Sunday  June 11, 2006 is the day of the big Tour de Cure ride.  I folded the rear bench seat down in my van and I took out one of the second row captains chairs to make room for our bikes.  Pete and I tried to talk others into joining us on the Tour de Cure ride this year, but it ended up being just the two of us again.  I took off the front tire on my bike and loaded the bike and tire into the van.  Next stop Pete’s house to pick him up for the ride over to Brighton where the Tour is taking place again this year. 

It was around 6:40 am when I got to Pete’s.  Pete took his front tire off and we loaded his bike right next to mine.  We had plenty of room in the van, I probably didn’t need to take out the one seat.  Pete was almost awake when we hopped into the van and took off.  We stopped at a McDonalds to get some breakfast to eat on the ride across town. 

The weather appeared to be turning out just as I hoped.  A little cool with a slight overcast.  I think we were going to luck out again weather wise.  Last year we got rained on quite a bit during the ride, but that was actually good because without the rain it would have been a much tougher ride due to the heat.  This year the temperature was going to be perfect for the ride. 

We got to the Island Lake Park around 7:30 am.  We paid our entrance fee and followed the signs to the parking area.  This year we had to park off to the side in a grassy area that isn’t normally used for parking.  It appeared to be an over flow area to accommodate extra cars.  I brought Diane’s camera to take a few pictures before and after the ride to be able to share visually with you some of this experience.  I will post the pictures I took this day at the bottom of this page. 

Once we parked we took out our bikes and reinstalled the front tires and made sure everything was lined up and working properly.    Pete parked his bike directly in the one lane they had for cars.  At least one car had to veer off in the high grass before he realized his mistake and moved the bike out of the way.  Pete didn’t notice that he had moved his speedometer sensor so that it wouldn’t work. 

We rode over the short distance to the registration tents to sign in and get our numbers.  I pinned Pete’s number on his back and he returned the favor for me.  We looked around and found the TRW tent so we headed over there to see if there were any other TRW riders hanging out.  It was deserted so we headed over to the start line to get in position for the 8:00 am start of the 30 mile ride.  Last year if it wasn’t for some confusion near the end of the ride, Pete and I would have easily won the 30 mile ride.  We set a record for average speed for a single club ride last year.  We have never come close to the 14.5 mph pace from last years ride.  I could tell by the look in Pete’s eyes he was planning to not only win this year but he was also planning to beat our average speed from last year.  This wasn’t a good sign, I was concerned about getting burned out too early and struggling at the end.  I remember the hills at the end were somewhat challenging. 

It didn’t appear there were as many riders doing the 30 mile route this year.  Last year Pete and I missed the start by a minute or so and we got behind a lot of riders.  We ended up passing all of them, but it took a few miles and maybe that is why it seemed like more riders last year.  This year we were near the head of the group and we passed almost everyone within the first two or three miles.  Pete was pounding on his speedometer while pedaling trying to get it working, but no luck.  I figured if the darn thing wasn’t working he might slow down.  Pete started out setting an extremely fast pace.  

About a mile and a half after the start one of Pete’s shoe laces came untied and he had to stop to tie it.  I kept riding at a somewhat slower pace knowing that Pete would catch up quickly, which he did.  It was amazing how quickly we passed the few riders in front of us.  You could tell some of these riders didn’t want me and Pete to pass them because they actually sped up and tried to hold us off.  This kind of action just motivates Pete even more and we kept pressing on until we passed everyone in sight.  It was definitely a fast start. 

We were making such good time that we actually stopped at the second the rest stop and enjoyed a few snacks and filled up our water bottles.  Last year we didn’t stop at any rest stops, and I think we missed out.  It was more enjoyable making a couple stops this year.  Once we got back on our bikes after the rest stop we had to pass a couple riders again that made shorter stops than us.  Pete wanted me to mention that the give-aways were power energy bars that not only looked like cow pies, they tasted like cow pies.  Apparently Steve likes these and eats them before playing hockey on Friday nights.  Maybe if Steve reads this he will join us next year. 

The route was similar to last year’s route and I remember some of the areas as we passed by.  About half way into the race we came up to more riders that must have left early because based on their pace there is no way they could be that far ahead of us without cheating.  Pete and I labeled these riders as cheaters.  We had to pass a few more cheaters along the way, but then finally Pete and I were on our own, we were way out front of everyone.  Pete got a little tired early, but the snacks and drinks at the rest stop was all he needed to catch his second wind.  I felt pretty good until near the end when I struggled up the last hill. 

A good portion near the end of the ride is along a paved trail.  When we hit this trail Pete actually picked up the speed even faster.  At this point I got a little behind Pete, I was concerned this faster pace was too fast for me, I wanted to make sure I didn’t run out of energy before the end.  I kept Pete in sight, but he was still quite a bit a head of me.  At one point he was at least 1,000 feet ahead.  Over the next few miles I kept riding at a decent pace, but I was still losing ground to Pete.  Finally Pete slowed down a little and I caught up just before we entered what appears to be an old garbage dump area.  There is a long steady hill going into this area and then a fairly steep hill as well.  Pete started to pick up the speed again on the gradual hill and my legs were just too tired to keep up.  Pete put distance between us again, and this would be the last time I would see Pete until the finish a few miles ahead.  As I was slowly making my way up this last hill another rider passed me.  This was an older guy on a road bike that came out of nowhere.  I think he was one of the riders doing the 50 mile route, he wasn’t part of our group.   

Once I lost sight of this new guy and Pete, I wasn’t sure of the last turn to get back into the park for the finish.  As I approached the final intersection I saw a bike rider wearing biking clothes. This guy turned right so I followed him.  After about a quarter mile I quickly realized I had probably turned the wrong way.  I pulled out my cell phone and called Pete and he confirmed I turned the wrong way.  I turned around and headed back to that final intersection.  When I got there it was obvious the mistake I made.  I got back on track and within about five or six minutes I crossed the finish line.  Even if I hadn’t gone the wrong way there was no way I was going to catch up to Pete, the early fast pace just took too much out of my legs at the end.  Even with my goof up at the end we still set a new record for average speed of 15.1 mph, which is very impressive if I do say so myself for a ride of over 30 miles. 

Pete ended up finishing first and I came in second a couple minutes behind Pete.  The next riders came in a couple minutes after me, we basically blew away the 30 mile route field this year.  Next year I am going to have to make a better effort to keep up with Pete at the end.  Pete was waiting for me after I crossed the finish line.  He had already been there for a few minutes so he went up and got our goody bags with the little free items and coupons they give you.  He also found out they were going to serve lunch a little earlier this year.  Last year we had to wait around for almost an hour before lunch was served.  This year the line was much shorted since most of the riders were still out on the course while we were getting our food.  We were able to eat and hit the road sooner this year and since we were planning to stop to help a guy with his Old Chicago pinball machine, we would have more time. 

The lunch was very good.  The place they get to bring in the food does a nice job.  You only get one plate of food which is plenty, but you get as many drinks as you like, which is nice.  Before lunch we parked our bikes over by the TRW tent.  Once we finished eating we went back to the TRW tent and took a couple more pictures and we asked a guy to take a couple pictures of Pete and me together in front of the tent.    

Time to load our bikes back into the van for the ride home.  Both Pete and I really enjoyed this ride.  It was a lot of fun and definitely for a good cause.  We ended up pushing ourselves just enough to make it challenging and yet still enjoyable.   

We did end up stopping at some guy’s house and we worked for about a half hour to 45 minutes on his game.  He didn’t have a useable schematic, so it would be very time consuming to figure out the electrical problem that was causing all the lights to not work.  We tinkered around to see if we could get lucky and stumble across the problem, but we didn’t.  We did find and fix a few other problems while we were there, but we finally said without a proper schematic we just didn’t have the time this day.  The weird thing about this schematic was it was printed in reverse, like you were looking at the back side.  I have never seen anything like this, I am not even sure how you would go about making a schematic like this.  It was virtually unreadable.  We laughed about the weird schematic and agreed Pete would mail him a proper copy and then they would try to trouble shoot it over the phone and plan another visit if necessary. 

Following are the statistics from this ride, 32.3 miles total, 30.0 max mph, 2 hour and 8 minutes time on bikes and a new club record average speed for one ride of 15.1 mph.   
David Lindquist