CRANDIC RACING
  • Calendar
  • TT Series
    • Results & photos
    • Series Standings
    • Historical Results
  • Night at the Oval
    • Results & Photos
  • Fartlek
  • 'Cross Words
  • Who we are
  • Contacts
    • Good Folks to Know
    • Keep in touch
  • Calendar
  • TT Series
    • Results & photos
    • Series Standings
    • Historical Results
  • Night at the Oval
    • Results & Photos
  • Fartlek
  • 'Cross Words
  • Who we are
  • Contacts
    • Good Folks to Know
    • Keep in touch
Search

Fartlek

Easy, hard, and fun.

Round   and   round    –   A   Night   at   the   oval

8/5/2023

4 Comments

 
How's your sprint? Do you even know? How many chances do you get to try different finishes when win or lose you're done until next weekend? Imagine instead sprinting every few minutes for 5 or 6 laps in a race, then resting a few minutes and going at it again. Welcome to Night at the Oval. 

Long a staple of the Hawkeye Bicycle Association in Cedar Rapids, the last few years Night at the Oval has been organized by CRANDIC Racing Club. "We need  more beginner-friendly race opportunities, and this is a very safe and easy venue to set up," said Chief Official Larry Howe. 

Picture
Stephen Mally/The Gazette-KCRG TV9
Hawkeye Downs in Cedar Rapids, with paved short track ½ mile and ¼ racing venues for cars and motorcycles, is also home to Eastern Iowa's most unique bike racing series. The Oval offers cyclists a chance to race several times a night in a variety of short races that mimic track racing and emphasize the skills at the core of road racing.
​

Racing in a pack is all about tactics. The technique is mostly straightforward. Your fitness is there or it isn't. But success in road racing usually comes from measuring and timing your effort, from forcing others to work, and from leveraging your team's strength in numbers. Most often it's not the strongest who wins, it's the smartest.

At the Oval you can learn from mistakes in one race and apply those lessons right away to the next. Start your sprint too early? Rest five minutes and race again, sprint a bit later and see where that gets you. Don't think you can sprint at all? You can try something different to find a sprint that works for you, help a teammate with a screaming fast lead out for their sprint, or practice dropping the sprinters before approaching the line. 

pack   riding   101   -   a   night   at   the   oval
Night at the Oval is essentially an omnium: each race is scored separately  –  1st place is 1 point, 2nd place is 2 points, etc  –  the rider with the fewest points at the end of the night wins their category. "Most of the races are track based," explained Howe. But don't worry, each race is explained along the way.

"Devil Takes the Hindmost, Snowball, Points Race. We also do Scratch Races and use different track configurations such as the Big C to put some corners in like a criterium. With enough riders we can even run two groups at the same time. We break the riders out in self-selected groups, A,B,C, etc. We can do a junior's group or a women's group if we have enough of either. We try to mix things up so riders never quite know what to expect."
Picture
4 Comments

Inside   a   Night   at   the   Oval

4/24/2021

0 Comments

 
Night at the Oval is always fun, but each night of track-inspired bike racing is also a bit different.
Part of that is down to who shows up and how many people are racing. Another part is how many races we can fit in and which races we do.
So how does it all work?
Picture
Picture
Stephen Mally/The Gazette-KCRG TV9
Each night racers are divided into groups depending on how many are racing. Often that's just A & B, but we'll see. The groups take turns racing on Hawkeye Downs' 1/2 mile, 1/4 mile, &/or 1/8 mile tracks, allowing for multiple short races with rest periods between.

The   Fun   Stuff   (Races)

How many races we fit in and which we do varies from night to night. Here's a rundown on the types of races we might do. But don't study this too hard, as before each race a handsome USA Cycling official* will remind us all of how the race is run. (*Yes, I'm kissing up shamelessly, but NatO would never happen without our handsome USAC officials.)
Picture
Most nights each group starts out with a scratch race. This is a straight forward criterium (a circuit race on a shorter circuit) with no turns. However-many laps around the 1/2 mile oval track and the race is scored entirely on the finish order. Why is it called a scratch race? I dunno. If you know, leave a comment.
Picture
photo by Angy Snoop (angysnoop.smugmug.com)
Another favorite is the points race. Points are awarded to the first three riders on every sprint lap, usually every second or third lap. Riders who score points are placed based on their total. Riders who don't score points are placed behind them in the order they finish the last lap.
"I run the snowball quite a bit," says (handsome) USAC official Larry Howe. "It's a variant of the points race. Sprint laps every other lap, but only first place gets points. How many points increases each sprint: two for the first sprint, four points for the second, six for the third sprint, and ten points for the finish." Riders with points are placed accordingly. Riders without are placed behind them based on their finish.
Win & out is just what it sounds like: the first rider across the line on each lap wins the lap and retires from the race. The winner of lap #1 wins first place, of lap #2 is second, and so on for however many laps. Riders remaining on the final lap are scored in their order of finish.
Devil take the hindmost isn't quite as grim as it sounds.
Picture
Bruce Timmerman and Larry Howe making it happen.
Basically, it's miss & out -- the last rider each lap is removed and given the respective finish placement. Lap #1's last rider will be last place, lap #2's last rider is second to last, etc. (While cycling would love to take credit for "devil take the hindmost," the proverb predates the bicycle by at least 300 years.)
Picture
In the big C race things start to get a little crazy. Both the 1/2 mile and 1/4 mile ovals are used to create a circuit like an outline of a C. This multiple lap criterium involves the closest thing to turns and elevation change you'll see all night. It's scored by the finish order.
The spiral of death/spiral of life gets even crazier. One lap each of the 1/2, 1/4, & 1/8 mile ovals in a spiral .... then back out. The course is unique, to say the least
By tradition, the two last 1-lap races of the night don't count in the night's overall results. They're just fun.  Big gear is one lap in ... your biggest gear. Start with both feet on the ground, and it's a rush to clip in and grind up to speed. You're not allowed to shift out or your big gear.
Picture
Little gear is one lap in your smallest gear, and the same rules apply. Goofy enough that it's probably good that big gear and little gear don't count. Still, we'll list how everyone finished just for bragging rights.

Scoring   the   Night   at   the   Oval

Night at the Oval is an omnium, a track term for a collection of shorter races. Every racer gets points for each race, and the fewest total points wins.
In each race, explained Howe, "the winner gets one point, 2nd place gets two points, all the way down the line, so 34th place gets 34 points."
Picture
photo by Scott Wall (douglasaveimages.smugmug.com)
Sit out a race and you get the maximum points (so one night when 40 people were suffering in the heat, eight people got 40 points for skipping a race and the very last person who actually raced got 32). "The tie breaker is the rider with the highest place finish in any race. If that is equal, it's the finish in the final race of the evening."
Speaking of scoring, with any luck at all racers will be able to follow along as the night's results unfold on CRANDICRacing.com. Fingers crossed...​

Sponsors   and  . . .  Prizes ? ! ? ! ?

Picture
Night at the Oval has never made a lot of money. Renting Hawkeye Downs isn't exactly cheap (even when they cut us a deal), so many years the event barely broke even. This year, however, NatO has received a lifeline through the generous sponsorship of four area bike shops: Goldfinch Cyclery, Geoff's Bike & Ski, Sugar Bottom Bikes, and Northtowne Cycling & Fitness. If you enjoy racing Night at the Oval, please let them know that you appreciate their support.
Finances aren't the only reason that prizes are a bit tricky here. We're not even sure which groups will race -- A & B? add a Juniors Group? or Women? a C group strictly for beginners? -- and in the past we couldn't finalize results for days afterward (again, working on it).
In the future hopefully we can offer more prizes, cash, or whatever. For now, though, we can at least do this: in each of whatever group races, the top placed male and female will get a night of free racing whenever they choose at Night at the Oval. Except Juniors, of course, because you all race free anyway.
Registration for Night at the Oval is online only at BikeReg.com.
Come race your bike.
0 Comments

Two   Series,   Too   Fun

4/24/2019

0 Comments

 

CRANDIC   TT   &   Night   at   the   Oval

CRANDIC Racing Club is thrilled to present two bike racing series over the summer of 2019, the CRANDIC Time Trial Series at Big Grove Solon and Night at the Oval at Hawkeye Downs in Cedar Rapids. Two very different races that we love dearly.
Picture
Thanks for photos from Joanne Konrath McKillip, Angy Snoop, and Matt Hartman.
At first glance these races couldn't seem more different: the time trial is "the race of truth," just you against the clock, while Night at the Oval is track-inspired pack racing at its finest; the TT in Solon is along Sutliff Road, one of the most beautiful and bike-friendly spots in the Corridor, while NatO is in industrial Cedar Rapids at Hawkeye Downs, a race track typically reserved for cars, go-cart, semi trailers, and the like. Despite their differences, a closer look at these two races reveals both their similarities and the reasons that we love them so.
Picture
A great place to start
In their own ways both races are perfect for  beginners. Hawkeye Downs is a big, wide track without so much as a corner, so NatO riders have all the space they could want as they practice pack riding and racing techniques. On the other hand, in a TT riders start at set intervals, nearing each other only to pass, so beginners can go all out without worrying about bumping elbows or touching wheels.

CRANDIC   TT   
on   Facebook
Night   at   the   Oval 
on   FaceBook
Just as important, both series are mid-week, informal events that are welcoming to beginners but hard enough to challenged even seasoned racers.
Simple, but never easy
Picture
Every wanna-be racer has ridden a time trial. The minute we feel competitive on a bike we test our strength on a set course by timing ourselves. A time trial, simple as that. What makes it hard is concentrating, pacing, and wanting to go faster next time.
​
​
While at Night at the Oval each race is different, they mostly come down to a sprint. But the nuances of drafting other riders, finding the right position, and timing the jump to perfection make every sprint different, and every sprint a challenge.

Hit the road
It may not be the sexiest thing out there these days, but road cycling is the basis of all bike racing. Navigating a cyclocross start is all but impossible without pack riding skills. In the right conditions drafting features even in gravel or mtb racing. Pacing well is essential to any race. And all bike racing disciplines reward fitness won on the road.

​Bike racing came from the road. Its most essential skills are still right at home there.
Picture
Two series, too fun
CRANDIC is committed to making these races fun for everyone. For the crusty old roadie that's not hard at all: Yell "go" and they're happy, and they'll find plenty of competition at either of these races. For beginners – whether they're new to the road, or to bike racing in general – we say welcome, ride hard and have fun, and let us know if we can help.
​​
We're CRANDIC Racing Club. We love to race.


TT:   Do   a   Fast   Ride
Nato:   Pack   Riding   101
The CRANDIC Time Trial Series begins Wednesday, May 1. Night at the Oval begins Tuesday, May 14. Find more info on both at CRANDICRacing.com.
0 Comments

Pack   Riding   101   –   a   night   at   the   oval

4/20/2018

0 Comments

 
Riding in a group means drafting, riding close to others to save energy. It takes practice, balancing safety, comfort, and speed. But it really isn't difficult: ride smoothly and predictably, anticipate others, guard your front wheel, and relax.

Fortunately Night at the Oval offers a perfect chance to practice pack riding skills. Racers are staged in appropriate skill levels, and as CRANDIC Racing Club's Rob McKillip explains: "The track is huge. There is a ton of space. Get in the pack if you're comfortable. If not, sit at the back, or even attack and try to time trial away. Either way, it's a safe way to have fun and get a killer workout." 

Read More
0 Comments

    Authors

    John Stonebarger

    Archives

    August 2023
    August 2022
    January 2022
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    April 2019
    August 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    December 2017

    Categories

    All
    Marathon Mtb
    Night At The Oval
    Pack
    Road
    Sprint
    Time Trial
    Track

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Calendar
  • TT Series
    • Results & photos
    • Series Standings
    • Historical Results
  • Night at the Oval
    • Results & Photos
  • Fartlek
  • 'Cross Words
  • Who we are
  • Contacts
    • Good Folks to Know
    • Keep in touch