*sniff, sniff* Last Team Ride of 2009 - This Sunday

Come one, come all...our final team ride of 2009 will be this Sunday October 4. We'll roll from Velo City Cycles in Holland at 10:00 a.m. for a nice, fun cool-down ride (about 45 miles) for our Death Valley pals. Afterward, we'll head over to New Holland Brewery for some pizza and beer and other athlete-friendly food/drink for a fun little send-off party for our DV riders.

Bonus if you're a DV rider sending your bike on the truck: you can just leave your bike at VCC that day. You're also welcome to send a duffel bag with your gear along with the bike...helmet, shoes, CO2 cartridges *you CAN'T take those on the plane at all--not even in checked luggage!*, anything you'd rather not fly with...be sure the duffel has a tag clearly marked with your name and "West Michigan Chapter."

Please post a comment here, or e-mail Nicole to let us know if you plan on making it for the ride, or heck...if you just feel like joining in the fun at NHBC afterward.

See you soon!

TEAM RIDE REPORT - 9/26/09

It was a select group that met @ Smallenberg Park here in Holland for the Team Ride last Saturday. It was gratifying to see a goodly # of the DV-bound squad and equally sweet to enjoy the presence of our Vermont brethren! Here's the Honor Roll:

Linda C (DV)
Cathy P to the T (VT and tandem-bound due to her still busted wrist)
Derek D (VT)
John J (DV)
J.D. (DV)
Nick M (DV)
Chris M (DV)
Coach Nic (VT)
Pete D (DV)
Pablo P (DV)
Special (and temporary) Guest Star Rick K
and your trusty reporter and tandem pilot.


We did a nice lil' fiddy miler - headed east at first and then worked our way down into the K-Zoo River valley and out around Hutchin's Lake. We stopped in Douglas for a Jasker-induced visit to the cookie store and then back home. Afterwards most of us found our way over to the New Holland Brewery where we ate burgers and pizza, enjoyed frosty adult beverages and tried to keep Nicole away from the TV showin' the MSU game. Good fun!

One more pre-Death Valley Team Ride! It's this Sunday and the details are being finalized right now. Stay tuned!

Have we mentioned the extent to which y'all rock lately?
Your proud and humbled coaches.......Nic and MC

UPDATE! Team Ride on Saturday

Hey gang!

Our 2nd Saturday ride of the year (and 2nd to last team ride of the year! no way!) is coming up this weekend, 9/26.

We'll roll at 10:00 a.m. from Smallenburg Park in Holland for 50ish miles.

If you're interested in meeting up earlier to grab a few more miles beforehand, say 8:30am with a trek down to Saugatuck and back, leave a comment here. Cancelled; everyone seems to think 50 miles is just fine, thankyouverymuch.

See you there!

BTW...who's doing Apple Cider Century on Sunday?

Jake's Music Festival on the Radio

The annual concert to benefit JDRF takes place this Saturday night at Wealthy Theatre. You can tune in to a couple Grand Rapids radio stations this week to hear more about the festival.

Wednesday, 9/16 10:45-11:00 a.m. WGVU-FM Morning Show 88.5 FM
Tom and Jake Scheidel are interviewed by Shelly Irwin about this weekend's festival.

Friday, 9/18 11:00 a.m. - noon WYCE Local Resonance 88.1 FM
Tom Scheidel, Music Director Clay Grueber, and singer Todd Herring appear with Kevin Murphy on this weekly show highlighting local music.

Friday 9/18 12:30 - 3:00 p.m. WYCE Rebecca Ruth show 88.1 FM
Members of the Grand Rapids School of Rock will play and talk about their upcoming appearance at the festival.

You can learn about the performers and get other concert info at www.jakesmusicfestival.blogspot.com.

Fall tours for us to improve with our mere presence

Hey, just 'cause we're back from Vermont doesn't mean ya gotta put yer bike up! (You might want to make sure there's not too much water in it - my bike is still sloshing slightly.) There are a number of tours that take advantage of the cooling temperatures and changing leaves.

First up is THIS SUNDAY, the 20th: the Cherry County Cycling Club's Harvest Tour. This is up in the Leland area, and takes in some of the prettiest riding terrain in the state. There are at least a few of us going up, and you may be able to take advantage of a lodging offer from one of our riders from last year. Contact Rob Andro if you're interested (Mary, Nicole, Mike, or I can put you in touch with him if you don't have his email).

Second is the Apple Cider Century, which is... full. Dang. Well, the group that's going down will have fun, and we'll have to shoot for next year. It's a five thousand person ride. Wow.

Third is the Colorburst Tour. This is put on by the Rapid Wheelmen of Grand Rapids, on Saturday, October 10. This starts and finishes at Fallasburg Park northeast of GR. Registration is $20 until September 30, then it jumps to $30, so if you want to ride sign up now!

And we have 2 team rides left before we send the Death Valley crew off to do the good thing that we do - more info will be forthcoming.

All of these rides are on our team calendar too...

Ride Report - 09/14/09

Well, 'twas a small-ish yet select group that gathered @ Townsend Park yesterday for our 1st "post Killington / pre Death Valley" training ride. Must've been the lousy weather that kept folks home! (Not) We had a great ride - up and over the rolling hills of the Honey Creek / Pettis / Knapp loop south of the park and then up north as far as M-57 and back around. Not a super long ride but it was great to have a chance to get together, share tales of road snakes, plastic bags and newspapers under jerseys! (You had to be there!)

Roll Call:

Cindy A
Brenda B
John J
Brian B
Heather A
Kathy H
Chris M
Steve-n-Katie C
Derek D
Linda C
Tom-n-Mary S (proving that proximity does not = timeliness!)
Chris R joined us later out on the road.
and your faithful reporter.

We did about 46 miles, ate a lotta chips and salsa, cookies and such, basked in the sun and in general had a great time!

Thanks to all the VT riders that came out to motivate their DV-bound brethren!

Next week is the Harvest Tour hosted by Peggy Miller up in Leelanau, the Apple Cider Century is the week after that & stay tuned for up-to-the-minute info on upcoming traiing rides and team events!

Be well, ride lots and ........as.always.........thanks for all you do!

Coach Mike

TIME CHANGE! TIME CHANGE! TIME CHANGE!

Did I mention that there's been a time change?

Contrary to my e-mail from earlier this week and the time listed on the post below about the map - WE ARE ROLLING FROM TOWNSEND PARK THIS SUNDAY (9/13) @ 10:00AM, NOT 2:00PM!!!!!!!!!

Allow me to state for the record that this is neither Mary's or Did's fault - I gave them out-of-date info.

Remember - WE RIDE @ 10:00AM THIS SUNDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I sure do hope y'all can make it - it's been too long since The World's Coolest And Bestest Team has blessed the area roads w/ it's presence!

Coach Mike

Hey, where's the ride startin' from?

It's startin' from Townsend Park, east of Rockford. We're on for 50 miles in what looks to be great weather.

***Rollout time has been revised to 10 a.m!***

Here's yer map to the park; note that we'll be parking on 6 Mile east of Ramsdell:

View Larger Map

Or click here for a bigger version!

As always, snacky food is a happy thing to have post-ride, and if you've got pictures and a way to share 'em that'd be all kinds of cool too!

WHITEFISH REPORT

In case you all were wondering what's been up out here in Big Sky Country.............

Aaron & I flew out here on Wed morning, arriving @ the Grouse Mountain Lodge about 3 pm. The rest of the crew and riders rolled in by dinner on Thursady. As you probably have heard - this was the smallest Ride to Cure ever, w/ only 20 riders and the challenge for the crew was to make sure that they got every bit of the "goose bump thing" that they deserved. Tim and I concentrated on meeting everyone, doing as much hangin' w/ them as possible and making sure that they felt like they were at a JDRF ride. We had 7 new riders and 13 vets - w/ 6 from Mid Jersey, 4 from Indiana, 2 from Wisconsin and the rest single riders from all over.

Today (Ride Day) dawned clear and cold - about 45. The group rolled out and enjoyed the beautiful ride up to Star Meadow, the ride up along Whitefish Lake and the trip out to North Fork. 18 of the riders completed the full 101 miles, w/ the other 2 attaining their goal of 72. The scene @ the finish line was great as everyone hung around to see if Amarilis from Indy could manage her first ever century. (Some of the riders waited 3 hours or more!) She did - escorted by my good friend Tim St.Clair and the celebration commenced!

It's been a great weekend even if I've missed you guys a ton. The spirit of the Ride was in full display despite the small numbers (or because of it, who knows?) and I can't wait for Death Valley!

Tomorrow I'm gonna f-i-n-a-l-l-y get my butt up to Glacier - it's only my 5th time out here! We fly home Monday and I'm looking forward to riding w/ y'all on Sunday!

Yours, MC

I just wanted to say..................

........that you guys ROCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I know that you know that I think that - but I've been out here in MT for 3 days now and I can't stop thinking how much better a Ride to Cure this'd be w/ a healthy dash of West Michigan added to the stewpot! Now - I'm not just talkin' about numbers here - although if all y'all were here we'd have quadrupled the size of this Ride - I'm talking about the spirit and the passion and the love and the joy that our Team brings wherever we go. The folks here are great, don't get me wrong. They are committed and ridin' for all the right reasons and fun to hang with and all that ................

But.........................they ain't you guys!

And here's the thing - no one else is! I've once again been the recipient of praise from crew and coaches about our Team last weekend, just like I am anytime I go anywhere JDRF-related. Remember when Tim said that it was Sam and Jeremy's jobs in VT to make me look good? Well - you guys make Nic and I look REAL GOOD and while she doesn't need the help I most surely do and I appreciate it very much!

I can't wait for the next Team Ride! I really hope that all of our VT riders will join the DV squad and regale them w/ tales both tall and true about the 10 inches of rain, sub-zero temps, hurricane, swarms of locusts, earthquakes and tidal waves we survived. ( Not to mention our respective drives!)

I miss you guys, that's all I'm sayin'. I kinda missed you guys in VT too....and I feel bad about that. It was great to get a chance to ride to the finish w/ some of you - I know you don't need me but it was awesome to get to ride up that final hill w/ somma my peeps.

I hafta go eat dinner and continue to fend of Trish and Aly's attempts to get me to play my guitar - I never shoulda had it sent out here! See you guys next week - I hope you shake those colds asap and I'll talk to you later!

Yours, MC

WANNA L/S LERSEY AND/OR A VEST?

Hey Team! So - somehow I find myself in Montana w/ the traveling JDRF circus! My head's still janglin' from VT and now there's gonna be a layer of MT laid over that.

I'll have tales to tell and yarns to spin - never fear!

Right this sec I wanted to let'cha know about some left-over JDRF clothing that we had in Killington - 2007 long sleeve jerseys and windvests. It's here in MT and I can bring some home if anyone wants to grab some. It's a really good deal - $30 for either piece! It's from 2007, so it's the red/wht/blue design and keep oin mind that the sizing is SERIOUSLY wack! (I wear a XXXL!)

Lemme know if you'd like some and I'll make it happen!

Big Team Hug!
MC