Wednesday Morning Traffic Jam

Luckily for me, this tractor was only going slightly slower than I was. 

My commute is a 13 mile one-way ride and this is about the worst traffic I have to deal with.  I should have seen if he could bring that planter over to my house and get some grass seeded.  The neighbors are getting concerned!

Instead of planting grass, I've been riding on a consistent basis.  Weekend racing as well as riding, commuting to work, as well as getting in the "long-way-home" rides.  Seems to be working pretty well.  I felt really good at the first GDVC race.  Had great legs, threw down the first attack and then played the teammate role when Curtis got off the front as part of the second breakaway.  The second GDVC race didn't feel as good.  I had a one too many barley-pops the night before.  However, I ended up with the same placing as the week before, so I can't be too unhappy.

I was quite happy about this past weekend's performance.  The Cat 3 group at Muskego was not about to let any breakaways get up the road, so I stuck in the bunch and waited for the sprint.  A couple of guys burned matches late into the race, which made it pretty easy to get a good position heading into the last turn.  I was looking really good until a rider in front of me faded to his right during the sprint.  Despite having to stop and restart my sprint part way up the climb, I was able to finish up in 4th place for the day.  

Hoping that 4th turns into a podium in the next few weeks!

Get out there and enjoy the riding.  It doesn't get much better than this!

Alterra and Bike to Work Week

Trek Midwest Team helped kick off a good Bike to Work Week downtown Madison at Alterra on the square handing out free coffee, baked goods and a little wrenching on your bike if it needs it. If you’re biking to work, stop by to grab some goods and say “hi”, we’ll be there this week!
Thanks for coming out today Lisa, Nick and Mike.

Ride 2 Recovery - Honor Ride Madison

The Honor Ride Madison (presented by Saris) is part of Ride 2 Recovery whose mission is to improve the health and wellness of healing heroes using cycling as the core activity.

The ride will also honor the service, values and memory of fallen heroes in the local community.
Day of Ride: Saturday, June 22

United Healthcare and Ride 2 Recovery:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31b-tDPtYZg

The Early Show and Ride 2 Recovery:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Frbs19ZDw6s

Ride2Recovery.com
Making a Difference in the Lives of Healing Heroes

What's up, sister?!

Heidi, enjoying a "Made in Mexico" (with cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup) Coke at the Sisterdale Market in Sisterdale, TX. Awesome riding and market!
Their sign says "Bikers welcome, Cyclists encouraged".
In fact, she buys the drinks for cross-country cyclists, so the cane sugar cokes were "on the house"!
The Fredericksburg/Comfort/Sisterdale/Kerrville/Leakey/Lost Maples/Camp Wood Austin area really is great for biking, if yer lookin' fer a "spring training" location...

Been a little scary out there!

Four weekends into the season. My legs are feeling better than the first race where I plain old could not get out of my own way! At the first Great Dane race in Madison, Barney took the field single file on the crosswind section, putting everyone in the gutter and the legs were not working. Two laps in and off the back - how demoralizing! So TTed for about 15 minutes waiting for the pack to catch me (what is keeping them????) when I see barney coming strong to me on a solo venture. Crap! I dig down and pull Barney for ¾ of a lap and hope when he bids me fare-thee-well that the pack is a little ways behind. Nope! They are chasing Barney hard - or at the very least harder than what I had. No recovery for me and I am thru and then off the tiny pack faster than I could take two gasping breaths. Another 15 minutes of TTing but at least I did not get caught again.

Next few races, not sure what my legs have in store for me but all goes well. Even able to help do a little blocking when mates give it a go. And then we get to the Kettle Moraine road race. I am going with trepidation - last year it was ugly in all regards. 30+ minute line for registration. Racing with in a M3/4/5 field and everyone seems to be intent on keeping the pack together till the final corner. And then crashing when someone sprinting for 20th place caused a crash in front on me (here I am thinking I am trying to keep out of obvious trouble by hanging in the back. This year, the only thing better about the race is that the registration line is short. The finish is still 200 yards from the final corner. And once more the yellow line rule is being flagrantly ignored the whole way down to the final corner. In fact at a few points, there were riders from one shoulder of the road to another. With cars coming the other way - do these guys not have families and mortgages, brains, even? The amazing thing is that they were not going to the front - no, no one wanted to be in the wind! So I have a great view from the back when teammate Glen is slammed in another sprint for 20th place and his jersey ends up looking like it went thru a wood chipper - no, he did not look unscathed. Scary. And stupid.

But you wanna hear scary? And stupid? After a good crit in La Crosse, I am cooling down on my trainer watching the 4 / 5 race when the corner marshal totally does not see some fred roll onto the course just as the pack is starting into the corner. How the fred did not see the pack coming is another mystery. All of a sudden this guy is in the corner when screaming, cursing and the sounds of metal on metal ensues. It is a tribute to the handling skills of some of the riders that more did not go down. As it was, 4 or 5 were down. But not the fred! I am not sure if he got hit but sure enough those trying to avoid hitting this guy were slammed from the back. And then a few minutes later, it almost happens again as the marshal is distracted (watching the race which is still on???). At least this other cyclist saw the pack and stopped. Truly scary.

Now it is time to head to the La Crosse road race. Hope I have some climb!

Jim Merrifield

I never get tired of this view/draft

Same view as a 1000 miles ago, but I'll never get tired of the view or draft! With the warmer temp's down south Greg has switched out his black "home" team TMT jersey to his white "away" jersey.
Today we are heading east from Fort Davis to Marathon, TX. So far I am loving west Texas!

Gila Monster T/A for Men 1/2

Some legit climbing!
If any of you mountain goats wanna climb to 8,228', I think on the 5th day of racing, this is your race!

Happy Earth Day!

8,228' above sea level.
The high point on The Southern Tier ACA route.

(Former home to the Warm Springs Apache; the place is stunningly beautiful. No wonder they defended it so staunchly, first from the Spanish, then the Mexicans, and lastly from the "united" American Army, post civil war - on behalf of the miners, ranchers, and "settlers".)

Thanks to all the European-Americans (like Aldo Leopold, John Muir, Gaylord Nelson, Clinton P. Anderson, and others) who had the foresight and sense to protect some of these places from "progress", before they were all gone.

"In wilderness is the salvation of the world."

Be good to your mother.

Successful Team Tactics!

It was great to see team tactics actually play out successfully during the races this weekend - who would have thought!

On Saturday, Barney, Gordy, Mike, and I drove up near Eau Claire to do the Durand RR and take on the Minnesota teams (the race is part of their series). A few initial efforts here and there to try and establish a break, but nothing stuck early. Near the start of the second lap (of three), Mike attacked with a team Flanders rider, and they got a good gap. I bridged up a little later with another guy in tow, and the four of us rode together until we got close to the end (the guy who sat on my wheel then proceeded to sit on wheels in our group of 4, and as it turned out we should have tried to drop him). Mike and I tried a couple attacks/counter-attacks toward the end but we could not get away. Then hitting the final turn to the 2-tier uphill finish I attacked, and when I was caught near the last uphill Mike countered and took the win! (And Gordy took first as well as he was riding the 60+ category.)

On Sunday, the GDVC crit worked almost as well. Gordy and John van Susteren attacked early on and got a decent gap, then we (Curtis, Doug, and I) and LAPT covered every attempt to bridge (and I think frustrated several of the chasers!), and their gap grew. The pace overall must have been pretty hard as lots of guys were being shelled off the back. Unfortunately Gordy had 45 minutes of power in his legs today, and the race was an hour! So Gordy fell off from van Susteren, and with about 4 laps or so to go, I bridged to Gordy hoping he had some gas left in the tank - alas the gauge was empty! What was left of the pack (~15 guys) eventually caught up to Gordy and I, and then Curtis counter-attacked and soloed in for 2nd (in his first Masters race too!). Doug ended his race with a flat (bummer!) and I ended up in the top 10 (8th I think).

I know we also had some other good results today at the GDVC crit with Lisa winning (Women's Cat 4), Barney taking 3rd (M 3/4), Robert winning (Cat 4), Matt taking 3rd (Pro/1/2), and Amanda and Arrietta taking 4th and 5th (Women's Open). Nice work everyone!

Eric

The Gila Monster

Heidi and I did a little race reconnaissance this week for the Tour of the Gila.
And so far our first impressions are
1) We're glad we're not Pro/1 Men, after going DOWN some of the pitches that only the Pro/1 Men do (out to the Gila Cliff Dwellings, on "The Gila Monster" stage). The climbing out there (here!) is tough. But some of those downhill pitches might very well be terrifying to race.
2) It is stunningly beautiful (esp when out of town, when not by the open pit copper mines, etc)
3) They like to drink and drive in NM, like they do in WI. Only instead of there being a bar in every little town where you go drink, then drive home, here they drink WHILE they drive. And then they throw the empties out the truck window. The same. But different.
4) There is an ammo shortage at the local stores
5) The locals are hoarding ammo; because they need it to shoot up all the road signs and dioramas at the scenic overlooks
6) The team car must have had a mechanical, because they never caught up to us, even on the climbs.

Well, that's it for now.
Carry on!

Greg "12 mph" Ferguson