The 2026 ToAD Schedule

Presenting The 2026 Cheesehead Roubaix

Cheesehead Roubaix is getting a makeover! This year’s route will be very different, introducing you to exciting gravel sectors never featured before. The 66-mile ride will include about 7 miles of gravel roads and nearly 2,000 feet of climbing. Want to test your fitness coming out of Wisconsin’s long winter? This is the ride for you! And it’s only 13 weeks away: Cheesehead Roubaix XV will begin at Newburg Fireman’s Park on Saturday, May 2, at 9 a.m. CDT.

Cheesehead Roubaix is free of charge, but please consider making a voluntary contribution to the Newburg Fire Department to show your appreciation for the use of its facility. Donations will be accepted at the concessions stand before and after the ride. NFD is a small, all-volunteer department. Your generosity will make a big difference! And to ensure NFD has enough food and drink in stock at the concessions stand for post-ride sales, please confirm your attendance on the Facebook event page.

There will be no mid-ride rest stop on the new route. Food and drink will be available for sale at minimarts along the route. See the cuesheet for locations.

Cheesehead Roubaix is designed for self-sufficient cyclists. Be prepared to handle your own flat tires and other minor mechanical issues. The ride uses only open public roads and park paths. You are responsible for your own safety and conduct, and you are expressly not exempt from Wisconsin traffic laws. Represent the sport well. Please visit the Cheesehead Roubaix website and print out your own copy of the cuesheet and map. The website also offers data files for GPS devices.

See you on May 2!

Unattached

For the first time in 15 years, I am a man without a cycling team.

When Pedal Moraine announced its closure last September, it was clear that there would be big changes for Team Pedal Moraine. No team loses its title sponsor or its bike shop sponsor without a shakeup, and Pedal Moraine was both of those things to TPM. Team leadership, which itself has undergone many changes since September, worked diligently to find new sponsors/partners. It shared those details with rank-and-file members yesterday when it announced the rebranding of the team as Kettle Moraine Cycling.

I joined Team Pedal Moraine in 2011 and I served as its captain from 2016 through 2021. For most of those years, TPM was the only USA Cycling club based in Washington County. My affiliation with TPM was equal parts bonds of friendship and community pride. Reincarnated as Kettle Moraine Cycling, the team now has no local links, and many of my friends have moved on from competitive cycling. Some have moved on from Washington County! I’m still here, of course, but I don’t know if I’m still a bike racer. I didn’t do any races in 2025. The benefits I might have derived from Kettle Moraine Cycling seemed out of balance with the commitments to which I was asked to agree.

All the best to Kettle Moraine Cycling, but I am now unattached. And I’m not looking for a new team. I surely don’t need to be part of one unless I return to racing … and perhaps not even then.

The Bird Is The Word

Over the years, I have written a lot about my experiences with cycling coverage on television. Many of the satisfying moments have come from free broadcasts, while many of the frustrating moments have come from broadcasts for which I had to pay. I subscribed to NBC Sports Gold for four seasons, watching its annual fee increase each year. By 2021, it simply wasn’t worth the price anymore. But as the 2026 season begins, I have a new subscription. NBC Sports Gold no longer exists, but the bird in the picture above should look familiar. Here’s what I will get from Peacock:

You know what’s funny? I didn’t go looking for a subscription to Peacock; it came to me as a free add-on to my new Walmart+ subscription. I’m in the 30-day trial period right now, with a $98 annual fee to follow. I figure I can easily save more than $98 on the groceries, dietary supplements, and household supplies that I otherwise would get from Meijer, my current superstore. And Walmart will deliver everything to my door for free! I don’t like shopping. I won’t miss going to the store, which is much less convenient since the COVID-19 pandemic put an end to 24-hour access. With my weird schedule, I used to shop late on nights when I didn’t have to work. I also won’t miss self-checkout lanes. I’m not an employee, I’m a customer. Don’t give me that rot about keeping costs down. The machines themselves cost thousands, and a fair number of the people who use them are compensating themselves for their trouble by “accidentally” forgetting to scan a few things. So, yeah, Walmart+ will keep me out of the stores and away from the criminal element! It will keep me out of the garage, too. In the six weeks since my return from Pennsylvania, I have made only one trip by car that wasn’t to the grocery store. When groceries start to arrive at my front door, this remote worker may go months without touching his car keys. How much money will that save?

There’s a lot more to Peacock than cycling, but I don’t know how much of it will appeal to me. For now, I’m looking at it as a nice thing to have for free. Most of the races in the list above have been nothing to me but YouTube highlights since the end of the 2020 season. I’m going to feel like a real road racing fan again, and it all begins tomorrow at 1:30 a.m., West Bend time, with the prologue of the Tour Down Under.

I Had Bigger Plans

I continue to battle for longer and more restorative sleep, but things have been bad lately. During the last four weeks, I have averaged fewer than six hours of sleep per day. This week, the average has been only five hours. My energy level has been extremely low, and the thing that has suffered most is my commitment to indoor cycling.

I came into 2026 hoping for 15 hours of indoor cycling in January. Today, I got my first 1:23:17. Garmin Connect to the rescue! I was motivated to earn a badge that is available this weekend only:

And it may be just a digital award but look at those colors! How could I not covet a cycling badge so reminiscent of the Lampre kit that used to dazzle in the pro peloton?

Going forward, I need to rely more on discipline and less on motivation. But it is hard when sleep isn’t cooperating.

The 2026 WEMS Schedule

The Wisconsin Endurance Mountain Bike Series announced its schedule this morning, bringing back familiar favorites but leaving a little room for mystery. Here's what we know so far:

12 Hours of Alpine Valley

April 25

Alpine Valley Ski Resort, Elkhorn

Jack Lake Crazy Eights

June 6

Veterans Memorial Park, Deerbrook

Levis Trow 100

June 20

Levis Mound Trailhead, Neillsville

Nicolet Roche Boulder Dash

July 11

Nicolet Roche Trails, Wolf River

Skunk Hill Scramble

August 8

Powers Bluff County Park, Arpin

Hundred Down in the Underdown

August 15

Underdown Recreation Area, Gleason

Pitch Black Singletrack

Date TBD

CamRock County Park, Rockdale

A Little Retail Therapy To Get 2026 Started

This week, I added some new kit for the new year. And it may be months before I wear it, because this is definitely warm weather stuff. The bibs should look familiar; I’ve been wearing Louis Garneau bibs and shorts for years. Love the chamois. The orange jersey is from Sugoi, a brand with which I have a limited but positive history. The greenish-yellow jerseys are from Santic, a brand with which I have no history. I took a chance on Santic in part because of many positive reviews but also because the price was so good. In cycling, you don’t always get what you paid for. Sometimes a big name brand is a big disappointment and a smaller name is a better value. We’ll see where Santic belongs. I had to replace some worn-out articles in my cycling wardrobe, but now I’d like to be done buying kit for 2026, no matter how inexpensive it is.

2025: A Statistical Review

This year, for the first time ever, I recorded at least one exercise activity every single day. On a couple of occasions, that activity was only a 1-mile walk. And perhaps on those occasions that 1-mile walk was done simply to keep the streak alive. But I kept the streak alive. That’s the important thing. I plan to keep the streak going in 2026: at least 1 mile of walking expressly for exercise, every day. Since May 19, I have hit 10,000 steps every day. I intend to continue that streak into the new year as well, which will force me to walk more than 1 mile per day as it has for the last 227 days of this year. All of this walking resulted in a personal record of 1,141 miles in 2025, which obliterated my old PR of 554 miles, set in 2024. I’m setting no exact goal for walking mileage in 2026, but getting at least 10,000 steps per day should ensure that I finish with something like 1,000 miles again.

If it seems strange that I’m leading with my walking statistics instead of my cycling statistics, then my explanation is that my walking statistics were remarkable while my cycling statistics were – if you can forgive the pun – pedestrian. I rode outside 122 times for a grand total of 3,246 miles, an average of 26.6 miles per ride. My longest ride in terms of both distance and duration was only 47 miles in 3:11:35. None of this is breathtaking stuff, but at least I beat my target of 3,161 miles. Here’s the month-by-month breakdown:

My outdoor mileage goal for the new year is 3,075. That will get me to 100,000 lifetime miles. To be ready for the outdoor season, I plan to spend 50 hours on the trainer before May 1. There will be some outdoor riding before May 1, of course, but the indoor sessions will be more important until then. And I will be looking for at least 25 hours of mountain biking in 2026, after doing none this year.

Aside from walking mileage, there was one other personal record this year. It came from a statistical category I never really tracked before: total exercise volume from all sources. I started tracking bike ride distance way back in 2004, but I didn’t start tracking bike ride time until 2013. In 2020, I added walking/hiking/rucking. Earlier this year, I added strength training and floor climbing. This comprehensive recording of all my activities yielded a massive 669 hours, 50 minutes in 2025, far outpacing my previous PR of 421:50 in 2021. And this matters because no activity type by itself, not even cycling, is enough to give me the kind of fitness and longevity that I want to enjoy. I realize that an hour of easy walking and an hour of intense cycling are very different efforts, but rewarding myself for every effort motivates me to do a healthy mix of things.

Times Two … And Times, Too

I reached another walking milestone this morning: 1,108 miles, year-to-date. That’s double last year’s total of 554, which was a personal record. Garmin tells me I have spent about 400 hours–the equivalent of more than 16 days–on walking for fitness this year. Time on the bike, year-to-date, is 233 hours, and that includes both outdoor and indoor rides. But don’t accuse me of neglecting the bike. With 10 days remaining in December, I need only 3 more hours to beat last year’s total.

More Tacx Facts

My free trial of the Tacx training app has ended. Basic functions of the app will continue to work, but subscription-only functions are now unavailable. The subscription has different payment options. Interactive riding environments are available in standard definition for $9.99 per month or $99.99 for one year. To get high definition video, the price goes up to $13.99 per month or $139.99 for one year. At least for now, I am content with the free tier. If I were going to pay for an indoor training environment, then I almost certainly would return to Zwift.

Before Thursday’s 1-hour ride, I abandoned my efforts to calibrate power on the Tacx trainer, which I knew was inaccurate. I stole the Favero power-sensing pedals from my Scott Addict and installed them on my Trek Boone, which is on trainer duty this winter. Power numbers for Thursday’s ride were comparable to my most recent 1-hour outdoor rides in Zone 2, and they were much higher than those that the Tacx reported on earlier rides at the same perceived effort. I rode for 30 minutes on Friday and for 90 minutes earlier today, again with power numbers consistent with my expectations.

There’s a good argument for using the Favero pedals all the time, indoors and outdoors. Unlike heart rate, which naturally varies in response to things like fatigue or illness, and unlike Rate of Perceived Exertion, which is completely subjective, power is always an objective measure of how hard you’re working. Whether my Favero pedals are strictly accurate is not important, but the trends revealed by their measurements are! If I want my indoor training to translate to better performance outdoors, then it makes sense to get performance metrics from the same source. And if I go back to the Saris trainer, then it will be interesting to see how its power numbers compare to those from the Favero pedals.

The best case for continuing to use the Tacx app is that it integrates seamlessly with Garmin Connect. Many of the Tacx-specific badges are available only with a subscription, but there are two more “freebies” that I would like to earn. After that, I might abandon the Tacx app and the Tacx trainer. The remaining incentive to stick with them would be small indeed: Garmin Connect values long Tacx rides more highly than long rides on other trainers. Garmin awards 4 points for every Tacx ride of 75 kilometers (46.7 miles) and 8 points for every Tacx ride of 100 kilometers (62.2 miles). Garmin’s 50-mile trainer ride is worth 4 points, but you can earn the badge only once. Garmin doesn’t have a 100-mile indoor ride. Its 8-point indoor ride–repeatable and available on any trainer–is based on a duration of 4 hours. If your goal is to game the system to maximize points, then the 100-kilometer Tacx ride accomplishes the same thing as the generic 4-hour ride in less time as long as you average more than 15.55 mph, and a good Zone 2 average of 17.77 mph gets the job done with 30 minutes to spare. But even 3:30 on the trainer sounds like a lot to me! I was more than ready to be done when I hit 90 minutes today.