Monday, August 31, 2009

The Culmination of the Trip

With a little over two weeks to go before I head to Tokyo things are coming to a head. I figured it would be good to put out a sort of last call for those who would still like to donate towards the cost of the trip I am asking for those to come in, in the next week or so. I greatly appreciate everyone support, it means a lot and the support I have gotten has been awesome. This would not be happening if it weren’t for everyone, so thank you again. If you would like to donate through PayPal you can via my account sbilek@journalsentinel.com. Otherwise contact me at the same email address about donating physically.

The new bike finally came!!!


Last Thursday I put together the bike I was given by Eighthinch.com to race on and help promote the brand. (See photos below) It looks sharp but I need to get used to it, but that’s why I have it now instead of in two weeks. This thing is definitely going to do what they want it to do…be noticed and have people asking about it. Already it has gotten quite a bit of attention around town. I have also been strapping it to my car while running errands too; just to help a little bit more. I don’t always have to be on the bike to promote the bike; all I need is for it to be with me, which meant I went grocery shopping twice over the weekend with the bike on the car. Anyways, I’m incredibly grateful for the guys at Eighthinch.com for the bike.


Friday night was also night 1 of 2 for the Bicycle Film Festival, which has never come to Milwaukee before. The guys at Cog and the people at the Bike Federation helped to make it happen and they put on a good show. Pete from Cog was nice and comped me a ticket to the show Friday night in lieu of canceling his alley cat at the beginning of August. I rode the Eighth Inch down to the show of course and took in some interesting bike related films. After the showing there was supposed to be a race from the cinema to the after party, the race didn’t manifest, instead we did a huge group ride to the bar.


The after party was held at Stonefly Brewery in Riverwest where they had Goldsprints set up. I was pretty happy about this since it gave me the opportunity to try them out before doing them in Tokyo…and I’m glad I did. I went head to head with Captain Jake of Milwaukee Bike Polo and got beat. I didn’t feel to bad about it because he pulled the best time at that point of doing the distance (I never found out the distance) in under 21 seconds. I clocked in at mid 24 seconds but might have gotten a little better time if I would have kept the rear wheel from skipping on the roller. I was cranking so hard and didn’t have enough weight on the saddle that the tire wasn’t fully contacting the roller, thus not registering an accurate speed in the beginning. I might have been able to pull off a 23 second time otherwise. Also, halfway through I had been sweating so much I had to pull my glasses of and clench them in my hand while I cranked. So…for Tokyo I now know; take the glasses off and keep as much weight on the saddle as possible all while spinning my legs as fast as I can and go until they tell me to stop. It was fun. Pete from Cog ended up winning in the end, which is awesome because he was probably the oldest one there doing it.


Last week the TKBMA, the organization that put together the CMWC’s in Tokyo, released a detailed map of the race route, found here. Today they also posted the rules for the race, here. Now it is time to study the map and study the rules and try and figure out mentally how best to do this. I still don’t have all the pieces of the race puzzle, but those I will find out at the start of the race, which is part of what this is all about. This race isn’t going to be primarily about speed, all about efficiency. I can’t wait.


Click on the pictures for a larger view.


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