A Happy Friday The 13th

Our streak of incredible weather continues! Today West Bend reached the 60s for the first time since October 28. I rode outside, of course, covering 35 miles in the company of Jeff Wren on the route shown above. I probably will see Jeff again tomorrow for a 25-mile group ride to Newburg and back, leaving the West Bend train depot at 10 a.m. Feel free to join us.

On Wednesday I mentioned a Fond du Lac County meeting in which the issue of year-round ATV access to the Eisenbahn State Trail would be considered. I emailed the five members of the committee and the county’s parks director to voice my opposition. Some of my friends did too, and it was gratifying to get feedback almost immediately. No vote was required at the meeting and no action was taken, but the committee appeared to be unanimous in its opposition to expanded ATV access. While that’s great news, the fight is never over. On Thursday I spoke to my Washington County supervisor and proposed a Memorandum of Understanding for the stakeholders: Fond du Lac County, Washington County, and the City of West Bend. Each plays a critical role in the administration and maintenance of the trail, so each should understand that a major change to the character of the trail in one jurisdiction could negatively impact the others. For trail users, the Eisenbahn is a single entity, not three pieces with wildly different rules. If the other municipalities along the trail—Kewaskum, Campbellsport, and Eden—someday contribute their own resources to trail maintenance, then they should have a place at the table too.

With a successful defense of the Eisenbahn on Wednesday and Washington County’s adoption of 2014 Resolution 66 on Tuesday, the good guys were 2-for-2 this week in working with local governments. Actually, let’s call it 3-for-3. On Wednesday I sent this photo to West Bend’s Department of Parks, Recreation & Forestry:

Dozens of screws are working themselves loose in the boardwalk just south of the bridge over the Milwaukee River at Quaas Creek Park. Some of these could be a tripping hazard and most of them are a flat tire hazard for bicycles. Today the city thanked me for the tip, so hopefully the problem will be fixed soon. Be on the lookout for stuff like this and bring it to the attention of the proper authorities. In my experience they always have been grateful for the information.

Good News For People Who Love Bad News

Cycling is a masochistic sport. If you want to be any good at it, then you have to hurt yourself. It’s not boxing or martial arts. Your opponent isn’t hurting you; you are hurting you. You could stop anytime you want, but you don’t. And if your love for cycling goes beyond your own little world and embraces professional racing, then you’re really a glutton for punishment.

I have been watching Paris-Nice since Sunday but it has been a spiritless slog toward the mountains that will decide the general classification. So far the racing has been characterized by doomed breakaways and bunch sprints. Of the 14.5 hours completed in the first four days of the event, roughly 10 minutes have mattered. The TV announcers have had plenty of time to dissect the CIRC report, the latest laundry list of doping offenses and UCI malfeasance. I’m with the folks who understand that cycling has done a lot in recent years to combat doping and, in fact, is way ahead of other sports in its commitment and methodology. I’m with the folks who understand that the fight against doping doesn’t have a tidy conclusion but instead is a from-now-on effort to stay ahead of the bad guys.

The fight for cycling facilities is much the same: you win some and you lose some. On Tuesday the Washington County Board of Supervisors approved 2014 Resolution 66, and that will have positive implications for cycling in West Bend. But later today in Fond du Lac County, ATV advocates will argue in favor of year-round access to the Eisenbahn State Trail. High-speed motor vehicles have no place on a trail used by cyclists and pedestrians. If you’re a Fond du Lac County resident, please attend today’s meeting at 6 p.m. Right now the ATV issue is still at the committee level, so even a favorable reception by the committee doesn’t guarantee that the larger county board will eventually grant access. But cyclists and pedestrians need to step up now to protect the trail. It’s bad enough that so many existing users tune out the world with earbuds and allow their dogs to roam without leashes. Just wait until 700-pound ATVs are roaring down the trail at 60 mph. Granting year-round access to ATVs effectively would turn the Fond du Lac County segment of the Eisenbahn into an ATV-only trail, because it simply wouldn’t be safe for anything else.

More Sun, More Fun

This was the weekend to “spring forward” as Daylight Saving Time returned. As it always does, the time change came with a chorus of complaints from people whose lives apparently are so finely tuned that they won’t be able to function for days after missing a single hour of sleep. What a luxury to retire every night at precisely the same time, to rise every morning at precisely the same time, and to sleep continuously all the hours in between. I couldn’t achieve that if I had a personal anesthetist.

Following an exceptionally cold February, the prospect of an early spring has excited the local cycling community. This weekend many of my friends took advantage of back-to-back days above 40 degrees. We didn’t have any 40-degree days in February and we have had just 4 all year. I rode 75 miles this weekend, loving the sunshine and only mildly cursing the brisk winds. The week ahead looks outstanding for early March: 45 tomorrow and low 50s thereafter, with continuing sunshine and much lower wind speeds. Unpaved trails will remain closed to me—there’s still a fair amount of snow in the woods, and even the exposed Eisenbahn State Trail will be too soft to ride—but I’m expecting a high mileage week.

As recently as last Thursday, we were below zero! The dramatic improvement in our weather is inspiring enough by itself, but the pro cycling calendar is heating up too. Paris—Nice began today and will run all week, Tirreno-Adriatico starts on Wednesday and will continue into next week, and the US Cup mountain bike season begins on Saturday in California. In our part of the world, group rides are popping up all over as roadies abandon the turbo trainers in their basement pain caves. Give this ride a try if you’re free on Saturday morning and you want some easy, early-season miles. (I probably will tack on some harder solo miles when the group ride is done.)

2014 Resolution 66

The black loop now includes about 1/3-mile of additional trail not shown on this old map.

Next Tuesday, March 10, the Washington County Board of Supervisors plans to vote on a series of measures collectively known as 2014 Resolution 66. It’s a joint agreement with the City of West Bend in which several parcels of land will change hands. For the cyclists of Washington County, the big items on the list are the transfer of jurisdiction for River Road from County Highway NN all the way north to Washington Street (State Highway 33) and the transfer of Ridge Run from the county parks system to the city’s Department of Parks, Recreation & Forestry.

The city will be able to construct sidewalks along River Road near the high school, creating a much safer environment for students who walk or ride bikes. And bicycle access to Ridge Run is long overdue. Aside from the rickety boardwalk—it almost feels unsafe for walking—there’s no good reason to exclude bikes. As a county park, Ridge Run’s trails are off-limits, but as a city park it should be open to us. If approved, 2014 Resolution 66 would make Ridge Run a city park in January 2016.

This morning I emailed my county supervisor to urge him to support 2014 Resolution 66. Now I urge you to contact your supervisor. You can find the list of supervisors and maps of their districts at the county’s website.

This is a big deal! Please take a minute to contact your county supervisor. Approval of 2014 Resolution 66 will mean safer routes to school for West Bend students and miles of additional trails for off-road biking!

Scheduling The 2015 Cyclocross Season

I am going to make some assumptions about this year’s Wisconsin Cycling Association cyclocross season. Chief among them is that race organizers want to retain the weekends on which they have traditionally operated. Those dates may be tied to the availability of facilities and volunteers, so the prospect of moving existing races into new time slots is not something we should take lightly. Nonetheless, changes will come in 2015 and they are significant enough to warrant an examination of the entire schedule.

In recent years, the season has begun in Sheboygan on the first Saturday of September. This year, that’s Labor Day Weekend. If I were a race promoter, then I would avoid that weekend on the assumption that registrations will be low and I won’t make enough money. For many families, Labor Day Weekend is the last celebration of summer and the last weekend before the new school year. So, let’s move the season opener back a week. No big deal.

The WCA held its annual meeting on February 15 and the minutes from that meeting reveal a little bit about the 2015 cyclocross season. There will be two new races in the series, but they are not named. Let’s assume that one of them is Flyover Silver Creek Cross in Manitowoc, a non-series event in 2014 whose course was highly praised by the racers. Sheboygan and Manitowoc are just 22 miles apart but are far from any other WCA host cities. Let’s schedule those races for September 12 and 13. Some racers and USA Cycling officials may elect to stay overnight in a nearby hotel rather than to return home between races. Now let’s assume that the other new race will be held at the Washington Park Velodrome in Kenosha, something discussed at the meeting but not finalized. Kenosha could be an ideal replacement for the now-defunct East Troy race. Let’s schedule it for September 19 and the Lake Geneva race for September 20. Kenosha and Lake Geneva are just 35 miles apart, but more importantly both are close to the Illinois state line. Chicago’s cyclocross series doesn’t begin until the end of September and racers from Illinois will flock to Kenosha and Lake Geneva to tune up.

But now we have a problem: by moving into October, the Trek CXC Cup will force the rescheduling of Grafton Pumpkincross and Badger Prairie Cross, which otherwise would occupy the weekend of October 10-11. Pumpkincross is tied to a community-wide festival whose dates might not be moveable, but let’s assume a Grafton race will live on even if its ties to the festival must end. September could look like this:

09/12 Sa Sheboygan
09/13 Su Manitowoc
09/19 Sa Kenosha
09/20 Su Lake Geneva
09/26 Sa Grafton
09/27 Su Badger Prairie

Nice and tight! And having made a clear path for the Trek CXC Cup, the rest of the October races can use the same weekends they occupied last year:

10/03 Sa Cross-Shooshko, Milwaukee
10/17 Sa Sun Prairie
10/18 Su Gordeldiercross, Milwaukee
10/24 Sa Halloween ’Cross, Milwaukee
10/25 Su Fitchburg
10/31 Sa Estabrook Park, Milwaukee

But let’s talk about November. Traditionally, its race schedule isn’t as compact as October’s and if we simply replicate the 2014 schedule we get this:

11/01 Su Waterloo
11/07 Sa Cam-Rock
11/08 Su open date
11/14 Sa open date
11/15 Su Kringle Kross, Milwaukee
11/21 Sa open date
11/22 Su Madison
11/28 Sa Thanksgiving Weekend
11/29 Su Thanksgiving Weekend

Let’s try this instead:

11/01 Su Waterloo
11/07 Sa Cam-Rock
11/08 Su Madison
11/15 Su Kringle Kross, Milwaukee
11/21 Sa State Championships, Milwaukee

We must avoid Thanksgiving Weekend or risk a backlash from racers who want to spend that time with their families. But we also need to avoid pushing the state championships deeper into December. Jingle Cross, a UCI event in Iowa that attracts a lot of Wisconsin racers, will occupy the weekend that normally would include Wisconsin’s state championships. Let’s move the championships up, not back, to minimize the chance that extreme winter weather will hurt attendance and, therefore, the competitive legitimacy of the race.

Again, I assume that race organizers want to retain the weekends on which they have traditionally operated. My recommended schedule achieves that goal in most instances. But there is a case to be made for Milwaukee weekends and Madison weekends, just as I have made the case for a Sheboygan-Manitowoc weekend and a Kenosha-Lake Geneva weekend. It’s clear from past results that riders are more likely to attend races close to home. Has the WCA made it too easy for Milwaukee-area riders to skip Madison-area events, and vice versa? On weekends that feature two races, would it make sense to have both in the same area instead of splitting them? If you could cut your driving burden in half, would it be worth the overnight hotel cost? I don’t know how an all-Milwaukee or all-Madison weekend would affect attendance, but it sure would make life easier for USA Cycling officials and racecourse equipment haulers. If only for that reason, it might be worth a try. Tearing down one course on Saturday evening and driving halfway across the state to set up another before 8 a.m. on Sunday can’t be easy.

There’s no perfect schedule to meet the needs of every racer, but I encourage everyone with a stake in the WCA cyclocross season to consider how we might make our season operate more efficiently. Greater attendance means more competitive racing and greater profits for the race organizers. That leads to greater stability for the WCA cyclocross series, plus opportunities to reward the racers with more cash and/or better merchandise. And if we can make life easier on the officials and volunteers, so much the better.

Bland Ambition

No blog posts for two weeks? What can I say? Things have been quiet. Washington County has been solidly frozen since we hit 34 degrees back on February 8. Yesterday the temperature briefly climbed to 30 degrees and there was almost no wind, so I did an outdoor bike ride for only the second time this month. It was my 13th ride this year. I didn’t do my 13th ride of 2014 until March 31! From that point of view, I am a month ahead of schedule. But to be honest, I am not especially fit. I just have not had the motivation to train indoors. I may regret these missed opportunities later, but being unemployed has put all of my racing plans in jeopardy and without clear goals it seems silly to suffer in the home gym.

There were many places I couldn’t go yesterday. Snow covers most of the park paths that I like to include on my winter rides. It will be a while before any of that snow melts: tonight’s wind chill will be 20-30 degrees below zero. There might be a chance to ride outside on Tuesday, but that’s probably my only chance in this final week of February. After a record-setting January, I feel lucky just to have reached the modest mileage goal I set for this month.

I don’t feel good about very many things right now, but I remain enthusiastic about the possibility of a permanent cyclocross course and new mountain bike trails at Park Site O. Not much can happen until spring; the next likely step is to flag the prospective trails and then do a walk-through with representatives from Parks, Recreation & Forestry. But at this Friday’s meeting of the Ozaukee County Mountain Bikers, I will be prepared to discuss my ideas. OCMB wants to grow its influence beyond Ozaukee County by becoming an IMBA chapter. Currently, GEARS is the IMBA chapter for Washington County but most of its efforts are at Greenbush (Sheboygan County) and New Fane (Fond du Lac County). OCMB is a more organized and energetic group. As its trails at Pleasant Valley and Port Washington reach maturity, OCMB is looking for new projects. OCMB is very interested in building mountain bike trails near Loew Lake in the Town of Erin. Park Site O is a tiny project by comparison, but perhaps I can secure some assistance by promising a venue that would be ideal for short track cross country and fatbike racing. I will take all the help I can get.

White Is The Color Of Surrender

The mixed blessings of nice weather: A big crowd and bad snow.

I still hate winter.

Early on Saturday afternoon, I had my first fatbike experience. It did not go well. Enthusiasts at the Ozaukee County Mountain Bikers’ fatbike demo day assured me that the poor quality of the snow was to blame. Demo day attracted a lot of people and the snow degraded from above-freezing temperatures and heavy traffic. The “go anywhere” fatbikes bogged down in snow that behaved more like deep, loose sand. Prior to last Monday there wasn’t enough snow for fatbikes. Yesterday there was enough snow but it was the wrong kind.

On Friday I spent 90 minutes snowshoeing at Pleasant Valley Park to help prepare the trails. On Saturday I overheard complaints that the trails were not groomed to a standard that one normally associates with cross country skiing. If fatbiking is best enjoyed on snow that has been compacted to a smooth, road-like consistency, then why not just ride on the road? Worrying about the properties of the snow and the esoteric calculus of fatbike tire pressure strikes me as rather precious. If you can tolerate temperatures low enough to ensure a stable riding surface, then fatbiking might create opportunities for you to ride when you wouldn't otherwise. But because I typically don’t ride when the temperature is below freezing, demo day left unanswered the question of why I ever would choose a fatbike.

Cold Enough Already

Cyclocross racers can go too far in their quest for Svenness.

The 2015-16 UCI cyclocross calendar came out last week. Two of the events will have an impact on the Wisconsin Cycling Association series in which I participate. The Trek CXC Cup in Waterloo is tentatively scheduled for late September as usual, but race organizers are trying to move the event to October 10-11. With so many Wisconsin racers in action at the Trek CXC Cup, the WCA will not schedule its own races on the same weekend. So, it matters which weekend Trek gets, but it doesn’t matter very much.

Moving the Jingle Cross races to December 4-6 will be much more significant. If you are wondering why a UCI race in Iowa should affect the WCA calendar, then look at the results from years past to see how many Wisconsin racers make that trip. The WCA has scheduled its own events during Jingle Cross before, but this year that doesn’t seem likely. The Wisconsin state championships probably would be held on Saturday, December 5, if not for Jingle Cross. There’s a decision to make. Should the WCA hold the state championships on November 28? That’s immediately after Thanksgiving, a weekend on which the organization historically has not held races. Should the WCA stick with December 5 at the risk of losing some of its best racers to Jingle Cross, where UCI points will be up for grabs? Or should the WCA go a week deeper into December at the considerable risk of sub-zero temperatures and heavy snow, which will have a negative effect on racer and spectator turnout?

As recently as 2011, Wisconsin held its state championships in November. For the 2012 season, the WCA moved the championships to December 8. That move made sense because the midwest regionals were held on the following day at the same venue: Badger Prairie in Verona. USA Cycling then held its national championships at Badger Prairie one month later and Wisconsin racers enjoyed something of a home field advantage. But the midwest regionals and the national championships have moved on to other cities and they are not well-attended by Wisconsin racers now that they are far away. Meanwhile, Milwaukee’s Dretzka Park has become the new home of the state championships, hosting the event on the first Saturday in December for each of the last two seasons. As the 2013 state championships began, the wind chill was 12 degrees below zero. At the 2014 state championships, frozen ground contributed to several crashes and injuries. I hope those who advocate moving the 2015 state championships further into winter will read this article about the experiences of the top American pros at a race in Oregon in 2013. The “historically cold” conditions cited in the article would not be uncommon in Wisconsin in mid-December.

Our fellow cold-weather neighbors in Minnesota and Michigan hold their state championships at the end of November. Wisconsin doesn’t just continue to schedule its championships in December; it now contemplates delaying them by another week. For the handful of people who intend to compete at regionals and/or nationals, the Illinois state championships already present an opportunity for a December tune-up. For almost everyone else, pushing the Wisconsin championships into mid-December is a bad deal.

Wisconsin is not Belgium, where the average daytime high in December is 43 degrees. Yes, racing in sometimes adverse weather is part of what makes cyclocross a great sport, but conditions can become so extreme that racers are taking foolish risks. Our late-season races already are characterized by snow and freezing temperatures ... and dwindling participation. In several categories at last year’s Kringle Kross—held in snow-covered Hales Corners Park on November 16—turnout was so low that one could reach the podium simply by finishing the race. Racing in extreme conditions doesn’t just endanger the participants, it also reduces the quality of the competition. Delaying the state championships by yet another week would be the wrong move.

In Transition

Some of you know this already: today I am out of a job. My employer eliminated 13 positions as part of a corporate reorganization and now, after more than 19 years with the same company, I am scrambling to find new employment. I have known this day was coming for almost 3 weeks, so the job hunt is already in progress but so far it has yielded nothing.

It would be hard to overstate the seriousness of the situation. I have a wife, two kids, a mortgage and a car loan. I need an income, plus medical and dental insurance coverage. My existing insurance coverage will continue through the end of this month and there should be enough money to last through the summer, but after that I will be in desperate straits if I have not found a new job.

I have resigned myself to a big pay cut, little or no vacation, and a return to commuting after four years of working from home. By most measures, whatever comes next won’t be able to match what came before. I will seek comfort in the intangibles. I liked my income and benefits but I did not like the work itself. Maybe my new job will be more fun and interesting.

Obviously, it remains to be seen what all of the changes will mean for my cycling ambitions. If I have to abandon my racing plans to accommodate my new work schedule—or simply because I can’t afford the entry fees—then that’s my new reality. But no job will get all 24 hours of my day. There will be time in my life for cycling … maybe not the 337 hours, 16 minutes and 12 seconds that my Garmin recorded in 2014, the equivalent of more than 42 work days, but some time. This is one of those moments when cycling, no matter how much I love it, is proved to be just a hobby. Unless …

What if I could find a job that would capitalize on my love for cycling? It takes people to manage bike shops, to represent the manufacturers, to write for cycling publications, to organize racing associations and events, and so on. Why not me? I combine knowledge of and passion for cycling with a successful work history that includes journalism, sales, and no small amount of computer expertise. Some people would caution me that work is work and play is play and those things are fundamentally different. I get it. No doubt, there are people in the cycling industry who have plenty of knowledge and passion but whose business acumen is lacking. No doubt, there are others who get sick of the whole cycling thing by the end of the workday and then start to focus on other things during their spare hours. No doubt, there are still more for whom cycling is incidental—the sales process is what they love and cycling just happens to be the current product. But if there were an opportunity for me to get into “Cycling: The Business,” then I would have to take that chance.

In the meantime, the now-daily routine of scouring Help Wanted ads continues.

Extending My January Record

A few solo miles wrapped around an hour with El Reyezuelo …

Following the 26-mile route you see above, today I finished off January with a total of 241 outdoor miles. That’s a personal record. Not too long ago, I would not even consider riding outside in January. I have thought of myself as a serious cyclist since 2004 but I didn’t do my first January ride until 2012. I racked up 117 miles that month, and another 83 in January 2013. Last winter was uncommonly cold and I didn’t ride outside at all in January. My total this month wasn’t just better than any previous January, it also was better than my best February (137 miles in 2012) and my best December (175 miles in 2012). This month we had 21 days at or above our historical average daytime highs, and I proved to myself that I can ride pretty comfortably at or even a little below the freezing mark.

February is going to start with snow and a big temperature drop. We are on the northern edge of a storm that is going to hammer Illinois and is expected to bring at least a few inches of snow to Washington County between tonight and Monday morning. That’s no good for me, but the snow might have only a short impact. The long-range forecast predicts the return of above-freezing temperatures for next weekend, followed by a week in the high 30s or even low 40s. My February mileage PR will be in serious trouble if that forecast proves true.