Graduation

The last week or so has gone by darn fast, almost as fast as the last 17 years. Julia is now a High School Grad. Congratulations, honor grad we are proud of you.

There were some great rides over the Memorial Day weekend. First was the newly started Brefixt Ride, a nice easy ride for all abilities finished off with brefixt at the Rail Road Inn in North Freedom. I still can not believe Brad ate the whole 1x6 breakfast, next time he has to try the 2x6. The next day was the fifth annual Meats Memorable Memorial Day Ride. We ride from Baraboo to Wisc Dells and then follow the river along Cty O to Paquette Park in Portage. After fighting a head wind and a refueling with the Tahitian Treat we headed back to Baraboo and finished up with a total of 58 miles. Ryan continued on so he could get a century in, it must be hard to squeeze in 17 hours of riding per week. There was a good turnout for both days and a grand time was had by all. Rhinelander is off our schedule this year but we will be at Wausau for the Bing Ring. Hope to see you there.

Iola I-O-L-A Iooolaaaa

What a spectacular day. I really like riding my mountain bike with my friends and family. You know that feeling of a warm soft blanket right out of the dryer, that is how it makes me feel. Is it the total beat down of my body at the end, the smell of the pine needles, the flow of the single track, or all of the above? Whatever it is I like it. Why is it that I am always later than I want to be? It would be nice to be on time and be able to relax before the first race of the day, but as usual it was a mad dash to get Monica and Chasity registered and ready to race. I had my numbers on my tires aired up, and was just about to get dressed but something was just not right. I had forgot to register myself to race. As always the start was like being shot out of cannon except I was just the packing as the projectile launched out ahead of me. I slowly worked my way back up through the pack and found a guy in my age group that I was pretty evenly matched with. We kept moving forward every lap, and it felt really good to keep catching people instead of being passed. In the end I beat my time from last year by almost twenty minutes. On another note congrats to everyone else on the team Monica, Chasity, Niki, Lisa, Helmy, Brad, Todd, Ryan, Jordan, Zack, Kyle, Bryan, and Kurt. Thanks to Julia for taking the photos.

Larue Denzer Larue

Another fine day of road racing. I decided to try the double again, racing today and again tomorrow at Iola. The last time I did this, Iola was not very fun for me, but I have a lot more miles in my legs than last time and I did not blow my self up today. The new road race was a killer with over 2300' of climbing in 32 miles. I managed to stay on for the first mile or so and then we hit Freedom road and started climbing. I watched my zones and stayed were I needed to stay as the main group rode away. A small pack of us formed and stayed together most of the race until the final climb up Denzer Rd. I did not have anyone catching me and no-one ahead I could catch, so I started my cool down on the way back into Larue. We will see what happens at Iola, hopefully I do not fall flat on my face.

Circuit of Sauk

Saturday turned out to be a wonderful spring day of biking. We arrived at the Circuit of Sauk and were greeted with familiar faces and warm sunshine. Chasity raced first in the women's Cat 4 event. This was only her second road race and by far the harder of the two. I raced in the Masters 30+ cat. and managed to stay in the second pack over the first climb. On the back side of the course I went to the front on Shortcut and down Pinebluff. That was dumb because when we came around for the second lap the attacks started. Brad Tennis and I worked together to stay on but just dangled of the back of the second pack after the Golf Course climb. I never got back on but I did finish 21st overall, much better than last place a year ago. On a positive note I broke all my power records during the race, so I must be getting faster.

He's all over his machine right now

I finally have my new machine put together. I have always liked when Phil Ligget says " He is all over his machine right now!" He also likes to say, " He is an excellent bike rider." Does he mean the the rider can handle his bike well, that he has a big engine to turn the pedals, or both? I hope that if he was commenting on one of my races that he would call me an "excellent bike rider". The bike has been an 8 month process since breaking my frame at Sunburst in Kewaskum. Pete at Wildside Adventure Store worked some magic to replace my Zigarut with a Superfly. I had to wait until we had our sponsors lined up before I could order all of the parts. Thanks to SRAM, Bontrager, Rock Shox, and Truvativ I was able to put together a nice ride at a reasonable price. Now the hard part will be to do the bike some justice and get it on the podium. I think I have made some good progress with my training and weight loss so far this season, but the truth will come out on race day because there is always somebody else working harder than you. The Hi-Fi is Chasity's new bike. She has been riding her Schwinn Homegrown for about 10 years, so it was time for an upgrade. She really likes it so far but I have to swap out a few parts for her. Hope to see some of you at the Circuit of Sauk this coming weekend.

The chase has begun.

Saturday was the start of the 2009 racing season for me. I signed up for the cat 5 and the Masters 4/5 races at the Gregg Bednorski Memorial Crit in Madison. It was also Bryan's first crit ever so I gave him the little bit of advice I could and we came up with a plan of staying out of trouble and keeping the rubber on the road. After we finished warming up we started a warm up lap to get familiar with the course, as we came around to the start/finish line there was one person laying in the road unconscious and EMS on the way. I stopped by my family, who were sitting by the finish line, to give them my water bottle and I could tell by the look on Monica's face that she was not only worried about the guy laying there but about her Dad going out to race next. This is the one thing I hate about road racing, the pavement must really hurt when you hit the deck at 30+ mph. Luckily I have not had that experience but as the saying goes "there are those who have crashed and those who will crash". The cat 5 race was just as sketchy as in years past, people not holding there lines and lots of weaving in the pack. Bryan and I stayed with the pack the whole race, but with two laps to go and the whole group still together I decided to go for it. I broke free of the group as we crossed the start finish line, after making it stick for half a lap my legs were failing. Just then a rider appeared on my right and gave me a small pull. I pulled through again and then we were caught with one lap to go. After the peleton passed I sat up and rode around to the finish off the back. Two guys crashed in the sprint to the finish and that was the end of race one. The Masters race was a bit more relaxed in the accelerations, it was a faster race but more even in the pace. With four laps to go I did not think I was going to stay on but I found a nice spot in the middle of the group to recover for a lap. On the penultimate lap I tried to move to the front just like everyone else and with one lap to go I was able to get to the front third and sprint my way past about ten more people at the finish, I do not know my results from either race but I had a really good time. It was nice to finally start some competition after all the winter training. Next up is the Circut of Sauk Road Race in two weeks.

Easter Mountain Biking

Yesterday was a nice ride of the Circuit of Sauk racecourse. It was a nice mix of juniors and seniors. I have ridden with Mark Meier more already this year than all of 2008. The first lap was pretty relaxed as the juniors did their first complete lap of the course, after that Ryan kept the pace pretty high. I had to try and chase him down numerous occasions, but the legs only have so many of those efforts in them. I cant believe how far Brian has come since starting riding just last year. I think his goal of beating Ryan in an Elite race will be obtainable for him. Today I got Chasity's new bike ready for her and we went to the Dells course to get in some mountain biking. After getting her shocks and seat height dialed in we went out for a couple of laps. She really liked the disc brakes, hopefully at the next race in the mud she will be able to ride her bike instead of drag it around with lots of mud stuck in the v-brakes. Next up my 20 minute test to see if this round of training has made me any faster and then the crits in Madison.