Bethel Spring Series - Outdoor Sports Center!

I just finished filing permits for the 2011 Outdoor Sports Center Bethel Spring Series.

Yeah, say that one fast 6 times in a row.

Before I keep going forward on the surprising-to-everyone name (since I only told like 2 people, and one's the Missus), let me tell you that just filing the pre-filed permits (I started them all much earlier but at the same time so I'd get consecutive permit numbers) is a royal freakin pain in the butt.

Seriously.

It's not anyone's fault. It's a lot of pertinent information, and it's presented in an easy to fill out format. But it's a lot of information on a few pages, and doing 6 of them in a row gets really tedious.

Almost as bad as doing a 20 minute FTP test.

(And, I just realized, son of a gun. I forgot to file the clinic permits. I'll have to do them separately, later.)

Right now my eyes are bugging out and I'm dying to get on the bike and do some actual riding. With about 8 or 10 hours in for the month, I'm not in a good position to start doing mega miles next week.

(That means postponing a promised call till tomorrow... I can't think straight right now.)

Yes, next week I'm in SoCal.

As you can guess from the new name of the Series, we got a huge bit of support from a local business. Outdoor Sports Center (on Route 7 in Wilton, CT) is where it seems that everyone in Wilton goes to get their ski and sport stuff - kayaks, canoes, bikes, hiking stuff, jackets, cold weather gear, running stuff, so on and so forth.

Part of their sponsorship includes some products they'll be giving away as primes. They're still figuring out a final list but that Cannondale CAAD10 frameset I mentioned elsewhere is the biggie, the end of the Series drawing.

Since I don't like to pick out a particular category of racer/s, all racers will be eligible for the frameset, and if you don't fit a 54 cm, you get to order the size you want to receive.

There's a slew of products from other companies as well, but I'll announce those as I get more details.

Anyway, Outdoor Sports Center has been involved in the bike world for a long, long time. As kids when we went there we just got jackets and stuff - they didn't have bikes at the time.

But then they got a bike guy working there, he set up a bike section, and now... well, we try and get there when we can.

Last year's Race Leader helmets?

Courtesy Outdoor Sports Center.

This year they'll be really, really nice - Giro Atmos helmets. They ain't kidding around here!

As for me, I've been doing some sporadic business when I'm down in the area. We bought our tandem roof rack mount there, as well as some parts for a prior rack (since gone on to better places).

That rain jacket that saved my butt a few times, the one you see pictured in some of the wet and rainy Bethels?

That's right, OSC.

Even some new bottle cages, yet to be installed, sit in reserve with their OSC tags on them.

It does help that sometimes (okay, it happened just once), when I walked in to the store, one of the younger guys working there pointed at me and whispered to their boss.

"That guy, he has an Olympic team shirt on. Was he on the Olympic team?"
"Him? Nah! He's just a Cat 3."

Okay, so I'm a 2 now. But still. It's kind of funny to be mistaken for an Olympic team athlete.

So for all of you race fans out there, please welcome OSC warmly to the Bethel Spring Series.

Sorry, the Outdoor Sports Center Bethel Spring Series.

Booyah!