Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Riverwest 24

This past weekend (July 24th-25th) found me and about 350+ other cyclists in Riverwest competing in the 2nd annual 24 road race that was created to help bolster the eclectic community. The 'race' takes every and all cyclist possible, given that they are over the age of 18. There are 4 race categories; Solo, Tandem, Team A (2-6 riders, 1 bike) and Team B (2-6 riders, many bikes).

I, with 3 other riders, competed in the Team B category under the name Bus Bait. My teammates where, Jordan (from the bike shop and also fellow First Friday racer), Matt (fellow First Friday racer) and Chris from my day job at The Paper. While Matt, Jordan and myself are all experienced fixed gear anything goes road racers, Chris on the other hand is used to closed courses and was daunted at first at the idea of riding in open roads with traffic, stop signs/lights and bar time. He quickly lost his trepidations once we did a group ride of the course and understood how the route looked.

We went into the event with no real set goal other then to just ride and try and keep a man on the field lapping as much as possible. Our goal wasn't to win, but to do it and have fun and see how far we could go. After 24 hours of random shift changes between all 4 of us we had covered 68 laps (awesome hussle from Matt on the final lap!!) making up around 340 miles worth of distance travelled. While all of us got about 1 to 2 hours of sleep the entire time of the event we all kept a good pace and help on until the vary end. It was an awesome experience and would not have been as comfortable or enjoyable with out the logistical support from my friend Pat the PAT who brought out his camper and hung out the entire time.

With the lap count alone our team tied with 4 other teams for 4th place, at the time of this writting we are awaiting the final count with the bonus points added to see where we truely placed in the Team B category. The event was entertaining and I think friendships were formed between us and other riders that might not have transpired normally. Now we are actually looking towards next years event and trying to see if we can't clamp down and win it, know that we know what to expect.

Check out www.riverwest24.com for the leaderboard, info and a link to a slew of photos.

Here is a photo someone snapped that centered on us having dinner before the race. Jordan, Chris and myself along with Flynn, co-owner of Milwaukee Courier Company, who hung out with us through much of the event.

Monday, July 6, 2009

Trip Finalization

So the trip to Tokyo for the 2009 Cycle Messenger World Championships is officially underway. I have purchased the plane ticket and reserved the space at the Youth Hostel for the stay. Now all I need to do is figure out a good way to train for it besides quitting my day job and joining a messenger company. For right now though my biggest concentration will be on improving my stamina and speed, I can work on package handling and negotiation easily enough, since the way it looks like is that the checkpoints in the races you have to approach by foot. So it's just a matter of getting quick at loading and removing packages from my bag.

Here is the website for the Youth Hostel I will be staying at, I couldn't pass up staying at a place called 'Ninja' and it is relatively close to the event.

In the blog for the event the planners seem to be having fun as well. http://cmwctokyo.blogspot.com/2009/07/only-in-japan.html

My anticipation is building and again I want to thank everyone for their support. If you get a chance come check me and my team mates out at the Riverwest 24 from 7pm July 24th to 7pm July 25th as we try to see how many laps we can put down in this 2nd annual 24 hour road race.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Registration and Anticipation

After trying twice with my work email I finally re-registered for the CMWC's through my home email and magically received the emails I needed right away. So, now I am officially registered and paid up for the race's and events. You can find me listed as 280 at the site. Next week I should be buying the plane ticket and working on reserving the youth hostel stay. Again I have to thank everyone for supporting me in this adventure, everyone who has donated and especially my corporate sponsor 8th Inch.

As I have been mulling over the idea of getting a complete bike from them I have started to become excited about it. Here are just some of the cool components I will more then likely have on the bike.
I want to see if I can get red crank arms with a white chainring and a red chain.


Here is a better shot of the handlebars. Im thinking these with either red track grips or red bar tape.



I'm most excited about these wheels, I wanted a pair for my bike before 8th Inch offered to have me promote them in Tokyo. So it will be cool to rock them and I should probably get a pair for my bike too. I'm anxious to see the other components available, their list on BLOG is pretty solid for components...anodized cogs/lockrings offer tantelizing options.

So again, thanks to everyone for their support so far. I am close to being where I need to be for the trip and a huge thanks for 8th Inch!!