/5- dirty kanza (130ish miles completed)
6/10- rode to Milltown Cycles (110 miles)
6/18 trans-wisconsin 155 miles
6/19- 115 miles
6/20- 83 miles
6/21- 70 miles (ended in Ironwood, so DNF! spent rest of time off there and copper harbor)
6/24- 65 miles on SS around Ironwood
7/27- 151 miles- to Stillwater with Skogen, back to Hastings
7/31- Wausau 24 (team) I got 80 miles in

focused almost solely on XC races for a couple months here...

10/2- heck of the north- 80 miles (very sore back- replaced bike after this)
10/23- 118? miles at Night Nonsense (supposed to only be 90)
10/31- 82 miles at Dirt Bag

that was the end of my "season" so far as I look at things.

now-

11/14- 70 miles, group ride, bw3s etc., pretty easy/slow
11/29- Rode to Royal Wilders grave- 70ish miles

Will likely pick up a few more before the end of the year here as I'm riding more again now.

22 metrics and 15 centuries thus far!

...and another

I won't be posting three times a day regularly, I promise. But since the updates are rolling in (two in the last ten minutes), I figure I might as well get the word out. Maybe it'll inspire some lurkers out there to get in some rides, and I can hand out a few more cups. Here's a list of 2010 cup rides from Courtney Hilton. Courtney kindly provided me with links to a ride report and photos of each ride. Click on the ride to be transported to its specific blog post.

1/16 First Metric
2/6 Second metric
2/27 Third Metric
3/17 Fourth Metric
3/28 Fifth Metric
4/24 Sixth Metric
5/1 Seventh Metric
6/4 Eighth Metric
8/15 Ninth Metric
8/30 Tenth Metric
9/4 11th Metric
10/13 12th Metric
Here is my list for the year.  It's sad I missed the one a month in July!

Thanks
Courtney

Well done, Courtney. It was really, really hot in most of July.

Ride Update from Adam Blake

Here's the first of (I hope) many updates from single-speed superstar Adam Blake:

Thanks for keeping this going.  It was great motivation in the winter months last year and I'm sure it will be valuable this year.  I have done 7 fulls and 12 metrics.  That was all done before September, then I fell off the cliff.  Oh well, BRING  ON THE SNOW.

Thanks,
Adam

That's two cups, man. Way to go! Hear, hear with the snow - the Pugsleys are getting anxious.

Cup O Dirt Revival

This is what you should be out doing in the next three weeks! It might have more of a whitish tinge where you are located, however.

Well, it's been a while since there's been an update here, but The Cup is not dead. It cannot die - porcelain cups are eternal, you know.

There's been a little change with the administration of the Cup, and it has been decided by the council of off-road gods that it shall be I, Nick Wethington, who carries the torch for this current incarnation of the beloved cup.

Now, there's only a few weeks until the end of this current season. As you can see below, there's not much for cupdates. I only have two to report from those on the list in the previous post - the first is that of David Giegerich, who rode a whopping 100 metric centuries since March. That is not a typo. I didn't mean 10. I meant 10 x 10. This certainly deserves recognition - what an inspiration to other cyclists doing this crazy thing that we do. Davey G, we applaud you.

The second person I have to give updates for is myself. I have complete 9 metrics and 6 full centuries this year.

As for all of you other chasers, we need those updates and ride reports and we need them now. You still have three full weeks from today's writing to get a few more rides in. If Dave can ride 100 metric centuries in one year, you can probably stand to get a few in by January 31st. Just think of that when you're out there in the Iowa prairie and it's like -7 degrees Fahrenheit. This right here is an important bit: send all of your Cup O' Dirt correspondence to iowacupodirt _[at]_ gmail - dot - com.

We want your stories, your photos and of course the number of rides you've completed in 2010 that qualify for the cup. Also, send in any rides that you're aware of which would be of interest to cup chasers. More the better if you'll be putting on a ride. If you've been chasing the cup but have slacked off because you thought it was dead, you can still send in your stats and stories and pictures.

The rules remain the same: 12 metrics (62 miles) gets you a cup, 6 full centuries gets you a cup or 12 centuries gets you a cup. If you do any combination of those numbers, for example do over 12 metrics 6 full centuries, you can qualify for multiple cups. I'll have a few links up to rides that you can do in Iowa in early 2011 in the next few days, and will be making a few general changes around this joint to get things up to speed. Good luck!

~Nick Wethington

2010 Cup Chasers

February is over and things are already heating up for 2010! Until Dave frees up the controls, I'm going to update this post with the names and numbers for the year.

As always, feel free to send in ride and race reports, as well as photos. We want to see where you're riding, what you're riding and who you are riding with. If you in the chase, and you have a personal web site or a blog, let us know and we'll link to it from here as well.

2010 Cup Chasers

Name	Full Century	Metric Century	One A Month Club
Adam Blake	3	4	*
Steve Fuller		4	*
Dave Giegerich		5
Courtney Hilton		5	*
Ben Shockey	1	3	*
Nicholos Wethington	1	2	*
Drew Wilson	3	9	*

More Cupdates

Updates have been coming in a little more steadily the past week or two. Sorry I didn't get them all posted up sooner. The table should now be updated with the totals for everyone that has sent me an email through March 30th. There are a lot of people getting a lot of miles in so far. I can think of a few reasons why. Tho I'm sure there are just some people that are doing this because they enjoy it too. :) Keep the updates coming in, and I'll keep posting them.

Busy week

The weather has gotten warmer and the miles are starting to rack up a bit more quickly.

DavieG has cranked out two metrics in the last 5 days. On the 13th he ventured out on studded tires for 8 hours on a mix of sand, soggy gravel and dirt. St Patrick's day meant there was time for another McRide on the Heritage Trail and some gravel roads. Click on Dave's name for details on both of his rides.

Courtney Hilton also managed to get out on the 17th for some gravel on the rural roads of Polk and Madison counties. The lure of beer and wet road conditions forced him to cut his planned full century down to a metric. He's still in the one a month club.

Your's truly headed north to Decorah for Ben Shockey's STD. A planned 200 miles over 3 days turned into 120 due to some back issues. I still managed to survive the Friday ride to Harmony, MN and back for another metric, adding another punch to my one-a-month-club card.

Keep sending your rides in, and we'll keep posting them. :)

Cup-Dates

A quick post to inform everyone of some administrative changes with regards to the Cup O Dirt. Dave's been a little busy and asked if I would be willing to help out with some of the day to day stuff regarding the Cup O Dirt challenge. I told him I would, so if you have completed a metric or full century this year (2010), and it has not been posted to the site, please resend it to "cupodirt at sfuller dot net" and it will be recorded in all of its dirty glory.

Dave is still handling the cups for the time being, so any questions about those should still go sent to him.

The weather is finally starting to look up, this week, so get out and ride!