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.