IMBCS #5 - Sockum Ridge State Park

Tue June 13 2006
Posted Jun 13, 2006
7,922

Hello all, The first stage race of the season, IMBCS #5 presented by Kia of Des Moines is coming up this Saturday and Sunday, June 17 / 18 at Sockum Ridge State Park, near Washington, IA. If you are not familiar with the course at Sockum Ridge, the course has a lot of everything, including technical singletrack, challenging climbs, fast descents and some very fast flat sections giving a total of about 5 miles of trail per lap for the cross country course. From I-80 take highway 1 South to Washington, you'll have to go on 218 south for about 4 miles between 80 and 1. Continue into Washington via highway 92, highway 1 turns into it just before town. Drive through Washington and take a right on Iowa Ave/W-55, there will be a Conoco on one corner and The Captain's Table on another. Continue on this road for 5.5 miles and take a left on 305th St. I'll be on the left about a quarter mile in, there will be signs to help direct. Because this will be a stage race, racing will be on Saturday and Sunday. One is not required to race on both days to receive points for the series overall. Typical IMBCS scoring will be used for the cross country race on Sunday. A separate scoring system will be used for all of the events on Saturday. Please refer to the IMBCS rules on the IORCA website (www.iorcahome.blogspot.com/) or the yahoo newsgroup (www.sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/IORCA/) for a complete explanation on stage race scoring. Saturday racing will start at Noon with the time trial first, each rider goes off in 1 minute intervals. Winners will be under 20 minutes (hopefully) and the top finisher in each class will get a prize. The hill climb is next, probably around 1:30. Same start order as the TT, winners will be just over a minute, 1 racer on the hill at a time, time will be subtracted for catching sweet air on the downward portion of the hill, and prizes are handled the same as the TT. The short track will start around 30 minutes after the completion of the hill climb in the following order, beginners, sports, experts and each class will race separately. A little over half of this will be on singletrack (the infield was voted down since it is all grass and that sucks). Beg - 15 min + 1 lap, sport- 15 min + 2 laps, expert 20 min. +2 laps. Sunday racing will begin at 9am with the beginner race. Beginners will do 1 lap. The sport and expert class will start at 10:30am and do 3 and 5 laps, respectively. Sport riders will start 5 minutes after the experts. Laps are about 5 miles in length. Awards will be based on each racers total accumulated points for the weekend. Racers are not required to race both days to be eligible for awards. Payouts for at least top 5 in expert. Prizes for beginner and sport (maybe money for sport open, the race director will decide that on Sunday). There will be free camping and free beer to all participants. Andy’s parents will be providing free food for racers after the cross country race on Sunday. There will also be free Chippewa Springs bottled water provided by Jay Chesterman throughout the weekend, so please remember to thank him when you see him. Registration the day of each race opens at 7:00. Entry fee is $25 for first event and $5 for each additional event, cash or check only please. The race coordinator is Andy Lueck and can be contacted at (515) 554-0527. Hope to see everybody there! Cam Kirkpatrick President - IMBCS Urbandale, IA