The Coffee Bandit

For my eighth year (but first time since 2015), and for the Ride's 40th consecutive year, riders and support staff spent last week traversing small towns and roads in the Northeast to raise money for Anchor House . Fair warning, consider this a somewhat detailed account! I’ve been helping out on the route planning subcommittee for the last three years, so a lot of my commentary will focus on the riding itself. Logistics and meals get some attention too. The route, all 7 days together. In summary: 497 miles pedaled (don't worry, I got 3 more in Sunday morning on a Citibike). I personally hit my fundraising minimum, but the House still has a little way to go, so please, donate here today !

Bernard, go into analysis mode. The knockout stage is almost set; our gifts are almost prepared. And while you can't know how everyone will re-seed, you can know what everyone started with. Armed with this knowledge, you can try to re-seed your bracket in a way that gives you a fighting chance to win it all. A quick reminder that there are 67 entries in the tournament, so that is the denominator for all percentages. As I am apparently an aspiring BuzzFeed listicile-ist, here are my top five things to know about the current Kremlin Cup field:

TL;DR: if you picked a team to win games in any part of the knockout stage that didn't make it, you can replace them with someone else. You'll get half points if they win. It makes the most sense to do this if you picked teams to advance in the bracket that didn't end up qualifying. More details after the jump.

If I were a beat writer, I’d be on a plane to Moscow. The World Cup starts in less than a week! So, this is your last weekend to get your bracket together. I’ll be accepting entries up until the first game kicks off next Thursday. World Cup previews are hitting the internet left and right, so I figured a Kremlin Cup preview might be in order. 64 world class World Cup matches are on the horizon, and I am very excited! So, 10 things to know about the Cup and the Contest:

Golden Lizzy sits atop the Victory Column in Berlin's Tiergarten Berlin from atop the Tiergarten. A view out from the long-distance track platform in the Hauptbahnhof .