WISport Friendly Century, April 19th 2003
Clint and Robyn

The 2003 WISport season “kind of” started for us this past weekend. The word “us” implies a new development: in February, we picked up “Bessie” a pearl white Co-Motion Primera tandem that really enjoys the Wisconsin countryside. She was dubbed Bessie because the white and black coloring reminded us of a Holstein cow….and she’s rather bovine in length and girth, as well. But enough about this old news, with have a ride to talk about!

This weekend’s event is a new one in the WISport calendar that is not quite a race, and not quite a tour. It’s the Willard, WI Friendly Century where riders can choose distances up to 100 miles, with goals of sharing some training time on the bike and learning the ropes of riding in large packs. The event also includes a chance to “mix it up” a little with a mock race in the last ~20 miles leaving from Thorp, WI and heading south into Willard. Robyn and I picked the century (100 mi) course, as we enjoyed this distance during our summer touring days in Michigan and Ohio.

The weather was pretty chilly at the start. The actual temp was in the low 40’s F, but it felt much colder; it had rained hard the night before and much of the water hung in the air and ground. The resulting wet grit blanketed the landscape like dirty laundry in a teenager’s room. We tossed on a few extra layers of clothing and hopped on Bessie. As we waited for the pack to start off, a wait that seemed interminable in the cool temperatures, I could feel the pedals shiver as Robyn’s legs reacted to the un-friendly weather. It was one of those unique tandem moments.

The ride started and Dar (the WISport organizer) led the pack in a blue Ford Explorer. At first he was trying to keep the main pack all together which meant that Dar had to go pretty slow. If you can imagine an SUV leading out 40+ cyclists taking up the entire right lane, and a SAG (support vehicle) at the end, all traveling 12mph to 23mph, it must have been a sight to see from the side of the road! It was like this for pretty much the first 25 miles or so, not a great deal of action, and not a great deal of talking amongst the riders. A comment here, a comment there, but everyone seemed pretty guarded. Most comments were about the messy conditions. Rain creates this wonderful mix of sand, water and mud that gets everywhere while riding. You can taste it in your mouth, feel it in your shoes, and on occasion get it in your eyes. It coats water bottle nozzles, so the unwary end up drinking grit along with Gator-ade. It also was causing issues with our rear and front brakes. They were so close to the rims that they were collecting grit and road grime, which prevented them from opening fully and thus caused rubbing on the rims. As we were leaving the first stop we tried to fix the rear brake, which was rubbing noticeably. The delay resulted in us leaving last and having to do some catch-up to the main pack. It took about 10 miles, but just as we were approaching the pack at about 50 feet distance, they decided to pull over and have another rest… fine by us as we were pretty toasted from the chase!

After that, Robyn and I were feeling warmed up and ready to head to the front (we also didn’t want to be left behind again). For a tandem, the front is a wonderful sweet spot. We led the pack for the next ~20 miles. After a few suggestions from the pack at the halfway point stop, we rolled out again at a little slower pace, but not far down the road we noticed that we were bouncing with every pedal stroke. As it turned out, Bessie was having her first flat of the day. We pulled over to the side and with the help of the SAG vehicle, were back on the road in no time. And in turn… 30 seconds down the road we had our second flat, in the same (rear) tire. While changing it out once again, we noticed the tire bead (the part of the tire that connects to the rim of the wheel) was not staying inside the rim… and was probably the cause of the second flat. After 56 miles, a great chase to the pack, an equally enjoyable pull at the front we sadly loaded Bessie into the SAG trailer and climbed into the back of the pickup truck to sit and reflect on the day’s events and try to pull up the spirits a little. As grateful as we were for the excellent SAG support, it was bittersweet to ride in the back of a SAG truck watching a pack of 30 riders finish the event and wishing we were there.

But there was some hope… At the final stop in Thorp and the start of the mock race I thought that we should give Bessie one more chance to prove that the day would not be lost. With some help from Ryan Griessmeyer (a new teammate) we got the tube up to about 110psi with the tire holding on the rim. Bessie was alive again and Robyn and I were no longer sitting in the nice warm SAG cars anymore, but rather out in the head wind “mixing it up”… a welcome feeling for both of us!

The pack left Thorp at moderate pace, led out by Dar until the car traffic thinned out. I noticed Darryl pull to the front and we put Bessie right behind him thinking that if he took off, we would be ready to help. As it turned out, there was a small dip in the road that gave Robyn and I a chance to gain a little speed. I popped the chain into the big ring and off we went to our first tandem breakaway! It was more of a test really to see who would try and work to catch us and within seconds we had a few singles on our wheel. Noticing that neither single was a teammate, I told the two that if they wanted to stay out in front they were going to have to work it out themselves. No sooner did I say that did I see one of the two other tandems pull along side of us. Tactics now switched from “can we help a teammate” to “can we stay with the lead tandem.” 45 seconds later, the third and final tandem from the pack bridged to us, thus started the push for the finish. We were right in the thick of the lead group of riders about 100 feet off the main pack… and feeling good.

Right about then Robyn said we were having another flat… our third, and final of the day. We were done. We were out of tubes, and more so, out of luck for the day as we watched the lead group and then the main pack skip down the road like a rock skimming across a flat pond. Once again we loaded Bessie into the trailer and sat thinking about the day’s events in the back of the pickup.

With time to spare on our way back to Willard we enjoyed talking about what went right during the day. How often in a busy lifestyle do you get to do that with your spouse?

The next event is the Whitewater race next weekend. Short, flat, and lots of turns. Bessie will be getting some new tires this week, and some work done on the brakes.

Whitewater here we come!

-Clint and Robyn