Piles Of Miles

An updated take on the old Covered Bridge Ride, completed counter-clockwise this afternoon.

With 12 hours in the saddle and a total of 200 miles, this was my biggest week so far this year. There had not been a week like it since August 19-25, 2019. I ride better as I ride more, so this week was really good for me and I plan to keep my training volume high.

But there was more bad news for racing. The Wisconsin Cycling Association canceled its road and track seasons. Let’s be honest: the road season was doomed as soon as the Tour of America’s Dairyland pulled the plug on 2020. As I have mentioned here before, the WCA road season has become little more than a training series for ToAD. Organizers want to hold their events before ToAD to ensure a good turnout. Without ToAD there might have been enough pent-up demand for racing that a standalone criterium could be financially successful, but why take the risk?

The Wisconsin Off-Road Series was supposed to make its Go / No Go decision on June 2, but missed its self-imposed deadline and now plans to make a statement on or before Wednesday the 10th. It’s hard to imagine the news will be good, as a couple of individual races in the already diminished mountain bike series have canceled for 2020. Is it still a series if it’s only 6 races? If the race calendar stretches into September and October, are middle school and high school students going to risk their NICA seasons by incorporating WORS races? We’ll see.