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Expectations are high for any NFL first-round pick, especially one like San Francisco 49ers wide receiver A.J. Jenkins, who many thought wouldn't hear his name called until Day 2 of the 2012 NFL Draft.
Since he first joined the team back in April, Jenkins has looked like anything but a first-round pick. Reports have indicated that he turned in several disappointing performances during offseason workouts and hasn't looked the part.
The Illinois product has been underwhelming since hitting the practice field for the 49ers. Although he occasionally makes the highlight catch, Jenkins has struggled with keeping his balance and picking up YAC yards. Yes, it's early; the fact that Jenkins has struggled in shorts isn't promising, though.
Considering that the 49ers already have a solid group of wide receivers in front of him on the depth chart makes Jenkins' chances of having a strong rookie campaign even slimmer.
As most know, wide receiver Michael Crabtree and tight end Vernon Davis are the perennial playmakers for the 49ers' passing attack. Since he was acquired by San Francisco, veteran Randy Moss has re-emerged as a legitimate starting pass-catcher. Mario Manningham, another free agent acquisition, shouldn't have too much trouble asserting himself as another focal point in the 49ers' air assault. One could even make the case that undrafted rookie free agent Chris Owusu has outperformed Jenkins so far this offseason.
The point I'm trying to make: the 49ers offense won't be caught between a rock and hard place if Jenkins doesn't pan out in 2012. They will, however, need some production from their young wide receivers sooner rather than later. Moss isn't going to be in San Francisco forever and the Crabtree/Davis duo can't carry the passing attack by themselves.
Luckily for Jenkins, the supporting cast that will surround him in San Francisco this season gives him plenty of opportunities to learn from seasoned veterans. The 49ers don't need him to be a huge contributor right now, which will give him time to adjust to life in the NFL.
It might be awhile (if ever) before the 49ers' 2012 first-rounder starts paying dividends. Until that day, the choice to make Jenkins a Day 1 selection will remain as Jim Harbaugh's (or Trent Baalke's) most-questionable decision.
Follow Gil Alcaraz IV on Twitter.


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Posts for July, 2008
It's as easy as learning to ride a bike, when you're 60
Susan McLucas has built a reputation as Boston's "Bike Whisperer" for her ability to teach adults how to stay upright on two wheels.
The 59-year-old runs the Bicycle Riding School from her barn, an avocation the teacher has pursued for about 25 years. Hundreds of nervous 40-somethings and earnest grandmothers have managed to balance and pedal under her tutelage.
And her enrollment has been rising right along with gas prices.
This piece from the Boston Globe tells her story and includes a video that can be described as precious.
In Milwaukee, the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin offers bicycle classes for kids, but the story makes one wonder if there's a market for a similar class here.$
A Flatlander looks to go long and tall in the Leadville 100
For about a decade, I've been mountain bike racing with a loosely organized group that follows a very unique team philosophy.
The goal is to enjoy the race-induced suffering of other team members and to contribute to that pain whenever possible.
Given that dynamic, I took just a bit of pleasure in learning that six of these guys got themselves into the Leadville Trail 100, one of the toughest mountain bike races in the country: 50 miles up and 50 miles down, starting at 10,200 feet of elevation, in Leadville, Co.
And it's run in the middle of summer.
And they had to win a lottery to do it. Ha!
Graciously, one of the lucky ones, Steve Smith, agreed to share his progress in the build-up to this epic ride.
He's a communications specialist at Rockwell, who lives with his wife and children in Wauwatosa. And yes, he is a true Flatlander, listing Peoria as home turf.
Here's the start of his coming agony:
$ (3)
Every sport has its number.
Think running (26.2) or golf (72).
Cyclists bow to "100" as their measuring stick.
You've either ridden a century or you haven't; you've mastered its complexities or it produces gut-churning anxiety.
New cyclists speak of riding 100 miles in reverent tones for years and may placate long distance urges with events like "metric" centuries (62 miles) until biting into the full deal.
Truth told, the distance demands respect, vanquishing those drawn into the test with legs, mind and spirit not entirely trained and calibrated to handle 5, 6, 7 or more hours in the saddle.
As a cyclist for more than 25 years, it took me 10 years to get the guts to ride my first century. I still remember how the aches and pains in arms legs (and rear) evaporated for ever so briefly as the odometer flashed over from 99.9.
In the subsequent years, I've completed the distance a dozen or so times, once in the sprightly time of 4:35.
So was it hubris or blissful Midwestern optimism that six of us Wisconsin "flatlanders" stuffed an envelope with entries for the Leadville 100 mountain bike race.
This is no ordinary "hundee."
It includes 14,000 feet of climbing at elevations up to 12,600 ft. (Milwaukee = 634 feet above sea level).
Finish in less than 9 hours and get a gold belt buckle; under 12 gets you a bronze buckle. Outside those time limits gets you nothing...NOTHING...not even recognition in the finishing roll call.
It brings a fat-tire option to the trails made famous by the Leadville 100, a 25-year old institution in the ultramarathon running world.
Winning the lottery and one of the 1,500 coveted entries into this hallowed 100 was the first step; quickly followed by the buyer's remorse on just what I'd gotten myself into.
For me, Leadville requires a mental state adaptable to spending 10+ hours in the saddle. To conquer this super-sized version of cycling's big number, I'll be plying the roadways of Southeastern Wisconsin, riding a century every Saturday morning not conflicted by soccer, swimming or assorted running around in support of family obligations.
A "good week" for me will be 180 miles on the bike.
Finishing the Bone Ride, 160 miles, in May, gave me a shot of confidence, but plenty of work and questions remain.
How to eat? Will oxygen deprivation make me giggle uncontrollably or cry like a baby?
Over the next several weeks, you can read here about the tribulations of keeping with this schedule, allowing you to voyeuristically follow the sadistic build up as this Cheesehead tangles with the numbers and tries to stretch 634 to 14,000 over 100 miles.
Striders start marathon build-up runs on Saturday
A quiet, six-mile run on the lakefront Saturday morning would be just the remedy for any lingering effects of fireworks and/or fermented beverages in celebration of our country's independence.
That makes the timing perfect for the start of the popular marathon build-up program organized by the Badgerland Striders.
The weekly runs start at 8 a.m. on Saturday mornings, just west of the Lake Park Pavilion and a bit south of Kenwood Blvd. A couple of the longer outings in August will start at 7 a.m. to avoid the heat.
Jon Mueller, a chiropractor who has finished 28 marathons, will lead the workouts building to the Lakefront Marathon on Oct. 5. The mileage increases every Saturday (except for Al's Run weekend) for the next 13 weeks, topping out at 22 miles on Sept. 6 and tapering to eight miles the week before the marathon.
"I consider it a pretty aggressive program," said Mueller, who also coaches the Galloway training program through the InStep running store.
While geared toward the Lakefront race, the build-up runs are a real boon to anyone working toward a marathon or similar distance in the fall.
Those long runs, upwards of 12 miles, are tough to manage alone and without aid stations. The build-up program provides plenty of running partners, and well-stocked water stops, and it's free.
Donations are welcome, though, and a good idea to help pay for the fresh fruit and beverages at the finish line. In a change from past practice, beer is no longer the recovery drink of choice.
Mueller is figuring that 125 runners will show up each Saturday morning, and just about every pace, from 7-minute miles to 13-minute miles, will be represented.
"It's amazing, the variety of people who turn out," Mueller said.$
Paddlers should be wary of lingering high water
Fast-flowing water still presents dangers for inexperienced canoers and kayakers, even though most of the rivers in Wisconsin have receded below their flood stage.
As the holiday weekend offers extra days for water-based recreation, the State Department of Natural Resources has continued to share its reminders for high-water paddling and the recommendation that rivers still flowing at or near flood stage be avoided.
The Rock River flowing through Jefferson County remains above flood stage, and several other area waterways, including the Milwaukee and Menomonee Rivers, are still flowing faster than normal. In contrast, the Flambeau and Chippewa rivers are at terrific levels for water adventures, according to the DNR reports.
John Plenke, a recreational safety warden in the DNR's southeast area, said that the debris floating in many area rivers also poses hazards. Water craft can be caught easily and pinned by the currents against large logs and other pieces knocked into the water during last month's flooding.
The United States Geological Service has up-to-date information on river flows, and this National Weather Service map shows the status of the rivers in relation to their flood stage.
Check here for the full DNR Outdoor Report for the 4th of July weekend.$
Tour de Oak Leaf Trail
Summerfest, fireworks and the start of the Tour de France made it easy to miss this piece on the Milwaukee County Oak Leaf Trail, which appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel over the weekend.
I probably would have missed it myself, if I hadn't invested a good eight hours of biking time to loop around the trail's perimeter and put together something of a scorecard on the hits and misses.
The last time I covered the entire outer loop in a day the trail was still the Milwaukee County 76 Bike Tour, and Brett Favre was ascending, not retiring.
While there have been improvements, as the story notes, deteriorating pavement continues to be a problem on the Oak Leaf. In addition, sections of the trail that cover municipal streets and intersections could use a bit better signage, for wayfinding.
Overall, however, I pedaled away from my circumnavigation largely impressed and plotting more day trips close to home.
I tend to limit my miles on the Oak Leaf to the same sections, and found some great areas for exploration, particularly on the southwest side, where the new segments through the Root River Parkway offer terrific, rural riding. I just need to do a bit more work in planning the breakfast and lunch stops.
Feel free to send along suggestions for your favorite sections of the trail, or areas to avoid.$ (5)
That has to hurt
I ran across this news from Madison today about a cyclist who left his ride untended and apparently unlocked outside a grocery store in Madison.
It was stolen.
The fixed-gear bike was valued at $8,000, according to the owner's report to police. Ouch.
I suspect that nearly all bike riders have had those "should I lock it?" moments, when expediency and security seem to balance out about evenly. For a time, anyway, this tale will tip the scales for me.
On a happier note, Journal Sentinel reporter Doris Hajewski put together this piece in today's paper about the expansion of Ben's Cycle on Lincoln Ave. in Milwaukee. The Hanoski empire has grown quite nicely over the years, and the new store has a comfortable, spacious feel.
Congratulations to the whole crew at Ben's, but I'll still prefer rubbing elbows at the counter in the original shop, listening to the banter and eyeing the bikes and bikers, big and small. After all, what's a trip to the bike shop without stumbling over a wheel?$
Finishing Danskin says 'screw you cancer'
Meghan Brown has invented her own definition for the medical diagnosis "terminal," and made it synonymous with indomitable.
The 22-year-old college student from Pleasant Prairie will compete Sunday in the Danskin Triathlon, with tumors in her chest and battle scars from the previous attempts to exorcise them.
Just being a cancer survivor makes Brown somewhat unique among the 5,000 entrants in the race in her home town. Her young age even separates her from the 151 other survivors in the Danskin, and her spirit makes her one-of-a-kind.
"I can't imagine the strength that she has," said her mother, Lori. "I cannot imagine knowing what she knows and living with what she has. She has no self-pity."
And self-pity would be understandable.
On her 18th birthday, Dec. 10, 2003, doctors told Brown she had a suspicious mass in her chest, which was the cause of her tiredness and coughing.
A biopsy revealed cancer, but one so rare in a woman her age that it required diagnosis by experts at the Mayo Clinic.\
The tumors, atypical neuroendocrine carcinoma, withstood the initial rounds of chemotherapy, and forced surgeons to remove the mass, roughly the size of 1 and ?? grapefruits. Along with it, they took a piece of Brown's aorta and pericardium, and replaced them with plastic.
The tumors returned and were removed, then returned again.
"The tumors are stable," Brown said. "They haven't grown. They haven't shrunk. They're just sitting there, which is fine by me.
"My hope is that one day I won't have any trace, just some staples and plastic to show for it."
Throughout those years of surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation, Brown stayed as active as possible, and competed in the Danskin as part of a relay team with her mother and Godmother in 2004 and 2005.
In 2006, she completed the ??-mile swim, the 12.4-mile bike ride and the 3.1-mile run all on her own, then repeated the feat in 2007, while taking oral chemotherapy medication.
Just thinking back on that day, watching her daughter cross the finish line, makes her mother "all goose-pimply and teary-eyed."
Brown is inspiring even to the older women who have fought their own battles with cancer, the ones who impress the 22-year-old competitor in an event started 19 years ago to raise money for breast cancer research.
She bonded with them her first year in the Danskin, when she swam as part of the family relay team.
"It was wonderful to see all these strong women who could say ???screw you cancer, I can still do this,'" Brown reflected. "It's not the little, old fluffy survivor group that goes out first."
"They're so kick-ass, it's awesome. It's not a bunch of ladies with scars; they're battle wounds."
In many ways, Brown finds it easier to identify with those women than her peers, her fellow 20-something students at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
"Cancer is an isolating disease," she said. "Everyone else is going to college and worrying about the next keg party and you're worried about the next treatment stop."
Finishing the triathlon gives the former high school swimmer a bit of normalcy, a sense of accomplishment to make up for what she's lost.
"It was a horrible feeling to go from being a strong athlete to being knocked on your ass," she said. "I was a senior. I had just turned 18, and this was supposed to be the growing years.
"Initially, doing Danskin was to show everyone that I could still do it and show myself I could still be normal. You gain that self-confidence and self-worth back."
As for that dark diagnosis, the word terminal, Brown doesn't plan to slow down long enough for the doctors to make that label stick, asserting, "I don't think they can catch me long enough to put that word next to my name."$
Climbing mountains and philosophy in pursuit of Leadville
Local cyclist Steve Smith awoke this morning and found himself an all-too-short month from the Leadville Trail 100, a mountain bike race that will require a lifetime of climbing from the Illinois native.
Smith sent along an update on his training, and an explanation for this effort, which many would consider crazy.
"The third time riding hard up the big hill at Lapham Peak, my eyes started flashing purple spots with every blink, transforming the road into some sort of bizarre outdoor rave.
"The sound of knobbies and labored breathing melded into a "dance house" mix.
"With only a month to go to the Leadville 100 mountain bike race, my training being now makes frequent visits to that Hill Climb Mountain Rave.
"Physical abilities notwithstanding, I've always had an affinity for the hills.
"The sky-scraping peaks captivated me as a 10-year-old on my first visit to Colorado.
"The way the earth heaved heavenward clearly indicated this was a special part of the world, far different than Peoria, Illinois (652 ft. above sea level).
"As a cycling enthusiast, I've learned the feudal quality of mountains.
"Kings of the sport adapt to the elevations, conquering Alpine slopes with equal parts determination and physical ability. On many stages, the looping switchbacks allow the leaders to cast a providential glance on their subjects toiling in their wake.
"It's perhaps not surprising that castles, churches and military bases worldwide sit atop mountains, giving inhabitants the power over the land and seemingly easier access to clarity of mind, body and soul.
"My Leadville attempt centers more on desire than ability, and this particular training run to Lapham served testament to that fact. The 85-mile, mountain-bike outing included a steady ride out to Lapham Peak from Wauwatosa on roads (or gravel shoulders when space allowed), complimented with 3 laps on the trails and the bonus trips up to the tower.
"Total time: 5 hours. A mega ride later in the holiday weekend had me pedaling out to the Emma Carlin trail head, completing a John Muir loop, then riding home into a headwind.
"With some squinting, there were some "mountains" conquered over the 8-hour day.
"A flat tire and bloody knee added to the authenticity of an epic day of about 110 miles. Special thanks to the Ellsworth Mountain Bike team who graciously provided a spare tube, pump and Corona Light hand up in the Emma Carlin parking lot to ease the ride home.
"So, while John Muir mused: "Climb the mountains and get their good tidings" my fear is that he may not have intended this goodwill to extend to knobby-bearing cyclists. Undaunted, the goal is to prove this true, to keep climbing; keep seeking the steep pitches and keep waiting for the effort to show the velvet rope being pulled aside as the next Rave begins."
New information on the cycling fatalities
This story has the latest news on the crash that killed Nancy Sellars, a much-admired endurance athlete, during a light ride last night in Racine County.
It's difficult to fathom how the experienced cyclist could be killed close to home, just weeks after pedaling across the country as part of Team Badger Bikers in the Race Across America.
Sellars' friend, Mary Gorski, spent much of the night at Froedtert Hospital with other friends and family members. I think she said it quite well:
"This is an incredible loss. When a friend of mine called us last night to let us know, and we all went to Froedtert, it was as if the words kept bouncing off my head. The words keep hitting our heads and they're not getting inside. It's too inconceivable.
"I biked with her on Saturday, how could she be dead today?"
Gorski met Sellars, 48, on the old Vic Tanny triathlon team, which eventually morphed into the TriWis group. Both women accomplished tremendous feats in triathlons and ultra marathons.
No doubt Gorski will carry a heavy, heavy heart through the 135 miles of the Badwater Ultramarathon, which she will start on Monday. But she is going.
"Running 135 miles across the desert seems silly in comparison," she said. "But Nancy would be so pissed at me if I stayed back because of this. If nothing else, it's one of those things to dedicate to her, and I know I've got an angel watching over me."$
A mournful day for state cyclists
Friends and teammates of local endurance athlete Nancy Sellars have reported this morning that the four-time Ironman finisher died after being struck by a vehicle while bicycling last night in the Town of Raymond.
Sellars most recently completed the Race Across America as part of an eight-man team, Badger Bikers, that raised nearly $70,000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, through their eight-day ride across the country.
The Racine Journal Times reported that two cyclists were struck by a vehicle about 6:30 last night, and the driver fled but was found about one mile away at a friend's house in the Town of Norway.
Sellars' teammates, competitors and friends said she died early this morning at Froedtert Memorial Hospital, where she was taken after the crash.
The Journal Sentinel will provide more information as it becomes available throughout the day.
Sellars' death made Wednesday a particularly tragic one for bicyclists. David Brandenburg, 63, was killed about 6 a.m. Wednesday when a semi-tractor trailer struck him as he rode on Hwy. A. in the town of Trenton, in Dodge County.
It's easy to understand why Sellars was so beloved by her fellow athletes, given this statement on her Team Badger Bikers web page:
"For me it is as much the journey as it is the destination. The friendships I have made over the years of training are truly ones to be cherished. Getting to the starting line and then to the finish line of my first Ironman made me realize how blessed I am that 'I Can'.$
How about one fast mile this weekend
This has to be one of the busiest weekends of the year for the multi-sport types.
I count at least 10 events in Wisconsin alone, assuming one considers Madeline Island off of Bayfield to be part of the Badger State. That's where the Pedal, Paddle, Plod and Plunge ups the ante to a quadrathlon by including a four-mile sea kayak segment.
Locally, the Danskin women's triathlon hosts 5,000 empowered athletes raising money to fight breast cancer in Pleasant Prairie, on Sunday, and the popular Pewaukee Tri offers a co-ed alternative on the same day. Take note that an algae problem had forced organizers of that event to replace the swim leg with a second running segment.
Check out this piece for details on one of the more inspiring Danskin participants.
Cyclists have all sorts of options, as well, from the grueling 12-hour Wisconsin Endurance Mountain Bike Series race in Blue Mound State Park to the leisurely Lake Country Classic in Oconomowoc.
I'll be heading to the U.P. for the Keweenaw Trail Running Festival, but the race that really caught my attention is the simplest of them all: the Water Street Mile in Eau Claire. Line 'em up, run hard for a mile and call it a day.
Dina St. Louis, the race director, says the Indianhead Track Club has been organizing the race for nine years, raising money for the L.E. Phillips Senior Center.
About 300 people turn out to run through the center of the city and lounge under the trees at the finish. Some, obviously, get to the lounging a bit earlier than the others.
Dennis Maleniak set the course record for men in 2005, with a 4:19 mile. Jen Theisen holds the women's record with the 5:13 she ran in 2004.
St. Louis says the race has a comfortable, relaxed feeling, at least for most:
"There are always the hot shots who say, 'now I'm going to run a 10-miler for my workout."
Best of luck to them.$
A cheesehead ponders peaks and witches and dragons
Scouting reports from the Triple Bypass, in the mountains of Colorado, have done little to cast out the high-altitude demons vexing Steve Smith.
He's the category 3 rider from the Cafe Hollander Bike Team training his way into shape for the Leadville Trail 100, a mountain bike race aptly billed as "The Race Across the Sky." That's a harrowing description for a Flatlander looking ahead to a long day in the saddle, at lung-busting elevations.
Smith penned these pre-race musings, putting to use literary talent that otherwise serves his employer, Rockwell Automation:
Living low while training for an event up in the sky creates gut-churning anxieties.
Mentioning the Leadville 100 to experienced "mountaineers" typically elicits head-shaking guffaws and comments like, "Do you have ANY IDEA what it's LIKE at 12,500 feet?"
There was that one time when I experienced a little lightheadedness during a business trip to Mexico City (7,300 ft). But that half-hour hour hotel exercyle episode aside, the oxygen deficit promises to make my Leadville 100 a difficult slog.
Half of the Cheesehead 6 attempting Leadville ventured out to Colorado last weekend for the Triple Bypass, to test the elements. They joined 3,500 other intrepid cyclists who pedaled over three significant peaks, including Loveland pass (12,000 above sea level).
The reports were somewhat encouraging.
All commented on the light-headed (but manageable!) feeling the elevation produced. One noted the difficulty in "recovering" after hard efforts throughout the 8-hour day. "If it takes 20 minutes to feel better after a hard effort here, expect it to take 40 minutes on the mountains!" he proclaimed.
Others have suggested taking Gingko Biloba to build the ability to fully utilize what little oxygen there may be. Hearing their field research eases the anxiety from the levels of say Mt. McKinley (20,000 ft) to Mt. Rainier (14,400 ft.).
Yet, my mind stills swirls with the mysteries of mountain peaks documented in such books as "Killing Dragons."
Only 200 years ago, it was deemed heretical, if not impossible, to ascend to heights above 10,000 feet.
Many held firm in the fact that witches and dragons roamed the upper reaches, incinerating anything above the snow line; turning trespassers into stone. Fortunately, early mountaineers debunked the myths (let's hope!), leaving the demons in my head to wrestle with only one peak - Columbine Mountain (12,600 ft.) - over the next three weeks.
Local runner forges across Death Valley
Mary Gorski started one of the toughest races in the world yesterday, carrying a bit of extra weight: the grief brought on by the death last week of her friend and fellow athlete, Nancy Sellars.
She is forging along quite well in her first attempt at the Badwater Ultramarathon, according to an online update that put her at 90 miles roughly 28 hours into the 135-mile race.
Perhaps, as Gorski said of Sellars, "I've got an angel watching over me."
The 45-year-old from Milwaukee's Riverwest neighborhood is running and walking toward a couple goals she set for herself. The most ambitious is a finish time under 40 hours, and the primary one is a finish in under 60 hours, the cut off for winning a Badwater belt buckle, the reward for enduring some of the most physically challenging times of one's life.
Before the travels and tragedies of last week, Gorski chatted a bit about the athletic path that led her into what is regarded as the toughest foot race in the world, one that requires competitors to suffer through the 130-degree heat of Death Valley to a point 8,600 feet up Mt. Whitney.
She graduated from Messmer High School and Marquette University, but as a self-described "band and newspaper geek."
Her husband, Dave, coaxed her to run the now-defunct Dinosaur Dash roughly 25 years ago, a time when the five-mile Al's Run seemed too long for her.
The short races led to longer ones, then to triathlons and the Ironman, in Hawaii, Lake Placid and Madison. Eventually, she gravitated to ultra running, and knocked off some of the biggest in the land, including the Western States 100 and the local Kettle Moraine 100.
"It was just one of those snowball things," Gorski explained. "It was always the next thing. I thought I could never do Ironman, then I got in it."
Similarly, after helping on the crew of two Badwater participants, Gorski never imagined herself treading across pavement so hot it melted shoes. Then last year...
"Something happened as we drove back to Vegas. We're driving across the desert and I kept thinking, 'I would do this differently.'
On the plane ride home, I realized I had organized the van the way I would do it and when the plane landed in Milwaukee, I had already picked out the gifts for my crew."
To prepare for the intense heat of Death Valley, Gorski added a new element to her training: daily 45-minute sessions in the sauna at area YMCAs.
All for the purpose she explained:
"It feels so good when you stop. It's that old saying, if you hit yourself with two hammers, hitting yourself with one isn't so bad.
"I don't know any one who has gone through a really long event and not wanted to sit down, and just be inert.
To know you can overcome that is a huge boost to your personal well-being. And when things are in sync, when you're body is working right, like a well-tuned machine, and you're mentally together, and you're picking people off in an event, that feels really, really good. It's a heightened sense of being human, I guess."
Check back for updates on Gorski's progress and a recap when she returns.$ (2)
Can anybody change a $5
Eric Bjorling from Trek Bicycles helped pull me up to the pack in Madison, where the company has installed a vending machine that dispenses tubes, tools, tire levers maps and other cycling necessities.
The one and only prototype in the TREK world is part of the bicycle manufacturer's efforts to build infrastructure for cycling and remove obstacles that keep people from pedaling.
Motorists can find gas, oil and 64-ounce sodas 24-7, and this gives cyclists similar convenience; at least those pedaling along the Capital City Trail and the streets on Madison's east side.
The vending machine is affixed to the Machinery Row bike shop, 601 Williamson St.
"People use it all day," reports Nick Rhoads, a Machinery Row worker.
Of course, during business hours, cyclists in need can just walk into the shop, but TREK is looking to gauge whether the after-hours vending and convenience has a future. The time frame on the experiment in the Madison test lab is indefinite, Bjorling said.
Rhoads likes the idea, figuring that best location for the velo-vending would be out on the trails, where the need for a new tube, air, and coffee would be most dire.
At this stage in the development, the TREK Stop is cash only, but it does make change.$ (1)
Gorski nears Badwater finish
All those hours steaming in a sauna are paying dividends for Mary Gorski, the Milwaukee runner tackling one of the toughest foot races in the world.
Gorski passed the final checkpoint in the Badwater Ultra Marathon earlier this morning and was within four miles of the finish line, roughly 8,600 feet up Mt. Whitney. The 135-mile race starts in Death Valley, the lowest point in the western hemisphere.
Based on the online rankings, it would appear Gorski, who lives in the Riverwest neighborhood, will finish well under the 60-hour time limit for the race and probably under 48 hours. If everything clicked, the veteran ultra runner thought she had a shot at a 40-hour Badwater. She passed the last checkpoint in just over 44 hours.
Her victory celebration will take her and her husband, Dave, to Las Vegas, hopefully within range of an Off the Couch cell phone interview.$
Gorski reaches the Badwater finish
In the days before the Badwater Ultra Marathon, Mary Gorski assessed herself: "I'm not what I would consider an elite athlete, but I'm a persistent athlete."
I believe she proved herself to be wrong, and right, crossing the finish line of the pinnacle of ultra events this morning, just short of 46 hours after her start on Monday morning. That accomplishment makes her, in my mind, both persistent and elite.
She found the energy to type this dispatch from her hotel:
"Story later, but summary is that I'm basically in good shape, no injuries, never tossed cookies. Biggest battle was fatigue. Never been so tired. Fell asleep on my feet several times. Really slowed last third because of it. Otherwise a fantastic experience. Even a hail storm in the desert."
Gorski won herself a coveted Badwater belt buckle by reaching the Portal on Whitney Mtn. in under 48 hours, and achieved the intermediate goal she had carried into the 135-mile race through Death Valley and up the tallest mountain in the lower 48 states.
With a perfect race, the Riverwest resident thought that 40 hours might be achievable.
That didn't happen, but she clearly lived up to that boast of persistence. Over the last 60 miles, a stretch that included some climbs extending upwards of 18 miles, the 45-year-old maintained her pace at roughly 2.5 miles per hour.$
Running to the bust and boon in Copper Country
Given a few days to reflect, I've concluded that I didn't run myself into the ground in the Keweenaw Trail Running Festival last weekend.
I merely embraced the ghosts of the mining speculators who still haunt the wooded hills rising from Lake Superior.
They went belly-up in search of copper.
I cramped up in a quest for gold: Keweenaw Gold, the locally produced honey awarded as age group prizes in the three-race challenge run by Jeff Crumbaugh and the Great Lakes Endurance Series.
Like the investors who lost fortunes in the mines, I speculated early and badly, putting far too much effort into the first race of the weekend: a 10K run from Ft. Wilkins up, up and up to the Keweenaw Mountain Lodge.
I cut expenses a bit through the 6K hill climb from the beach in Eagle Harbor to the top of Mt. Lookout, and secured my solvency through the start of the climactic 25K on Sunday morning.
But there, I again succumbed to the dreams of vast riches and sunk my last reserves into an ill-fated surge over the root and rock-covered trail, in miles four through six.
My legs soon began collecting past-due notices, twinges that warned of cramps, with more than five miles yet to go.
By the 13-mile mark I was bankrupt, with a foreclosure placard secured to my knotted right calf. I slowed from a run to a walk, then a limp. Seeing my wife waiting near the finish, I had to turn from her imploring gaze, knowing that my shuffle revealed the dismal state of affairs.
In the final accounting, though, I found I had been blessed with priceless dividends.
Running through the spectacular forests in the Keweenaw Peninsula is a boon of its own.
And the riches of fellowship, shared by a small group of runners challenging themselves over three difficult races, are incalculable. Even when I found myself physically broke, I reaped encouragement from the runners who passed by.
Between races, and on the slow descent from Mt. Lookout, I reconnected with old friends and made new ones; and shared stories and philosophy, both on running and life.
Crumbaugh and the local crafters who provide the prizes also proved generous once again; and I did strike that gold, honey for a fourth place finish in the 25K and maple syrup for my place in the overall rankings. In fact, all 59 men and 23 women who completed the three races cashed in at the prize table.
In the dogged spirit of the speculators who boomed and busted before me, I will recapitalize and return.
In fact, I invested in a four-mile bond just this morning.$ (7)
Jon Olson shares an around-the-lake adventure
In his latest dispatch from the road to 4,000 miles, intrepid cyclist Jon Olson recounts a great summer-time adventure with his boyhood pal, Bruce Taggart.
It may not quite reach the hilarity or poignancy of "A Walk in the Woods," but the highs and lows of their tour will certainly resonate with anyone turning the wheels, slowly, through middle age.
My friend Bruce and I left Milwaukee in late June on a long-planned, 10-day bike trip to Muskegon, Mich. - the long way, around the big lake, through the Upper Peninsula, across the straits of Mackinac, and down.
It was kind of a reunion tour: A few decades ago we rode from Seattle to San Diego with another friend - 1,800 miles over 28 days. I still wonder what our parents were thinking.
In some ways my friendship with Bruce was founded on biking (and my sister, but that's another blog).
Then came college, wives, kids, and we of lost track of it. We were anxious to bike again, and suddenly here we were, older but not too old, free for a week and half, with 600 miles before us. Sixty miles a day? We could do that.
My biggest fear was that our barely suppressed competitive urges would resurface, and I wouldn't be up to it. We have ridden, in the past, a hundred miles in a day without intending to, because neither one of us wanted to be the one to say we had to stop.
To get in shape, and to meet my annual goal of 4,000 miles, I'd been riding 100 miles a week for a couple of months, and I thought that was pretty good. Bruce rode all winter, and he was doing 150 a week.
To further handicap myself, in packing for our trip I put my emphasis on "comfort while camping" and wound up carrying close to 10 pounds more than he did. (Probably I could've done without the thermos and the elementary-school insulated lunch box.) Bruce had packed feather light, for speed (see his blog: http://brucebike.blogspot.com/). Twenty miles in, it was painfully apparent: I would bring up the rear.
It worked out pretty well, though.
I got used to his nearly upright posture ahead of me or beside me, riding the like Wicked Witch of the West, his legs cranking without apparent effort.
Shockingly, we'd grown up. I think we both came at it with a feeling that a lot of things didn't matter very much, and we never argued about leadership, routes, daily goals, or campsites - things we might have argued about as kids. He was, I'd have to say, generous, saying he needed a break when he could tell I needed one, and sometimes, at those times, he needed one too.
We spent our first night at Long Lake Campground in the northern Kettle Moraine, after 56 miles.
It was mosquito heaven, and it was the wilderness.
A raccoon stole our gorp after dark when we weren't looking - we heard him munching it, saw his beady little eyes; Bruce says he even heard him belch. To preserve what was left, we tied our food bag up in a tree, but the animal returned and chewed and salivated all over an identical nylon bag on our picnic table, and we discovered that, like idiots, we had tied a clothes bag up in the tree.
On night two, we camped in De Pere, at the Brown County Fairgrounds, and that established a pattern we stuck with most nights, abandoning state parks for city and county campgrounds, which were usually cheaper, less buggy, more vacant, closer to food, and always had showers. I rationalized it this way: Walden Pond was just outside of town, not in the wildnerness, and it was good enough for Thoreau.
We rode to Marinette the third day (72 miles), then into the UP, to Escanaba, (60 miles), a little town called Gulliver past Manistique (74 miles, and our one night in a motel), then the KOA at St. Ignace (67 miles).
Highway 2 is desolate and flat, windy, and a main artery for highballing trucks. But the shoulder keeps you out of traffic.
We had a few mishaps. Bruce replaced a bulging tire that was about to blow in Michigan, and at another point on a trail fell with a whump on his back when a stick got tangled in his spokes; a few scrapes but no lasting harm to man or machine.
I was nearly hit by an SUV driven by a soccer mom on a cell phone in Chilton. I trembled for a full hour afterwards.
Later, I broke a spoke on the way to Escanaba, costing us two long hours under the hot sun by the side of the road, sweating and cussing, trying to get a new one on.
After we'd bent two spare spokes into pretzel shapes, wasting them, Bruce finally saved our trip. An obsessive mail-orderer of exotic bike accessories, he pulled out a cord of kevlar with a small clamp attached and strung it from rim to hub - just like Henry Huggins - tightened it up, expertly trued the wheel, and it held for another 50 miles, until we reached Escanaba, where the friendly people at Mr. Bike soaked me for a new wheel - "much better than your old wheel" - at $144.
The St. Ignace KOA was far and away our worst camping experience. Every tent site in the whole place was wet - standing-water wet - and the campground was filled with vehicle enthusiasts in town for an annual car show. Trucks jacked-up so high you almost needed a ladder to get into them roared through the muddy campground lanes on mindless, testerone-filled errands.
We complained bitterly to each other, and grew a little testy.
When I went to the office for a ferry schedule to cross the Mackinac Straits, he said he knew the schedule. We argued over what he knew and what I felt he didn't know, and, well, suffice it to say, we didn't need a ferry after all. Pay attention, now, bikers: The Bridge Authority will take you and your bike across the bridge on a truck for only $2. Just report to the administrative building right by the bridge.
As we progressed, upper lower Michigan nearly brought me to my knees.
A late start and heavy winds around Little Traverse Bay made the 64 miles to Fisherman's Island State Park, past Charlevoix, last nearly all day, and by the end of it my legs felt like dead stumps. They seemed recovered in the morning, but over the next two days - 81 and 78 miles - my mind and body sank.
Bruce was affected, too, but not as noticeably, exemplifying the difference in our preparation. Our speed over those two days dropped from the teens to 9, 10, 11 miles an hour.
Still, we had transcendent moments.
During those two long days we flirted with the White Pine Trail - a sometimes paved, sometimes cinder track 92 miles long from Cadillac to Grand Rapids. It brings you deep into woods and through fascinating little towns - hidden, strikingly remote outposts, small clusters of houses holding out against the elements, poverty, and the forest.
Near the end of our second to last day, the middle of the track had been softened by horse traffic, with a smooth rail worn on either side - a regular route for Amish buggies. We weren't lucky enough to see one, but, still, I felt like I was in 18th century England - maybe Jane Austen visited neighbors on a path just like this.
We got up at 5:30 the next morning and rode our last 60 miles to the ferry landing in Muskegon.
It was an ill-chosen route, busier and crazier as we approached the city. The greeting Muskegon gives to its visitors is a hardware advertising 500 guns for sale, and a billboard in the next block with a picture of a hand holding a pistol advertising a business selling 400 guns.
Apparently, terrorism is a particular fear on the western Michigan coast.
I got soaked in a thunderstorm boarding the ferry, and I've been home for a week without riding yet. I'll get to it.
I'm at 1,757 miles after about 15 weeks in my quest for 4,000 in a year - 500 miles farther to date than I was at the same time last year, when I fell short by 800 miles.
Doctors assess Primal Quest: disappointment and resolve
In his dreams, Dan DeBehnke walks the steep slopes in the mountains outside Big Sky Montana, frets about the next checkpoint 20 miles away and calculates how long it will take to get there.
His nightly adventure race is a remnant of a failed attempt to complete the 5th edition of Primal Quest, a 500-mile endurance race billed as one of the toughest in the world.
DeBehnke and Chris Decker, both emergency room doctors at Froedtert Hospital in Wauwatosa, battled the elevation and the elements for 5 ?? days, before injury and illness forced them to abandon the race on June 29. It was a disappointing outcome, after they trained for roughly 16 hours a week from January to June.
In a post-race interview, the veteran adventure racers from Waukesha County shared their resolve to return and finish what they started.
DeBehnke: "I think what we took away is that we definitely can do this type of race; we were well-prepared for it. Physically we were ready. We both felt really good. It's a big race. It's an epic adventure, no doubt, but we were well-prepared and it was definitely in our ability to do."
Decker: "It was harrowing and it was doable."
Beyond anything they'd done before:
DeBehnke - "At the pre-race meeting, the meeting where they go through the course and stuff, my heart rate was 150. I am absolutely sure.
"They laid out this beautiful bird's eye view of the course, and (race director) Don Mann's up there saying this is a dangerous course, this isn't for rookie teams, this isn't for novice teams, good luck to you if you're a novice team, and I was like ???this is really big. This is REALLY, REALLY big. Then we got our 11 maps and we had to plot our course.
"It was basically every single bit of adventure racing we had done up to that point and magnified by about 1,000."
The insurmountable obstacles:
DeBehnke: "The first event that put us unranked, was Melaine (teammate Melaine Whitchelo) got her hand squashed between two logs. There was a lot of avalanche tree fall and we were scrambling up a ridge and she got her hand between two logs and one of them rolled and squashed her hand. It was unsafe for her to continue because she couldn't hold her mountain bike handle bars, nor if she fell on a snow slope, self-arrest and stop herself.
"Then Mickey (McNeill) getting sick was a mixture of things.
Decker: "We were into day five, going into day six. We were in the Crazy Mountains, climbing, getting ready to peak out, maybe 800 to 1,000 feet to the top. She just wasn't feeling well. In that time, moving forward, we knew she had a bit of bronchitis, and we knew her asthma was acting up and we were concerned she had evolved into an pneumonia because she was coughing so hard and felt weak. We weren't advancing at all.
"We went down the mountain and rested and she still didn't feel well, so we just thought it was in the safest interest just to stop our movement."
Decker: "We just weren't really aware of the fact that she hadn't slept well. We wracked up nine hours of sleep in the 5 ?? days. I felt good with that amount of sleep. I was probably the best rested of the team. When we slept, I slept really well. Mickey on the other hand didn't sleep well at all during those time periods, and we didn't know that."
DeBehnke: "In retrospect, some of the top teams slept eight hours at a time, especially around this day five, which is kind of the turning point in the race where you need to bank a little bit of sleep. It just wasn't something kind of on our radar screen that it was something we needed to do. We were pushing forward pretty hard."
Decker: That's probably what haunts us the most; that decision. Had we made a better decision, we'd still be in the race.
Tackling the mountainous terrain:
DeBehnke: "There were some pretty scary sections there. We would look at each other afterwards and go, ???were we really supposed to do that? That was pretty scary.'
"River crossings on a log, with a river raging below you, shimmying across on a log. The first time we did it we were, "wow that was really dangerous,' about the eighth time, it's just another river crossing, just another (race director) Don Mann experience for us, for Primal Quest."
No doubt about taking a shot at Primal Quest 2009:
DeBehnke: "I think it would be a different story if we walked away from it saying ???this is bigger than us; this isn't the race for us we can't prepare for this, it's too big for us,' that would be a different story.
"But that's not the feeling... none of the four of us came away with that feeling, that this was an undoable endeavor. It was ???this is easily doable, we can train for this. This is something easily we can do. We just had a couple untoward events, so there's never a hesitation.
"It's absolutely clear we need to do it."
Cyclists and motorists banging fenders
At the end of last week, I correctly expected to receive a few emails that criticized cyclists in response to a story about two of them, Nancy Sellars and David Brandenburg, being killed my motorists within a 12-hour span on July 9.
Forget the fact that the driver in the Sellars case was arrested on suspicion of driving drunk and the driver in the Branderburg case was cited for inattentive driving.
To some motorists, bicyclists on the road are nothing more than a menace, deserving of whatever fate befalls them. And in fairness, some cyclists, by ignoring even the most basic rules of the road, live up to that label.
The cacophony and discord have grown louder, across the country, as more and more Americans turn to self-propulsion as an alternative to driving. Gas prices appear to have finally reached that tipping point, where the economics are getting people out of their cars.
This piece from MSNBC.com explores the growing friction, and the growing danger, while this story from Minneapolis and the respondents clearly show the deep divide between cyclists and motorists.
As this plays out under the shadow of two tragic deaths locally, I'm reminded of something Luke Manger-Lynch told me back in February, after his brother, Matthew Manger-Lynch, was killed in Chicago during an alley-cat bike race. Police reports indicated the 29-year-old with Milwaukee roots pedaled through a red light and into the path of a sport-utility vehicle.
"I just hate to think of my brother as a debate," Luke said; a statement that has stuck with me over the months and miles.
It reminds me that the harsh rhetoric on both sides deprecates the lives at stake and lost.
The discussions of sharing the road too often deteriorate into school-yard level finger-pointing, when the real issue should be how can we make the roads safer, for cyclists and motorists.
Someone recently repeated the theory that the easiest answer is often the right one. I think that's true in this case.
Cyclists: obey traffic laws, be attentive and courteous.
Motorists: obey traffic laws, be attentive and courteous.
It just might make things better.$ (2)
Races here and abroad shift up to the big ring
One of my colleagues, Don Walker, found himself awestruck by yesterday's mountainous drama in stage 15 of the Tour de France; enough to share a bit of his cycling epiphany with me this morning.
Yes, of course, the Tour de France. I had left it behind for a TV- and internet-free weekend of pedaling in the Scenic Shore 150.
Inspired by Mr. Walker, I reviewed a bit of the coverage and found this piece from Bobby Julich nicely captured the tactics and glory that make the Tour captivating, when its not bogged down in doping scandals. Of course, doping in the sport still dominates the coverage, as this piece from the New York Times reports.
For another perspective, I turned to Patrick O'Grady, whose wit remains the sharpest in the cyber drawer.
Without a U.S. star, (and under the stars and stripes we recognize no others) the 2008 tour lacks the firepower to escape the drug shadow.
But with five riders all within a minute of Frank Schleck and the Yellow Jersey, the stages carrying the tour to Sunday's finish should provide tremendous racing and excitement. This won't be a week-long victory lap for anybody; and Christian Vande Velde, riding for team Garmin-Chipotle, remains a solid all-American hope just 39 seconds off the pace.
Perhaps, it's time to start taking mid-morning coffee breaks and tuning in once again.
I also was reminded over the weekend that the racers competing in the International Cycling Classic will be elevating heart rates throughout the area this week.
A friend from Kenosha gushed about the Case Food & Spokes race on Friday night, and the excitement that the pro-level peloton brings to the lakeside city.
The Superweek stops this week include Cedarburg on Tuesday, Whitnall Park on Wednesday, Racine on Thursday, Milwaukee's east side on Friday and Whitefish Bay on Sunday.
The Great Downer Avenue Bike Race on Saturday is regarded as one of the best in the country, largely because of the great crowds that turn out for the festivities. It's impossible not to be awed by the power generated by the peloton flying through the corners.
If that's not enough two-wheeled activity, the Wisconsin Off-Road Series has a date at Crystal Ridge. The Alterra Coffee Bean Classic has competition for all levels of mountain biker, even those impaired by the belgian beers circulating on Downer Avenue.$
Cyclists crank out power chords
The tambourine has long been the instrument imposed upon wanna-be musicians whose enthusiasm far exceeds their talent, rhythm or ability to hit a note; any note.
As a professional musician, Dan Aukofer may not sympathise with the harmonically challenged, but he can put them in the show.
Aukofer's Human Powered Project turns spin bikes into the juice generators for rock concerts, and he'll be directing the show Tuesday night at the Pedal'rs Inn in Wales, as part of a fund raising event for the Multiple Sclerosis Society.
Aukofer will be joined on stage by his wife, Deb, and the duo TNT: that's Tom Alane and Tom Klein, better known as "the Doc" and owner of the Bicycle Doctor in Dousman.
In something of a previous life, before touring country roads on two wheels, Klein toured nightclubs in a series of rock 'n' roll bands. He's now mixing his pleasures and partnering with Aukofer for some human-powered music.
Tuesday night, 10 cyclists pedaling spin bikes will generate the electricity for the show, a smaller version of Aukofer's larger endeavors, which include 10 bikes powering a Willy Porter concert as part of an Earth Day celebration. Audience members energized their own musical experience.
"It was nothing but hippie kids, and we pulled it off," Aukofer said. "It was great."
Aukofer owns It's a Beatiful Day Cafe in Pewaukee, and pursues his people-power program with the help of local engineer, Dan O'Brien.
His vision for the Human Powered Project extends beyond the musical realm. At a mimimum, gyms should be able to cover their electricity needs by tapping the energy expended by all those people sweating on spin bikes and treadmills. And beyond that...
"You're literally at the birth of a growing monster of the potential of human power that we're going to create with this," Aukofer said.
For the Tuesday night gig, Klein figures local athletes from the triathlon team he sponsors will pedal two of the bikes, and audience members will pick up the slack to fuel the lights, speakers, amps and guitars. The tambourine, of course, will need a separate human power source.
The music and pedaling starts at 7 p.m. and goes until 10. Donations collected at the event will go into the pot for the MS 150 bike ride, one of the largest charity rides in the area, and just two weeks away.$ (1)
Tegenkamp sets a Wisconsin record on his way to Beijing
I find myself outpaced by events once again. Having turned my attention to cycling and Badwater, I missed an entire track meet, with an Olympian and a new 1500 meter record, in Madison.
Thankfully, one of my former colleagues from the Milwaukee Sentinel, Cathie Breitenbucher, sent along the latest news on Matt Tegenkamp and the former UW runner's preparations for the 5000 meters in Beijing, including his record-setting run last Tuesday.
The Isthmus in Madison did a nice job covering the impromptu, one-race track meet, and this missive from the web page of Tegenkamp's professional sponsor brings us up to date on his European exploits.
Tegenkamp ran for the Badgers from 2001 to 2005, and still trains under the coaching of Jerry Schumacher, the highly successful former track coach at UW. He earned his place on the Olympic team with a second place finish last month in the qualifying in Eugene, Oregon.$ (1)
Badwater: a local runner journeys from Death Valley to the mountain top
Rest just isn't in Mary Gorski's nature.
Twenty four hours after the endurance athlete from Milwaukee finished the ultra of all ultras, Badwater, Gorski laced her shoes and set off to finish the grueling course in California as it was originally run, to the top of Mt. Whitney, 11 miles beyond and roughly 6,000 feet above the official finish line at the Whitney Portal.
The journey was more spiritual than physical.
The 45-year-old's emotional roller coaster before and during the 135-mile race was as super-sized as the event. Just two days before she left Milwaukee, Gorski stood vigil with friends and relatives gathered at the bedside of Nancy Sellars, who was struck by a motorist while bicycling on July 9.
She watched as the life support was removed and Sellars, her friend and racing companion, died.
Over the next two days, on the plane to Las Vegas and in the last hours of preparation, Badwater seemed "silly."
Folly has no place in such grim finality.
Moving ahead, in the belief Sellars would have wanted her to do nothing else, anticipation replaced hesitation. Gorski quickly set off to complete the longest race of her life.
She described the start in a post-race essay: "Finally, bottled energy is set free. Tears turn to smiles, to giggles to joy. I'm flying. I'm so happy to be a part of the Badwater family, so happy to be a runner this year, so happy to go, go go."
On the floor of the continent, Death Valley, the usually scorching temperature tempered at a high of 112, and Gorski moved ahead faster than her expected pace.
After 70 miles and nearly 24 hours, an old nemesis returned. Even back in her college days, Gorski "could never do the all-nighters, either academically or around the keg," and sleep-deprivation climbed upon her back and began to squeeze.
After a short refueling stop, she reached down to change her socks and crumpled to the pavement.
"We decided there to pull out the cot and sleep," she said. "It was the best sleep I had in days, about two hours total, under the pre-dawn stars in the Panamint Valley."
Recovered, and managing naps every couple hours, the persistent plodder tackled stretches of uphill road extending for miles. She propelled herself ahead with a combination of a slow run, a power walk and "a groaning shuffle."
From 100 miles and beyond, she trudged into a new level of personal achievement.
The distance, her shifting emotions and a rare hail storm multiplied the difficulty.
"And then, it wasn't just the hail, but everything in life that didn't make sense, including friends struck down in the prime of their lives," she mourned. "I was cold, I was tired and I was mad.
"I ran like I hadn't in hours. I was in my own bubble of anger and planned to stay there. I ran and I ran and I ran."
When the hail stopped so did the anger, leaving Gorski with her nemesis and the road ahead.
From the last checkpoint, just 13 minutes from the finish, she continued barely able to keep her eyes open. Her crew shouted annoying phrases, handed out caffeine pills then began to sing.
"Camp songs, Christmas songs, dirty songs with lots of naughty words," she remembered. "Our final song was, ???If You're Happy and You Know It Clap Your Hands.'
"And we did, running across the finish line, clapping and laughing. The anticipated tears were replaced by hysterical laughter."
Gorski rested in a hotel for a couple hours, awoke and emailed friends and family, then slept until the alarm announced it was time to start the final leg of the journey, the 11-mile hike to the top of Mt. Whitney.
"Amazingly, my legs weren't too bad," she wrote. "Breathing was slow. Up we went past the tree line, up through the raindrops and up to the top where snow flurries greeted us.
"I stayed long enough to sign the book: ???Hi Nancy, wish you were here.'"$ (3)
Charges filed in crash that killed, injured area cyclists
A mix of beer and the prescription drug Adderall impaired the 43-year-old woman who drove into two bicyclists in Racine County two weeks ago, according to the criminal complaint charging her with homicide.
Janell Gehrke failed three sobriety tests after the crash that killed Nancy Sellars and severely injured Thomas Chopp, and she told a sheriff's deputy she had four to five bottles of MGD 64 beer in the hours before the incident, around 6:25 p.m. on July 9. She also told the deputy that the Adderall she had been taking to treat attention deficit disorder for two months seemed to significantly enhance the effects of alcohol.
Tests to determine Gehrke's blood-alcohol level have not been completed, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Chiapete.
Gehrke is scheduled to appear tomorrow afternoon in Racine County Circuit Court, where she will answer to the three felony charges and one misdemeanor filed with the court late Tuesday.
She is charged with homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle, hit and run resulting in death, hit and run causing great bodily harm and operating while intoxicated causing injury. The charges carry maximum sentences of 65 years in prison and up to one year in a county jail.
According to the complaint, Gehrke drove away after hitting Sellars and Chopp while driving about 45 to 50 mph on Five Mile Rd. A sheriff's deputy found her at her home and noticed that her eyes were glassy and somewhat bloodshot.
Her eyes failed to track smoothly, and Gehrke was unable to successfully complete a walk and turn test and a one leg stand.
Sellars suffered severe head injuries and died at Froedtert Memorial Hospital in Wauwatosa and Chopp suffered a lacerated kidney fractured ribs, displaced vertebrae and a fractured pelvis. He is expected to be confined to a wheelchair for three months, according to the complaint.$
Investigations continue in July 9 bicyclist fatalities
Dodge County Sheriff's deputies specializing in trucking rules enforcement continue to scrutinize the log book and truck of a semi-tractor trailer driver involved in a crash that killed a bicyclist on July 9, a department supervisor reported Wednesday.
Earlier news reports that the 34-year-old driver was cited for inattentive driving are wrong, and the case remains open for citations to be issued or a referral to the district attorney for criminal charges, Sheriff's Capt. Molly Soblewski said. The driver hauling for Smedema Trucking Co., based in Randolph, Wi., has not been cited, she said.
Investigators are reviewing the driver's logs and other evidence to determine if he followed federal rules regarding the amount of hours drivers can be on the road within a set time frame.
Soblewski said it appeared the investigation would be concluded by the end of the week.
According to earlier sheriff's department reports, the westbound semi drove into David Brandenburg, 63, as he pedaled in the same direction on County Hwy. A near Fox Lake.
Brandenburg biked about 3,000 miles a year and lived about six miles from the crash site.
He was one of two experienced cyclists killed in the state within 12 hours on July 9.
In Racine County, authorities are preparing charges against a 43-year-old woman arrested after she drove into Nancy Sellars, 48, of Franklin, on Five Mile Rd. in the Town of Raymond. Sellars was killed and a riding partner, Tom Chopp, suffered several broken bones.
The driver, Janell Gehrke, left the scene, but was arrested later at a friend's house in the Town of Norway. Authorities alleged Gehrke was driving drunk at the time of the crash.
She is scheduled to make an initial court appearance in Racine County tomorrow.$ (2)
Going, going, gone
It took a sprinter's speed to score the Lakefront Marathon entry being sold to support Friends of the Hank Aaron State Trail.
The marathon director, Kris Hinrichs, reports that a buyer has pledged the $250 asking price for an entry into the event, which has been filled since early June. This year's Lakefront date is Oct. 5.
The Badgerland Striders donated two entries to the Hank Aaron Trail group, and each was sold for $250. The money will help support programs such as bicycle camps to teach school-age children the rules of the road.$
Ripon College president schooled at USA mountain bike championship
David Joyce approached the USA Cycling Mountain Bike National Championships with minimal expectations, then lowered them after a practice spin around the terrifying course at the Mt. Snow Resort in Vermont.
"I thought, ???Oh my God, I'm in over my head here," the Ripon College president recounted. "It was two-thirds climbing and one-third downhill, over rocks and roots and ridges, and all technical. And it was one of those, if you fall you will get hurt kind of courses.'"
The WORS series veteran's confidence flagged further the next day, when he assessed the field at the start line for the men's 50+ sport division race.
"I lined up with my group and started checking around, ???OK, who looks less fit, who's carrying more weight and has weaker equipment. I looked round and realized, ???I'm that guy. I'm the one with the oldest equipment and the most weight."
At the gun, he was reduced to very simple goals: "I am going to finish. I am going to finish in under two hours, and I'm not going to kill himself."
He claimed victory, barely.
His time of 1:56:15 over the 10-mile course put him in 16th place, second-to-last, ahead of one competitor who took a DNF.
"I have a feeling that I beat all the other college presidents who were out there," he said, seizing an unofficial victory.
Joyce took up mountain biking about 15 years ago, while leading Union College, in Kentucky. He brought his cycling passion to Ripon, when he took the president's job five years ago. Under his tenure, the college in central Wisconsin has added mountain biking as a varsity sport and plans to distribute free bikes this fall to students who agree to live car-free on campus.
Despite his back-of-the-pack finish, the 55-year-old came back from Vermont raving about the experience of competing at a national championship event.
"I never had an illusion that I woud do extremely well," Joyce said. "I work hard, I train. I love the adrenaline rush.
"It's just fun being around fit people and people who are passionate about cycling.
"My only disappointment about the whole affair is they didn't have a lot of really cool stuff with hats and t-shirts with logos on it, so I could come home with all my bling."
Mountain bikers can catch the bling-less Joyce on Sunday at the Alterra Coffee Bean Classic, at Crystal Ridge, in Franklin.
No doubt, he will dominate the college president division.$ (2)
Race for a Lakefront Marathon entry and run for food
Two bits of news of interest to area runners turned up in my inbox this morning.
First, an opportunity exists to score an entry in the already filled Lakefront Marathon, thanks to the generosity of the marathon organizers and the Friends of the Hank Aaron State Trail.
The Badgerland Striders donated two entries to the group that advocates for the bike and running path through the Menomonee Valley, and both have been put up for sale, at $250 each. The first has been snatched up, but the second is still available.
The first one to email the friends group, email@example.com with the subject line "Lakefront Marathon entries" wins the entry to run 26.2 miles on Oct. 5, provided their check clears.
In previous years, the Friends Group auctioned the donated entries at its 5K run/walk on the trail. This year's race is set for Aug. 9.
Next, one of those under-the-radar runs takes place tonight as part of GermanFest on Milwaukee's lakefront.
The St. Ben's Community Meal/German Fest Twilight Run may lack for advertising, but not a worthwhile cause: the meal program at the St. Ben's downtown location on W. State St.
Registration outside the north gate will be open from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. and the 5K race starts at 7.
Additional details can be found here.
For every registered runner, Usinger's will donate two pounds of sausage to feed the homeless and needy at St. Ben's.$
Fire official says stricken runner responded to resuscitation
A 65-year-old man who collapsed after the 5K GermanFest Run/Walk for the Hungry regained consciousness after being transported to Aurora St. Luke's Medical Center, Milwaukee Fire Department Asst. Chief Brian Glassel reported this afternoon.
Hospital officials were not able to provide information on the man's condition, due to patient confidentiality laws.
Information passed on from police officers to the fire department suggest, though, that the life-saving efforts at the Summerfest grounds were successful.
"I was told that within a half hour, he was sitting up and talking, which is a good sign," Glassel said.
According to witnesses, the man reached for a water and piece of fruit after finishing the race, then collapsed to the ground.
Bystanders attended to him and the paramedic unit assigned to the Summerfest grounds, joined emergency responders from Bell Ambulance in providing cardio-pulmonary resuscitation.
He was pulse less and not breathing, when the resuscitation was started, Glassel said.
The Bell Ambulance crew used a defibrillator to shock the stricken runner's heart and the fire department paramedics delivered medication and chest compressions.
Another paramedic unit arrived and transported the man to St. Luke's, leaving the scene roughly 20 minutes after the man collapsed, according to Glassel.$
Hoping for good news on man who collapsed following GermanFest run
Fellow racers and paramedics quickly began CPR last night on a runner who collapsed shortly after finishing the 5K Run/Walk for the Hungry, at the opening of GermanFest.
This report from WTMJ radio provides an eyewitness account from the Bill Michaels, the celebrity host of the run.
We'll pursue additional information today, with hopes that the quick action will produce an outcome as positive as this one, following a similar incident at the Pettit National Ice Center in March.$
German Fest runner remains critical
A 65-year-old man who collapsed after finishing the German Fest 5K Run/Walk for the Hungry was reported to be in critical condition Sunday afternoon at Aurora St. Luke's Medical Center.
Information from the Milwaukee Fire Department indicating he had regained consciousness after being transported to the hospital from the Summerfest grounds Thursday evening was incorrect, a hospital spokeswoman said.
Fire department paramedics worked to revive the runner, William Shay, near the finish area. He had completed the race in just over 28 minutes.$
Sharing views on bicycling safety
I was a bit surprised to see a few additions to my email inbox Saturday from readers weighing in with opinions on this story about bicycling safety.
That people would take time to read the story and type up a commentary on a beautiful day for a bike ride suggests just how important the topic is, particularly in light of a few recent crashes that had tragic results.
I thought I'd share a couple of the emails, to open up the discussion:
Number one:
"I visit Holland quite often where bicyclists outnumber cars and the fatality rate is zero. Why is this? Because in Holland, and in rest of Europe, driving a car is a privilege and not a right.
"Also in Europe drivers consider driving a full-time job that demands all their attention, consequently, drivers in those countries are immensely more skilled then drivers in the U.S.
"In the U.S., drivers think driving is secondary to talking on the cell, eating, playing the radio and so on., In Europe NO ONE does that crap, and driving while drunk in Holland is automatic loss of license and jail time...period.
"So drivers in US are like from the days of wyatt earp...they are all gunslingers..read uncivilized. Until Americans treat driving as they should (which will never happen) expect more bicyclists to be killed by these uncivilized Aerican drivers."
And number two:
"Mr. Held,
"I am a biker, wear a helmet, have a mirror, wear bright colors (not the fancy road racing gear) and do all I can to be safe and alert while riding.
"I am also 62 years old.
"Your article in Saturday's paper about cyclists' deaths raising safety fears is well-founded.
"About 2 years ago, I was out riding and a driver in a pick-up truck grazed my shoulder with his passenger side extended mirror. Of course, he was on his cell phone and had no idea I was even there. Fortunately, I wasn't knocked off or hurt, but it was quite scary.
"It's very tragic we have these drunks who have no regard for anyone's life, especially their own, but sad to say, they will always be out there whether we are on a bike, in a car or just walking.
"A problem I see with fellow bikers, especially the younger ones who have their road bikes, wear all the fancy biking clothes, and think they are God's gift to biking, is that they often, while on the road, ride two abreast, take up lots of road space and don't always give way to cars.
"I see this biking and driving my car, and when non-biking drivers see this, they get angry and either deepen their dislike for bikers or begin a new "dislike" for them.
"These drivers then think all bikers are the same and when meeting others, have a negative attitude toward them. My wife and I also meet these type of "rude" bikers on bike trails. They are the ones who need educating, but will never get it because they think they are right. These accidents are coming to light because there are more people on bikes.
"And, unfortunately, in our society, this (accidents) will never change. Cell phone users, drunks, all other drivers think they are not the problem.
"A few years ago I was in Copenhagen, Denmark, where bikes outnumber cars 6 to 1. It's a way of life and an accepted one, and there are relatively few accidents. Just like America will never embrace soccer, we will never become a biking nation. Some areas will. So, we must always be vigilant when we ride and hope that people and bikers will, as Maria Carlstedt said, "be more patient and respectful of each other.
"Perhaps when auto drivers are getting their driver's licenses or renewing them, there should be some sort of session on being careful for bikers, and perhaps bikers need some sort of session also."
I'm waiting to hear back from a few other emailers, looking for an OK to post their missives.$ (1)
Legendary Kenosha Velodrome hosts the NASCAR of bike racing
The track racing niche of competitive cycling will narrow to an even more unique enterprise in Kenosha on Tuesday night, when the country's oldest operating velodrome hosts a keiren series on the 333.3-meter track.
The specialized sprint races, paced by a motorcycle, are wildly popular in Japan, and on www.youtube.com, where the crash videos attract millions of views.
Kenosha race director Len Cabeltera explained the strategy behind what is actually a pretty simple contest:
"It's a race where you're paced behind a motorcycle, starting at 28 mph, then the motorcycle drops off at 35 mph. So we're going to hit 35, then start sprinting.
"The main battle, and that's where the excitement is, jockeying for position behind the motorcycle at 35 mph. Race one is for your position, then race two is for your finish line. Interesting things happen in that race."
Organizers have put together a $500 pot for competitors in the men's open category, who will compete in a race dedicated to Joe Werwie, one of the local racing heroes who still turns out to cheer those who followed him.
The women will race for a $200 purse in the Amy Tremelling Memorial, honoring the 32-year-old track racing star who died in December.
The heats that will winnow the field for the final sprints start at 7 p.m., and this flier has additional details.
Cabeltera is expecting a big turn out and a competive one, with a good number of the country's top riders still in the area following the International Cycling Series and the upcoming big-money criteriums around Chicago.
The velodrome returns to a more conventional style of racing Friday and Saturday night, hosting the Wisconsin State Track Cycling Championships. The top performers in the state events will move on to compete in the national championships.$
24 hours on the Riverwest streets and one big wad of cash off Downer Ave.
Cyclist and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Ben Poston played a bit of the compare and contrast game this weekend by pedaling between the grungy Riverwest 24 and the high brow Great Downer Ave. Bike Race, part of the International Cycling Series.
The demographics split between Pabst and Pinot Noir.
Poston found enough time to send along the following dispatch, with his sympathies clearly leaning toward the riders who don't shave their legs. For a recap on the Downer Ave. race and its $7,000 Ben's Cycle and Fitness Super Prime, check out this report from www.cyclingnews.com.
And, I'm not trying to ignore the Alterra Coffee Bean Classic in the heat at Crystal Ridge yesterday. I hope to catch up to those results after sitting on a wheel for a bit.
"Riverwest 24, a day-long bike race around and around Milwaukee's Riverwest neighborhood, kicked off Friday night at 7 p.m.
Sounds crazy, right?
It is, but I couldn't stay away.
So, I rode over to Riverwest Friday night after the race had begun to check it out. Elite racing it isn't. But it was definitely fitting that RW24 organizers chose the same weekend as the Great Downer Avenue Bike Race. The two couldn't be more different.
I didn't compete for a trophy, but pedaled three laps (almost 15 miles), including a lap with Mike McGarry, one of the RW24 race organizers.
McGarry, a former bike messenger from Chicago, was giddy with the success of the ride.
For the inaugural event, McGarry said turnout was better than expected with about 150 registered riders and more than 60 teams. Third District Ald. Nik Kovac spoke at the opening ceremony.
There were no accidents despite the night riding.
Lots of spectators (read: residents of Riverwest) were out cheering the riders on during the first four hours of the race. Levity was in the air and the riders were whooping it up around 10 p.m. I saw several female riders wearing skirts, cruising with mini-boom boxes and guys on tandem bikes with masks on. Blinking red bike lights, Pabst Blue Ribbon and cigarette-smoking cyclists were on display.
Here's how the race worked: The rider who records the most laps in 24 hours wins.
The lap was just shy of five miles and ran partially along Humboldt Blvd. down W. Garfield Ave. along the Milwaukee River, across the Marsupial Bridge that runs under Holton St. Bridge to Trocadero, then back across the river.
Then the route wound through Riverwest as far north as Keefe Ave.
There were four racing categories: Solo, Tandem, Team A and Team B. Solo and tandem rides have to be on the same bike for the whole race. For the Team A category, up to six riders share one bicycle and Team B is up to six riders with any number of bicycles. All riders get a manifest that they must get punched at four checkpoints. If the checkpoints are completed in order, the rider gets credit for one lap.
Riders were instructed to obey traffic laws.
When I checked back around 3 a.m. Saturday things had mellowed considerably with riders sleeping in yards near the start/finish line on the 2600 block of N. Pierce St. A guy was selling beers for a dollar apiece on the sidewalk. I knew it was time to go home.
When the clock struck 7 p.m. Saturday, the solo winner was Xav Leplae, who recorded 50 laps for the win. That's more than 240 miles for those keeping score at home.
Organizer Paul Kjelland said he hopes the RW24 will become a yearly event.
"One of the exciting aspects was the large amount of people who had never entered any sort of bike race before this one," Kjelland said. "By pushing their own personal limits in urban cycling, many people realized they could bike much longer distances. We hope that by doing so they are more willing to do things like bike to work and drive their cars less."
Powering the human revolution
Biking out to the Pedal'rs Inn for a human powered concert last Tuesday, I envisioned Christopher Lloyd and his flux capacitor cranking out the volts for the amps on a make-shift stage.
It turned out that an alternator from a 1968 Chevrolet Camaro, automatic transmission, serves as the key component in the system that turns the energy generated from spin bikes into electricity. At least that's what Dan Aukofer, inventor and percussion, told me.
Aukofer was pounding away on stage with his wife, Deb, and Tom Klein and Tom Alane during the performance powered by the people in Wales. Check out this video of their show.
Could the Packers sign this cop?
The word out of New York City is the police officer captured on video body-checking a critical mass rider could be looking for new work, despite the quick defense work of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association.
The video and the expected fall out have been circulating at criterium speed in the cyberworld.
One of my favorites so far has been this op-ed from the New Pork Post.
The paper's news reporters seemed to do a better job of keeping an even hand on the keyboard.
Finally, despite the risk of deprecating the seriousness of the incident and treading on the turf of Bob McGinn, I have to note that the man in blue shows an ability to drop his pads and deliver a blow.$ (3)
Cafe Hollander biker gears for Leadville
After watching the pros sprint through the Great Downer Ave. Bike Race, local rider Steve Smith turned his attention to more pressing matters: final preparations for the Leadville Trail 100 Mountain Bike Race, now looming just 11 days away.
Smith will tackle the Race Across the Sky with a contingent of five fellow Cheeseheads, who will leave the lowlands for the heights and the pursuit of belt buckles.
The 43-year-old from Wauwatosa penned this latest preparation update:
"With final Leadville 100 training wrapping up, heading to the hills as a neophyte mountaineer poses a Carrie Bradshaw-esque challenge: What to wear!?
Just like the star of the movie/HBO series, there are so many options and so little time and space pack!
Sir Edmund Hillary packed for his epic climb to 29,000 feet in boundless fashion: 18 tons of gear, 350 porters and 35 Sherpa guides.
Peaking at less than half that elevation, the Leadville Trail 100 Mountain Bike Race, poses far fewer risks and equipment demands.
And the evolution of technology makes such extravagances unnecessary, even in an attempt to cover 100 miles at altitude ranging from 9,500 feet above sea level to 12,600 ft above sea level (??14,000 feet of total climbing).
Weather reports all but assure that rain will fall at some point during the 10+ hour day in the saddle.
The advance party of the Cheesehead 6, after completing the Triple Bypass, commented on the 30-degree temperatures on the mountain peaks, and need for gloves.
As a cross-country skier, I'm used to exercising in temperatures close to zero. Years of delivering the morning paper as a wee lad also toughened me to crisp, near-freezing temperatures.
That brings me to this sartorial selection: I'll wear a Craft base layer, the coveted BCOC team jersey, and Caf?? Hollander team bike shorts; and I'll bring along arm warmers for the chilly 6 a.m. start. I'm still considering adding a thin cycling jacket "just in case".
Unlike the Everest assault 55 years ago, there will be not a stitch of pure wool clothing utilized! Additionally, I'll be wearing a regular pair of Specialized gel gloves and Specialized Pro Carbon shoes (new for the occasion, thank you Ms. Bradshaw!), which should provide more comfort and traction during the hike-a-bike portions (which are many, according to trail reports).
Nutritionally, my menu will expand beyond the weak tea (with sugar) and mint cakes enjoyed by Mssrs. Hillary and Norgay atop Everest.
I'll feast on four to five Hammer Nutrition bars and 8-10 bottles of Hammer Perpeteum energy drink. A couple peanut butter and jelly sandwiches may be strategically stowed at various aid stations along the route providing a "real food" option.
My Sherpa will be an aluminum Gary Fisher Supercaliber full suspension mountain bike, fitted with Mavic tubeless 26-inch wheels (Michellin 2.0 tires).
In a nod to weight, the bike is fitted with Tru-Vativ Noir carbon fiber cranks and seatpost, along with a seat with titanium rails.
Carbon fiber Avid Juicy ultimate hydraulic brakes and SRAM X-O shifting system will hopefully keep it all under control. Total bike weight is about 29 lbs.
Regrettably, all of this is a departure from the Ibis Mojo steel hard-tail that has chewed up the single track around here for the past 10 years. As my older, more wise brother always posits: "Sooner or later everybody's body wants a full-suspention bike."
With little to no single track and full day of riding on the plate, the Supercaliber seemed like the more prudent option.
Now it's time to packing and repack and dream warm thoughts of the high mountain peaks.
Armstrong adds to the cheesehead challenge
Second thoughts bring a new Lakefront entry race
Turns out the winner in the cyber-dash for an entry into the already filled Lakefront Marathon has bailed, leaving the Friends of the Hank Aaron State Trail holding a registration for the Oct. 5 run.
To raise money, the group is selling the prized entry, which was donated by the Badgerland Striders, for $250. The rules are the same: the first one to email the Friends group at firstname.lastname@example.com wins the right to send a check for $250 and race 26.2 miles the first Sunday in October.
Melissa Cook, the trail manager with the DNR, could not confirm reports that a spousal objection ("oh, no you're not") put the entry back on the market.$
Nat Ross, Hall of Fame mountain biker, ready to race in Wausau
Nat Ross doesn't quite fit the image of an athlete enshrined in a hall of fame.
He's too young, at 36. He still competes at the top of his sport. And then there's the hair - too much length and not enough gray.
The honor makes sense, though, when you consider that the mountain biker from the Subaru-Gary Fisher team started competing when the sport was in its infancy and he had yet to reach his teens.
A racing career that already spans two decades earned Ross his selection into the national Mountain Bike Hall of Fame on July 25.
His fellow competitors in this weekend's America's Dairlyland 24 Hours of 9 Mile shouldn't expect the designation will diminish Ross' speed or competitive fire. He's ready to claim another title in Wausau, where he will race with roughly 1,000 riders battling for national and citizen honors in more than 26 categories.
At least, that's what he said in an interview on his drive from Colorado to Wisconsin earlier this week.
Line ???em up: "It's been eight years since I've been the 24-hour national champion, so I'm racing for the win. It's going to be extremely competitive with the likes of Chris Eatough, the returning champion, riding for TREK.
"It's going to have to come down to whoever makes the least amounts of mistakes because everybody is running really fast right now. I wouldn't say that you peak for an endurance race as such, but a lot of folks have rested and are prepared to give it their all. My body in particular is well-rested and ready for the punishment this weekend."
Growing up with the endurance sport: "It's evolved into quite a popular element for all sorts of family. You've got solos out there racing and teams of two and teams of four or more and teams of six or more.
"And you have camaraderie with the team, friendship that gets built up there, and the overall quest or challenge that most folks are tackling. Over the years it's become incredibly popular. The first couple races I did, there were 30 some folks, back in the 80s, and now they've grown. Twenty-four hours of Moab there's 5,000 people there."
"And back in the day we pretty much raced with one bike and now multiple bikes with different tires and different tire pressures and suspension settings that you can fine-tune and hone in."
Memories of 24-9: "The heat and the humidity, which it seems like it will be again. And I race great in the heat. I like the heat, but when you're pushing yourself for that hard for that long, it's extremely grueling on the body and it's really dangerous.
"It's a great course. Hopefully it's been modified a little bit to give some variety. That's basically 40 laps that I've already done on that course, not to include practice and training. You have to understand it would get a bit mundane after awhile.
"That's why it's nice to have a challenging course, with uphills, downhills, twists and rocks, tight corners and something that would challenge you to get to the next fun part or cool part of the course."
Celebrating a bigger victory in the Hall of Fame: "It's an incredible achievement that you could only wish or hope for. I'm basically on cloud nine. It's better than winning a race, even winning a race on European soil.
"I think part of the reason for me, is I started so early as a professional right out of high school. The sport of mountain biking, at its inception in Colorado and California, was a great launch pad for me to immerse myself into the culture right off the bat with world champions and the best mountain bikers all around."
Ross shared few other thoughts on his racing career in this interview with Bicycling magazine and the Velo News offered this on his induction into the Hall of Fame.
To find more information about the national championships and the racing at 24/9, check out the USA Cycling run-down and the event web site.
Remember, registration will be open right up to 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, for anyone looking to take on a Hall of Fame inductee.$
State championship on the line in Cudahy
The well-respected Cudahy Classic takes on a bit more stature Sunday morning, serving as the state championship race at the 10-mile distance, under the Road Runners Club of America sanction.
Barb Jewell serves as the state representative to the 50-year-old organization and worked to bring the extra pinache for the race along Lake Michigan.
"It gives it a higher profile and you get some nice awards and a few freebies," Jewell said. "And as a state rep, I make sure that it's a quality race.
"You go for the bigger, very well run races, and the Cudahy 10-mile has a long history. I'm trying to get some of the other clubs to have a state championship, and maybe next year have a couple more."
The RRCA includes 700 running clubs across the country, including the locally based Badgerland Striders. It sanctions championships at various distances at the state, regional and national level. The Lakefront Marathon, for example, is the regional marathon championship.
What that means for runners is a plaque and added bragging rights.
Details on the race, which starts at 8 a.m. Sunday, can be found here, and this piece from Don Walker gives a recap of last year's run.
Even with the state championship in play, it's more than a little likely Jenny Crain's long shadow will loom over the event in Sheridan Park. Crain easily won the women's division last year and took fourth overall, just a few weeks before being struck by a car and suffering permanent injuries.
This is the latest update on her progress, posted by her family.
Talking with Don Walker earlier this week, he remembered being awed by Crain's stride as she raced ahead on the out-and-back course and impressed by her demeanor during the awards. In typical Crain fashion, she showed more interest in others than her own performance.$