With about a week to go before RAGBRAI, Michelle, I and the rest of Team Whiskey Riders were finally able to get together for our first (and only) team training ride at the Tour de Brew in Amana. Somehow, we were able to get in at least two last year, but with the weather and everyone’s schedules, this was the only opportunity for us. (But what better event for a team with our name, really?)

For me, it was a chance to gauge how my training’s been going. It was a 37-mile ride, and I had been doing 15-mile rides for the most part. The short answer: it was painful toward the end. My feet and rear end were hurting and my legs were cramping. I definitely needed to do more training, with a few things to focus on: ride more miles, stand on my pedals more often, drink lots more water, eat more often. (Follow-up rides of 35 and 30 miles have since shown that the new approach is working. We’ll see what happens when RAGBRAI, with days of 44, 100, 76 and 43 miles planned. (That 100-mile day should actually be 77, but Michelle’s crazy and I have peer-pressure issues.)

One nice thing that happened at Tour de Brew was that I made a new cycling friend. It started with my noticing his shoes, red-and-black Sidi cycling shoes exactly like mine: outrageously expensive and oh so worth it. I was so impressed by the shoes I didn’t even notice the bike, other than the brigth silver fenders on it. As I rode by, I smiled and shouted “Nice shoes!” and heard a chuckle in response.

But Michelle noticed the bike those shoes were attached to. A bit later, she asked me, “Did you see the Gunnar?” I said I didn’t and she said it had silver fenders on it. I did recall seeing it was a red bike, so I asked if that was the colorl; she said yes. Wow! Another Gunnar. I hadn’t seen another Gunnar since last year at RAGBRAI, and I only saw one there. So how crazy and great to have another one around in Iowa?!?

So when we got to our first stop in Norway, I waited for the Sidi-wearing, Gunnar-riding guy to show up, and checked out his ride. Not only was it a Gunnar, but also a Crosshairs, just like mine! I introduced myself and told him the coincidence. “Great minds think alike,” Chris said. (Funny thing is, his also had the same tires as mine, Michelin City tires!)

So we hit it off pretty well. Chatted a lot and I invited him to join our group. We even took pictures with our bikes, of course.

Meeting Chris was definitely one of the highlights of the day and made up for the pain that set in as the ride went on. The other big highlight, of course, was the food that awaited us when we got back to Amana!

All in all, a very fun outing, but it definitely meant I had more work to do. Not only getting in one last bit of training, but also packing our stuff for RAGBRAI. More on that later. -DAVE