November's End

There are fewer and fewer days to ride now. In the last week, we've have a day with a sleet snow mix, days where the high did not get over 30 degrees and days with crazy wind. Today, Sunday was the best day we've had in two weeks. 40 degrees, winds out of the south at 10 mph. It felt downright warm compared to a couple of the other days I've been out the last month. Very possibly, this could be the last day riding outdoors for three months, so I wanted to be able to get a ride in just in case.

Even though I've done most of these roads many times before, the landscape is different. The ground is back to earthy yellows and browns. All of the fields have been harvested. The trees have lost all of their leaves. Looking out onto Lake Winnebago, there was an area extending about 25 feet into the lake from shore that was some sort of slushy/ice mix. Winter will be here soon. Gone are the lush greens of summer with a landscape that is alive with plants and colors. The sun is different too. It sits lower in the sky. The light seems softer and always a little hazy compared to just a few months ago. With temperatures not warming up until noon and sunset coming just after 4:00 PM, there is not much time to ride.

I did almost 41 miles today, so I stand at 5941 for the year. Getting to 6000 is within sight, but with so few days left, it will still be tough. I may be taking a day off to drive south for some warmer temps if I need a ride. But for today, I'm happy to get another ride in for the year on a terrific fall day.

Last Days of Autumn

Autumn is fading fast in Northeast Wisconsin, the way it always does this time of year. Within two, perhaps three weeks if we are lucky, the ground will be covered with snow and the cycling season will be over. Then it will be a few months of cross country skiing to try to keep the fitness level up, but also to give the body and especially the mind a break from cycling and a new activity to try.

This last weekend was a dose of real cold weather, a preview of what is to come. Saturday the high was in the mid 40's, not too bad, but a lot of cold rain all day with wind. Then Sunday, the high was just 38, windy and more cold rain, occasionally freezing, occasionally a few snowflakes mixed in. I actually did a 19 mile ride on Sunday. It was miserable. When the damp and cold get together, it is cold as cold can be. I thought I had picked a spot where the precipitation had let up for a while. I was wrong. I was glad when the ride was over.

Today was a much nicer day. I had some vacation that needed to be used by the end of the year, so I took today off. The high temp was 48 degrees, dry, and no wind at all. After Sunday, it felt like summer. I had on a base layer, jersey, arm and leg warmers, toe warmers, ear warmers and a wool jersey over the top. This was perfect for the weather today.

I went west of Appleton on Rock Road out to New London. Then I swung south on Bean City road and then headed back to Appleton on School road. The route is very rural and low traffic. The only services are in New London, but on a day like today you don't really need any. Overall, it is a nice ride, a little over 50 miles.

Bike route 757217 - powered by Bikemap

Night Riding

I did my first night ride of the fall tonight. Nothing crazy, just 18 miles, so a little bit over an hour. Last year, I did quite a few night rides, maybe 8-10 and ended up with anywhere from 200-250 miles (It is hard to be exact, because I didn't mark every ride I did at night last year). Tonight was a lot of fun. Perfect evening, about 55 degrees. A great chance to get out on the bike.

I know what you are thinking. Perfect evening, except for one thing. Its dark! And it is hard to see in the dark! So why do you go out at night? Isn't cycling a sport better enjoyed during the day, when you actually can see?

In general, yes, cycling is a sport better enjoyed during the day. So why ride at night? Here are a few reasons why I do?

Brevet Preparation

As a randonneur, you are going to have to get adept at riding at night. You can do a 200 km brevet without any night riding, but the longer brevets generally require some night riding. On a 300 km, this may only be 60-90 minutes as you finish up in the evening. But on the 400 km last year, we were out until almost 3:00 AM. Given, we were taking some long breaks after dark, but that is several hours of night riding.

As with most things, you want to do what you can to prepare for a situation before the event. I have ridden enough at night to know that I can do it when called upon. However, I also find it useful to brush up n night riding even when I don't have any brevets coming up. I do not have a ton of after dark experience, so any I can gain will only improve my night riding skills. This will be helpful if I do a super randonneur series next year (a series of 200, 300, 400 and 600 km brevets).

Extending the Season

As of today in Appleton, sunset was at 6:17 PM. It is harder and harder to fit rides in during the day unless I leave work for an extended lunch hour, which is really not an option for me right now. Even commuting to work is squeezed by the available daylight hours. So riding at night gives me another opportunity to ride that I would not have if I limited myself to the daylight.

A Different Experience

Riding at night is a very different experience than riding during the day. You see less, sure, but what you see is different. It is getting 10 miles out of town so you can really see the stars up in the sky. Its so you can see the glow of the city as you come back into town. Its so you can see the lights flicker of the river as you cross the Fox River. And it isn't just the sights. Thre is much less traffic at night, so you hear more. There is a quiet, a peacefulness to riding at night. Same roads, yes, but a different experience.

Better than the Stationary Bike

Lets face it, getting on the trainer or stationary bike or the elliptical trainer is B-O-R-I-N-G. Later in the year when I get home and its 25 degrees (or less) outside, I'll have plenty of time to go to the YMCA and do all that stuff. But on a night like tonight where the temp is in the mid 50's, it is a whole lot more fun to do an outdoor activity than head to the Y.

I'll follow this post up with a post about the equipment I use to ride at night, because like I said above, its dark out there. And you need to see where you are going and you need people to be able to see you.

Ledgeview Ride and Fall Colors

Fall is in full swing in northeast Wisconsin. To take advantage of some of the fantastic colors coming into view, I reprised a route I created in the spring to go riding east of De Pere up onto the ridge line. The name of the road at the top of the ridge is called Ledgeview, so that is kind of what I call this route. What I like about the route is that while close to De Pere, it is actually quite rural and scenic. The area around Ledgeview and Sportsmans roads seem to be more established with more trees. In some ways it reminds me of Door county, but it isn't a 90 minute drive away.

I did a bit of a variation on my normal route today. First, I took the Fox River Trail all the way to the point where the pavement ends and the trail turns back into crushed limestone. This is now at Lasee Road. It is also new this summer. The pavement used to end at Rockland Road, but 4 more miles of trail were paved this summer. The trail is nice in town, but out of town it is even better. Trees line each side and there is less traffic. In one place you are enveloped in trees as you cross a wooden bridge over some low marshlands. This is a terrific amenity for the citizens of De Pere and Green Bay.

Bike route 716544 - powered by Bikemap

Otherwise, the route is pretty much the same. I did the climbs up County W and County X but skipped Scray Hill Road this time. I like loping up through the neighborhood on my way back to De Pere as well. Much less traffic than Chicago street, and this time of year, many trees in this well to do subdivision are turning colors. I ended up getting back to the office on Main. Not something I like, but Grant is under construction at the railroad tracks, so Main is the only choice to get across without going out of your way.

Otherwise, enjoy the photographs

First Weekend of Fall

Fall has arrived in northeast Wisconsin. Leaves on the trees have started to turn shades of yellow and red. Daytime highs are creep up into the 60's. Nighttime lows are in the 40's. And sunset is now before 7:00 PM each night.

Both days this weekend were terrific fall days for riding. Saturday was in the high 50's. Sunday made it into the low 60's. Little to no wind either day. I wore a base layer and arm warmers each day and was comfortable. No need to get the wool socks and leg warmers out for a mid-afternoon ride just yet.

The scenery along the roads has changed as well. Most of the leaves on the trees are still green. It will be another week or two until we are at the height of fall color. But you can see some trees with some of their leaves changing, and a few with all of their leaves a brilliant gold. In the fields, the green corn stalks of summer have turned brown. Same is true of the soybeans as they wait in their fields to be harvested. Some corn has already been harvested, leaving just brown muddy ground where a few weeks ago corn towered 6 or 7 feet into the air.

I now have over 5000 miles for the year. 5063 to be exact. 937 left to make it to 6000. It always comes down to depending on the weather. But I've got probably another 6-7 weeks to get those miles in. Maybe if I can sneak in a long ride or two I just might make it.

Rode by this and had to take a picture. Some sort of contest for who could grow the largest pumpkin. Yikes!

Cherohala River Road

To be honest, Bike Ride Across Tennessee was a disappointment. I'll have more to say in another post about what I thought could have been better. What was outstanding though was a rode that another ride showed me that wasn't even on the official route. On Day 5, our route took us through Tellico Plains, TN. Here, a group of 3 of us (including the rider who had told us about this road) veered off the official course and road 10 miles up the Cherohala River Road to Bald River Falls. It was outstanding. I liked it so much that I skipped the last day of BAT and came back to do the ride again, but this time going all the way to the North Carolina State Line.

Here is the route from bikemap.net

Bike route 711456 - powered by Bikemap

You start out in Tellico Plains. And the place to start is the Tellico Grains Bakery. Fantastic breads baked onsite are just outstanding. And when done with your ride, stop back for a sandwich. Five stars all the way.

A quick right on Highway 360 and then you wil see a sign for the Cherohala Skyway, and this is what you will follow. Soon you are pedaling past a river on your left. The scenery is outstanding as the pictures below illustrate. At about mile 5, the road comes to a Y. The road going left has a sign that says "Indian Boundary". If you want to take the Cherohala to Robbinsville, NC, this is the way to go. Both days I stayed right and kept following the river.

About mile 10, you will get to Bald River Falls. There is a car park and this is a good place to get off and snap photos of the falls. Even in the fall of what has been a dry season, they are beautiful.

From here is is about 13 more miles to the NC state line. You continue to follow the river the whole way. You will pass several campsites along the way. There is a small town too about mile 16 if you need any water. When you are getting close to the top, there is also a fish hatchery. In many places, the trees form a thick canopy over the road, so even though the sun shines brightly, you are in cool, dark shade. Always following the river, water is splashing over rocks, forming little falls as it makes its way downstream.

The road is generally uphill, but nowhere steep. It averages about 100 feet of elevation gain per mile, which is less than a 2% average grade. There are some places where it is probably about 4%, but nowhere is this a difficult climb.

The top of the road is the North Carolina State Line. There is no sign though, the only way you know is that you are at the top and the pavement changes. Just after you cross into NC, the road changes to dirt, so you cannot link up with the Cherohala and do a loop. Its OK though, the ride down is past the same pretty river. Some rides you don't mind being out and back.

What follows are pictures I took on the two days riding the road.

BRAT 2010 Routes

I recently traveled to Tennessee to do Bike Ride Across Tennessee (BRAT). After returning, I've taken the cue sheets and put all of the routes (save the last day) into bikemap.net. Here they are

Route	Miles	Climbing (ft)	Route Link
Harrison Bay to Fall Creek Falls	79.3	4461	http://www.bikemap.net/route/709097
Fall Crek Falls Loop	61.2	3379	http://www.bikemap.net/route/709105
Fall Creek Falls to Athens	61.3	3182	http://www.bikemap.net/route/709109
Athens to Fort Loudon	58.5	2919	http://www.bikemap.net/route/709114
Fort Loudon to Hiawassee State Park	50.4	2559	http://www.bikemap.net/route/709115
Hiawassee State Park Loop	40.9	2230	http://www.bikemap.net/route/710320

A couple of comments about the route.

-- The route was hilly. There is no flat ground in Eastern Tennessee. The biggest climbs were on days 1 and 2, but the route was never really flat.

-- The route took a lot of major roads (read highways) rather than putting us on rural back roads. Given, in some places there is only one road across a river or a ridge, but in other places, it appears perfectly acceptable back roads were available as an alternate. Not sure what the organizers were thinking when they decided to use these roads. Just so everyone knows, I would not suggest riding the routes above for Days 1 or 3. A lot of fast traffic on the majority of those routes. The routes for Days 2, 4, 5 and 6 are pretty good though.

I'll have more to say about BRAT in the coming few days.

Ten Longest Rides

I thought it would be interesting to go back and figure out a top ten list of the longest rides I've done over the years. Here is the list.

Ride Name	Date	Distance
Great Lakes Randonneurs 400 km ACP Brevet	June 2009	262 miles
Seattle to Portland 2004	July 2004	206 miles
Seattle to Portland 2003	July 2003	206 miles
Seattle to Portland 2005	July 2005	204 miles
DC Randonneurs 300 KM RUSA Brevet	June 2006	191 Miles
Great Lakes Randonneurs 300 km ACP Brevet	May 2009	189 Miles
Ride Across Indiana 2010	July 2010	165 Miles
DC Randonneurs 240 km RUSA Brevet	November 2006	151 Miles
STP Training Ride	June 2005	150 Miles
STP Training Ride	June 2004	148 Miles

So RAIN comes in at #7. Hard to believe I've done 6 rides that were longer. I remember doing my first century in San Antonio and thinking that was a long ride. And a century is still a long ride. Like all things, you build up to these.

Ride Across Indiana - Training Evaluation

I felt that I was well prepared for RAIN this year, and I think my time bears that out. It is no easy task to average 21 mph over 165 miles. True, I did get help from drafting, but so did everyone else out there. The event was tough, but I was trained for it. What follows is a list of the high points of my training and an evaluation of what I did.

Total Amount of Miles
I had 3250 miles before leaving for Indiana for the year. A big part of the preparation for these sorts of events is that you need a large bulk of miles, and I had that. In these 3200 miles, I had a well established endurance base. When I got up around 1800 miles for the year, I could feel my speed increase, telling me that my legs had accumulated enough miles so I could work on strength and power, and not just endurance. One of the things about these rides is that there is no substitute for time in the saddle, and I had this. It is hard for me to say I could have done more miles, as 3200 in half a year is a significant amount.

Long Rides
To do an event that is a long ride you need to train by doing long rides. It would seem natural that if you have 3200 miles in half a year, this is the case. In my case, it was. Before RAIN, I had completed 6 rides of 100 or more miles. And I wasn't just hitting the century mark and calling it quits. 4 of those rides were over 127 miles and another was 109 miles. Further, I had two rides that just missed the century mark, a 97.5 and 95 miler. So I didn't just have a lot of time on the bike, I was accustomed to being on the bike for a full day at a time. If I had only been doing 75 or even 100 mile rides, doing 165 in a day is quite a jump. But I had been used to doing 130+, so RAIN wasn't a big jump for me.

Finally, on these long rides, I varied my routes quite a bit. I rode to Madison. I was in the Navarino area a lot, but all of these routes were different in some way. One went to Waupaca. One went to Tigerton. One of the rides was the GLR 200 km brevet. So I got accustomed to doing long rides on different routes, which is also important.

Weather
When an event is your main goal for a season, you have to be prepared to ride no matter what the weather. Normally we associate this to getting some riding in while it is rainy (no pun intended), and I did that. Not many, but enough that I still knew all my equipment worked and I kept my familiarity up with wet conditions.

As it turned out, it was a blistering hot and humid day. But I had done similar training rides. The ride to Madison was a hot humid day. So was the ride on July 4th. And both of those were rides over 100 miles. So yes, the heat and humidity was hard during RAIN, but I'd been there before. On those training rides, I had probably not hydrated enough, so I was prepared to hydrate adequately on the day of my event. This is always important. On event day, I had no problem because I had seen similar conditions in training. And any mistakes I had made in training, I had corrected by event day.

Taper
Two weeks before RAIN, I started to taper so I could peak for the event. The first week of tapering, I still did 174 miles (down from 266 the previous week). I was still feeling a little tired though. Part of this was due to all the miles from previous weeks and still a lot in the taper week. Part was probably due to the heat and humidity we had that week. The week directly in front of RAIN I did just 62 miles before heading down to Terre Haute. As it turned out, this was perfect. I was rested and ready to go the day of the event. So a two week taper realy seemed to work out well.

Other
I have done only a couple group rides this year. Part of it is my schedule, part of it is lack of interest in riding with a group, part of it is a hard time finding others with similar goals. The downside of this is that riding in the pack at RAIN, I didn't have a lot of recent experience riding in the peleton. But I've done enough of this before to get by. The upside though, was I was used to being out front all by myself. So getting into a pack, things were much easier because now I had people to draft off of. I didn't have any cheap miles in my training where I sucked wheels all day. Just the reverse. I was used to doing all the work, so getting some help in the pack was a refreshing change.

A lot of the roads I train on in Wisconsin are very rural roads. These have what one would call slow pavement. It is rough, hard to go fast on and takes a lot of energy. Much of RAIN is on US Highway 40, a road with a smooth asphalt surface. So once again, my training on bad roads helped me, because in this way, my training conditions were harder than the event conditions.

What Could I Have Done Better?
It is hard to improve on a 21+ mph average, but one can always improve. First, a little more speed work in terms of intervals would have been nice when riding with the pack. The pack tends to accelerate and decelerate quite a bit. Not supposed to be this way, but it happens. I could always close gaps down, but I was more like a diesel engine doing it. Some speed work would have helped my be a little more nimble for those quick burst of acceleration one needs.

The other area I could improve on is core strength. This is always a weakness of mine that I never seem to get motivated to work on. There were a couple times my back was a little sore. That happens on a long ride. But some better core strength would help this.

Overall though, I have to say I am pleased. I trained a lot, and that training paid off. I think my time proves that what I did in training was effective. Could you do RAIN by riding less miles. Sure. You wouldn't go as fast, but you could. But part of training is to make sure you are prepared for whatever comes at you on the day of the event, and in this way, I felt like my training had prepared me in every way.

Ride Across Indiana 2010

On Saturday, July 17, I completed Ride Across Indiana. This is an event put on annually by the Bloomington Bike Club and does just what the name implies--cross the state of Indiana. The ride starts on the western border just outside Terre Haute and finished on the easter border in Richmond. This year, the official distance was 160 miles.


The route is straightforward. For most of its distance, it follows US Highway 40 west to east. The only exception is going through Indianapolis, they skirt around some of the city by using smaller roads. Since most traffic takes I-70 these days, US 40 is a good road to ride on. It is a 4 lane divided highway. The road surface is well maintained and smooth. Other than the section around Indianapolis, there are not many turns and twists on this ride. Just follow US 40 and keep going.

I made the decision to ride from my hotel in Terre Haute to the start line. Many other riders do the same. My reasoning was this was easier than getting my wife and two year old daughter up at 6:00 AM to drive me to the start. So at 6:15 AM, I started off west to the start line over at the Illinois border. This added 8.1 miles to my total for the day, but oh well.

Even though it was still fairly dark at 6:15 AM, it was hot and muggy. The night before, you could feel the heat radiating up from the asphalt, and not much had dissipated over the night. A bank sign said 73, but the humidity was very high. This would be a sign of how the whole day would be. National weather Service recorded high temps into the 90's throughout Indiana on Saturday. But the killer was that high humidity. Plus, on a road bike, you are out on the pavement all day, so you really feel that heat from the ground come back up at you. A couple miles in, my jersey was soaked with sweat. It would stay that way all day.

The official start time is 7:00 AM. I lined up with 1550 other riders at the state line. Even though they go to great lengths to stress this is a ride and not a race, it is basically a race from the opening gun. The first few miles are pretty dangerous with people jockeying for position. I actually had another rider bump me while he was passing me in Terre Haute. Really stupid to put everyone's safety at risk like this, but people do it. It seems like you get more than 3 cyclists together and everything has to become a race.

I settled into the B group on the road outside of Terre Haute. The pace was very fast, 24-28 mph most of the time. Smetimes it would drop down to 21 or 22. These were actually the most dangerous times, when someone in the front slowed down for an unknown reason and sent everyone reaching for their brakes. I did not witness any crashes, but you had to be very alert.

We were quickly at the first rest stop at mile 42. On a hot day like this, it is so important to stay hydrated, so I stopped. Almost all of the B group continued. What I discovered is that on RAIN, most people bring personal support vehicles, so they have friends and family standing on the side of the road handing them water and food. Unfortunately, this contributes to too many riders thinking they are in the ProTour and makes this more like a circus/race. But whatever, I am doing my ride, so I did a minimal stop, got gatorade and a banana and continued on. I will say, the rest stops are well organized. They have a lot of food and they do keep all the fluids cold. So important on a hot day like today.

On the road, I was able to quickly come into another group of 4 riders, and then a group of about 20 riders. I guess you would call this the C group. Once again, we made very good time, 24-26 mph for a lot of it, and were sweeping up remnants of the B group I was with earlier. I think some of these folks maybe didn't have support vehicles, but were so swept up in going fast, they decided to skip the first stop. But on a hot day like this day, this was a huge mistake and these riders were now paying the price.

Rest stop 2 was at 65 miles, and once again I stopped while a large part of the group went on. I was really going through the fluids now, and I knew the order of the day was hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. So once again, a minimal stop and back on the road. I got in a group of 15-20 riders, and we kept making good time, though now more at a 20-23 mph. Some of this was due to having less firepower for sure. But also, some fatigue was probably setting in for everyone and more importantly, the heat was starting to take a toll. On this section, it really seemed liek the heat and humidity jumped up at us. Finally, this was a section through the outskirts of Indy, so a lot more turns and stops and such. Still, we were making good time.

Lunch was at mile 91. I didn't really want to eat, but on long rides like this, you must, so I ate a sandwich. I also had 3 tall glasses of lemonade. This was good because I needed the fluids, it was cold, and it was not gatorade. There was only one topic of conversation at lunch, and that was the heat.

Some of the folks I was riding with were staying at lunch waiting for another rider, so I set out from lunch with a different group of about 20 riders. We were making great progress, 22-24 mph so stretches, and then I hit a stretch of bad pavement and my water bottle flew out. I retrieved it, but was now about 30 seconds behind the group. In an event like this, unless you bring your own group, no one is waiting. I didn't think I would catch them, but then crossing some railroad tracks, my water bottle came out again. So now I was not going to catch them for sure. So I just rode my own pace, which was about 20 mph. In some ways it was nice to be out of a group, because all the groups were so nervous and jumpy. Now I could just ride.

The stretch between lunch and rest stop 3 (at mile 132) is very long and probably the hardest. It is not the terrain, as the whole ride is flat. It is just long, and you are out in the heat of the day. I did hook up with two other riders about mile 110 and we worked together to share the load almost the whole way into the rest area. But it was still hard and the heat just would not go down. The last couple miles into rest area 3, I just could not get cooled off. I still had fluids, but they were hot, so while wet, not much relief there. And the sun kept beating own and the humidity would not go away. Plus, you have rode 130+ (in my case 138+) fast miles, and you don't have the same legs you did at the start.

I would say Rest Area 3 came at the right time, but I would have really preferred it getting there about 5 miles sooner. I saw several riders taking extended breaks now. I took a little longer break, probably 15 minutes here. I downed some water and a whole bottle of cold gatorade, plus had a freezie while I was there. That really helped me to cool off and feel normal again. I sat down for about10 minutes. You don't want to sit down too long and have your body start to shut down, but I needed to sit a little so could stop expending energy and let my body recover a little bit. So by the time I left, I was feeling normal again. And of course you feel good because you are on the last stretch, a mere 30 miles to go to the finish.

I rode most of the last 30 miles alone. There were not many people to hook up wth, and everyone is riding their own pace at this point. You go through a couple of interesting small towns as you get close to Richmond. They have some really cool buildings and downtown's which are unfortunately in disrepair as these town's die. US 40 was once the main street of America. But no more. Plus, America is more about cities now and not small town's. So it is a little sad to see these town's formed in the 1820's and 1830's slowly disappear.

The finish was at Earlham College in Richmond, a Quaker college. Beautiful campus, full of trees and old buildings. You come up the main road, make a right turn and in 100 meters you are done. They call out your number to record your time, a photographer takes your picture and the hand you your key chain. A few families and friends are on hand to cheer, but not too many. From here, they have a final rest area set up to get something cold to drink and lots of places under shady trees. And that is it.

I finished at 3:26 PM according to my cell phone. So 8 hours, 26 minutes of ride time. Including my 8.1 miles from the hotel to the start line, I had 165.6 miles on my computer, so the RAIN distance I had was around 157 miles. Not sure who was off three miles. My average speed, including the time from the hotel was 21.0 mph, so I would have been a little faster on the actual course because I did not push it from the hotel. So I met all my goals. I finished, I rode fast and I rode far.



I'll have more to say in the next few days.

109 Miles for the 4th

With two weeks to go before Indiana, today was going to be my last long ride in preparation. Unfortunately, the weather has not really wanted to cooperate. Both days this weekend, we have had a lot of wind, and that was true today. And it was very hot and humid. At the same time though, you can't always just train when the wind is at your back and the temp is 72. So I needed to get a long ride in, so out I went.

My route would take me back to Iola. I have been there before when I did my big Waupaca loop of 130 miles. But today's ride would be a simple out and back with Iola as the turn around. This would get me a little bit over a century. The reason for the out and back is that storms were forecast to roll in during the afternoon. With an out and back, if it starts to look real nasty, you can turn at any point. Finally, this would take me through Manawa, and I'd been around that area but never through, so a little something new.

New London-Manawa-Iola Out Route

Share your bike routes @ Bikely.com

I started off about 8:45 AM this morning. It was already a muggy, humid day. I could tell this one was going to be a real sticky ride right from the beginning. Its bad when there isn't much difference between the dewpoint and the temp, and that was today. I think the humidity was about 65-70%. Right from the start, my bike jersey was soaked, and I remind you, these are fabrics that are designed to wick the sweat away and keep you dry.

The other factor apparent from the start was the wind. It was coming out of the Southwest at 15 mph. Going west was hard, but after the first few miles, my legs loosened up and I was able to make OK progress into it. It still took a lot of energy though. There were times the wind seemed to be coming more from the south rather than the Southwest, but still just as strong. I did get a bit of an assist from it on the way back, until I had to go due south. See, the wind had been actually picking up all day, so when I got back to Appleton, it was blowing at 25 gusting to 32 mph. Just insane.

As for the rest of the ride. The route to New London is nothing special. I took Rock road out which is always nice and a little roll. Once getting to New London, I took County Road X out of town to the west. This is nice because you go along the banks of the river for a few miles. A lot of folks out fishing today. County X heads more south at the Little Wolf River, but this is where I turned off on Ostrander Road to keep going west. Nice area in here. Good views of the river. Very rural.

From there, you get on 54 real quick and then onto County B to head up to Manawa. This is real nice in here. The little Wolf River is off to your left, mostly hidden by a tree line but occasionally peaking through. In Manawa, I stopped to refuel, then continued west. You go through Ogdensburg, which has no services (well, a couple bars, but I'm never brave enough to go in those in cycling wear. I'd have to be real desperate). Then it is onto Iola. There starts to be more roll to the terrain the closer to Iola you get. These are the Rib Mountains. Not really mountains, but hills from a rock formation. Nothing serious to climb, but you know it isn't flat either.

In Iola, I stopped at the Cenex, which is nice because it has a covered place to eat. But I didn't stay out there, just got my Gatorade and headed back. It was clouding up good, and I wanted to keep moving. This weekend, they were having the old time car show in Iola, so it would have been cool to have some more time, but not today. I did get to see a number of the old cars on the road as they passed me though.

A lot of good river scenery today. I saw a lot of folks enjoying the 4th tubing down the river, fishing, whatever. And it was hot enough today that there were times where that seemed a lot more attractive than what I was doing.

Friends of yours?

Wolf River just West of New London. This area is an
important spawning area for sturgeon.

Little Wolf River off Ostrander Road.

Coming into Manawa (notice water tower in the background).
Water towers are important to cyclists in the Midwest
because it lets you know you are getting close to town.

Little Wolf River in Little Wolf. A nice way to spend
the 4th, floating down the river.

136 Miles in Rural Wisconsin

I am planning to do Ride Across Indiana in three weeks, so I wanted to get a long training ride in today in preparation. RAIN is about 157 miles, so I wanted to do around 130-135 or so. This would build on last weekends ride of 100 miles. I'll do one more week of hard training and then start my taper.

Today's ride draws heavily from the routes I've been doing in the Navarino area. Part of the reason is I just like the area. And part of the reason was that the wind was supposed to be out of the north today. So heading north seemed like a good move. So I would go out my normal way to Embarrass, but instead of looping back, I would do an additional loop through Caroline, Tigerton and Marion. Here is a map of the route.

Appleton - Tigerton 135

Share your bike routes @ Bikely.com

This turned out to be a difficult ride. It was not especially hot (high of 79, but it was humid), so that made it tough. The north wind never materialized. Instead a stiff breeze blew most of the day out of the east. So after turning around in Tigerton, it was a tough slog back to Appleton. And as usual, I seem good at finding some of the worst pavement in the state to ride on.

In two sections, I actually wasn't on pavement at all. First, out of Tigerton, I didn't want to be on Highway 45 due to the fast traffic. So I jumped over on the Wiowash State Trail for about 3 miles. The surface is crushed limestone, but my 700x23 tires handles it no problem. My speed was decent too, 17+ most the time I was on it.

Then, east of Embarrass, I took a new route back to cross the Wolf River. I was on Hunters lane, where the pavement was terrible. Totally gone in places. And then it was totally gone, as in I was on a dirt road for about 2-3 miles. It was OK, not as good as the Wiowash trail because the dirt road is intended more for cars than bikes, but I was able to make it through. The good part was though the whole road was enclosed in tall trees, so it was very scenic.

When you get out west of Embarrass, the ground does get hillier. These are the Rib mountains, not mountains in the sense of Colorado, but more roll to the terrain. Farms seem to be smaller here, with most of the hilltops covered with pine forests. Scenic area. Lots of interesting rock outcroppings too. County M into Tigerton and County SS coming back were both especially good.

I'll let the pictures tell the rest.

Horses north of Shiocton


Small farm near Caroline. Hard to see in the photo, but there are hills


Tree with interesting wildflowers


Rural Wisconsin has lots of interesting old churches


Entering Tigerton


You wish all the roads were like this


This works too

Navarino Area 100

One of my favorite areas to ride in the Appleton area in the Navarino area. It can roughly be described as the area east of the wolf river, west of Highway 47, north of Highway 54 out of Shiocton and south of Highway 29 south of Shawano. Much of the area is home to a nature preserve, so it is wooded. This adds a lot more interest than row after row of corn. I also like this area because it is possible to ride there from Appleton. No need to get in a car and drive two hours.

On Sunday, I rode out of Appleton via Rock Road, and then up to Shiocton. North on Highway 187, crossing the Wolf River on Highway 156. Up to Embarrass where I took my first stop. Then Cloverleaf Lake Road past the lakes and back East of the Wolf River, crossing on County CCC. This time, I wound around County T to get to Sunrise, Valley and Wildlife roads to eventually end up on Lower Navarino. I think I like taking McDonald road better. A better quality surface, and more scenic. Back down past Deer View Road and into Black Creek for another stop, and then back to Appleton. Of the 100 miles I did, probably a good 50+ were in wooded areas.

The area is very low traffic too. Once you get off of Rock Road, you see very few cars. The area around Cloverleaf Lakes is built up, but it is OK. And some of the road is very scenic.

I took a few pictures, so I will let them tell the rest of the story.

Rolling West on Highway 156


Wolf River from the Boat Landing on Highway 156


Don't even want to know how they came up with the name.


Typical Wisconsin Dairy Farm


Crossing the Wolf River again on County CCC

Appleton to Madison

I've toyed with this idea for a while. What if I rode from Appleton to Madison? A one way ride? Just to say I did it? My wife could drive down separately and bring a change of clothes and meet me at the hotel. Me, I'd get in a full day of riding, a long day (130 miles) of riding, and a true randonneur experience. If all went well, I could event submit the route to RUSA to be a permanent. It is an idea that has been swimming around in my head since last fall.

On Saturday, I finally made that idea a reality. I had booked a hotel and packed the car with all bag for a change of clothes in Madison. I'd finalized my route and printed up my cue sheet. So at 7:15 AM Saturday morning when I rolled out of my driveway, there would be no coming back. This was a one way trip.

I used the fairly conventional route to get out of Appleton--Prospect Avenue to American Drive to Shady Lane. Then Clayton Road to Larson Road to County G and on and on into Winneconne. I've been on these roads lots of times before, so this was all very familiar. What I could tell, even early in the morning, was that today was going to be hot and muggy. So I was trying to make sure I consumed enough fluids, even early on in the ride. I did a minimalist stop in Winneconne at the Kwik Trip, refilling on Gatorade. And then back on the bike.

From Winneconne, you are on Highway 116 for a brief bit, then Quigley road and O'Reilly Road. O'Reilly Road is really nice for about a mile. Tall trees on each side form a virtual canopy. I was thinking to myself it would be nice to ride on roads like this all day. Quickly though, you are out of that and down to Edgewater Road. The surface on Edwater Road is pretty tore up. It is what one of my friends would call slow pavement and you need to watch out for the rougher spots. But you are up on a ridge, so you get a nice view of the valleys to the south and east. Lots of green fields and trees below.

After Edgewater Road, it is County Road E, through Eureka and into Ripon. About the only thing notable on County E is that in most places, the pavement is in good shape. Then it is into Ripon. I stopped at the BP, refilled fluids and had an energy bar and was off again. I tried to keep my stops short today.

I have been to Ripon before on the bike, but after Ripon, this was all new. And seeing as Ripon was at the 51 mile mark, it truly was the point of no return. I saw another rider in Ripon coming back from his ride, so we chatted for a couple minutes until he turned off and I continued on. I was pretty much heading due south now on County Road A and then County Road N. County Road N was some more of that slow, rough pavement. I hate that stuff. But it is also what we ride on a lot in our brevets, so it is suitable training. On County N, there are 3 or 4 good rolling hills, probably about 150-200 feet in elevation each. The last one comes just east or Markeson. It isn't overly difficult, but you get to look at it for a while before you go up it, so it plays on your mind a little.

The next stop was Randolph, so after skirting Fox Lake, it was a quick couple miles into Randolph. I stopped at the Shell station in town. It would have been better to stop at the one south of town as it is larger and probably has more of a selection. But the Shell in town met all my needs. By now, it was about 12:30, and it was really getting hot. So more fluids were in order before setting off for Columbus.

Soutrh of Randolph, I got onto County Road G and then County road DG. I really liked County DG. Curvy so it had some visual interest, and a few small hills to climb too. The hills were not bad, but now I was feeling them. It was hot, and I had 85 miles in my legs. I got through the small town of Fall River (no services) and turned off to head into Columbus. I remember just south of town, there was this nice Creek, very pretty and all wooded. I especially enjoyed the shade. The temp was in the mid 80's by now, humid, and sunny skies, no clouds at all. The shade felt nice, and I kept hoping a cloud or two would roll in, but no luck on that all day.

At the north end of Columbus, they have a statue of who else but Christopher Columbus, so I stopped to snap a picture. Getting into town, I stopped at the Kwik Trip. This Kwik Trip is the same one that was one of our controls on the GLR 400 km brevet last year. And across the street, the same Burger King where we all chowed down dinner. No Burger King for me this time, but heading into the Kwik Trip, I did plan to stop a little longer and eat something more substantial. I did not have much of an appetite at this point because of the heat, but I knew I had to eat something. I did down a soda, have a Chicken-Monterey Jack Tornado (rolled Chicken and cheese thing) and a yogurt smoothie. It would have been good to eat more, but in such hot conditions, it is hard to eat more.

Leaving Columbus, I was now on my last leg into Madison, about 33 miles. This is when the ride got really tough. Up to Columbus, my average speed had been 18.2 mph. When I got to Madison, it was 17.7 mph. Maybe a little bit of that was due to stop and go in Madison, but some of that was I was just plain tired. The heat and distance were starting to take a toll on me. My legs didn't have the same zip. For whatever reason, the terrain just seemed more desolate too. Maybe because I was struggling for about 10 miles and it was hot. Just everwhere it seemed like I was in the middle of a cornfield. And, the wind had come up from the southeast, so I had a it of a headwind to go into.

At mile 117, I crested a small hill that had some trees at the top and stopped to take a 5 minute rest. This helped a lot. Sure, my legs were still tired, but I was able to catch my breath and regroup a little. What really helped too was that in about 6 more miles, I was on the outskirts of Madison. It was great. I was here. I was on this 4 line boulevard that had nice wide bike lanes on either side. Hooray, hooray. Sure, there would be Madison traffic, but a bike lane, I am happy. I worked my way over to Monona Road and started to head south to the hotel. No bike lane here, but cars seemed to be fine with me there. Madison is used to bikers after all. And sure enough, at mile 130.5, the hotel. I had made it.

I checked in, called my wife to let here know I was there (she was shopping at the mall) and got a drink to try to cool off. A shower felt good. So did some good Thai food. As did a swim in the pool later that night.

A ride of 130 miles is always a big effort. On a ride that long, you are going to have some rough spots. I did, between Columbus and Madison. What I think people also fail to realize is that you aren't just battling the distance on these. There is always something else that makes things hard. Often that something is the weather. Today it was heat and humidity. It wasn't Texas or Virginia hot, but it was up there. And after being in it all day, the heat will take the energy out of you. I did a good job of drinking and staying hydrated. Still though, I probably could have done even better. Having some water to douse on my head during the ride would have been nice too. Hate to devote a whole bottle to just water to douse on myself, but it may be something to figure out how to do.

The final stats were 130.5 miles, 17.7 mph avg speed, 8 hours, 30 minutes of total time, 6 hours 20 minutes of ride time. Overall, I think that is excellent. Some of those roads are pretty rough, so they really slow you down. Under 9 hours of total time is very good. I'll try to improve next time, but today, I am happy to say I have actually done it. I've rode from Appleton to Madison.

De Pere Hill Route

Just east of De Pere, there is a ridge that sits above the valley. Quite a few rural roads go up the ridge, so I put together a route where I can climb up one road, descend another and then climb up the ridge again. Since we don't have any real big climbs in the area, this is what one has to do in order to get some vertical in. The other option is just to do hill repeats, but it is a little more interesting to go up and down different roads.

Depere Hill Route

Share your bike routes @ Bikely.com

I started the route in West De Pere from my employer. After crossing the river, I hopped on the bike trail to get down to Rockland Road. From there, I took Rockland out to County PP. County PP does not have a shoulder and there is a little bit of fast traffic on it, so in the future I might use Ryan Road to get down to Old Martin first.

The first climb is up County Road W. At first is just a grinding climb. You are going up gradually. Then at the end, it ramps up for probably an eighth of a mile. All told, it is about 250 feet of elevation gain.

Turning left onto Ledge Crest Drive, you pedal on the top of the ridge for a while. This section of the ride is beautiful. The roads are very quiet and forested on either side. You are only a few miles from Green Bay, but it feels like you are in Door County.

You drop down through more forested terrain onto Sportman's Drive. When you get to County X, you turn right and start climbing again. This is another climb totaling about 250 feet. It really has three main sections where it ramps up, then flattens out, and then ramps up again. After getting to the top of the ridge, you take a left on Morrison and ride past an active quarry to get to Scray's hill.

You actually start on top of Scray's hill, and need to get over to Chicago street first. After descending, you turn left at the Golf Course to start coming back up Scray's Hill Road. There is about 200 feet of total climbing here, though it comes in about 0.8 miles. The first part of the climb is a grind that will send you into your small chain ring. But it is the last part, as the road turns to the left that is the killer. The grade really kicks up here, probably 12% or so. You better already be in the easiest gear you have. The steep section isn't that long, maybe 100-150 meters, but it seems to take forever when you are only going 5 mph.

Once back on top of Scray's, a left hand turn will take you back to Chicago street and descending back towards De Pere again. After passing the golf course on my way down again, I took the next left onto Oak Cliff Circle. There are a number of very well to do homes in this area, and most of the lots are wooded. There is also a little roll to the road, so another hill or too. Nothing like the three above, but you will know these are there. This road is also nice because it gets you back into De Pere with much less traffic than Chicago Street.

According to bikely.com, I got about 1200 feet of climbing in today. Not bad for this area. This is really a cool route too because a lot of it is on very quiet country roads that are very scenic. Maybe in the future I can even find a couple more hills to add to it.

First Day Commuting to Work this Season

I commuted by bike for the first time this season today. Actually, my commute was a split commute. I left my car at work last night and rode home. Then this morning, I rode into work on the bike. The reason for doing this is because we are still working out a plan at my employer for secure bike parking. So, leaving my vehicle at work allowed me to keep the bike in the car once I got to work.

Last night's ride home was uneventful. I did a few extra miles, so it was around 25 miles in difference. But it was really just like going for a ride after work.

This morning's ride was a little different. I live about 21 miles away from the office, so it will take over an hour to get into the office. Therefore, this morning I was up at 6:00 AM and one the bike headed in at 6:30 AM. When I got on the bike this morning, it was cold--37 degrees cold. Plus, there was a decent wind out of the northeast at 12-15 mph. So the windchill was down around 30 degrees. The first half mile was cold. Then your body seems to adjust. I was OK until about mile 16. Then my hands started to get cold. I was happy to get to the office, because I just couldn't get my hands warmed up again. It was just a little chilly for that.

The other factor that made the ride hard was that wind. For me, it was a headwind the whole way in this morning. So the whole ride was just a grind. It wound up taking me one hour, 22 minutes to get from home to the office. That is an average speed of only 15.6 mph A lot of that was going into that stiff breeze the whole way. Part of it was probably due to the cold, and I was burning a lot of energy to stay warm. Finally, at 6:30 AM, I just have a problem getting the body all cranked up and going fast. I started in a grind it out mode and stayed there the whole ride. That is actually a good description of the ride--a grind. It wasn't fun, it was work. Just a grind.

I got into the office, got showered and changed and then it felt like any other day. I was hungrier than normal, probably from burning all that energy first thing in the morning. But after lunch, that went away too.

I was happy that I did this. It forced me to get out and get a little cold weather training. It also converted an hour of car commute time into bike/training time. It saved me probably 2 gallons of gas. And while it was a grind getting in this morning, there was a certain sense of accomplishment after I got in. Yes, it was cold and much less than ideal conditions, but I overcame those anyway and completed my goal of getting a commute in. There is a certain satisfaction that.

The next couple of mornings are supposed to have overnight lows of 32 degrees, so I think commute #2 will probably wait until next week though.

Luxemburg - Brussels - Luxemburg -- A Wisconsin Spring Classic

A large part of Wisconsin was originally settled by Northern Europeans. Consequently, many towns bear the names of cities or countries in Europe. Berlin, Denmark, Holland, Luxemburg, Brussels and Kiel come to mind. In honor of the Cycling Spring Classics every year held in the northern European countries like Belgium and Holland, some folks around here decided to put on our own spring classics ride, riding from two appropriately named towns (Luxemburg and Brussels) one day over Easter weekend. Usually the weather is pretty iffy in Wisconsin this time of year, making it a perfect tribute to the races in Europe.

Luxemburg-Brussels-Luxemburg

Share your bike routes @ Bikely.com

The route was 60 miles. It first wound west and north out of the small town of Luxemburg. In the first 10 miles were two sections on pave' (in honor of riding on the cobbles of Europe). Our sections of pave' were not real cobbles, but instead the crushed limestone of the Ahnapee State Trail. That stuff is hard to ride on, especially on the 700x23 tires on my road bike. What also made it hard was that almost everyone else on the ride was either a racer or ex-racer. So we weren't touring down this sandy gravelish path. We were doing 19 or 20 mph.

The other thing that is always a big factor in Europe during these races is weather, and Wisconsin did not disappoint on this day. Temp was in the low 50's, which wasn't bad. But it did rain, never too heavy, but enough to make things a mess and pick up a lot of road splatter. What was nasty though was the wind at 20 mph gusting to 30 mph coming out of the west. And it never let up all day.

The first half of the ride flew by and we were soon into Brussels. I was nowhere close to contesting the hill climb into Brussels. I was just trying to hang onto the lead group. Like I said, a lot of these other guys raced. A few riders did fall off the back, and caught us in Brussels. They decided to take the shorter route back. But as we found out later, they got lost on the way back and actually ended up doing more miles than us.

After refueling in Brussels, about 10 of us took off again in the lead group. Now we are heading south and west, so the wind is just brutal. About 5 miles out, another rider and I were dropped off the back about 100 meters. For a while, all I could do was maintain a pace to keep the gap the same. But finally, on one of the legs due west into the wind, I summoned the strength to pull both of us back into the lead group. It was pretty cool to have those guys acknowledge us for getting back in the lead group, because they weren't slowing down for us, and I had to fight for every meter to pull us back.

Half way back to Luxemburg, three riders took off and gapped us off the front. Another rider would later try to bridge up. For those of us remaining, we were just trying to maintain a steady pace. The guys off the front were young guys who raced. We weren't going to catch them. But we just kept gutting it out to the finish. Heading directly into the wind, we were doing 15 mph. Going south with a cross wind it was 18-20. It was hard the whole way.

We finally got to Champion, turned south and then back east. A tailwind at last. At this point though, the rest of the group gapped me about 50 meters. After all the hard riding, my legs just couldn't spin faster than 25-26 mph, and they were going faster than that. I closed the gap down once, but then would get gapped again. I finished about 100 meters back of my group, but not bad at all. It was a hard day. I know I went into the red-zone multiple times and I could just feel my legs burning in anguish a lot of those times. The weather was hard too. I had the right gear for the rain (booties, rain jacket, waterproof gloves), but there was no hiding from that wind.

Getting back to the parking lot, one of the guys who organized the ride had a souvenir for all of us who had finished. It was a small Belgian flag. How cool is that. If the (simulated) pave', weather and hills didn't make this a true spring classic, then certainly this did.

All in all, this ride was tons of fun. If I would have stayed home, I probably would not have even rode as the weather was so bad, or if I did ride, I would have done 20 complaining filled miles. But I was out there on new roads with a bunch of guys doing the same thing that I enjoy doing. I stayed with a lot of guys who a faster riders than me until the very end. I pushed myself in ways I haven't in a couple years. And I have a Belgian flag. What could be better for Easter Weekend than that.

Cleat Fitting

Late last season, I had some knee pain in my right knee. Perhaps pain is too strong of a word, more of a feeling of looseness, then tightness after riding a while. I had fiddled with my cleat position, but never really been able to get things right. But things like a knee you don't want to mess around with.

I saw that the high-end bike shop in Madison Crono Metro had a cleat fitting session available. So I made an appointment and headed down to Madison.

The shop did not disappoint. These were guys who not just knew bikes, but loved cycling. Graham Watson photographs signed by cycling's superstars hung throughout the shop. One of my favorite pieces was the 3D relief map of the Pyrenees. And in two rooms that they use for fitting, jerseys from around the world adorned the walls. There was cycling in the air in this shop.

I met with Craig as he would be doing my fitting. We mounted my Serotta up on a CompuTrainer which was located on a platform raised about 8 inches off the floor of the room. The room was large enough so Craig could move around and observe me as I pedaled against the resistance on the CompuTrainer.

Before getting on the bike, Craig spent a few minutes discussing with me what problems I was having and basically where things hurt. We also talked about what I had tried and I filled him in on my history of hotfoot. Then, I got up on my bike and just pedaled, still with the old cleats (which I knew to be worn out). One of the things that he immediately noticed was that my right foot should move further out, away from the crank. I had long suspected this, but it is impossible to see being on the bike. But from Craig's view off the bike, he could clearly see where the adjustment needed to be made. He also observed that my cleats needed to come back slightly.

We made these adjustments and I continued riding. Though I had rode only about 5 minutes, I could already feel the "looseness" in the outside part of my knee starting, that would turn to pain if I rode long enough. So I described what I was feeling to Craig so we could determine a fix to this problem. Another observation he made was that I was sitting far back in the saddle. I have always sat far back in the saddle, but he reasoned this may be making me "reach" with the right leg, causing some of the unnatural stretching in my knee. But before we addressed this problem, we decided to put on a new set of cleats to rule out any problems caused by "wear and tear" on the old, worn out cleats.

While Craig was putting on the new cleats, I looked at the old ones. We immediately noticed not only how worn they were, but also how uneven the wear was. The cleats where much more worn down on the outside part of the cleat than the inside. This was causing the angle of contact with the pedal to change and probably causing part of my problem.



Putting the new cleats on helped immediately. I felt less like I was reaching on my right leg. and much of the "looseness" went away. Craig theorized that I was probably bouncing a little bit in the worn cleat. Not enough to feel at the foot, but it would show up in my knee. But clearly, I need to replace my cleats more often to avoid these types of issues.

After this, we addressed the angle of the right cleat (my heel felt a little too far out, so we changed the angle to move it back towards the bike. And then we addressed the saddle issue. We moved the saddle 5 mm forward. I wasn't sure I would like this. I have had the same saddle position for a long time and always sat way back. But if there is a time to make a change, it is now, when I have zero miles for the season in, so my body can adapt to it.

Surprisingly to me, the saddle change helped my knee as well. My pedal stroke felt compact and tight, with none of the looseness that I had felt before. In fact, my right leg felt so good, that now my left leg felt a little off. I pedaled for about another 5 minutes, and was satisfied that we had done all we could do, so we called it a session. Of course, the true test comes out on the road in a couple weeks when the snow melts, but I think we have done all the work we can in the lab to give me the best chance at feeling good out on the road.

So what I learned was the following:

• I need to be much more proactive about changing cleats because I wear them out and I wear them out in an uneven fashion. I probably need to be changing them every 2000 miles, so 3 times a year for me. This will keep my position on the pedal consistent throughout the year.
• We addressed some lateral position and rotational position issues I had. It was much easier for Craig to see what needed to be done with his trained eye off the bike rather than me trying to look down through the bike. Someone who knows what to look for and can watch your pedal from the front and the side is critical to helping make the right adjustments.
• My saddle probably did need to come forward. I was probably reaching with my right leg without knowing it. I think this new pedal stroke will work better for me.

One other note about Craig and Crono Metro. Aside from all the cool bike things hanging on the wall, I could tell this was an individual who was very knowledgeable in the fitting of bikes and the bio-mechanics of how people ride bikes. This is not someone who took a fit class 10 years ago and is blindly applying formulas. This is an individual who keeps up with the current literature in how bikes fit people and how to fit bikes to people. Craig has clearly spent a lot of time reading and researching the subject of bike fitting. He attends forums and panels around the country to to interact with and exchange ideas with other thought leaders in the science of bike fitting. This is someone who is constantly refining and improving his practices so the rider gets a better and more comfortable bike fit.

Anyone who is buying a high end road bike or who has issues with their fit should call Crono Metro and make an appointment. Even if you don't plan to buy a Serotta or a Seven, find out how your bike is supposed to fit. These individuals are professionals and intellectuals about how a bike should fit. It is well worth a few hundred dollars to get your bike to fit exactly. My cleat fitting was well worth the time I spent driving to Madison. It is one of those things that now I ask myself, why didn't I do this much sooner.