Welcome, Fall!
Hello Driftless riders and families - it is officially FALL!
We had a beautiful evening of practices last Thursday in the cooler weather. Thanks for equipping your riders with a few extra layers and those all-important bike lights!
We have updates below for you…but before we dive into that, we would like to thank all of our coaches, volunteers, and families for the support in pulling off THREE great race weekends in a row. A lot goes on behind the scenes to make these busy weekends happen - from volunteer coordination to organizing staging, warm ups, communications, and the all-important snack selection, we are grateful for everyone who has contributed!
Last weekend’s race at Englewood was our teams’ most attended race EVER. We had 61 riders registered to race across our three teams. We are so stoked to have so many kids lining up - whether it was their first-ever mountain bike race, or their 30th, we LOVE seeing more kids on bikes at these events! Check out the awesome photos from the race here and add any of your own!
Now, time for a restful weekend and a few fall news items…
Team APPAREL
BIG NEWS! And - TIME SENSITIVE! We have some excellent apparel available for each team - if you would like to order something to show your team pride, check out the cozy sweaters, hats, flannel pants, shirts, and more! Check them out below! We know we are getting to this late in the game this year, and are looking forward to having this set up for next season as well!
NOTE: Waunakee items will not have the plain “W” logo - they will instead have “WAUNAKEE MOUNTAIN BIKING” printed on them; please see the image below for the design. The folks who set up our store will be changing the mock-ups next week, but know that anything ordered will have the “WAUNAKEE MOUNTAIN BIKING” design!
Orders are custom made and take 3-4 weeks to create. Place your orders TODAY (Saturday) and you should have something to wear in time for the state championship at Trek!
WAUNAKEE FAMILIES:
The logo shown here is what will be printed on the clothing, NOT the plain “W”
IMPORTANT UPCOMING DATES
If you read any part of this news update, let this be it! See our upcoming important dates:
WAUNAKEE HOMECOMING ACTIVITIES: As per Coach Brad’s previous email, Waunakee HS riders are invited to join the school homecoming festivities! There will be banner-making in the HS commons this Sunday from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. (drop in anytime, on your own/connect with a friend) and the parade will take place next FRIDAY Sept. 30 - line up is at 4:30 p.m. at the fire station; the parade ends at the high school. We will be riding our bikes in the parade - bring your bike, wear a team jersey/practice shirt, and be sure you have a HELMET!
RAFFLE TICKETS - all of our raffle tickets are due at our next race at Nordic Mountain on Oct. 2-3. Contact your team director/raffle coordinator for any last-minute ticket purchases! We have to turn in any leftover tickets, so please bring any you haven’t sold to practice on THURSDAY next week.
REGISTER FOR JOHN MUIR TRAILS RIDE - we are asking that ALL riders/families who wish to attend our Oct. 8 JOHN MUIR ADVENTURE RIDE to sign up by October 3. This will allow us time to create ride groups and ensure that we have enough coaches for our adventure the next weekend! Register now.
VOLUNTEER WITH THE WI LEAGUE AT THE TREK CX WORLD CUP - NICA parents and families are encouraged to sign up to help sell cold beverages at the upcoming Trek CX cup! The CX cup is a world cup cyclocross race that attracts thousands of riders and spectators and includes a UCI-sanctioned world cup race - some of the fastest riders in the world travel to Waterloo, WI for this event! Our NICA families can volunteer to sell beverages throughout the weekend. Trek purchases all the beverages, but all the sales are donated to the Wisconsin League to support racing, scholarships, loaner bike programs, and more! It’s a fun and easy way to volunteer, and you can spectate the races/awesome fun event as you give back! Sign up here!
SAVE THE DATE! END-OF-SEASON BANQUET - Join all three teams together for an end-of-season celebration. More details to come! Save the date: November 1, 6-8 p.m. in Waunakee! Thank you to the Whyte family for hosting us once again this year!
TRAIL WORK
On Tuesday, all three of our teams had riders and volunteers participate in trail maintenance/building across three different trails sytems: Pleasant View, Cross Plains, and Blue Mounds. It is amazing how much work can get done when you bring a lot of people together (especially energetic teenagers!) I know our local trail stewards are very appreciative of our efforts to give back. We encourage you all to follow CORPs and check out their other volunteer trail work days.
Also of note: CORP is a great supporter of our teams. CORP has donated and provided food and resources for our GRiT rides at Trek this season, to help provide awesome experiences for women/girls on bikes! Thanks, CORP, for the awesome trails and for your amazing support!
End-of-season fundraising
Did you know that Driftless MTB is a 501(c)3 nonprofit? Donations made to Driftless are tax-deductible (as permitted by law) and go to our teams to support our shared efforts to get more kids on bikes in our area.
After this year, a few acute needs have popped up. Here are the items on our wish list:
Another canopy tent: Our Pit Zone is getting crowded! That’s a good problem to have - but we need more space. A custom tent with our team logos/side panels is about $900.
More bike racks: These can be purchased or constructed DIY-style from basic materials (want to build one? Let us know!) - costs is anywhere from $50 (+ labor) for a DIY version, or $300 to order from a retailer.
Loaner bikes: Long-term, our teams would love to create a loaner-bike fleet that we can use to help athletes discover the sport without making a big up-front investment. The league supplies some loaner bikes, but our team could facilitate many pre-season “try it out” events or encourage new riders in a hyper-local way if we had a small fleet of loaners! A Trek Marlin costs between $700-800. These are great bikes that could serve many riders for years.
Miscellaneous team supplies: Things like first-aid supplies, radios, a few extra sets of bike lights, etc. are all awesome (and necessary) things for our teams to have access to throughout the season! Cost varies.
CONSIDER A MATCHING GIFT:
We are coming up on a busy season for giving! If your employer has a corporate matching program, please consider Driftless MTB as an organization to support. Reach out to a team director or our board of directors if you have any questions regarding our nonprofit status. Our federal tax ID is 87-2987944.
Note: we are also in the process of setting up Driftless MTB as funds-recipient on Amazon Smile. Stay tuned for more info!
Thanks, all! We will be back in touch shortly with details for our next race at Nordic Mountain - one of our favorite venues! As always, reach out with any questions.
