Saturday, November 14, 2009

Middle School 'Cross - 2009



Hello Everyone!!

This last week, many of the kids in the Boulder Valley School District, and other districts too, had no school on Wednesday due to Veterans Day. So our very own Ben Turner and the founder of Middle 'Cross Mike Eubank decided that on a day off, what's not better than having a 'cross race? With that being said, they organized a fun-filled non-competitive race at a local Middle School for kid’s grades six through eight. The Clif Bar Team was a supporter, so Yannick, Robin, Brady, Zane and myself decided to go and help out. I arrived right as the races were beginning and saw a "jaw dropping" seventy middle schoolers out on 'cross bikes! The event started out with a couple of warm-up laps and then some "hot laps" consisting of six racers followed one of the Clif Bar team members. Shortly there after, the real racing began. The race organizers created two groups of racer's; girls, and the boys. As the 6-7 racers approached the line the tension felt the same as a regular weekend race. Kids were shedding of their sweatshirts, making sure their shoes were tied, and putting their bikes in a viable starting gear. "BOOM!", the gun sounded, and the kids were off to the races. The starting straight was a 50-yard long grass field, followed by cornering around trees, riding through mini sandpits, and of course having to dismount for barriers! As the day went on, it seemed like the kids started having more and more fun. After the races, they would go around to the "Evol" burrito tent to gain some energy, head over to the Boulder Cycle Sport tent to get their bike tuned up, and of course, collecting stickers from all the sponsors. In the end, I talked to a lot of the kids at the end and they all said they had a great time and love cycling. At the end of the day, it's not who wins, or who's the best, it all comes down to having a passion for the sport and having fun!

Cheers,
Zack Gould

Photos Courtesy of Brandon Dwight

Monday, November 09, 2009

Cycle-Smart International


This past weekend, Nate, Mitchell, and I all raced at the Cycle-Smart International, rounds 9 and 10 of the NECCS. Day 1 was sunny and dry and FAST. From the start, the race broke apart. While Nate had some trouble behind, I jumped into the second chase group. At the end, the chase group split apart. I sprinted in for 3rd behind 2 Canadian dudes and Nate came in 8th. Later that day was the Elite/ U23 race, Mitchell's race. Not 100 meters after the start, a huge pile up took down half the race. Mitchell was only heald up. Mitchell rode his way back up to 17th in the Elite race and 4th in the U23s.
The next day was the exact conditions. Again, the race broke apart fast. Nate and I were in the second chase group. Nate rode a beautiful race and snagged 3rd. I rode in for a 4th place. In the Elite/ U23 race, another pile up accured 25 meters after the start. Mitchell, again, had to work his way back into the race. Mitchell worked his way back up to 5th in the U23s and 23rd in the Elites.
All in all, it's been a great weekend for Clif Bar!
A special thanks to the guys at Pedro's! They were a great help to Nate, Mitchell, and me.

Boulder Cup Zero Waste

Not only was the Boulder Cup race an important race for us due to that it was a UCI race so close to home, we also had the zero waste stations set up again. Our team took on the goal to make the Boulder Cup as environmental friendly as we could. The team once again set up the Trash, Recycling, and Compost stations threw out the venue. Everyone on the team helped out threw out the day monitoring these stations and helping people sort out what they may have thrown away and put them into the right bins. By the end of the day the recycling and compost bins had to be emteyd numerous times, while the trash bin stayed extremely empty. Here are some of the figures that came out of the Boulder cup race.

We recovered:
1,264 pounds of material threw recycling and composting
Which was 85% of all the stuff discarded that day

We Saved:
37 gallons of Gasoline in energy Savings
3,866 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions

We avoided:
7.1 pounds of air pollution
1.8 pounds of water pollution
3.5 pounds of toxic herbicides(that threaten plants, wildlife, humans and our food system)
1,417 pounds of substances that threaten human health(including carcinogens, particulate matter and volatile organic compounds)

We also need to give a huge thanks to Eco-Cycle for helping us out with this and making it all possible.

TEAM CLIF BAR is working to fight climate change