ride

WINDY 500 planning meeting (with beer) on February 2nd!

/ Jason Kayzar / 3 Comments

Note: February 2nd is the correct date for the planning meeting. I originally posted the wrong date (Feb 7).

The 2nd Annual WINDY 500 dates are set!

The 2nd annual 500 mile, 4 day bike ride (not to be confused with the Trans-Europe “piece-of-crap-only” car rally taking in 22 foreign countries over 23 days) will be held on August 3-6.

Breakfast of Cham-peens!

Details are still sketchy, but we have at least 100% more riders, AND a support vehicle!!  Having a sag wagon will make this a legit contender.  I would not be surprised if both the Schleck brothers and Cadel sign on for 2013.  

Lunch of Cham-peens!

Now the planning begins.  Where are we going??  Last year, we set some informal route guidelines in stone:

  • Round-trip route must be a minimum of 500 miles over 4 days.
  • Route must cross at least 1 state line.

Do we go back to the UP?  If so, do we make the same stops, or head to a different destination?  Do we go West (Waterloo, IA?  Rochester,  MN?)  South (Saugatuck, MI?  Danville, IL?)   Straight through the Earth’s core (Beijing, China?)  Which route do we take?  Who’s in charge of the map this year (NOT me)?  

Dinner of Cham-peens!

You don’t even have to be a participant to take place in the planning.  We welcome all input!  Just show up at:

Cafe Hollander

7677 W State St, Milwaukee, WI 53213

February 2nd @ 7:00pm

2012 Windy 500 dates are set!

/ Jason Kayzar / 1 Comment

Next year’s 2nd Windy 500 will take place from August 3rd to August 6th.

500 miles in 4 days.  Nothing but bikes and beers.   This year’s adventure left us all with some great stories as well as something to brag to our grand-kids about someday.

The goal this year will be to (at least) double the number of riders.  We’ll have a support vehicle and even more fun (did I mention beer yet?)

Bookmark the website, and check back for details:

www.windy500.com

ToAD and WORS schedules are posted, this does not interfere with either, so get it on your calendar.

I’d like to get a preliminary count of people who are interested, and we can all do the planning together in Spring.

jasonkayzar@mc2wi.com

Let my friend Chevy explain why you should “…go for it!”:

The end of an era

/ Jason Kayzar / 2 Comments

7,437 miles and counting…

In the past 2 calendar years, the longest I’ve been off the bike was 9 days: November 30 to December 8, 2010.  Before that, I wasn’t keeping track.

I’ve enjoyed every mile – every adventure, every race, every crash, every one of the 316 rides so far.  But it’s time for a little time off the bike.  I’ll run, lift, do something else.  Don’t get me wrong, I’ll still be riding on a regular basis, just much less… for now.

Ah, who am I kidding?  I’m riding tomorrow.

April “Networking Ride” recap

/ Jason Kayzar / Leave a comment

Another ride in the books, and man what a day!

70+ degrees and sunny brought everyone out of the woodwork.  The rider count was somewhere around 20 or maybe even  a few more.  Route was about 35 or 36 miles, and the pace was surprisingly up-tempo for early April – no better way to spend an afternoon.  A great group of “seasoned” riders, everyone knew how to ride in a group which is not always the case.  A few regulars, a few new faces and a few people I hadn’t seen for a while made for good conversation throughout the afternoon.  We capped off the route with a climb up Glacier Road (a favorite of mine), which had been skipped on the last few rides.

Of course, Dos XX Ambers after the ride – sponsored by 2 very generous participants (thanks again) and then everyone headed home.

Tell your friends – next ride is May 11th… see you there!

Ready as I’m gonna be

/ Jason Kayzar / Leave a comment

I haven’t done a WORS race since June 13th, and haven’t even ridden the trails much this summer because of the typhoons.  So most of my miles have been on my road bike this season.  While it’s been a lot of fun, it’s not the same as riding off-road.  Besides the obvious differences (dirt being the first thing that comes to mind), it’s a completely different workout.  If road biking is like watching a movie, mountain biking is like watching TV while someone with ADD holds the remote.  Nothing ever stays the same, you’re constantly changing positions, speed, effort levels, etc.

While this is what the appeal (to me) is all about for riding in the dirt, there’s not much you can do on a road bike to replicate training for a mountain bike race on a road bike.  Or so I figured anyway – that’s where the Spokesmen rides come into play.  The Tosa Spokesmen weekday rides are generally short and very hilly.  Chris Beyer picks some nutty routes through the city, and we blast around them before work.  Anywhere from 10-20 miles, there are very few straight or flat sections that last more than 2 city blocks.  Most of the routes focus on getting to and then climbing various hills around the city.  So, if you happen to show up on a single speed mountain bike and try to keep up with the group on their road bikes, you’re essentially in for a mini-WORS workout.

This morning was a great warm-up for Sunday’s race; average speeds of 16-20 mph, and lots of hills with speeds generally increasing on the climbs.  It took a lot of effort to keep up, sometimes I just ran out of gear, but I feel about as ready as I’m gonna get.  There are 3 races in the next 4 weeks, so this is kind of like the second race season for me this year.  I’m hoping for some more hardware, time will tell.