TRIA Orthopaedic Center Your Cycling Blog

By Lyne Lamoureux, Nature Valley Grand Prix

Stillwater, Minn. – The Stillwater Criterium once again provided thrills and excitement to conclude the Nature Valley Grand Prix as defending champion Rory Sutherland (UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team) attacked the penultimate time up Chilkoot Hill Sunday to win the final stage.

With the assistance of his Kelly Benefit Strategies-OptumHealth teammates, Jesse Anthony survived all the attacks to finish second on the stage and claim the overall classification. Frank Pipp (BISSELL Pro Cycling) was third on the stage.

“Everyone here sees the crowd and how many people come out to cheer us on, it’s an awesome stage and it’s fantastic for the city of Stillwater to have such an event, there are not many like this in the country,” Sutherland said.

Anthony, perhaps better known for his cyclocross prowess until now, credited his team for helping him win the first stage race of his career.

“Kelly Benefit Strategies-OptumHealth has been working super hard all year,” he said. “We’ve been racing aggressively in every race we’ve done and we threw it down this week as hard as we could. Everyone went in 110 percent, everyone on the team was committed and it ended up working out for us.”

Rory Sutherland (UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team) powers up Chilkoot Hill Sunday to win the final stage of the Nature Valley Grand Prix

Only the strong survive the notoriously brutal criterium course that features Chilkoot Hill’s 21 percent grade at its steepest point during a two-block climb to the finish line. Riders started falling off the fast pace set by Anthony’s green train as it controlled the front, quickly reacting and neutralizing dangerous attacks from Luis Amaran and Tom Zirbel (Jamis/Sutter Home).

With two laps to go, Robert Förster (UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team) upped the pace on Chilkoot, exploding the dwindling field as the battle for the stage win commenced. Sutherland, Anthony, Amaran and third-on-general classification Bernard Van Ulden (Jelly Belly presented by Kenda) all went with the attack. Sutherland attacked the next time up the climb and was able to hold on to enjoy his second consecutive victory at Stillwater.

“Last year was beautiful,” Sutherland said. “But this year, being actually able to enjoy the climb on the last time instead of having to sprint up, was nice.”

Anthony battled until the last lap keeping his closest rivals close and then passing them on the final climb to the finish line.

“The crowd here in Stillwater is unbelievable,” he said. “It rivals the Mayanunk Wall in Philadelphia. The hill is unexplainable until you really do it, even if you’re having the best of days, it hurts so much. I had great legs today and all week, but it was a battle to stay up front and stay with my teammates and follow the wheels at the end.”

Halfway through the 20-lap race, Timothy Rugg (Nature Valley Pro Ride) and Jeremy Vennell (BISSELL) got away and built a gap of 25 seconds before being reeled in eight laps later.  Rugg was awarded the red Freewheel Bike Most Aggressive Rider for his efforts.

Kyle Wamsley (BISSELL) won the Sports Beans King of the Hills jersey after a tough fight with Logan Hutchings (ELBOWZ Racing) for it the final two stages.

“It makes me that much more happier that I could hold on to the jersey when I have somebody racing me for it,” Wamsley said about his fight for the polka dot jersey.

Förster won the  Wheaties FUEL Sprint Competition. Chad Haga (Team Rio Grande) took home the final Nature Valley Top Amateur green jersey while Joseph Schmalz (ELBOWZ Racing) won the white TRIA Orthopaedic Center Best Young Rider jersey. The BISSELL Pro Cycling team won the team classification.

Frank Pipp,Jesse Anthony,Kelly Benefit Strategies,Minnesota Bicycle Festival,Nature Valley Grand Prix,OptumHealth,Rory Sutherland,Stage Six,Stillwater,criteriums     Comments Off  

By Lyne Lamoureux, Nature Valley Grand Prix

Menomonie, Wis. — The Menomonie Road Race lived up to expectations Saturday at the Nature Valley Grand Prix. At the end of the more than 100 miles of hard racing in the lush rolling terrain of Wisconsin, the UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team’s winning streak was stopped at four.

Amidst a shattered peloton that saw fewer than two dozen riders allowed onto the finishing circuit, Bernard Van Ulden (Jelly Belly presented by Kenda) attacked his fellow escapees on the last of four laps around the two-mile course to claim the victory.

“I died a thousand deaths, but I ate plenty of Sports Beans in the race and also on the circuits and it all worked,” Van Ulden said. “Without my sponsors, none of this would be possible. I’m very happy. This is a dream come true.”

Bernard Van Ulden (Jelly Belly presented by Kenda) celebrates his victory Saturday at the Menomonie Road Race that snapped UnitedHealthcare's string of four straight stage wins at the Nature Valley Grand Prix.

Jesse Anthony (Kelly Benefit Strategies-OptumHealth) finished second on the stage and took over the yellow jersey as the general classification experienced a big shakeup.

“We’re really, really happy to have the lead in this race especially with OptumHealth, one of our title sponsors here,” Anthony said. “We’ve been racing aggressively and it’s awesome to finally see it pay off. This is a team effort, I wish all my teammates could wear the yellow jersey with me, we all worked for it equally.”

Jay Thomson (BISSELL Pro Cycling) was third on the stage.

After watching UnitedHealthcare win the first four stages – including a podium sweep in St. Paul on Stage 2 – the rest of the peloton was determined to try and wrestle control from the blue train. The course was equally as conducive for it, featuring plenty of twists and turns and four Sports Beans King of the Hills climbs. With an early break already off the front, the Kelly Benefit Strategies-OptumHealth squad lined up at the front heading up the the second tough climb and exploded the field.

“We knew today was going to be a decisive day as well as tomorrow,” Anthony said. “We just had to race real aggressively and use the strengths that the team has. Today was a good long road race of attrition and we raced as hard as we could. The guys threw down, as hard as they could, we just kept attacking and we didn’t give up.”

By the time the attacks ended, only 20 riders remained at the front, including multiple riders from Kelly Benefit Stategies, BISSELL, Jelly Belly, Team Exergy, Jamis/Sutter Home, and only one from UnitedHealthcare – defending champion Rory Sutherland.

The decisive move of the men's race is made with 15 miles to go in Saturday's 101-mile Menomonie Road Race at the Nature Valley Grand Prix. Jay Thomson (leading) split an already select group with an attack that drew out seven riders who survived to the finish.

The next round of hostilities were opened up as the breakaway approached the four finishing circuits with a gap of five minutes on the field. Seven riders (Van Ulden, Anthony, Thomson, Heath Blackgrove and Logan Hutchings (both of ELBOWZ Racing), Luis Amaran (Jamis/Sutter Home) and Freddie Rodriguez and Andres Diaz (both of Team Exergy) were battling for the stage win and the yellow jersey.

“Coming into the circuits here, I was dying a thousand deaths,” Murphy said. “I started cramping and I knew I didn’t have the legs to go against the sprinters so I figured my best chance was going to be either keep it together and try not to lose time because I was relatively high up there on GC, or to try to get off the front.”

In addition to the stage win, Van Ulden was also awarded the Freewheel Bike Most Aggressive Rider jersey. His UnitedHealthcare teammate, Robert Förster, kept his lead in the Wheaties FUEL Sprint competition. Chad Haga (Team Rio Grande) retained the green jersey as the Nature Valley Top Amateur and Joseph Schmalz (ELBOWZ Racing) is the new leader in the white TRIA Orthopaedic Center Best Young Rider competition. Kyle Wamsley (BISSELL Pro Cycling) defended his Sports Beans King of the Hills in an early heated battle.

Sunday’s Stillwater Criterium is billed as “the most brutal criterium course in North America.” Last year, Kelly Benefit Strategies lost the overall in a battle to the wire with UnitedHealthcare. With a similar situation this eyar, Anthony said he is ready to defend his lead.

“It’s going to be an amazing race,” he said. “That course just explodes the race. It’s hard the whole time and hopefully I have the legs. We’ve been working on this for the whole year. We’ll go out there and see what we do.”

Kelly Benefit Strategies,Menomonie,Minnesota Bicycle Festival,Nature Valley Grand Prix,OptumHealth,Rory Sutherland,Stage Five,professional cycling     Comments Off  

By:  Jane Schwartz Harrison, RD, Nutritionist

MyOptumHealth.com

The bike festival is only a few weeks away. Want to feel great and have plenty of stamina on race day? Don’t wait until the last minute to start thinking about your nutrition. Cycling for 50-plus miles requires proper “food training” in the weeks (not just days and hours) leading up to the big event.

Start NOW by eating a healthy balance of foods on a daily basis. Use the following tips as a guide:

Don’t Skimp on Carbs

Carbs are your primary exercise fuel. They are the main food source that is stored in your liver and muscles (known as glycogen).   

• The more you train and the more carbs you have in your diet, the more glycogen you are able to store. Trained muscle will hold almost three times as much glycogen as untrained muscle! This means better endurance and mental focus, and will help to prevent “hitting the wall.”

• Aim to have a little more than half to two-thirds of your daily diet come from carbs, mostly in the form of brown rice, whole wheat pasta, whole wheat breads and cereals, fruits, vegetables, and beans. Some white flour products are fine, but choose whole grain more often for extra nutrients and fiber.

Get Adequate, but not Excessive, Protein

Exercise, not protein, is the foundation for building and strengthening muscles.

• Protein helps to build and repair muscle tissue. But excess protein intake will be burned for energy or stored as glycogen or fat.
• During your training period, you will need about .6 to .7 grams of protein per pound of body weight. At 150 pounds, this equals about 90 to 105 grams of protein per day, which can be easily met through diet.
• One egg, one glass of milk, one yogurt serving, and six ounces of meat, fish or chicken will meet that goal when combined with your carb-rich foods (which also contain some protein, with the exception of fruit).

Fuel Properly Right Before the Event

In the days and hours before the race:

• Cut back on exercise two days before the ride and take a rest day the day before.
• Drink extra fluids. Your urine should be almost clear in color.
• Eat carb-rich meals at breakfast, lunch and dinner. On the day of the race, eat a familiar breakfast. Have something hearty and high in carb with some protein and a little fat. Give yourself three to four hours to digest. Try to avoid sugary cereals or donuts before the bike race because they’ll give you short term energy but can set you up for an energy crash during the ride.
• Oatmeal with banana, whole grain cereal or low-sugar granola with skim milk, a bagel with a little peanut butter, pancakes with fruit, are all good choices.  If you can only tolerate liquids, drink a large smoothie made with yogurt, frozen fruit and 100 percent juice.
• Avoid foods with too much fat or fiber, which may cause GI distress.
• If you are hungry within an hour of the race, have a small smoothie, a granola bar, or piece of fruit.
• Plan to eat carb based snacks (energy bars, dried fruit, sports drinks, gels) every 60 to 90 minutes during the ride to maintain your blood sugar.

Remember, having a nutrition plan in place is just as important as your exercise training. Get started on a healthy eating plan today and your body will thank you on race day!

Sources:
Position of the American Dietetic Association, Dietitians of Canada, and the American College of Sports Medicine: Nutrition and athletic performance. J Am Diet Assoc. 2000;100(12):1543-1556.

Nancy Clark’s Sports Nutrition Guidebook: 4^th Edition. 2008.

Minnesota Bicycle Festival,OptumHealth,road cycling   Tags: cycling, Jane Schwartz Harrison, Nutrition, OptumHealth, Training,   Comments Off  

Bill Metz, from OptumHealth, will be a frequent contributor to the blog. This is the sixth of many posts that Bill will be making, dealing with a variety of topics within the life of a recreational cyclist.

When not working, I have spent much of past couple of days finalizing plans for Team UnitedHealth Group and the MS 150 ride.

Unfortunately, the ride overlaps with the NVGP and I will miss the last three days of the race. On the other, I will be spending two and a half days with thousands of cyclists riding 150 mile through some beautiful Minnesota countryside while my workmate, Chris, is actually racing the NVGP. Having started cycling in a more serious way rather late in life, I often wonder if I could have gotten to the level where I was able to compete against the best pro riders in the US of A. As a 50+ year old, “what if?” becomes a much more frequently asked question.

What if I would have had access and connection to a biking club that was into racing and I got involved. Would I have been able to develop a bigger engine and run with the big boys? Would I have been a sprinter? Would crits have been my thing or time trials? Or would I have been forever a cat 4 rider with just enough left to finish in the middle of the pack?

What if I would have kept that old Schwinn 24 incher and used some of my brother’s motorcycle parts to modify it for off road trails? Would we now be riding WAM’ers (William A Metz) instead of Gary Fishers?

What if I would have instead stripped that old Tornado down and fixed the gearing so you always had to pedal and didn’t provide a brake. Would I now be all tatted up with a cool bag that I sling over my shoulder, (which I would have also invented) delivering documents in NYC?

What if? What if I would have started sooner, ridden harder, pushed it longer, suffered a bit more, or not let up? Would I be stronger? Faster? Better? Would I be racing with Chris? Would that be better than the MS 150, or just different? The good news is: it is ours to decide.

So, it is the right question, just asked the wrong way. What if I start now?

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Bill Metz, from OptumHealth, will be a frequent contributor to the blog. This is the fifth of many posts that Bill will be making, dealing with a variety of topics within the life of a recreational cyclist.

Work. Remodeling. Commitments. Weather/Wind. It’s a conspiracy! They are all working to keep me off the bike, and, so far they’re winning. My mileage has taken a serious hit this year and if I don’t find out who is behind all this, I will record my lowest totals in 10 years. Lacking a CSI team when I need them, I decided to do my own investigation.

Work:

Big projects demanding more time, bad economy, high unemployment, I have a good job that 10 other poor devils would put a hit on someone to be in my shoes….Guess I better bag the ride and attend that noon meeting.

Remodeling:

Big project demanding more time, kitchen in the spare bedroom, washing dishes in the tub, one too many microwave dinners….Guess I better bag the ride and varnish the baseboard.

Commitments:

Big events demanding more time, 80th birthdays, graduations, mom needs help with dad and the garden. Gladly bag the ride to spend time with those that have given me so much.

Weather / Wind:

Big winds, I mean really big, unseasonably cool temps, no one to go with so I can draft, rain and sometimes snow…Guess I will bag the ride and wait till it warms up in the afternoon.

Like most conspiracy theories, this one has turned out to be just that, a theory that, in this case, has proven out not to be a conspiracy but something called life. Sometimes the balance tips away from riding to the other forces that demand my time but I have been around long enough to know that it is a balance, and sooner or later it will swing the other way, if not this year, then next.

Now, if I wasn’t doing this blog I could get some serious miles in…

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Bill Metz, from OptumHealth, will be a frequent contributor to the blog. This is the fifth of many posts that Bill will be making, dealing with a variety of topics within the life of a recreational cyclist.

Motivation is a strange and individual thing. I have found that what motivates me to get out and ride has continually evolved and changed over the past 15 years. When I first started riding, my motivation was to crest the hill on Wall Street road without feeling like I was eating a lung and about to spit a spleen. Pretty basic on the motivation sophistication scale, but, that feeling didn’t prevent me from giving it another go. It motivated me to work to improve.

When I started riding with a couple of other guys on Saturday morning, my motivation shifted. I quickly realized that in order to keep up on Saturday and avoid long lonely rides back to town on my own, I was going to have to put in some serious saddle time on days other than Saturday. (I was really slow) So, my motivation became ‘keeping up the guys’ and slowly I improved to where I could hang on the back, drafting with my tongue rattling against the spokes like the six of clubs I used to cloths-pin to my fender bracket as a kid. That was on the flats, hills were a different story. I hated hills. We would hit even the smallest rise and I would immediately fall off the back. I felt like I was going backwards. When I finally got to the top where the rest of the group was waiting, they would look at me wondering why I was bleeding from my eyes. Not really, but that’s how I felt.

So my motivation changed again. I figured that if I were ever going to be able to keep up on the hills, my attitude needed to change. I needed to embrace the hill, love the hills, and be the hills. So, rather than deciding to take the flat loop when I would go for a spin, I would choose the loop with the most hills. I would practice my pacing, tempo and breathing. I even did hill repeats. Slowly, I found myself keeping up. With newer members joining, I no longer the last rider up the hill. Even better, I was able to keep pace on my turn through the pace line.

Motivation to get out and ride is different than motivation during the ride. Since I was a kid, I always made games out of things which, unbeknownst to many, are forms of motivation and a way to improve. Whether it was mowing the lawn in the straightest line, or spending hours tossing the tennis ball against the house pretending to shag down and throw out that runner at first base, or the skidding and jumping contests on my bike, playing the game improved my skills. Now, town sign sprints and charging the hills play the same role as does coming up with other games on long solo rides. Here is an excerpt from my book “Saturday Morning Rides” on playing games:

CHASING SHADOWS

The sun sinks low on the horizon at the end of a ride at the end of another season as I head west on Dennison Boulevard towards home. I turn north on Kane Avenue and glide over the first rise. Mesmerized by the fading light, I don’t notice the rider appear on my right. We pedal along in silence enjoying the late fall spin, side by side, crank for crank in eerie unison. I glance to my right and catch him sizing me up and as we scope each other out, we nod. It’s go time.

I spin it up to 20 mph and he matches me, still at my side. As we drop down the far side of the rise, we both pick up the pace to 21, 22 and then 23. I’m starting to feel the burn. This will not be easy, so I start to plot my attack. Dog hill, I will take him on dog hill. We both move down to the drops as if we have read each others mind and try to put the hurt on. As the road turns west up a small rise, I concentrate on my plan, focusing on dog hill, eyes ahead not wanting him to read my thoughts again. Heading straight west now I steal a glance to my right to see if my torrid pace is having any effect and find he is gone. Looking to my left confirms my guess. He’s on my wheel. I throttle back and prepare for dog hill.

As soon as I hit the hill I leap from the saddle, shifting up three cogs in one seamless move, fluid and powerful. No way will he be able to follow. Hammering over the summit as the sun touches the tops of the trees, I take a look back to confirm my dominance only to find him stuck to my wheel like the mother following her son blowing the whistle in the The Triplets of Belleville

I put the hammer down again, but feel him match my pace, my cadence and even my ragged breathing as I suck oxygen to fuel the fire. Now all that remains is the Northfield town sign sprint and this wheel-sucker has me set up all the way so I back off slightly and prepare for the final push.

To my surprise he comes along my right side as I turn north on 246 looking for a straight up sprint, mano a mano, for all the marbles. In unison, we rise out of the saddle for the initial rush, side by side again clicking up through the gears, the cool damp evening air rushing past, our heads down, grinding it into the big ring as the sun melts into the treetops and the shadows merge and stretch to the eastern horizon just as we streak past the sign he disappears into the night and I raise both fists in victory.

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Bill Metz, from OptumHealth, will be a frequent contributor to the blog. This is the fourth of many posts that Bill will be making, dealing with a variety of topics within the life of a recreational cyclist.

I ride at noon as often as I am able. I would prefer to commute and get regular miles in that way, but, I am fifty miles from the salt mine which is about ten miles too far to commute, right? My rides from work contrast greatly with my rides from home.

At work, I have to sprint to the locker room for a quick change into my OptumHealth kit. From there it is a about a fifty yard walk through the hall in spandex. I must say the looks are, well, interesting. Once outside, it’s unload the bike from the trunk of the Civic, pull on the shoes, helmet and gloves and hop on and GO, and STOP at the parking lot entrance light, and GO and STOP at the Highway 55 intersection, and GO and slow for a stop sign, and GO and STOP for the light at Glenwood, and GO and STOP for the light at Highway 100, and GO….and, well, you get the picture. Until I get on to one of the many trails that pepper the Twin Cities area, the riding is great practice for the stopping and the going. Traffic is heavy and impatient, fumes spew from trucks and factories and the further into the ride I get the more that all begins to fade and my head starts to clear and my focus sharpens and the endorphins flood my system.

Post ride, it’s running the fifty yard gauntlet, this time in sweaty spandex. The looks are even more interesting. Hit the shower and try to cool down as fast as I can, which is never fast enough to not pit-out my dress shirt. (Hint #1: wear light colored shirts. They don’t show the lingering sweat soaking through as much as dark shirts do. Hint # 2: whenever possible, schedule a meeting you can take by phone right after a ride.) Somehow, back at the desk, things always seem better on days I ride.

At home, it’s different. I can don the bike gear whenever it’s convenient and wait for an opportune time to ride. Twenty steps to the garage and I am off. One stop sign later, I’m pedaling the rolling hills of Rice and Goodhue Counties. Traffic is minimal and there are long stretches of country roads where the only impediment to my progress is the strength of the wind. Except for the occasional turkey barn, the air is fresh and clean and lovely. The further into the ride I get, the more that all begins to fade. My head starts to clear and my focus sharpens and the endorphins flood my system.

Post ride, I work in the kit till I cool down, jump in the shower. Five minutes later, I am back to work.

Things somehow always seem better on days I ride.

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Bill Metz, from OptumHealth, will be a frequent contributor to the blog. This is the third of many posts that Bill will be making, dealing with a variety of topics within the life of a recreational cyclist.

If our city, county, state and national politicians want to get a firm understanding and a true appreciation of the current state of our transportation infrastructure, they should all start riding a bike. Cyclists get up close and personal with our roads and bridges and not only see the current state of affairs, but often experience it first hand.

It wouldn’t take very long. Every county commissioner should be required to ride the county roads, state reps and senators should ride some of our state roads and our city administrators and engineers should be required to take a spin around town. They would be appalled and change would happen.

Take State Highway 246 from Northfield to Kenyon for instance. My group, The Northfield Bicycle Club, tries to avoid this road but we have to take it to get to some of our other favorite routes. It is riddled with holes, and ruts and the pavement will soon be worse than the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix. A few days ago, we left Nerstrand with a group of 12 riders heading for “dog hill”, a route that takes us for about 6 miles on the 246 mess. When we stopped to regroup at the intersection of CR 9 and 246 we found that we only had 10 riders remaining. We all turned back to collect the other two, figuring they had punctured (I love saying that) or, worse yet, bent a rim or come off the bike in a crash. It was even worse than expected. They had totally disappeared in one of the crevasses in the tarmac. Seriously! We had to ask a nearby farmer for a log chain and a tractor just to get them out.

Maybe the Rice County commissioners should ride CR 1 from Montgomery to Dundas, another “beauty.” The last time we rode that route the guy next to me dropped into a rut so deep his pedals started scraping the pavement. If I wouldn’t have reached over and grabbed his helmet (he’s 6’2”) and given him a huge tug, we might have lost another one.

We ride most of the paved roads in Rice and Goodhue counties and can’t figure out why the neighboring state to the east is not only able to maintain their paved roads better, but somehow they have managed to BLACKTOP ALMOST ALL OF THE ROADS. We often travel to Wisconsin to ride the bluff and coulee areas of Buffalo and Trempealeau counties. Not only are the hills challenging, but the roads are in great shape. (They also have way cooler names for their roads like Alligator Slide, Hammer Lane, Pretzel Pass Road, and my favorite, Bill’s Valley Road.) The only difference that I can figure out is that the Wisconsin politicians must all ride bikes.

So, when you write to your congress people, commissioners, mayors and senators, don’t demand that they spend money on our crumbling infrastructure, demand that they start riding a bike. The rest will follow.

“Bill’s Valley” Metz

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Bill Metz, from OptumHealth, will be a frequent contributor to the blog. This is the first of many posts that Bill will be making, dealing with a variety of topics within the life of a recreational cyclist.

I should be riding instead of writing. Just about now the folks I spend countless hours behind, next to and in front of during the spring, summer and fall are about 2 hours into the Minnesota Ironman bicycle ride, and I feel guilty.

How can I feel bad sitting here with a hot cup of coffee in the warm confines of home after getting an additional 2 hours of sleep? I’m looking out on a cold, misting rain with a 15 mph wind and my rational self says ‘I choose wisely’ and yet, I should be out there. I should be out there pushing the headwind while the cold slowly creeps deeper and deeper between the muscles past the soft, connecting tissues and ligaments till it gets right down to the bone. I should be sitting on a wheel battling the spray, grit and occasional night-crawler lifted from the pavement into my face while imagining the black stripe being painted up my backside. I should be cursing the weather along with the others wondering why the heck we didn’t stay in bed while secretly knowing we are the better for it because, these are the rides that stories are made of.

Stories like the one from three years ago when the Ironman still came through my hometown of Northfield. We started off from town on a similar morning albeit about 10 degrees warmer. When we got to Lakeville we didn’t let our buddy Brendan know about the remains of a worm plastered to his cheek while he checked in. Yuk! Remembering him “thanking” us in his shy Irish accent as we rolled over with laughter is now part of the common history of the group and it comes up whenever we ride in the rain. We always laugh. Nobody remembers the mundane.

So, I should be out there building new stories. Stories I should be part of and the only way to be a part of the story is to be part of the ride and the only way to be a part of the ride is to fight off the voices that call me back to the warmth of the covers and coffee, to pull on the shorts, socks, shoes and slicker, to load up the bike, meet the mates and head out into the cold, lashing rainŠ and ride.

The mist has now turned to a steady rain with a bit of thunder mixed in and I regret the allowing the voices of warmth to win over the pull of the story to be written…next time.

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