Thank you PBST 2012.

Thanks for a great race everyone!  I'd like to give a special thanks to Erik's Bike Shop, Action LED, Sigma, Hammer Nutrition, Heather's Bar & Grill for all of the great raffle prizes.  Also a special thanks to all of our volunteers from CORP getting the trails ready and helping with course set up, tear down, and timing; Up Hill Grind for coffee and mechanical support; Bike Patrol for keeping a watchful eye on all of our racers; and Dusty Rhodes and O&A Manufacturing for this years awesome awards; and Josh Henry for setting up the mid-lap check point VBC and motivating racers with pump'n tunes and chasing racers down the trail to make sure everyone got a Twinkie.

Be sure to check out the results at wemseries.com and the XXC online mag write up by Chris Schotz our 12 hour solo winner.

Online registration is closed, but you can still race!

We will take "day of" registrations on Saturday.  Registration will be open from 5-7:30pm.  Just fill out the paper form when you get there.  Remember, the race start/finish and pit area are behind Heather's Bar & Grill in Rockdale.

Wait...but you still don't have lights! 

No worries.  Action LED will be on hand for light rentals and "day of" purchases.  If you plan to rent, click their logo to the right and let them know. They will also bring plenty of stock for rental or purchase to the race. They'll also have Magicshine lights and the new Gloworm X2 available for purchase. (The 20% discount will still apply.)

Custom Awards

I was pretty stoked about my second place award from Wausau24 this year.  Not your normal trophy store award.  So I said, "hell, we can do that....maybe even a little better."  I call this R&D in manufacturing; rip-off and duplicate.  So I called up Dusty Rhodes, our designer, and asked him to rethink our logo into a medal that could be cut from stainless steel.  Then my friends Brad and Chad over at O & A Mfg. in Verona cut these out on their laser bed and put a nice #4 finish on them for us.  Thank you Dusty and O & A for our sweet awards.

You've gotta pin it to win it!

Shirts, Technical Support, Lights

We'd like to formally welcome Camrock Cafe & Sport to PBST this year.  They opened a great shop and cafe in Cambridge.  They are quickly becoming a hot spot for pre and post ride activity.  They've got a great beer selection and food.  Jeff's been heading up regular Monday evening rides and will be sharing Technical Support at the event this year with Uphill Grind.  They've got a great deal going on with SERFAS lights.  Click the link to the right go get to their page.

Here's this years long sleeve shirt $20 in "ashen gray", chicken not included.  No time to figure out why I can't save the orientation of this photo.

Recieved notice from Light & Motion that they won't be able to make it due to an unforseen schedule issue with a driver.  If you need lights, please contact Action LED by the link on the right.

FIRES - We will again be allowed to have only ABOVE ground fire pits.  Dane County Parks will have a burn barrel to dispose of your coals and ash the following morning.

Food, Music, and Prizes!

Things are coming together.  Sounds like we're going to have a great race this year.  Here are a couple of updates:

Heather's will be serving an all you can eat breakfast in the morning for $7.  They've got a couple bands scheduled to play on the deck that day/night.  Their grill will be open to provide you that mid or post race Dozer Burger and beverages.  If your friends aren't racing, there's no excuse not to come spectate and have a good time.

We've got a partnership with Uphill Grind and Cam-Rock Sport & Cafe to offer you mechanical support all night long.

We will have a raffle again this year.  Prizes are still coming in but Sigma is sending us some nice lights, Heather is kicking in some stuff, goodies from Hammer, and my friend Greg Wood is putting up this spank'n new Pabst Blue Ribbon Beach Cruiser!  Hipsters rejoice!

2012 Course

Here's the 2012 PBST course map. Come on out and pre-ride. I'm guessing the course should be marked by 2pm.

Also, just got word from Light & Motion that they will be at the event also. Great to see so many light vendors take interest this year.

Light Rentals By Action LED!

Pitch Black Single Track Rental Program (Just click on the Action logo on the right side of this page). Gemini Lights and Action LED Lights have teamed up to provide a light rental/rent to own program for the Pitch Black Single Track endurance race. You may select a Gemini XERA and/or Gemini Olympia to use for the race. Rental fees are $20 for the XERA and $30 for the Olympia. (Additional battery rentals are $6 for 4 cell batteries or $9 for 6 cell batteries) A charging station will be provided at the race. At the end of the race you may return the light or apply the rental fee to the purchase of the light and receive an additional 20% discount off the list price of any light and/or battery. (You may also directly purchase any light or battery on the site for 20% off by entering the discount code PITCHBLACK at checkout anytime between now and the race on August 25th.) To take advantage of this offer make your selection on the site and at checkout, enter the discount code PITCHBLACK to receive 20% off, then choose the payment method Pitchblack. Your light will be waiting for you the day of the race. A deposit will be required when you receive the light. If you wish to receive the light before the race place your order up to 3 weeks before and pay for it in full. If you then wish to wish to return the light at the end of the race, bring it to us and we will refund your purchase minus the shipping and rental fees. Accepted payment methods: Cash, Check, Credit Card (MC, Visa, Discover, American Express) or PayPal. (We cannot accept debit cards unless processed as a credit card) Contact us with any questions. 815-317-6682 support@action-led-lights.com

XXC Magazine Article

If you aren't familiar with it, XXC Magazine does a great job reviewing endurance racing. Check out the latest edition #15 at an extremely affordable price. In it you'll find an excellent article about Pitch Black Singletrack by Tim Sybrant.

Tim's an urban and downhill rider. I met him on the bench outside Verno's Tattoo on Madison's east side. It didn't take long to strike up a friendship and invite him onto a team for last years race.

I think his article hits all the marks when it comes to night riding and the vibe at PBST, which is that this is a fun race for everybody, regardless of how competitive you want to be.

Check it out here:

http://xxcmag.com/emag

2012 Edition- Scheduled 8/25-8/26

By popular request, we are moving away from the normal Labor day weekend schedule for Pitch Black. This years date will be the weekend of 8/25-8/26. Overwhelming opinion was that we could improve attendance if we moved the event away from a holiday weekend.

WEMS' hopes to have registration open by May.

Reschedule date, September 24th.

Reschedule date for PBST is September 24th. This was the predetermined date that the WEM series has had posted ALL year and I need to respect that date for the series racers that have planned on it.

Please understand that rescheduling a race like this is no easy task for an event director and we apologize for any conflicts that this may create. There are no, "good" dates remaining in September and PBST needs to be completed before the WEMS Championship race in October.

If there are issues regarding the reschedule date, please e-mail me directly at cole_retzlaff@yahoo.com.

Sincerely,

Coleman Retzlaff & Collin Hagen
Race Directors

Rain Cancellation

Sorry folks, it just can't happen today. Constant on again, off again rain expected all day. Trail is ridable but getting greasy. Without some sunshine and the continued drizzle, it's only expected to get worse. Tentative rain date for WEMS has been scheduled for 9/24.

Weather Update

Weather Update for Tonight's Pitch Black Singletrack Race:

Initial reports from last night's rain are that the Cam-Rock trail system is in good condition. Cam-Rock is also known to dry out quickly.

Your safety, trail stewardship, and bringing you a great event are our top priorities.

Check back here should there be any change. As of now, the race is still on for tonight.

Heather's to feed the masses with booze and burger!

Heather's Bar and Grill loves both kinds of dirty bikers. She'll have the grill on late for us and will be whipping up an all you can eat breakfast in the morning (5:30a.m.)for $7.

Bring your friends and family for spectating. The Cool Front band will be playing Saturday night (no cover charge)and the deck out back overlooks the pit area and timing tent loop.

Online Registration will close at 9pm Friday night.

Registering the day of the event costs you $40 for 6 & 12 hour events and $30 for the 3 hour event. Preregistering online discounts these prices by $5. Hit the registration button on the side before 9pm on Friday to recieve the discount. You might even feel like this guy when you're done.

This Years PBST Shirt

Here's my lovely wife modeling this years 3/4 Sleeve Baseball Shirt. My littlest guy, Porter, is showing you his muscles. $20 for the shirts, get them while they last, we plan to sell out.

Top Ten Reasons to Race PBST this year.

10. Don’t have to deal with the sun in your eyes or mid-day heat.
9. Free camping with no walk to the race course (if you have time to sleep between laps).
8. In the beam of your headlamp, it always seems like you’re riding really fast.
7. The logo looks scary and awesome at the same time.
6. Get to enter a Round-A-Bout without worrying about getting hit by a car.
5. Sunrise Lap…guaranteed epiphany and euphoria, epic and iconic, and other words used too much in mountain biking.
4. Heather’s burgers that night and an all you can eat breakfast buffet in the morning.
3. Best spectator luxury box in the whole WEM series.
2. Check point VictorBravoCharlie thumping you through mid-lap with Twinkies and bacon.
1. Pitch Black Single Track, P.B.S.T. is almost PABST………say no more! Come get your blue ribbon!

$100 Award

Erik's Bike Shop has given us a $100 Gift Certificate for fastest lap. Gotta leave it all out on the trail to get this one. Go get some!

Disclaimer: Fastest lap is determined at the timing tent....not your bike computer.

Good luck!

Lights - Sorry, no rentals this year.

Unfortunately, Sigma does not have their rental program available for us this year. However, the have offered a generous 30% discount on a one time order. Use coupon code, PITCHBLACK, (all caps). Here is the store link:

Sigmas Sports Store

Sigma has also donated a bunch of cool raffle prizes again this year! Thanks Sigma!

Camping and Fires

The Start/Finish/Pit area will be allowed to have pop-up tents and above ground fires only. Personal sleeping tents will be accomodated as space allows in the pit area. The grounds and parking lot at "Area III" are also available for family camping and should be considered "quiet areas". The day after, fire remains (ash and coals) must be disposed of in the barrel that will be provided.

Course Map

Here's a copy of the this year's course map. Should come in around 7 miles a lap. The course has been different evey year for PBST. We've added some new trail and changed some routings. This course is also different than what WORS just ran a few weeks ago.