Team Ride Photos

Photos from yesterday's ride and the first team ride at the Grandville area Clarks are here:

2010 Team Rides

TEAM RIDE REPORT - 5-23-10

Lessee.........what do I remember about yesterday's ride........? Well - it was hot. And hilly. And hot. And there were some hills. And it was kinda warm, mebbe even hot. And.....'twas some up and down.
Did I mention that it was more-than-a bit warm, hot even?

Major World's Coolest Team Ever Props to our Hosts - Tom and Mary Scheidel* - for arranging a well-nigh Death Valley specific ride! There were 2 routes, a 40 miler and a 25 miler and we had a pretty good group of riders on each one.

Speaking of which, here's the role call:

JD
Tom S
Mary S
Katie C
Steve C
Chris M
Becky M (Winner of ALL of the Hardcore Points. More on that in a bit)
Coach Did
Special Guest Star Ms Did (AKA Kirsten D)
Tom M
Linda TP
Scott P
Sarah A (Back in the saddle again!!!!!)
Nick M
Nicole N
Brad S
Chris R
Linda C
Walt F - Newest member of our team! Picked up his bike on Sat and rode 25 miles Sunday! Dang!
Coach me

After the ride there was much feasting on everything from giant strawberries to chips and salsa (shocking!!!) to Linda TP's wicked salsa and a big pot of rice/bean/chicken stuff.

One down note - Becky 3rd "incident' of the day proved to be one too many as our fears were confirmed when she was diagnosed w/ a fractured elbow last night. Let the record show that she rode 10+ miles on said fractured elbow, hence the bestowing of the Hardcore Points. Here's to fast recovery and a shifter-friendly cast or splint! (Hmmmm - do I see a tandem in her future? It's been done before!)

Other than that fairly massive downer 'twas a great ride and everyone (everyone!) rode really really well on a challenging route on a challenging day. We are gonna be SO ready for DV! (And VT and Tucson too!) Might be fun to re-visit this loop in a month or 2 and see how much easier it gets!

Next Team Ride is Sunday 6/6. It's the Tour de Taco and this year it moves form the Clark's backyard to the pool and park alongside Lake Macatawa @ Eldean's Shipyard. (Thanks to JD for setting that up!) There will be 3 routes - a 45 miler w/ a good shortcut and - as promised - a flat and easy 20 miler in case you wanna ride the 100 Grand the day before. We roll @ 11:00 to get lotsa pool time.

Other naggy stuff:
If you don't get your 40 bux to Tom Miller soon you might not get the "pink peloton" jersey that you said you wanted. Jus' sayin'.

Remember to tell Coach Did if you are planning to do the 100 Grand so he can include you in our team registration. That get's ya in for n/c!

We're doing a Memorial Day Ride from the shop - sort of an impromptu 45-50 miler. Rollin' @ 9:00am.

Okay, I think that covers it.........allow me to remind y'all just how much you ROCK, 'cuz you all for sure do!

See you on the road! Be safe, ride lots, keep the rubber side down!

Coach Mike

* Ian - I didn't forget you dude...but you weren't there, y'know?

Team Ride Report, 5/16

Hey Team!

We had a pretty good group that gathered up @ Tom Miller's (happily moat-free) house near Grand Haven for a ride last Sunday. We rode 'tween 30-40 miles and throughly enjoyed the fruits of his grill labors and sweet sunshine on the deck afterwards. No crashes, flats or UFO sightings to report.....but if you weren't there you missed a great day!

Honor Roll Call:
Host w/ the Most Tom M
Mary S
JD
Bonnie
Stewart
Cathy Kaat
John J
Chris R
Heather A-B
Brian B
Cindy A
Special Guest Greg
Special Guests (and Tom's neighbors) Riley and ?????(Never got his name, sorry)
Linda C
Peggy E
(Not so Trike) Mike H
Jeff H
Rick B
Mel W
Coach Did (w/ the last ride on Ruby....sniff)
Coach Me

Lotsa cool stuff comin' this-a-way as May draws to a close....Teammie Sarah A has her "Bike, Brews and a B-B-Q" bash and fund-raiser this Friday.

ALSO - we have 'nother Team Ride a-comin' up this Sunday! We'll gather @ the Scheidel's in Rockford @ 2:00pm for a route that promises to get'cher climbing legs loosened up! We'll send out the details as to their exact location via e-mail.

Looking ahead - The 100 Grand is comin' up fast, it's on 6/5! Remember that as a Team we get to ride for free but you need to let Coach Did know so he can sign everyone up en masse. It's always a great ride.

Our next Team Ride after this Sunday will be 6/6 in Holland. It's a can't miss it sort of day 'cuz JD has secured the yard and pool beside Lake Macatawa here in H-land and it's also the "Tour de Taco Ride". (The city is tearin' up our street all summer so I'll be doing the fajita grilling out by the lake. I can deal.)
Note to 100 Grand Riders - Don't think you gotta miss this ride 'cuz you rode long the day before! We will offer a "Super-Special-I-Rode-All-Dang-Day-Yesterday-And-My-Legs-Are-Toast " loop just for y'all that will be short, simple and flat so you can eat and recover by the pool.

Remember - if you don't get your "Pink Peloton" jersey $ to Tom Miller asap then you ain't for sure gonna get a jersey! We are only ordering a few extra so if you want one (and many of you said that you did!) time to pony up the dough. $40 in a check made out to Tom Miller please. Bring it to the next ride, put in in the mail, drop t off @ the JDRF office, at Velo City.....it's not that hard people!

I think that does it. As I sit here I look ahead @ the coming months and marvel at all that will go down in the next buncha weeks. There are already more riders signed up to ride this year than we had in 2009 so we are well on the way to the biggest year ever for the Ride to Cure Program! You guys are a huge part of that as our Team continues to lead the way. It's gonna be a great year!

So - keep riding. Keep fund-raising. Keep in touch w/ each other and most of all.......

Keep rocking 'cuz after all - it's how we roll, huh?

See you this Sunday if not before and - as always - thanks for doing what you do & beiong who you are!

Ride on
Coach Mike

Winning 2010 team t-shirt

Congrats to Nicole Nelles - designer of the winning 2010 JDRF Michigan Great Lakes West Ride team t-shirt. And this is about the only prize there is for "winning" - so,

Congratulations Nicole!

(Nicole will kill me if I don't tell you that it was her design & idea but submitted with mismatched "stickers", so I did some graphic work to give the shirt some consistency with size/text on "stickers". she wants to share the glory, i think to avoid the continued convo about the 2008 ride shirt. and so there is no jealousy, this is not the only shirt i helped with on graphics. ;-)

So, team this is YOUR t-shirt. We need you to decide on colors for t-shirt and for writing. IDEAS? Put them in the comments. I can change the image above to the ideas suggested and put them out here for another vote.

Also - if you have vendors whose logo should be on the back of this t-shirt, please - GET THEM TO KATIE in EPS or VERY HIGH quality JPG ASAP. (J.D. - this is for you!)

Thanks to everyone who submitted a design. They were all great ideas!

Team Ride this Sunday!

Hey, gangarino -

We've got a team ride coming up that I dung near fergot about! This Sunday, we'll be hosted by the ever-generous (and hardcore points leader) Tom Miller, south of Grand Haven (map to his house will be emailed). Rollout time will be 2pm, so - you know the drill, here - be there by 1:45, and if ya want bring some munchies for the inevitable post-ride nosh session. We'll have routes in the 35ish mile range.

Hmm. Just had a tornado warning drill. What fun. Aaaaaaaah, run from the fauxnado! Hide, hide in the bathrooms!

Anyway, so, yeah. Oh, again, if you ordered a pink jersey and haven't paid for it yet, bring along a check for $40 per jersey made out to Tom Miller.

Watch your email, keep on ridin', keep on rockin'!

cdid

Tulip Time Ride Report

So, the day dawned, 70 and sunny as had been forecast. A glance at the radar revealed a rather substantial amount of 70 and sunny was occurring in the Holland area, and some light 70 and sunny occurring in the Grand Haven area. This may have explained the very large initial turnout for the ride, which, including me, totaled 1 person. Now, I had heard from Tom Miller, who was dealing with his THIRD flat tire in two miles, and figured we might accumulate some additional throngs of people when the one of us made it down to Tom's house.

So, we got myself organized and toodled through Grand Haven, getting 70 and sunnied on the whole time. I found a huge throng of people, consisting of, including Tom, Tom. So, tire dealt with, Tom and I and the peloton, which had grown to, including Tom and I, 2 people, continued south. The light drizzle continued. Er, I mean, 70 and sunny. With some breeze. Out of the southeast, so it was a bit of negative tailwind.

Anywho, we continued south, and the light 70 and sunny got kinda hard, and kinda, y'know, horizontal, on account of the breeze getting more assertive. It was kinda Killingtonish, right down to the road grit accumulating pretty much everywhere. Only not as warm. A left, two rights, and a couple of shakes later, we were warming up with Berger and Aaron and a pot of coffee. And no carnie food for us, no sirreebob, we went to 84 East Pasta for some of the best hot soup I've ever had.

Finally warmed up, but still quite saturated with all the 70 and sunny we had soaked up, we cruised north. It was much drier, much faster, and much, well, generally less craptalicious. Tom peeled off a bit north of his house, and I moseyed on back to Spring Lake (with a detour to go up 5 Milf Hill a couple of times).

Now, the important part - the awarding of the Hardcore Points. After much careful theorizing, Coach Mike and I have come up with the following equation:

Distance X (|Avg. Temp-74|) X WindSpeed/Number of Riders

Then, after more theorizing, we decided that was silly, and we would simply follow USA cycling's Hardcore Points guidelines. It's in one of the subsections.

So, after a certain amount of consultation, and after watching Pulp Fiction on AMC, I have decided that Tom Miller is to be awarded the sum of twenty-one (21) hardcore points for riding in the 70 and sunny 46 and driving rain conditions AFTER getting 3 flat tires.

Cinco de Mayo Team Note!

So, it's May, and things are picking...

Hey! Put down the margarita and pay attention! This is important!

Things are picking up as summer approaches, and we've got news, opportunities, and instructions for ya!

First off, riding - are you? We do team rides roughly twice a month, but that's nowhere near enough training if you're planning anything like 100 miles at your ride destination. You need to be riding at least 2-3 times a week, and building up the distances you ride too. There are lots of opportunities for group rides organized by local shops and clubs, and most of them have multiple groups and distances and are always happy to have more people show up! There's a list of local rides on this page, as well as links to training plans that Coach Mike has put together.

AND, because our team is big and awesome and spread out over the West Michigan area, there's probably someone on the team who lives near you and would love to ride with you! The best place to make contact is probably Facebook, but if you get in touch with anyone on the ride committee or either of us coaches we'll hook ya up!

That said, our next official team ride isn't until May 16, but if you can drag yourself away from work on Friday the 7th we'll have a group riding from Spring Lake to Holland and back, for roughly 60 miles total. It's a fun, easy ride, pretty much completely flat, with a good junk food stop in the middle. Rollout time will be 9am from the Herman Miller Spring Lake 171st Street Plant. If you want a shorter option with the same junk food stop, we'll go through the Pigeon Lake area, where there is a parking lot. I don't know if it's a public lot, or if you'll have to pay to park, or what, but there ya go. I think that'll make for about a 30 mile ride. If we leave at 9, we'll probably go through there between 10:15 and 10:30. Looks like it'll be a wet, not-very-warm ride, so, well, there ya go. Extra hardcore points will be awarded, and the hot funnel cake in the middle will taste extra awesome.

Another upcoming ride opportunity is the very nice 100 Grand tour, on June 5. As they did last year, the Rapid Wheelmen are offering FREE entry to any registered members of the JDRF team. There are 17, 35, 65, and 105 mile routes, so there's something for everyone. It's a really nice ride, and I highly recommend doing it. If you want to sign up, please email me by May 21 to be put on the list.

Now - Team Jerseys (the pink ones, that is)! The order has been placed, so we'll have them, uh, soon, I guess. Thus, it's time to pay up if you ordered one. Unfortunately, we didn't hit the quantity we wanted, so the cost is gonna be a little higher than originally advertised. Your cost will be $40 per jersey. They are very nice jerseys, and you're still getting it for way less than cost (thanks Herman Miller!). So, if you ordered one (or more), send $40 per jersey to our team treasurer (Tom Miller) at 11881 Mistral Lane, Grand Haven, MI 49417, or just bring it to our next team ride.

Finally - did ya remember to vote for your favorite T-shirt design?

Ride well, rock stars! See ya soon!

did

Wanna play hookey on Friday?

First off, didja vote for yer favorite T-shirt down there? You, yes, you, can influence just how we present our rockin' awesomeness to the world this year!

Bike Ride Opportunity this Friday!

As we did last year, we're gonna start from the Herman Miller 171st st. plant in Spring Lake, ride down to Holland, say hi to the folks at our favorite bike shop, eat some deep fried something-or-other, and then ride back. Distance will be right around 60 miles - we'll probably make sure we get 62 and change so we can call it a metric century - and I'm thinkin' we'll ride some more after in case you want to flesh things out a bit, and go visit Amy and Mel at their annual epic yard sale.

Start time? Oh, let's say, 9 a.m. That ain't at all chiselled in stone, though we won't want to leave too much later than that. And if you want to ride less, but still with the group, lemme know and I'll figure out a rendezvous place and time...

2010 Michigan Great Lakes West t-shirt - vote now!

Below are the entries for our team T-shirt this year. Use the poll on the right to vote for your favorite. (note: t-shirt color and screen print colors can change). Leave in a comment to this post what color t-shirt and screen print color you think would look best.

T-shirt A

(example of icon)

T-shirt B

T-shirt C

T-shirt D