Chequamegon morning always comes to quickly. There are 10 people staying with Dennis, mostly my guys from Kansas, but others, Karl from Louisville, The Eriksens from Steamboat, and of course, someone from Minneapolis, Tim. Getting everyone feed is quite a fete. That and organizing the bathrooms. Dennis has 3, so it isn’t that big of a deal. Plus shuttling everyone to the start and getting the cars back is a chore, since it is a point to point race. Plus the 6 dogs, which isn’t really close to a record, but really fun none-the-less.
I pick Brian Matter to win today. I talked to him yesterday at registration and he looks fit. Brian knows the finish better than just about anyone. It is a little less technical than it used to be, but knowing the finish is uber important.
Did you see that Tom Zirbel rode the hour record yesterday? And pretty darn far. A tad of 53 km. Easily enough for a US record. Bradley Wiggins rode 54.5 km, so there is a vast gap there. Anyway, Tom is retiring this year and that was a great way to cap off his career.
Okay, I’m sort of out of time already. Need to pack all the bikes in the van and make sure I don’t leave my shoes or something important.
DId you see the harvest moon last night? The clouds split and it was pretty spectacular here.
Katie and Trudi made dinner last night.
Harvest moon.
Matt brough a couple bottles of this. That is a bad taste to acquire.
Tom Zirbel on his way to a new US Hour Record in Mexico.
Tucker is pretty exhausted at night.
Best of luck in the race.
good luck today… been reading about this race.. its a big race to win.. good luck..
Upright and out of sight have fun…
That’s infanticide drinking that wine this young.
Good luck.
Also, how is your brother Kris doing after his crash. Hope he’s mending well!
He’s back riding his bike, twice this week, the usual distance, the usual roads…
Love the fact that you throw in shots of the great food you guys eat in your posts. Gives your bog a bit of a “Hemingwayesque” quality. Thanks for posting every day too. Takes some f’ing effort I imagine. Was chatting with a 63 year old rider (strong as shit for 63) at the BOS ride in AZ this morning and he was telling me about the “old days” and the first Cactus Cup back in the early 90’s. Apparently the old course by Pinnacle Peak has gone the way of luxury houses but I hear it was a good loop…
That particular wine, Caymus, is quite the subject of controversy on the wine-boards such as wineberserkers.com. Actually not a “controversy” per se, so much as a lopsided subject of ridicule. We try not to be snobs and try to say, “if you like it and if it gets you into wine, it’s a good wine (for you)”. That said, it overripe, chocolate blueberry milkshake-like, and most likely “spoofulated” with all kinds of parlor tricks in the winemaking facility. Popular mass-market wines like Apothic Red, Prisoner, and Abstract do the same thing, but Caymus used to be a top-shelf wine with $100 prices tags to match.