Last week I took off from racing to catch up on some work around the house and get in three days of long miles on the roads of southern and western Wisconsin. For my chore I had a bicycle that someone gave me for a tune up that really had been left outside a bit too long, so that meant a lot of brushing rust off and plenty of oil to get it to shift and work properly. Safe to say I got it done just in time for the warmer weather.
Saturday 6:45am I was on the road. I was supposed to meet my friend Tim “Skinman” Skinner for a ride to New Glarus but we got our wires crossed and missed each other. I ended up making a big loop ending up in New Glarus so I could have a short run back to Verona after my coffee at the Fat Cat Coffee House. A medium sized cup of Cafe’ Mocha warmed me up and helped shake of the brutal wind that I had to fight for the previous 35 miles. After coffee it was only an 18 mile ride back to Verona with plenty of hills and wind to keep me company. Made it back home by 10:30 just in time to mow the lawn and clean out the garage.
Café Mocha at he Fat Cat Coffee House in New Glarus
Sunday I was at it again, this time with Chip Camillo and Tim. We headed towards Mount Horeb or Horrible as I call it, with the intent of doing the Ironman loop backwards. We got about 20 miles into the ride when click, click, click, my bike started to shift into harder gears. I knew exactly what the problem was—my shift lever had worn out and would need to be rebuilt. So for the next 15 miles I had to manually hold the lever in the gear I wanted to ride in and limp back to Verona for repairs. $15.00 worth of springs, and $18 worth of bar tape later, I had all the goods I needed to rebuild the lever. So the rest of Sunday afternoon I spent rebuilding my shifting lever and putting the ole DeRosa back together again. A couple of Leinies Reds made short work of the job!
Monday finished up my three days of training and boy did I save the best for last! Chip and Tyler Byrnes worked me over something fierce. The wind had died down enough for them to drag me out to Dayton at 26-28 MPH! Now don’t get me wrong I love to go fast but if I have 17 miles of climbing after that? You can guess what happened next. Out the back and trying to chase back on was the work for the rest of the day. After I did manage to catch back on (they stopped and waited for me) I limped back home and fell asleep in the chair.
Next weekend I am planning on doing some more riding with friends. Looks like it could be another 3-4 days of training and mowing the lawn again.