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.