SPH - Wheelhouse Cycles team ready for the season to begin

(AP, Red Wing, MN)

As the Sandwich 50 draws near, final preparations of bikes, nutrition, and bodies are underway for the SPH - Wheelhouse Cycles team. There is an air of confidence and excitement amongst the group. While the first race may also be the biggest of the year for those in the contest this weekend, there is contentment with whatever the results may be and wonderment with how the bodies will respond to such a test.

"We've created a great atmosphere on the team. The guys are all tight and Larry (Warrington) and Isaac (Giesen) have managed to transmit motivation and tranquillity to the entire group," explained directeur sportif Andrew Petersen. "We're setting off knowing that we've prepared very well for the race, which is a very important objective for us."

Both team leaders were aware of the difficult task ahead, but not without confidence. "It's going to be quite a hard Sandwich 50, from the first lap to the last. I think it'll be the most challenging out of all the ones I've faced so far," said Isaac Giesen.

It's almost go time

Like the sweet spinning backhand at a ping pong table the racing season is finally upon us....

Carbo loading has commenced by eating hot wings, little pork tacos, some Chipotle remains, and sample wedding cakes... tomorrow the plan is to drink lots and lots of water

My saddle has been swapped out to something that isn't worn out... and then swapped back to the old stand by. The gearing has been swapped from a real man's gear 36-18... to the more reasonable 32-18...

Let's rock!

Friday Music Flashback!

Huh?

This is spring? More like spwinter! If the weather doesn't get a wee bit warmer and drier soon me thinks that the schooners won't be on the singletrack til nigh on the middle of May! Luckily Lar-dog, probably the youngster Marcus and ole Blackbeard are looking to work our singletrack magic in Rochester for the wacky race called the Sandwich 50 in early May.

SSSS is fassssst approaching!

With the weather finally changing the first SSSS (SPH Super Sprint Series) race is fast approaching!

Meetings are already happening to try and unseat Jake as the undefeated sprint champ.

Initial planning shows that race #1 will be on April 15th, at 6:30. Pre-race "meeting" will be by the old starting line or something like it. We could also meet in the work parking lot and cruise from there.

Here is a sample live chat thing.... for the race... maybe.... starts at 7 if you're interested.

(live chat deleted to make the page load faster)

Have fun!

Weekend ride report

I heard the following SWEET! song so determined that we would have to check out a little bit of the 'rok (please insert the oomlaut) course...

Lar-Dog and I hopped in the man-of-war to get to the testing waters. Some steep uphills and fun downhills preceded a section that I would call "slick"... in fact if you were Dan Jansen you actually would have been in your element...

The snow was our salvation. That turned to sweet sweet gravel... which turned to lava flow looking piles of river silt... which turned to a pile of sand... which turned into 3-4 shocked people out for a nature walk...

The race next weekend should be interesting.