For the first time three riders earned more than 200 difficulty points in the season!

Larry Ide won the men's overall with 214.19 points. Ide's first year in the Ultracup was 2006 when he finished 15th overall.

Joel Sothern won the World Cup and was second overall in the Ultracup with 208.51 performance points. This was Sothern's first year in the Ultracup!

John Schlitter racing on his recumbent earned 206.90 performance points. This was also Schlitter's first year in the Ultracup.

Nicole Honda was the top woman with 124.92 performance points. She earned big points in the early 24s: Sebring and Davis, set the two-woman team record in RAAM and had enough energy to ride well at Paris-Brest-Paris and the Furnace Creek 508.

Linda Bott rode five tough California doubles and then Paris-Brest-Paris to finish just behind Honda with 115.58 points. Bott took the age 50-59 title.

2008 Events
The 2008 season is a mix of classic events and new challenges. Calvin Congdon founded Calvin's Challenge and John and Ann McKinley produced one of our most venerable races for 15 years. The McKinley's have retired and Larry & Chris Graham and Jeff & Julie Stephens will bring us the 17th edition this May!

The Race Across AMerica, of course, is the father (grandfather?) of the sport and returns on June 8 with the largest field ever. The Race Across the West is a new event: riders start at the same time as the RAAM solo field, follow the same course and finish in Taos, NM. When a solo rider qualifies for RAAM the rider often asks: "How do I know if I can do the big one?" RAW gives riders a chance to test themselves against the solo field.

In 2007 Paris-Brest-Paris was the only 1200 km randonnée. We are working out the details — in 2008 we'll include three to five randonnées in the Ultracup.

For California racers the three doubles in the Triple Crown Stage Race are often the foundation of a season of racing. This year the Stage Race is Mulholland, Central Coast and the Terrible Two.

New this year is the Hoodoo 500 in September. I led Red Rocks tours in Utah for 10 years and know the Color Country quite well. Deb and Brian Bowling have selected the best roads to include in this RAAM qualifier.

Chris Kostman wrote to me, UMCA President Joe Jamison and UMCA Treasurer Russ Loomis withdrawing his events from UMCA programs:

In a message dated 1/9/08 6:42:41 PM, info@adventurecorps.com writes:
"So long as you remain at the helm of the UMCA, and the UMCA-RAAM relationship remains status quo, we will no longer be supporting, promoting, or participating in any UMCARAAM programs, advertising in the magazine, or the like. That includes no connection or relationship of any kind between Furnace Creek 508 and UMCARAAM. "

We have dropped Mr. Kostman's events from the Ultracup calendar.

Ultracup Format
In 2008 there are three divisions of ultracycling races. The divisions are:

• European Cup of Ultracycling
• Americas Cup of Ultracycling
• World Cup of Ultracycling

Ultra racers compete in a series of double centuries, 12- and 24- hour races, 500-mile races and multi-day ultra races to determine the best ultra riders of the season. A rider searn performance points based on the Difficulty Points (DP) of an event times the rider's average speed. The DP are based on the length of and amount of climbing in an event.

A racer living in Europe earn points in the European Cup even if a rider competes in an event in America. Similarly, American riders who completed Pari-Brest-Paris earned points in the Americas Cup.

The World Cup is a series of premier races drawn from the European and Americas Cup races. The winners of the World Cup truly earn the title of World Champions.

Calendar:. The preliminary calendar is on-line. We are still discussing which events to include and the season championship events and will be adding more information in the next two weeks.

Register: Sign up for the Ultracup 2008.

Team of volunteers
Each year the Ultracup grows in rider participation, number of events and number of event submissions. This year we are putting together a team of people to help with the following tasks:

1. Chair and responsible for policy issues
2. Planning the season
3. World Cup coordinator
4. Women's coordinator
5. Calculating Difficulty Points
6. Updating calendar — Steve Barnes
7. Ride verification — riders must enter results on-line. Volunteers verify the entries
   • Points division coordinator
   • 12/24 division coordinator
   • century division coordinator
8. Answering questions
9. Bi-monthly reports for the magazine — Joel Sothern
10. Awards coordinator

So far Steve Barnes, Linda Botts, Gerry Goode, Larry Ide, Steve Kulwicki and Joel Sothern are part of the team. Bill Schwarz regrettably had to step down as co-chair   the Ultracup was interfering with his day job. A big thanks to Schwartz for all his help last year!

If you'd like to help out, please e-mail John Hughes director @ ultracycling.com

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