Better Days Ahead?

The snow that arrived on Sunday and Monday is still hanging around, and there’s more on the way. The weather forecast gets better rapidly after tonight, but Opening Day for local mountain bike trails has been pushed back by weeks. Long after the snow disappears from roads and yards, it will linger in the darkness of the woods. Here’s what the Department of Natural Resources said on Monday about the conditions in the Northern Kettle Moraine:

Things are even worse farther north. Yesterday the Wisconsin Endurance Mountain Bike Series (WEMS) announced that its season-opening race at Levis Mound will move from April 28 to May 26. I think the Wisconsin Off-Road Series opener—May 6 at Iola—is in jeopardy too, though WORS hasn’t said anything about it yet. Many factors go into why we hold races where we hold races when we hold races, and I know a lot of people who think this late blast of winter is an aberration. But it’s not that unusual, and again I question the wisdom of scheduling races in northern Wisconsin so early in the season. All things being equal, the chances of a postponement or cancellation are much higher there, year after year. And forget about the race courses for a moment—who has had open mountain bike trails on which to practice? I wouldn’t want my first mountain bike ride of the year to be a full-blast effort on unfamiliar trails, surrounded by other racers still rusty from a long off-season.

Road racers have been just as unlucky as mountain bikers so far. The first two weekends of the Wisconsin Cycling Association calendar were wiped out, but it looks like this weekend will be OK.

My racing season is still months away and for now I would be content with conditions that allow me to train outside consistently. I’m stuck on 575 miles, year-to-date, and I still haven’t ridden on more than 3 consecutive days. It’s no wonder that I’m 5 pounds heavier than I was on this date a year ago, and it’s going to take me a while to feel like myself again. I won’t meet my goal of 1,000 miles by the end of April, no matter how nice the weather gets.