JSTS Frostbite Series 2024

JSTS Frostbite Series 2024

***REGISTRATION OPENS NOVEMBER 11, 2024***

Would you bicycle in cold weather for a highly coveted Frostbite t-shirt?  Then you're our kind of zany!  It'll take you 4 club rides across 4 different weeks during the 5 weeks of the series to qualify for the prize.

You must be a current FULL member of JSTS in order to register for the series and earn a highly-coveted Frostbite Shirt.  Please be sure to REGISTER for this event so that you can submit your desired shirt size (should you complete the series).  If you do not register for the series, you will not earn a shirt!

If you are a TRIAL member, you can pay your membership dues now.  Rides conducted as a trial member do count towards completion of the series, but you need to become a FULL member by the end of the series (January 5, 2025) in order to register for the series and earn that shirt.  NOTE: Since this is the Frostbite Series for "2024", this paid membership will only be valid through January 31, 2025, and you will have to pay another membership fee to be a member for the rest of 2025.

SUMMARY

The Frostbite Series will run for 5 full weeks (each week runs Mon-Sun), starting on the Monday after Thanksgiving.  When Christmas Day falls on a Sunday and therefore observed on the next day, that Monday ride will qualify as part of week 4 of the series.  When New Years Day falls on what would be the last Sunday of the series, an additional holiday ride that qualifies as part of week 5 of the series will be scheduled in observance of New Years Day on Jan 2.  If special rides are posted on Christmas Day and/or New Years Day, they will not be qualifying rides that are part of the series (qualifying rides are rides posted on the dates when each holiday is observed).

To complete the series you must complete at least 1 qualifying ride per week during 4 separate weeks of the 5 weeks during the series.  You can mix-and-match between Road Rides and Mountain Bike Rides.  Make sure to read "The Nitty Gritty Details" below.

REPORTING REQUIREMENTS

The Ride Leader (or their designee) must confirm the actual list of riders via email to the Frostbite Administrator by end of the day after the ride.  Rather than sending the full list of riders, the email only needs to contain the number of riders, and the names of any members that registered for the ride but did not participate.  Members who register for a ride and don't end up riding, don't get credit for the ride.  Similarly, members who participate in a ride but don't register for the ride, don't get credit for the ride.

REGISTRATION

All riders MUST pre-register for each ride in order to receive credit for the ride.

TRACKING

Once the series begins, check out the Frostbite Tracking spreadsheet to make sure you got credit for all the rides you did!

THE NITTY GRITTY DETAILS - ***PLEASE READ CAREFULLY***

• The following are the regularly scheduled qualifying rides: Saturday Road, Saturday MTB, Sunday Road, Sunday MTB, Weekday AM Road, Weekday PM Road, Weekday MTB.  

• Only regularly scheduled OUTDOOR weekly rides qualify as part of the series.  Rides that are not scheduled for all 5 weeks will not qualify for the series  When rides would have taken place on Christmas Day or New Years Day, they will be scheduled for the observance of that holiday.  All qualifying rides that are part of the series will be designated as such within the ride details.  If the ride is not designated as a qualifying ride on the Ride Calendar, then it does not count!

• Members must complete qualifying rides during 4 separate weeks to complete the series.

• If New Jersey declares a state of emergency, all rides on that day are automatically canceled.

• Ride leaders should make all reasonable efforts to avoid the cancellation of qualifying rides due to inclement weather.  This includes, and is not limited to, altering the route and/or ride time, riding at a slower pace, and if riding on the roads is not safe, then relocating the ride to a nearby bicycle path.  Remember, this is the FROSTBITE series.  Qualifying rides should not be canceled just because the weather is "less than ideal".  Notice of any changes to the posted ride should be given via email at least 90 minutes before the ride.  Should conditions dictate, real-time route changes can be made.  Riders should make sure they are subscribed to the email lists!

• Ride leaders are kindly asked to please use the link within the ride on the calendar so that the email to the appropriate JSTS Google Group email list will contain all of the particulars of the ride being updated and/or canceled.  

• If a scheduled ride leader chooses not to ride or is unable to ride (for whatever reason), they should ask for another rider to assume the role of ride leader.  A qualifying ride should not be canceled just because the scheduled ride leader is not going to ride.  There will be no make-up rides for qualifying rides that are canceled because there is no ride leader.

• If multiple qualifying rides are scheduled for the same date/time, ride leaders are strongly encouraged to coordinate with the other ride leaders to avoid the situation where some qualifying rides are canceled and others are not.  Qualifying rides may be combined to help avoid this situation.  For example, if there are A/B+ and B/C road rides scheduled to leave from the same place at the same time, rides can be combined to avoid canceling one of the rides. 

• A qualifying ride must be canceled due to an inability for the ride to safely occur (e.g. heavy snow, heavy rain, dense fog, extreme wind), and notice of such cancellation should be given via email 90 minutes before the ride.  Rides should not be canceled in advance of that time simply based on a weather forecast.  Forecasts are sometimes very wrong, and a bleak forecast can turn into a beautiful day to ride.  Of course, in cases where it is extremely obvious that a ride will not be taking place (e.g., there is already a foot of snow and ice on the ground, and the temps for the following days are in the 20s), then the cancellation email can be sent out the night before.  Remember, the goal here is to avoid canceling rides too soon, and then realizing that the ride could have taken place.

• Minimum duration: While qualifying rides may be shortened in inclement weather, road rides must be at least 10 miles long and mountain bike rides must go at least 1 hour in order to still be considered a qualifying ride.

• MTB rides are typically only canceled if the trails and bicycle paths are too icy to ride.  They are rarely canceled due to weather conditions (e.g., heavy snow, heavy rain, dense fog, extreme wind).  If the trails are too muddy to ride at the scheduled location, then the ride should be moved to an alternate park (remember… Allaire drains very well!) or a local bike path.

• Any situations that arise that are not clearly covered by these rules will be decided by the Frostbite Administrator at their sole discretion.

FROSTBITE MAKE-UP RIDES

If cancellations result in regularly scheduled qualifying rides taking place during fewer than 4 weeks, then "make-up rides" will be scheduled during the week(s) immediately following the series in order to provide a total of 4 scheduled qualifying rides.  EXCEPTION:  There will not be any make-up rides for any rides that are canceled due to the lack of a ride leader or due to a lack of registered riders.

Weekend Make-up Rides - will be scheduled on the same day-of-weekend as the original qualifying rides they are replacing.  Reasonable efforts will be made to schedule make-up rides at the same (or a nearby) start location as the original qualifying rides they are replacing, but there may be instances where make-up rides start from a different location and/or a different time from the original qualifying ride.

Weekday Morning Make-up Rides - may NOT be scheduled for the same day-of-week as the original morning rides they are replacing.  Reasonable efforts will be made to schedule make-up rides at the same (or a nearby) start location as the original qualifying rides they are replacing, but there may be instances where make-up rides start from a different location and/or different time from the original qualifying ride.  Weekday morning make-up rides will only be scheduled if ALL weekday morning rides during that week are canceled (and it results in there being less than 4 weeks of regularly scheduled qualifying weekday morning rides).  A single weekday morning make-up ride will be scheduled to cover the week.

Weekday Afternoon Make-up Rides - may NOT be scheduled for the same day-of-week as the original afternoon rides they are replacing.  Reasonable efforts will be made to schedule make-up rides at the same (or a nearby) start location as the original qualifying rides they are replacing, but there may be instances where make-up rides start from a different location and/or different time from the original qualifying ride.  Weekday afternoon make-up rides will only be scheduled if ALL weekday afternoon rides during that week are canceled (and it results in there being less than 4 weeks of regularly scheduled qualifying weekday afternoon rides).  A single weekday afternoon make-up ride will be scheduled to cover the week.

Each scheduled make-up ride will be associated with a particular week number of the series, and participation in a make-up ride will give the member credit as if they rode during that week of the series.  Make-up rides will always be associated with the ride(s) from the earliest week that was canceled (i.e., if rides are canceled for weeks 2 and 4, then the make-up ride will be for week 2).

Make-up rides may be associated with multiple "original rides" as needed.  For example, if both the A/B+ and B/C+ need a make-up ride for the same day, it is possible that a single make-up ride will cover both of those original rides.

If make-up rides are subsequently canceled (as described above), additional make-up rides will continue to be scheduled in subsequent weeks until rides take place during at least 4 separate weeks.

There may be additional rides on the ride calendar during the series and during any make-up weeks that are not part of the Frostbite Series.  Remember, if a ride is not designated as a qualifying ride on the Ride Calendar, then it does not count!

RIDE COORDINATOR - Make-up rides within a single make-up week should only cover original rides from a single week.  In other words, if make-up rides are needed for weeks 2 and 4, then the week 2 make-up rides should be scheduled during the first make-up week, and the week 4 make-up rides should be scheduled during the second make-up week.

Let's look at a few examples for clarity, focusing on several different types of regularly scheduled rides (Sunday MTB, Saturday Road A/B+, and Friday Road B/C).

• If the only "Sunday MTB" ride that is canceled is for week 5, then there will be no Sunday MTB make-up rides (since there were still 4 Sunday MTB rides).

• If the "Saturday Road A/B+" rides are canceled for weeks 3 and 4, then there will only be one make-up ride scheduled.  Participating in the Saturday Road A/B+ make-up ride will be tracked as if the member rode on the Saturday Road A/B+ ride during week 3. If that member participated in another ride during week 3, then doing the Saturday Road A/B+ make-up ride does not give them credit for riding during an additional week.

• If the "Friday Road B/C" ride for week 2 is canceled due to a state of emergency, and the week 3 ride is canceled due to no ride leader, there will be no make-up rides scheduled.  This is because only 1 of the 5 qualifying rides was canceled for an acceptable reason (due to the state of emergency).  The cancellation of the second ride due to no ride leader is not cause for scheduling a make-up ride.

• If the Friday Road B/C ride is canceled for weeks 2, 4, and 5, then you could complete the make-up rides during the 2 make-up weeks for this ride to qualify, regardless of what ride you normally do.  Note that the make-up ride during the first make-up week is a make-up ride for week 2 and the make-up ride during the second make-up week is for week 4.  You do not get to choose which week the make-up ride applies to.

• If you only complete qualifying rides during weeks 1, 2, and 3, and rides are scheduled as make-up rides for weeks 2 and 3 during the make-up weeks after the regularly scheduled series, doing either or both of these rides will not enable you to qualify.