Madison Sports & Outdoors

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WEMS, Wisconsin Endurance Mountain Bike Series, This race series is a series of 3,6 & 12 hours races in Wisconsin. There are solo, duo, single-speed & team categories. Just added was a downhill race--those guys are crazy.

Races start at 8am. You just go, do as many laps as you can in the 3, 6 or 12 hour race. Winner is the one who has the most laps at the end of the race.

Prizes and awards for winners. Raffle with great prizes. Great goodie bags too.

The race I'll plug here is 12 Hours of Blue Mound. It's at the Blue Mounds State Park, about 15 miles SW of Madison. The date fluctuates a bit, but the next one is July 8, 2006. It's a bit rocky, not too hilly, and not too fast. Bring an extra tube or six. It's 1/3 doubletrack, 2/3 singletrack. I'm a bit partial to this one seeing as how I started it, and ran it the first 2 years.

Equipment: Mountain bike. Dual-suspension is best if you're doing 12 hours, but not necessary.
Extra tubes, people do get flats on the rocks here.
Water, power bars, bananas. apples, etc...
There are showers for afterwards, so some stuff to wash up with.
Swimming suit. There is also a pool here, so after your shower, a dip in the pool is relaxing.
Helmet!

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Cross-country ski race around the State capitol. Every year they groom, or truck in massive amounts of snow for cross county ski races around the Capitol Square. Open skiing is also offered when races aren't taking place.

Also ice sculptures, snowboarding area, ski related conferences and such.

Usually MLK weekend.

These photos wer taken in 1/06, right after we had a week of 40F degree temps, and no snow. They trucked in 85 trucks of snow to have it this time. The year prior it was about -10F.

Equipment: warm clothes. Skis if you want to ski. Snowboard if you want to snowboard.

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There's a 4 woman league of Roller Derby teams that play in Jan - June. It's not a joke, they really play tough. League name: Mad Rollin' Dolls.

They play at Fast Forward Roller Skating rink on the far west side of Madison. Games are two 16 minute halves. Each night they have on 2 games. Tickets right now are $10, with a percentage going for non-profit agencies. Fun, it usually sells out (800 people) but you might be able get one from someone trying to sell one. Starts at 7pm, over by 9:30pm usually, depending on how many fights there are.

Your ticket usually ges you into a nightclub downtown after the match, the High Noon for a 3 set bill.

Equipment: Sorry, just for viewing, unless you want to join a team.