Nordic Mountain
Driftless riders and families - if you plan on racing at Nordic Mountain this weekend read on! We’ve got some fantastic weather on tap (or so the forecast says!) and we are stoked to climb our hearts out at this amazing venue. Remember that ONLINE REGISTRATION for the race closes TODAY at midnight. Register in Pit Zone to guarantee your riders’ starting order for the weekend. Anyone who registers after today will be placed at the back of their category’s start wave.
And…one FINAL PLUG: this week is your last chance to purchase a raffle ticket (or ten!) - we will be turning in all of our raffle tickets this weekend - so connect with your team raffle coordinator (Dirk, Brad, or Christa!) and enter to win a bunch of super rad prizes while supporting youth cycling! Tickets are $10 each.
Don’t forget your costumes, noisemakers, and enthusiasm!
Race weekend details
Here’s what you need to know for a great weekend at Nordic Mountain:
LEAGUE UPDATES: First, please take the time to read this league email in its entirety. This is the most up-to-date info for this weekend.
RACE FLYER: Review the race flyer for this weekend as a supplement to the info above.
RULES REMINDER: We are well into the race season and we expect all riders to know/follow league rules at any race venue. A few reminders: you must WALK your bike in the pit zone and in any busy area. If you are not a coach or an athlete, please leave your bikes at home. ALL people who ride bikes at any Wisconsin League race venue are required to wear a helmet AT ALL TIMES (yep, even in a grass field, or a parking area). This goes for riders, siblings, parents, friends, etc. - failure to do so may result in a team points penalty, not to mention it simply reflects poorly on our teams. Lastly, riders may NOT pre-ride the course without a coach. We need to maintain correct coach-to-rider ratios at all times.
VOLUNTEER: Consider signing up for a volunteer spot to help the league with race operations.
SNACKS: Sign up to bring snacks and supplies for the pit zone!
SCHEDULE: In addition to the league activities throughout the weekend, we have a TEAM SCHEDULE available for you! It outlines when we will be doing pre-rides and warm-up rides, and where riders need to be for their race wave/time, etc.
RACE PLATES: IF you have raced previously this season and received a race plate, you need to bring it to every race for the remainder of the season. Do not lose it! If you lose your plate, you will need to purchase a replacement plate from the league at the venue. If this is your first race weekend, we will have a race plate for you at the team Pit Zone. Coaches/riders may not pre-ride the course without a race plate. Race plates need to be totally visible when racing or pre-riding (not rolled up/obscured) — back tags are required for racing only, and need to be visible as well.
PIT ZONE: The team Pit Zone (staging area under our Driftless MTB tent) is open for all student athletes and coaches to come to prep for their race, gather before pre-rides/warm ups, and decompress after racing. We ask that families and those who aren’t racing use the area around the pit zone as “standing room only” (no extra bikes, lawn chairs, etc.) as it gets quite congested and crowded, especially with other teams nearby. Please do not block the walkways around the pit zone. Parents, we encourage you all to band together to create a Driftless-team parent zone elsewhere within the venue!
FOOD: The race venue will have a bunch of awesome food truck options for spectators and riders on SUNDAY, but you are also welcome to bring your own food. Saturday there are no food vendors on-site. This venue is a bit more remote than some of our other race sites, so please plan ahead.
SPECTATING: We recommend you bring anything you need to be comfortable for a day outside: good walking shoes, camp chairs, sunscreen/bug spray, a water bottle, cash (for merchandise or the food trucks!) and any necessary personal meds or athlete meds (epi pens, inhalers, etc.) Perhaps most importantly: bring noisemakers, face paint, costumes, posters, pom-poms, and your loudest cheering voice - these races are just as fun for spectators as they are for the racers! Note that not all race venues allow dogs! Please check the venue guide before bringing your four-legged friend.
A note about pre-rides
Generally speaking, we have had enough coaches to cover our pre-ride needs for each race. That said, we may ask riders to wait to pre-ride until we have appropriately-sized groups (i.e. if there are too many riders, we will ask that some stay until the next pre-ride leaves, so we don’t send out too big of a group). Generally, we have a LOT of riders who arrive for the first round of pre-rides at 1:30 and 2 p.m. - we have fewer riders later in the afternoons. Our last pre-ride leaves the Pit Zone at 4 p.m. on Saturday.
If you cannot make it to pre-ride on Saturday, you may pre-ride EARLY on Sunday. Meet at the Driftless pit zone at 7:25 a.m. and make sure you are with a coach when you start your ride. There is a narrow window of time to pre-ride on Sunday morning. Any pre-riders must be on-course between 7:30 and 8 a.m. (they close the course at 8!) and OFF the entire course lap by 8:30. Please plan accordingly!
