Heavy storms were predicted to hit at 8PM, giving the Drafters a solid hour+ window of safety to draft responsibly. The prediction was 100% right on the storms hitting, and a little less accurate on the safety window. 13 Drafters rolled the dice and hit the jackpot! 12 won. Nobody was lost. You can’t win if you don’t play, but interestingly enough, you can lose if you don’t play. Ask Cujo how she got soaked by choosing not to draft.

Z said, “Suns out, guns out.” The B Team rolled with the Z pose.

Velo wasn’t on a winning roll: rolling in too late to catch the B team, and rolling against unanticipated resistance from the rubbing rear brake on his borrowed bicycle. He did roll with a great attitude, and that made all the difference.

On the first formidable climb up Enchanted Valley, the A Team showed signs of cracking. Air Bourne sent up a flare at the base of the climb, “I’m already out of gears!”. Fear not. His new Pinarello is being delivered on Friday with gears to spare. We suspect Air Bourne to be spending much, much more time in the front. Velo, gassed from climbing with his rear brake rubbing relentlessly, waived the surrender flag atop Enchanted Valley.

As the skies turned dark, Shaq, Speedy, Loose Screw and Queenie decided not to challenge Mother Nature’s hand and folded.

As Hawkeye, BrickO and Octane forged ahead to the next formidable climb up Schuman Road, they waved to the returning Drafters. “Smart call”, yelled BrickO in passing. “If they are being smart, does that make us dumb or smarter by continuing to ride?”, pondered the shrinking A Team.

Air Bourne contemplated the motto on his headset stem cap that reads, “Make Good Choices”. He and Velo did a U-Turn and hopped the B Train back home.

BrickO, Hawkeye and Octane peddled on, fiercely determined to reach Far, Far, Far View. Once on top of the ridge, the winds of change came a callin’. Hawkeye spread his wings and the trio literally flew. Until the wind did a 180, and the three folded their wings and opted for the short pour.

The remainder of the B Team, Z, Skipper and Lost Boy were already past the short pour cut off when the front came in. The temperature dropped at least 20 degrees (not an official meteorology report, just a sense) and the wind turned 180 degrees. YeeHa! A headwind both ways for the boys as they wouldn’t back down from the full strength route. Only those 3 had the grit to go the distance.

It was truly a dry draft to remember. The ride was a gift. To have escaped a drop of rain, while also beholding the raw power of what Mother Nature could unleash was indescribable. Actually, Hammer Time could probably describe it. Late to the Draft, she rode solo and was not so fortunate in staying dry. After 4 days of criterium racing at Tour of America’s Dairyland, a shower wasn’t so bad.

WEEKEND HIGHLIGHTS:

Things really heated up at The Tour of America’s Dairyland. Congrats to Keez, Hammer Time and Unicorn Blood on three FIRSTS.

Keez raced 5 back to back criteriums in Janesville, West Allis, Grafton, and back to back days in De Pere with Apex Cycling Team. This was her first time racing with the big dogs in the Pro/1/2 division.

And by big dogs, I mean professionals like Marlies Mejias Garcia of Virginia’s Blue Ridge TWENTY24 and Olympic track alternate, Olivia Cummins. She took a turn at the front and reached her goal of a top 20 finish. Nice pull, Keez!

Hammer Time cut her criterium teeth at ToAD, racing the Novice Cat 5 in Janesville. The Colonel was providing novice support, placing her numbers in the wrong place. Thankful for a little help from a competitor, they got the numbers pinned correctly before the start of the race.

After lapping the field, TWICE, Hammer Time found herself on the podium in the leaders jersey. Rinse and repeat the following day in West Allis. Well, technically she only lapped the field once in her second criterium ever.

Everyone in the novice division was relieved when she moved up to Cat 4 for the Grafton and De Pere races, where she still hung in there for a top 10 finish. Like Keez, she mixed it up, taking a turn in front for 1.5 laps in De Pere. Nice pull, Hammer!

Shout out to Coach Slim who helped Hammer Time with some cornering tips, which she credits largely for her victory in this exclusive Insta ToAD interview.

Unicorn Blood also posted up on the podium at Toad West Allis, winning the Cat 3-4.

Congrats to all the competitors at ToAD. From those of us in the slow twitch category, it is hard to fathom doing a criterium in any category from novice to pro.

ON TAP FOR MONDAY JUNE 30

Making good use of the training hours we have accumulated since March and the summer solstice daylight, it’s due time to up the mileage. The routes for Monday June 30: full strength 38.4 miles and short pour 33.6 miles. Departure times 4:45 and 4:50. IF YOU NEED A 5PM START, PLEASE CONTACT BRICKO. No Drafter will be left behind.

RidewithGPS Link: Drafters Shy of Lodi Canning Co. Short Pour

RidewithGPS Link: Drafters Lodi Canning Co.

NOW HIRING: the Drafter Junior team is growing. Between the diaper and chamois stage, their parents would benefit from a having a day care professional to watch this growing peloton on Monday evenings so they could catch a draft. PVL: CPR and and RED CROSS babysitting certification. Other skills: diaper changing, bottle warming, mind reading, patience. Salary negotiable. Willingness to trade time for beer (not to be consumed on duty) appreciated. Hawkeye floated this idea, and it is a good one. It would be awesome if the Junior Team parents team up and rotate taking a pull each week. Please submit your resume through our secure website.

MORE DRAFTS ON TAP: another good idea submitted by Lost Boy. If you are interested in drafting during the week days or weekends, you are not alone. Please suggest days and times during the Draft or post on GroupMe and see what shakes out!

Draft responsibly,

BrickO

Monday started with a steady rain, which settled into a comfortable drizzle before clearing up just after lunch time. With dry roads and clear radar, the Draft was clearly on. Until a sneaky little cell found its way to Middleton Hills at precisely 4:24PM. A handful of optimistic Drafters waited patiently and just like that, Mother Nature took her showers elsewhere.

The B for Bad A** team welcomed back Velo, fresh off the plane from France. Ignoring jet lag and the inconvenience of needing to borrow a bike and shoes, he was ready to roll. His only request was for clé tri allen. Thank goodness for Google Translate. From a little less far away, Loose Screw and Skipper found their way back into the saddle. So good to have the boys back in town.

The A team was saddling up at 4:57 when what to their wondering eyes did appear, a man on a Trek ready to commandeer. Wheels up at 5PM, newbie. Saddle up and don’t leave your wingman. Welcome to the Draft , Goose!

The return of Skipper is cause for celebration for many reasons. One of those being a notable improvement in quality and quantity of action shots.

And dutifully falls back to capture this action shot on the formidable climb up to Festge Park.

BrickO and Hammer Time pulled whenever there was a headwind, while Vilks and Goose took their turn during the tailwind portions of the ride. In the final stretch down Schneider, the A team tried to shield Hammer Time, as she is competing in her first criterium races later this week. But she just couldn’t resist putting the hammer down, “It is so much fun!”. Yeah, it is. Go get em’ this week, Hammer Time!

The rain dampened any hope of a fire, but things still heated up in the back yard with Vilks and Skipper holding court from their perch on the hot tub.

WEEKEND HIGHLIGHTS:

Dirty Drafters. Congrats to Momma Monster on her first 50 mile gravel grinder! And to Belle on yet another successful day in the dirt.

Cookie Monster set a new PR for first and fastest 5k race with all 3 kids!

Congrats to all of the Drafters who conquered the Horribly Hilly Hundreds: BrickO, Vilks, Colonel, Hammer, Octane, Car Wash, Shaq, Pit Stop, Squeak, Pepe, Puma, VonQ, Hawkeye, Spigot and Gopher. “When in doubt, CLIMB!” It was an absolutely gorgeous day to climb but many were often in doubt. Vilks, BrickO and The Colonel missed a turn and shorted themselves 20 miles of hills. While Vilks and BrickO made up for it with 20 oz glasses of beer, The Colonel did hill repeats to get in his 10k feet of climbing. Hammer Time took a different wrong turn, showing up all of the 200k riders with a few EXTRA miles.

Octane had some doubts at the start when he blew a shoe. Thanks to a fellow HHH rider who happened to have a role of velcro, he made the grade. Car Wash never left his side, making sure the Macklemore meets MacGyver solution was up for 10,0000 feet of climb.

Pit Stop was never in doubt when it came to rest stops!

In other shoe updates, Squeak swapped her cycling shoes for running shoes and ran repeats up and down Blue Mound. No doubt, Kona is coming.

A huge thank you to all those Drafters who volunteered for the various HHH clinics, pre-rides and packet pick up (Shaq, Octane, Z, Gopher, Hammer, Cujo, Car Wash, Spigot, Pit Stop and BrickO). And to Midas and Comet at Madison Multisport for hosting those clinics! Great teamwork.

Sad to have missed the HHH? Here is another fabulous opportunity to climb, L’Alpe Bl’Huez Time Trial.

Into climbing Blue Mounds but prefer dirt? Please join the Wednesday Night Women’s Blue Mound MTB ride, starting from the Blue Mound State Park trail head at the shelter/swim pool at 5:30. Not a woman? No worries. You are still welcome to ride, just not with the ladies.

LAST CALL! The Hincapie Store for Drafter gear closes Friday. This is your last chance to order kits this year. Please ask if you are unsure about sizes. Velocity is race cut, Axis is club cut. Measure twice, order once.

ROUTES FOR MONDAY JUNE 23: Full strength is 34.4 miles and the short pour is 31.2 miles. It’s hard to get a far view without going far! Departure times 4:45 and 5PM.

RidewithGPS link: Drafters | Little Less Far View

RidewithGPS link: Drafters | Far Far Far View

Draft responsibly,

BrickO

14 Drafters came out to play. One silver truck tried to take that away. No license plate was recorded that day, so law enforcement could not make her pay (yes, road rage doesn’t belong to men). The Drafters are here to stay, with the group supporting one another, and all those in dismay. We can’t change the climate of drivers at bay. We can appreciate the gift of the ride every Monday. And the gift of community.

Apparently, Shaq was the only Drafter responsibly recording directions. Pepe delegated her the official “Naviguesser”. The route wasn’t hard to navigate: when in doubt, climb. With each hill, Pepe muttered with the breath he had left to spare, “she loves us, she likes us, she loves us, she likes us.” Both Shaq and Pepe will be grateful for that tough love at the Horribly Hilly Hundreds on Sat.

The silver pick up truck was distressing, but a silver lining awaited us back at the fire pit. Here here are the gifts the evening brought: two dogs and folks who just came for the community, including one wearing a tiara.

WEEKEND HIGHLIGHTS:

Congrats to all those Drafters who participated in Epic Bike Fest: Pip, Squeak, Momma Monster, Belle and Bomber. So much green and so many smiles to be found shredding in the north woods!

Even further north in the South of France, there was another Drafter sighting. Good to see you drafting responsibly, Velo!

Looking to go green? The Hincapie store is open for the When in Doubt, Climb kit until Sunday June 22. Reminder: Velocity is the race cut (tighter fitting) and Axis is the club cut (looser fitting). Please be sure on sizing as there are no returns on custom orders, although I can often times find a taker. Ask BrickO if you need to try before you buy.

On tap for Monday, June 16 is a less hilly ride for all of those Drafters who will suffer tremendously on the Horribly Hilly Hundreds this coming Sat. When in doubt… CLIMB! Departure times 4:45 and 5PM from Middleton Hills. This is a short 28 mile route, so no short pour. NOTE: Be sure to load this route with the * as the one with the same name from last year is longer and has a different outbound route.

RidewithGPS link Drafters: *Festge Frenzy

Draft responsibly,

BrickO

Mother Nature pre-heated the oven. It was so thoughtful of her to help with heat acclimation for the upcoming Horribly Hilly Hundreds. She turned it up to 84 degrees, adding a little extra burn to the 2766 feet of climb. Pre-heating the oven also made for delicious pizzas awaiting the Drafters at the Creekside Scoop. On that… apologies to Twinkle Toes for being one delux pie short on the pre-order. BrickO’s math skills burned him.

27 Drafters enlisted for heat acclimation training, including two newbies and the return of Hawkeye!!!. It was exciting to his wings back in flight.

New to the flight deck, a warm welcome to Air Bourne. He has gotten dirty with the Drafters, but according to records dating back to 2018, this was his first mission on paved roads. Sherlock deduced there is no better time to enlist than immediately before the hardest mission. “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” Welcome, Sherlock!

Not pictured but very much drafting responsibly, are Lost Boy, Squeak and Midas. Living up to his name, Lost Boy arrived promptly… in Middleton Hills. He had carefully and dutifully read the original blog post, but not the follow up mulligan post pointing out the location error. Reminder: Draft departures on the first Monday of each month will be from Creekside. Apologies, Lost Boy. Glad you found your way, eventually. Midas hasn’t lost her touch, coming in hot for her first Draft of the season on a brand new bike. Yeah for new bike day! Squeak was still in traffic when the 5 o’clock whistle blew, but wasn’t late ice cream after the draft.

There are so many drafters in the team photos, it is easy to miss the finer details. Like the MTB Slim is riding. That man has more watts than any of us know what to do with. The only thing greater than his power output is his humbleness.

The B Team put forth a “Smile Per Mile” challenge. Your Creekside Scoop Short Pour champions: Presley, Nemo, Pit Stop and Sherlock

There is something about a mother-daughter duo drafting together that is pure magic, especially when wearing matching ENVE cycling kits and pink Bontrager helmets (shameless product placement for Nemo).

They were quick to defend their non-green wardrobe selection. The dynamic duo had biked the day before in Drafter green. While Nemo thought the unwashed kit would be presentable, Sherlock reasoned otherwise after examining the olfactory evidence.

The A Team elected to engage in a team building exercise. This was not premeditated, but rather presented itself on the side of the rode when Ruby was indoctrinated into the Flat Tire Club. Who is the keeper of the plaque? While very capable of changing a flat, she was wise enough to let the boys have their fun.

Air Bourne started the team building exercise by unseating the tire, carefully extracting the debris from the tire and transferring it directly into his finger. No first aid was required. Twinkle Toes, clearly not afraid to get his hands dirty (again) took over from there. Car Wash was an excellent in his role as supervisor.

A huge shout out to the staff at Creekside Scoop for managing to feed so many hungry and thirsty Drafters. The pizzas and ice creams were just the thing to put the exclamation point on this fantastic ride. In between bites and licks, entertainment was provided by Monday Night Live, starring Speedy. When asked if this comedy show went on endlessly, Duracell assured the crowd that code word, “migraine” would be uttered as the garage door opened. Ha!

WEEKEND HIGHLIGHTS

This Mother-Son duo rocked the Lake Mills Triathlon!

Tobacco City Boy and Dan-yelly hosted a different kind of triathlon. Three kids, one event.

Keez stepped up her status to Category 2 in the wild world of bike racing. Congrats on her podium finish in the Concordia Crit- Wisco State Championship.

These are all amazing examples of what cycling can bring to families. Sadly, I will shift gears to to illustrate what it can also bring to a mother and daughter on a Sunday ride. Keez and I were biking, single file, traveling north on Hyslop Road (irrefutably captured by GPS, see exhibit A), when a silver Chevy Silverado pickup approached us, honking the horn. There was no behavior for us to modify- we were already skinnied up as the road is narrow and the “S” curve limits visibility over the hill. As the sound of the horn drew closer, so did the vehicle, until it ran us completely off the road, with its passenger side wheels in the ditch.

The truck then came to a complete stop and the driver, with hostile body language, approached us. Being run off the road, Keez and I were no longer pedaling. I reached for my cell phone and dialed 911 and directed Keez to get the license plate, which she did.

He yelled, “You don’t own the highway.” I think he meant the road, but his driving speed did suggest highway, to be fair. Keez countered, “No, we don’t, and neither do you.” The only other exchange was him challenging us to continue “videotaping” him. And me assuring him that I was using the phone as a device to call 911, not to videotape him. As I was relaying the license plate to the 911 dispatcher, another vehicle approached, and the driver of the truck fled the scene.

The rest of the details are unpleasant, at best. Since he did not raise a fist or a gun, and since we did not fall off of our bikes, this incident did not rise to the level of a being “threatened.” An interview with the driver revealed a different story, a fairytale in which Keez and BrickO were “riding in the middle of the road” (please see exhibit A) and he “couldn’t get around”. This seems logical then, for me to call 911 and for him to flee. Sherlock, we may need to hire you to do some deductive reasoning. I was told that “both sides could do better.” While I assured the officer that on some occasions this may hold true, our riding on Sunday was not one those instances. There is absolutely NOTHING we could have done to be more safe as cyclists, or more respectful of the rules of the road and drivers on it.

Nothing about this is okay, except that Keez and I are not dead. There appears to be no legal recourse, but that doesn’t mean we are powerless. Our actions as cyclists impact other cyclists. I imagine that at some point, this pick up truck driver encountered a cyclists who had been taking their half out of the middle, and therefore assumed would be doing the same. Much like I judge pickup trucks more harshly than I do a passing Prius. I get it. Judging isn’t good, but acting on that judgement without cause is bad. As Drafter in Chief, I am so proud of our group for being good stewards of the sport. We won’t be the cyclists that cause drivers like this one to be angry and threaten the safety of other cyclists. We will not leave any Drafter behind. There is safety in numbers. It isn’t full proof, but it does give us some power over our beloved sport.

As the road becomes more dangerous for cyclists due to inattentive and road raged drivers, gravel and MTB trails provide sanctuary.

DIRTY DRAFTERS! Let’s get dirty. There is a new weekly Women’s MTB Group Ride at Blue Mound on Wed at 5:30, starting June 11. BrickO will be leading them starting in July. No, she does not have the skill to get up the more challenging trails like Overload, but there are plenty of entry level trails (Gneiss) to spend an hour or two, so come on out! Zach at Blue Mounds Bicycle Works is looking for men and women to help lead rides on other nights. Please contact him if interested.
There is a GroupMe chat for Dirty Drafters. Let BrickO know if you want to be added. Please use this to get impromptu rides going at Blackhawk, Quarry, Cam Rock, Cross Plains or any of the other parks.

Here is what’s on tap for next week, June 9. Lost Boy, we are back in Middleton Hills 🙂 Departure times 4:45 and 5PM. Short pour 26 miles, full strength 35 miles.

RidewithGPS Link: Drafters | Crystal Cat Short Pour

RidewithGPS Link: Drafters | Crystal Cat

Draft responsibly,

BrickO