Welcome to the September Team Tournament!
That’s right, this year’s September GOGO event is a 16-team tournament that builds on our May and July adventures. We will form the teams from July’s Quads and place the teams in a tournament bracket.
The tournament starts on September 7th and concludes on October 3rd. Keep in mind that Mondays are rest days to view results and get ready for the next week; only rides Tuesday through Sunday count each week.
If you weren’t part of a Quad and want to participate, you will have the opportunity to opt in. If you were part of a Quad and do not want to participate on a team, you will have the opportunity to opt-out.
Tournament details:
Each team will compete in 4 matches – one per week. After the first week the teams will move into either the left or right side of the bracket and continue the competition. As each week concludes, winning teams will continue forward in their bracket and losing teams will move into a new bracket. Thus, each week there will be 8 matches between teams with similar win-loss records, and every team will have a chance to earn more wins. In one of the final week’s matches the 2 remaining undefeated teams will face off to determine the overall September champion.
For each match, the winning team will be the one that wins a majority of the 3 categories:
- Distance: The sum, over 6 days, of the team’s top 8 mileages each day.
- Elevation Gain: The sum of the team’s top 8 elevation gains each day.
- Days Ridden: The sum of the team’s days ridden, with a max of 8 each day.
All matches have 3 categories: miles, elevation, and days. Teams will each have approximately 12 members. Taking the top 8 performances in each category each day has several advantages to using all of the stats of all of the team members. It allows teams to strategize and team members with various skills and time constraints to contribute to team performance. It can be very helpful to discuss team category goals and which members hope to contribute in particular categories. Riders don’t need to ride every day to be important contributors to their team. A rider who is unavailable most of a week due to work or travel could contribute via one “big” distance and/or elevation day. Another rider could do several short rides to help their team earn credit toward maximum days ridden.
Match tie breaker: If there is a tie in the days category, and 2 teams have each won one of the other 2 categories, the team with the most elevation gain will win the match.
September GOGO points based on individual riding:
- 20 points for riding 25 miles or 1,000 feet.
- 50 points for riding 50 miles or 2,500 feet.
- 75 points for riding 200 miles or 10,000 feet.
- 100 points for riding 300 miles or 15,000 feet.
- 150 points for riding 450 miles or 20,000 feet.
- 200 points for riding 600 miles or 30,000 feet.
Whether participating on a team or not, only rides on “competition days” (Tuesdays through Sundays, Sept. 7-12, 14-19, 21-26, 28-Oct. 3) count toward the GOGO point levels above. Mondays do not count toward September GOGO points.
September GOGO points for team participation:
In addition to individual riding points, team members receive additional points as follows:
- 5 points for being a team member
- 5 points for each match win
- 5 points for competing in the Final Four, i.e. winning both of the your first 2 matches
- 5 points for competing in the Championship Match
- 10 points for being the Champion team, i.e. winning all 4 of your matches
Important rules:
- Rides should be uploaded promptly upon completion. We consider it unsportsmanlike conduct to “hold back” ride data to hide information from other teams. We understand that travel, work, or Strava connection/upload issues can cause occasional delays in posting rides. In all cases, rides must be uploaded to Strava before 4pm California time of the following day in order to get credit.
- To get credit for a day, a rider must total at least two miles.
- Properly measured trainer rides are permitted, but will be credited with no elevation.
- Manually entered rides will be limited to 5 miles of credit per day with no elevation.
- A ride is credited to the day on which it starts (local time). Thus, for example, a ride that starts at 11:59pm on Sept 8th only counts for Sept 8th even though most of it actually takes place on Sept 9th.
- On the final day of each match, (Sept 12, 19, 26, and Oct 3) all rides must be completed by midnight. The Strava end time of the ride must be before midnight in the local time zone of the ride.
The Eagle Trophy:
The Champion team will be recognized on the front of the Eagle Trophy. In addition, the teams with the most overall distance, elevation gain, and days will be recognized on the side panels of the trophy.