Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Tour de Rice Finale

The Tour de Rice turned out to be a case study in domination.  The third sprint, on Thursday, was again won by Garrett, who sewed up the green t-shirt competition.  Dan had a meeting and could not participate in the sprint, but he was down to about two and a half pounds, and held onto yellow convincingly.


Dan finished it off on Friday, in a total time of 3 days, 21 hours, and 33 minutes, taking his last bites at the start of group meeting.  Garrett won green with a total of 30 points to Trexler's 17.



Next up: chocolate pies (speed competition, no hands)

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Tour de Rice Stage 2

Stage two brought some questions - could Dan hold onto his lead without having an extra meal (he waiting to eat lunch until after the start of competition on Monday)?  Would the competitors stay on course when faced with temptation?  Will we ever want to eat rice again?

Since I was already out of competition for yellow, I decided to go for a sprint win.  I had a small breakfast (and no rice), but I still knew I was a big underdog.  So I went on the offensive, baking fresh cinnamon rolls (not Lynnette's recipe unfortunately, but are there any bad cinnamon rolls?).


Amazingly, no one bit; no one even appeared to waver.  I at least expected Dan to try to add some frosting to his rice.  I dropped out of the sprint very early (does Cavendish race for 5th?)

In the end, the results were nearly the same as Stage 1.  Dan's pace slowed, but he was good enough to win the stage with another 2 lbs eaten, bringing him to 5 lbs 8 oz left.  Garrett won the sprint (with Dan second), opening up a 4 point lead in the green jersey competition.


The finish could be sometime on Friday (the same day as Strobel lab group meeting and free sandwiches).

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Tour de Rice Begins!

Our first multi-day event, Le Tour de Rice, began at 1 PM yesterday.  We all took our 10 pound bag of rice - the first one to eat it all is the winner.  We also have a points competition, with sprints taking place every day from 12:30 to 1 PM.

The leader in the points competition wears the green jersey of course.  We award 10 points for 1st in a sprint, 7 points for 2nd, and from 5 points down to 1 point for 3rd to 7th.  Garrett won today's sprint to earn 10 points and the first green jersey.

Dan won stage 1 and the overall lead, with 7 lbs, 6 1/4 oz left to eat.  He is proudly sporting the yellow jersey.


An impressive start - on pace to finish in about four days.  He is followed closely by T-Rex, with 7 lbs, 9 7/8 oz left.  Here is the full spread of competitiors:


We'll see tomorrow if Dan can defend the yellow jersey.