Crunch Time!

This Pepsi Refresh voting has been a roller coaster. With five days left to vote, Ripon's trail proposal is just hanging in at spot 10. If voting ended right now, we'd receive $25,000. But it doesn't. It ends at Midnight Tuesday. We must keep up the pressure to remain in the Top 10 through that time.

Please, everyone every where to gives a darn about Ripon, Ripon College, cycling and mountain biking ... vote! And tell everyone you know to do the same! Tweet it! Post it as your facebook status. Shout it from the hill tops and everywhere!

http://pep.si/chCaah
text 101366 to 73774
http://apps.facebook.com/pepsirefresh

Week 1 Time Trial

Men's A Riders: Six Laps
1. Eric = 25:11 (3:59/4:08/4:15/4:16/4:!7/4:16)
2. Furby = 29:18 (4:41/4:37/4:46/4:52/5:00/5:22)

Men's B Riders : Five Laps
1. Paul = 24:04 (4:39/4:47/4:48/4:52/5:02)
2. Andy = 26:14 (5:01/5:08/5:23/5:30/5:16)

Women's B Riders: Four Laps
1. Renee = 22:09 (5:20/5:29/5:42/5:38)
2. Rosette = 23:29 (5:53/6:00/5:49/5:47)

Men's C Riders: Four Laps
1. Alex = 22:15 (5:17/5:44/5:51/5:33)
2. Jeremy = 22:17 (5:05/6:19/5:21/5:32)
3. Ben = 24:41 (6:04/6:36/6:30/5:31)

Tonight marked the return to the Red Hawks weekly prairie time trials. I added a lap for the A men to give them a total of six laps or approximately 6.3 miles. The course includes one tough up hill and one fast descent; all of it on loose crushed limestone. Some heavy rains this summer have left some nasty gullies and ruts, as well.

Eric's lap times are pretty similar to those he recorded last year, even with the additional lap. I'm quite pleased with that considering its the first of the year. Paul's first lap was similar to his first lap of his last time trial of 2009, but his subsequent laps were faster, showing that he's gained some endurance in the past year. Andy's times are a bit slower than those posted last year, but he's nursing a sore knee from a dislocation suffered Monday night. Furby's times are also a bit slower than last year, but tonight marked his debut with the team in 2010 after missing the first week of practice.

I'm extremely pleased with the performance of Renee, who set the best time for our four lap riders. That's not to say that I'm disappointed with the others. Alex posted some decent numbers considering tonight marked only his third (maybe?) time on his mountain bike. Rosette, too, is still adjusting to this off-road phenomenon and getting acquainted with handling the bike on sketchy terrain. Jeremy, who's still nursing a sore hip from a fall earlier in the week, took another nasty spill on that sketchy terrain, and Ben seemed a bit exhausted after a week of riding hard, staying up late and getting up early with ROTC training.

An off-day tomorrow should have them prepared for Saturday and Sunday. I don't think they'll set any course records, but I'm confident they can all go the distance if luck is on our side.

A note about multiple emails and Pepsi voting

I may have mislead some of you in suggesting that you could vote multiple times by setting up multiple accounts with different valid e-mails (for instance a work e-mail and a home e-mail). Technically this is not within the spirit of what Pepsi is trying to accomplish. I received a nice call from Pepsi today asking me to clarify this point. Each individual can vote up to three times a day for any one specific project using a single account on the web site, via text and via facebook.

Another HUGE THANKS to each of you who have been voting daily on our behalf. At last check we were ranked 8th among the $25K proposals. We must remain in the Top 10 to earn a grant. Please keep voting every day through August 31.

Top 10: Forming an Alliance

Our Pepsi Refresh Project has made it to the Top 10. Now we must stay there for the duration.

In order to give us a better chance at doing so, we've formed an alliance with eight other Pepsi Refresh Projects to work together to stay in a "winning" spot.

Here is a new link that will take you right to our partners.

Please remember to vote daily for all of our partners! You can vote 10 times each day, so there's still one spot open for the project of your choice. Of course we can't force you to vote for any of these other... projects, but they've agreed to help us. So let's help them. By working together we have a better shot at staying in the Top 10.

Pepsi Refresh Project Voting

If you've been voting for our mountain bike trail project on the Pepsi Refresh Project site, we appreciate it. I wanted to let you know that you can vote at least three times for our project each day.

Here's how:
1. Vote via the web site: http://www.refresheverything.com/biketrailripon. You will be asked for name, email and birth date info to establish your individual account for voting. Rest assured that if you select not to receive e-mails from Pepsi, you will not (I created my account months ago and have not yet received an unwanted spam e-mail from Pepsi.).

2. Vote via text: Text 101366 to 73774 (be sure you don't reverse those ... 73774 is the recipient; 101366 is the message). If you do not have unlimited texting on your mobile plan, be aware that you may be charged.

3. Vote via the facebook app (if you have a facebook account): http://apps.facebook.com/pepsirefresh

Thanks to all of you who have supported us so far. Any one can vote, so please share this information with others. You can help promote our project by incorporating the widget like the one above into your blog or Web site. You can customize the embed code at http://www.refresheverything.com/biketrailripon

Please keep the votes coming every day through Aug. 31.

Refresh Ripon with a Mountain Bike Trail

Help make a mountain bike trail in Ripon a reality

Our proposal to build singletrack mountain bike trails in the wooded areas of the College's Ceresco Prairie Conservancy has been accepted for voting by the Pepsi Refresh Project. This is a competitive voting program in which the College is seeking $25,000 to hire the International Mountain Bicycling Association Trail Solutions Team to design and build the trails so that they are both technically challenging and environmentally sustainable.

There are many deserving projects competing for limited dollars. Only the 10 projects with the most votes will be awarded grants. Therefore each and every vote is critical. It is easy to create an account on the Pepsi Refresh Web site. Once you do, you can vote once every day through August 31.

Please help support this idea by voting every day and by encouraging friends, family, and others to vote as well. Post a link on your facebook page, tweet about it ... promote it in every way that you can.

Go to http://www.refresheverything.com/biketrailripon today and every day and vote.