UPDATE – 5:25 PM December, 4: UWBL has been canceled for Saturday, December 5. First ride will be December 12, 2009.

Ah, it is that time again! Greenville area cyclists are planning for the beginning of the Upstate Winter Biccycle League. Tomorrow is the day when we all bundle up and head out to begin the multi-week event that will lead us to Spring Series races in late February. All this is so… unless there is too much winter for us South Carolinians (emphasis on SOUTH).

What is the Upstate Winter Bicycle League? It is a league of bicycle riders that operates during the winter in Upstate South Carolina.  Okay, that doesn’t really answer the question.  Here is some information to help you out.

The UWBL is a ride that happens each Saturday in the winter months. Up to 200 riders will show on some Saturday’s to leave from downtown Greenville on a rides up to 100 miles.  They start at around 50 to 60 and then grow longer as the winter progresses toward spring. To add to the fun is the points system. At the end of the league riders and teams amassing the most point win the “yellow” and “green” jerseys.

For an idea of how a ride goes — specifically the first ride of the league in 2008 — you can read my experience from December 6th of last year.  Don’t want to just read about it? Well, check out these videos: first day of 2008, Dec. 13 final sprint, what UWBL can do to you, and my favorite video of that year.  That should give you some idea.

However, if you REALLY want to know what is going on with the UWBL, you need to visit UWBL.net.  It is the official site and can be sure to check it out this evening. The site says that they will call the ride one way or the other based on the weather.

What is that supposed to be? Well, Weather.com says there is a 40% chance of cold rain at 10 AM. That is following a higher percentage earlier in the morning. By lunch time it is supposed to be down to a 20% chance of rain. The temperatures will be flirting with the upper 30s during that time.  Accuweather.com gives a similar forecast. Call me a wimp, but I think I will be checking the weather around 9:30AM tomorrow morning even if they do say the ride is on.

There is still a lot of winter left…

 

Tags: UWBL

This entry was posted on Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 4:05 pm and is filed under Events, Rides. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.