TOP 5!!!

The message below may seem a little jumbled because there is a lot going through my head when I think back on the year. Please work with me!

Beta Cycling is back. With the best team performance since 2002 (Beta got 4th lead by our coach John Grant), I can proudly say that the cycling program is back. I could not be more happy with our year. For those of you who don't know, we finished 5th in this years race! Below I will have a race recap of the race for our team.

This year has been one of the best of my life. I think Saturday was probably one of the best days of my life to date. All of the work that we put into riding our bikes paid off. After last year’s race, I thought seriously about what it would take to have a competitive team in next year’s little 500. I knew that it was going to take a new team, guys that really wanted to ride, and a lifestyle change focused primarily on the bike. There is an important difference between the fact that we had guys that "wanted" to ride versus "forced." You cannot force what happened this year. Our team wanted it. With three rookies and me as the only returning rider, I had a ton of work to do in making the program competitive. Luckily I was blessed to have three studly rookies. These guys not only pushed themselves, they pushed me… Sometimes to points where I would get down on myself because it seemed that they were getting better and my abilities were going south. There were very few moments like that... i can beat all of them! haha. I am sure they will laugh at that.

We did a TON of new things this year. The winter trip to South Carolina was a totally new experience and we threw that together very last minute in order to have a winter training trip. Spring racing for the Indiana University Cycling Club was also a new experience. We were very successful in those races picking up a few wins and many top 10 finishes. Spring break in Bloomington was new for us too. With an actual training plan and some routine to our schedule, we were able to incorporate both aerobic and anaerobic workouts into our days. The next two points are the most important.

This year we were actually a team. In the past, we have been 4 or 5 athletes who try to ride bikes and be competitive. This year we successfully molded as a team and understood each other’s strengths. We were always there for each other and truly worked together to be successful. I have never been as close with 4 other guys in my life.

Finally, we actually raced in the little 500. There have been many people who have ridden in the little 500 but very few who have actually raced. We were competitive and we raced.

With four rookies returning and a house full of guys who are suddenly really interested in biking, the team is built to be competitive for a long long time. I am super excited to come back and help out. This has been a great experience for me and the team.

Thanks again for all the support! Alumni, friends and family have been a huge factor to our success this year. In total, including the place to stay in South Carolina, we raised over $2,500. What a success!!!! Take a look at all the names on the right of this blog. Those are the people that gave us some cash to do the things that we needed to do in order to be competitive. My hat goes off to all of you who have helped spread the word of this blog, and have been active readers. I am not the best writer but it was my hope to translate what the team is doing to you! Someone on the team next year will step up and write the blog to keep everyone informed.

Race Recap:
Everyone knew that it was going to rain. The rain was a matter of when and not how much. We took the race 50 laps at a time.

Laps 1-50:

Anderson started the race for us with about a 12 lap set. His effort was great and kept us in contention though the high speeds of the first few laps. Green got on the bike next for a strong 8 lap set. I was on after green for 7. My set was SUPER FAST and I started to struggle a little and had to jump out. After that first set though, I felt great. It opened up my lungs and got the blood going through my legs. Ong put out a strong effort to keep us in it.

That was the first 50. There were a few times when we were setting the pace but for the most part, we sat in the pack and let the other teams do a lot of the work. We tried to race as conservatively as possible to stay in contention for the entire race.

Laps 51-104 (The end of race 1):

The rain started to come down in the middle of this block. The track turned to glass and if you were anywhere on the outside of the pack, you were probably going to eat cinder on the turns. At about lap 90, the pace started to pick up due to the fear of lightning. If lightening struck, the race was over. Or so we thought.

I was in at lap 93 or so. The track was a mess. There was a lake in turn four that caused a few guys to slip and slide on the cinder. The leaders saw this and booked it. I got caught behind this guy that slid out and ran over him and his bike. By the time I was recovered, the leaders had a 1/4 lap on me. I came out and we put Ong in to finish what we thought would be the race. At lap 104, the race chief gave the red flag which mean that the race was over. At this point, there were only 5 teams on the lead lap and we were one of them. We were in 5th. We had a mini celebration and then got word that the race was still on. Our team was pumped because we still had a shot at advancing in the field. The race was restarted about 40 minutes after the red flag was thrown.

Race restart (105-150):

We were saved by this restart. Since we were never passed by the race leader before the red flag, we were still on the lead lap. This was great news because when they did the restart, we were lined up right behind the leaders and we were back in it! It was a super exciting feeling and we knew that we had a better shot now to win.

We were competitive these laps. This is the part of the race where we really stepped in and started to set the pace a little bit and tried to string out the field. We did our fair share of work and had some great burnouts to really keep our team in the race for the final sprint.

Checkered Flag (151-200):

We were pumped to make it to this part of the race. By this time we had basically secured a top 5 finish because we were one of the 5 teams on the lead lap. Fiji had a great effort in these laps and caught back up with the pack making it 6 teams on the lead lap. There were 6 of us in the final sprint. Our sets in this part of the race were awesome. Everyone left everything on the track and we really had some strong burnouts that gave the next rider plenty of time to jump on the pack for their last set. The final 3 laps were awesome. Eric Anderson finished the race for us. We had the legs all day to be competitive and to be in this final sprint was an amazing feeling. Eric did his best and we came out with a 5th place finish... only a few seconds off the leader.

I had the time of my life in that race and this year leading up to it. Thanks again to everyone that helped and has supported us throughout the season. Look out next year... the team has its mind set on the win.

"Darkhorse"

That is what we have been titled around campus. We are on the radar for many other teams but labeled as one of the “darkhorses” by spectators this year. The team is ready to race. We have had a really successful year on the bikes and this is it. Saturday is the day. The house is behind us and we are going to give it everything we have got to bring home a win. Rain and wind are in the forecast but bring it on. We will thrive in the rain because it is what we have trained in all year. We haven’t let the rain stop us yet and we aren’t going to let it stop us now. We are used to the shitty conditions. If you can’t tell, I am really excited for this year’s little 500.

Here is a link to the Indiana Daily Student article.

I want to again say thanks to all the alumni who have donated and supported the team this year. We have accomplished a lot this year and it wouldn’t have happened without you.

Looking back at the year, we took a winter trip to South Carolina and logged over 400 miles in 5 days. We raced all through the spring for Indiana University bringing home a few wins and many top 10 finishes. Spring break was spent on our home roads and track in Bloomington working on speed and power. After spring break we qualified 5th for the race opposed to 33rd last year. In the spring series events for the Little 500 we placed 7th overall. I'd say we have had a pretty damn good year. I am really proud of the work that our guys have been willing to put in. I honestly cannot wait to come back and watch them race next year. Right now though, I am dialed in for Saturday. Feeling good about our chances and our opportunitites as a team. Wish us luck!

If you can't come to the race but would like to watch it on TV, the HDNet schedule can be found here.

Below are a few pictures that have been posted on the web of the team.

-kai-
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Team Pursuit

Team Pursuit is this tomorrow.  We go at 6:40pm.   We feel really strong and good about this event.  Team pursuit is probably the most fun event because its a 15 lap race with all four members of the team on the track helping each other go as fast as possible.  We go up against Delta Tau Delta.  Delts will have a pretty strong team and that will ensure that our heat is competitive.  Looking forward to it.

The race is next weekend.  We are super excited for the race.  This past week was our last week of hard effort and we are now tapering.  Getting rest is critical this week. 

Our little 500 shirts are in!  I will try to get an option on the blog to buy them online.  This will be available for those who cant make the race but still want to get a shirt.  If you can come to the race and want a shirt, just leave a comment after this post and I will be sure to set a shirt aside for you.

-kai-
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Miss'N'Out Results

We had two riders in the semifinals of the Miss'N'Out event.  Eric Anderson and Matt Green both made it to the semi's and even with some strong efforts, didnt make it out.  Matt made a balsey move to get past the field on the 4th lap but was stuck in a bad position to not advance on the next lap.  Eric made it to the final lap of the event when his chain dropped.  This was unfortunate but is a reminder that anything can happen on the track.  The two of them represented Beta well.   

Tonight we have a team pursuit run at 9:40 and I will try to have a video of that uploaded to youtube and post it on the blog.  Practices have been going well and this is our last week of hard effort.  Next week we will be taking it easy leading upto the race. 

Thank you to all of you that have donated money to the team.  We are going to look good and have some nice bikes on race day because of your help. 

-kai-
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Busy Week

Wow.. very glad that the week is over.  This past week we had some really good efforts at the track.  Everyone on our team is feeling very fast on the little 500 bikes.  Our race bikes are completely built!  We are waiting on the wheels to be finished but the bikes feel smooth and fast.  Thank you very much to those who have donated towards the cause. 

Two weeks until the race.  This weekend we have the Miss'N'Out spring series event and next weekend is Team Pursuit.  These series events are for points that rank your team based on the performance in the series events.  Currently we are in 8th of 33 and hope to move up the rankings after tomorrows event. 

I will post results after tomorrows event.  I hope everyone had a better week than I did.  I will be sure to keep the blog more up to date as we get closer to the race.  I will add pictures and hopefully video from some of the events. 

-kai-
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ITT Results

Apparently Google doesn't like our members clicking their advertisements and has banned me from AdSense!!!

We had a good showing at ITT's. The track was a mess and the wind was high but everyone put out some good times. Eric Anderson was our fastest rider yesterday and placed 9th overall. Congrats to him. He has been performing really well recently and is going to just keep getting better leading up to the race.   There was a field of 159 dudes in the ITT this year.

Anderson - 9th Sophomore
Green      - 29th Freshman
Ong         - 43rd Sophomore
Ruckel     - 64th Sophomore
Kiser        - 71st Senior

I didn’t have a great run to say the least but my performance has put some fire under my ass to get my road riding to translate to the track. I am really proud of our rookies though. The awesome thing is that our team is super young. It is going to be great to watch these guys dominate the track.

This weekend we are all racing in Indianapolis at Marion University. The race is on Saturday and the race flyer can be found here.

Again, we are trying to collect some money for our race day kit's. If you can, please help us out and donate some money. We need about $300.00 more in donations. Thanks Doug. We greatly appreciate your support this year man... you have been very generous.

-kai-
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ITT's & News

This year is flying by. I don't want to leave this place. ITT's are tomorrow. This 4 lap effort will allow us to see how we compare to the field. Training is going well and although ITT's and the other spring events are fun, our mind is on the race which is April 24th. We are within a month of the race and in the next few weeks will be putting in the final training efforts.

Monday we were riding through a small town south of campus and a BETA alumni gave us a good WOOGLIN chant (wooglin is one of those cool secret frat things for the non beta readers). It was pretty cool to hear that from a random guy who was stopped at a convenience store. Everything is going really well right now and we are beginning to talk strategy.

We are going to be wearing the blue jersey (pictured to the left) in this year’s race. It was great to have a choice!!! Last year we were just stuck with colors that no one else wanted. We want to look good for this year’s race. We need about $400 more in donations to get our race day uniforms setup. The alumni support has been great thus far and we thank you for that! Donating is as easy as clicking the button to the right ------>

ITT Times:

David Ong      - 4:50pm
Erik Kiser       - 7:30pm
Shane Ruckel  - 7:40pm
Matt Green     - 7:55pm
Eric Anderson - 9:15pm

-kai-
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Officially 5th

One of our goals for the season was to qualify top 10.  Today we meet that goal by putting down a fast time that secured a 5th place start for the 2010 Little 500.  The house and team couldn't be more excited about our result and everyone is pumped for this years race.  I am going to try and get better quality out of this video on youtube... but until then this is all I have.




-kai-
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2:22.21

2:22.21 was our official qualification time.  That is FAST.  Our qualification time was faster than the pole position last year and is the fastest qualification time since 2007. Hopefully it will stand up to the rest of the field for the day.  There are a few other fast teams that can put up some good times so we will see how that time stands as the day goes on.

The house and team couldn't be more excited.  I am damn proud to be a BETA.

I will post a video of our qualification later in the day.

-kai-
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Mock Qual Run

We attempted two qual runs.  The first run was not legal due to a dropped bike on the exchange.  The video below is of the second run.  This run was not as fast as our first... the first run was zoomin until the missed exchange.  This run was a 2:29 with winded riders which caused a few hickups in the exchanges.  Enjoy.



-kai-
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Qualifications

Beta Theta Pi will be qualifying for the 60th running of the Little 500 at 8:15am on Saturday the 27th. We have been throwing down some fast qualification times on the track and are shooting for a top 10 spot in the field. 

Tonight we are doing a mock qual's run at 7:40pm.  I am going to record the run and post it on the site later tonight.

Little 500 is the buzz around campus right  now.  This is the best time of the year.

-kai-
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Weekend Recap

Friday was a great day to do a whole lot of nothing.  After the long hard week, we deserved a day off.  We ate a ton of food, caught some ray's and packed up our stuff to move back into the beta house.  Saturday we had one guy race, we were supposed to go as a team but decided that the one day trip to Miami University was going to be too expensive and too long.  The guy that did race though, Eric Anderson one of our rookies took the win in the category 4/5 road race.  He won a sweet new helmet and added the first official win to his record books.  It always feels good to win.

Today I raced in the category 4/5 road race in Brown County State Park.  The picture above is me in the IU kit followed by a good friend Greg Bortz who rides for AKAK while we try to survive up the last climb. The course is one big hill up and then back down.  The climb is 1.5 miles which made this the most difficult race I have ever competed in.  We started with a field of about 60 and I finished in the lead group of 9 in 8th place.  Although I did not win, it was a great experience and a really tough road race.

The rest of the team spent their Sunday on a long hard 40 mile ride mixing in some intervals and hard efforts.  As a whole, we are all feeling really fast and are looking forward to the spring series events.

Next weekend is Qualifications for the race.  We have narrowed down our qualification team and are going to be working on smooth, fast exchanges all week.

-kai-
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Great Week

Our team had a great week of training in Bloomington. We were officially done with our hard efforts yesterday and we were BURNT. I am really excited to see what we are going to do in Quals and more importantly in the race. We have some strong riders and really tested our strength this week. Everyone on the team was frustrated with me at times with the workouts and the amount of time we spent training but now that its all said and done, they all told me that they are glad that we pushed it.

The weather was amazing here for the week. We had one bad day and that was on Monday. I can’t be more satisfied with staying in Bloomington.

This weekend we are racing in Oxford, OH and Nashville, IN. Both races are road races and are not collegiate. I am looking forward to some different faces and potential to win some money.

-kai-
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Fine Tuning

Spring break has been productive so far. We have gotten a ton of intensity in. During our free time we have been making lots of food, watching movies and just hanging out. It is pretty nice not having the pressure of school for a week.

At the track we have been fine tuning our exchanges, working on team pursuit and practicing individual time trial runs. The track has been relatively empty but there are a lot of teams down here for break. At one point yesterday, I counted eight different teams doing team pursuit runs... everyone doing their own thing could get a little dicey. There were a few wrecks yesterday and I think by now everyone on our team has managed to fall while throwing an exchange.

Our bike parts for the Little 5 bikes are ordered and currently being installed on the new bikes. This will be the first year in a LONG time that we have had the opportunity to build up these bikes. Thank you alumni, parents and friends. We really appreciate the opportunity to build these bikes up and have alumni that are willing to donate.

-kai-
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Spring Break

Spring break starts next week. We will be staying in Bloomington and sharing the track time with the other teams. This year there is an abnormally large amount of teams that are staying in Bloomington for break therefore the track is going to be open all day every day. Spring break in Bloomington is planned to be a super hard week.

This weekend we are racing at Depauw University, just west of Indianapolis. Similar to last weekend there will be a road race on Saturday and a criterium on Sunday. There should be a large field of Hoosiers to work together for a couple more IU victories. This weekend our whole team will be racing on both Saturday and Sunday and I know a few of us are hungry to win.

-kai-
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Beta on Top

This past weekend our team represented IU in a MidWest Collegiate Cycling Conference race located at Lindsey Wilson University in Kentucky. We had 4 riders travel and each of us raced once on Saturday and once on Sunday. In short, of the 8 races we had 6 top 10 finishes and 1 win. Matt Green and I raced in the B category while David Ong and Shane Ruckel competed in the C's. Dave and Shane finished in 2nd and 4th today in their first criterium ever. Matt Green took the win today and I finished behind him in 9th place. The fields for every race were 40+ and competitive. It was great to get out there and face some real competition. It felt good to get the competitive juices flowing.

We are going to be traveling to Depauw next weekend and continue to do these weekend races until Little 500 events start to pick up. These weekends are a great opportunity for our team to become closer and really understand what it is going to take to win.

I really want to thank the alumni that donated in the last week. We received over $600+ in the last 4 days. We have ordered our bike parts and look forward to having the competitive bike that we were looking for. THANK YOU!!! Without you, we would not be able to do the things we do. Any extra funding that we receive this year will go into the bike account for the following years.

I will be posting pictures from this weekends races when I get them.

Below is a nice article about the race.
http://kl.am/8fV3

-kai-
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Rookie Miss'N'Out

Our rookies were definitely three of the strongest on the track for the Rookie Miss'N'Out Race. All three of them blew away their preliminary heats winning by more than 5 bike lengths. In short, all of them made it to the finals and one was knocked out due to inexperience, one to a lost chain (crappy little 5 bikes) and the other got 2nd overall. I was really proud of their performance and they had a good time racing.

The IUCC racing season is starting and just about every weekend from now until qualifications for Little 5, we will be on the road traveling to different schools for races. These races will give us experience, speed and the knowledge of how hard we need to be working to win.

Thanks to everyone that has donated. We still need cash for little 500 bike parts and our Spring Break in Bloomington. Our bike parts are being ordered at wholesale cost, therefore we will be able to save some big bucks.

We are going to be selling Beta Cycling t-shirts and having a Dine and Donate for the bike team in the next few weeks. The T-Shirts will be available for everyone to purchase after we qualify for the race.

I am looking forward to the little 500 season and to start getting competitive in some of these road races!

-kai-
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Rookie Week & Budget

Rookie week concludes today. The Beta rookies have a chance to finish 1, 2, and 3 in the rookie Miss'N'Out Race that will take place at 5:00 tonight. I will post pictures and results. I believe that they are the strongest rookies on the track and will kill the competition. Our hard work and effort has put me in the position to be confident in their abilities.

Financially we have two obstacles ahead of us. Spring Break and Little 500 bikes. To cut costs on Spring break we are staying in Bloomington. This way we can make our own food, not have to pay for gas and stay at a Beta live out house.

The Little 5 bikes need to be the most competitive that they can. We are planning on building up new back wheels, installing new bottom brackets, replacing the cranks, handle bars and stems. We have someone to service the bikes and we have a source to get at cost prices for the items we need to purchase.

Totals -

Spring Break: $200
Little 500 Bikes: $800

We are running a few fundraisers to actively seek donations and have the support of the chapter in everything that we are doing.

Your support and donations are greatly appreciated and not only aid the bike team but support the Pi Chapter of Beta Theta Pi.

-kai-
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Spring Training

It is now time to start getting out to the track everyday and log the intensity, time and effort into our routine. This past weekend we rode on both Saturday & Sunday. Saturdays ride was a fast 30 miles of good efforts by everyone on the team taking pulls and working to keep the ride intense. Sunday we had the pleasure of riding with a member of Lance Armstrong's development team Guy East. With Guy, we rode 45 miles which included a few race efforts. Guy was great to ride with and gave us some inspiration to keep up our efforts this season. Hopefully we can host him on a few more rides before the race.

Two new members have been added to the bike team. The spring pledge class has brought two interested pledges to the team. One pledge has experience riding and the other was a track star in high school. We will be pushing these guys to perform competitively in the next few months.

We have only $300 in our bike budget and we still need to purchase parts for the little500 bikes. You can donate by clicking the button to the right. We really appreciate all of the support from our alumni and friends of Beta.

-kai-
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Rookie Week

Track season is about to begin. Tomorrow marks the first day of rookie week for the 2010 little 500 season. Beta has three rookies (maybe four) depending on a new pledge, that will be attending the rookie hours this week.

The bike team is in need for cash. We currently have only $300 left in our budget after race registration, our winter trip and clothing. We still need to purchase parts for the little 500 bikes and be able to purchase food for our spring break. We could really use some help with our funds.

We need about $1,000 to support the rest of the season. I will be sending an email to all alumni in an effort to get some more funds but for those of you who regularly check this blog, please reach out to me if you can help.

yours in _kai_
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Riding Indoors

Late January brings us the treat of crappy weather. We have been keeping true to our training plan though and riding indoors logging our time on the bikes. We are only about 12 weeks away from the race. This is beginning to change our focus.

Our workouts are becoming more specific and anaerobic. Instead of the long moderate workouts in the fall and all of the miles logged in on the winter trip, we are beginning to shorten up the length of the workouts but bring up the intensity. Now is the time to begin working on speed, power and that second wind that will put us in the front.

I recently added the donate button to the blog. Any donations through there will go straight into the Beta Cycling Team's budget. I am going to get an accurate financial standing from the treasurer later this week and will post that as soon as I get it. We still need to fund our spring break, pay for the race registration and fix up the new little 500 bikes.

-kai-
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Back in Bloomington

Yesterday we made the decision to drive back in the morning due to the weather in Hilton Head and the road conditions in Indiana. The drive was a little long considering we drove through the snow and ice on our way back into town. It was odd seeing palm trees and half a foot of snow in the same day.

We are back in town now and will continue our training plan. Today we will get some kind of a indoor workout in and have a meeting about our plan of attack for next week.

Thanks again for all that have donated and sponsored our trip. It couldn’t have happened without you.

Gas - $600
Food - $450
Misc. - $100
Total - $1,150

Total Miles Ridden in 5 Days - 400
Total Hours on the Bike - 21

-kai-
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Everyone is Still Alive

Today we had a photographer for the local paper talk to us at a gas station and came to take pictures. We will be in the local paper tomorrow! lol. They probably think we are crazy for riding in the cold weather but I think its pretty cool. I will post the pictures that she captured when I get them. The one below the video is what will be in the paper.

-kai-
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Day 5 - Ride 4

100 miles is our longest ride to date as a team. Everyone was super tired not only from this ride but from an accumulation of the rides this week. We have two more days and today we are supposed to have the best weather of the week.



-kai-
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Day 4 - Ride 3 in Hilton Head

Today we had some difficulties getting on the road but once we were out it was good. During the first 30 miles we had a super strong headwind. The rest of the ride was great and we are really enjoying the roads out here.

We have three more days of riding and they are going to be the longest. Tomorrow we are riding 85+ and are trying to complete over 500 for the week.



Thanks again for all of your support.

-kai-
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Day 3 - Ride 2

We found some good back roads with really low traffic. The weather was the same as yesterday 45* and sunny. Everyone felt really strong today after recovering from yesterdays ride.

Check out the video below.

Day 2 - First Day of Riding

Today we rode 70 miles. It was a good ride with sunny but cold weather and some pretty dicey roads. Our team rode strong while taking turns pulling and dealing with the strong winds. We are looking forward to the rest of the week and opportunities to ride together.

Check out the video below.



I will be capturing a different video each night of the trip to recap the day and some of the things we are doing while we are not on the bike.

Let me know if you would like to make a donation in support of our efforts. Sponsorships are greatly appreciated.

-kai-
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Day 1 - Getting to Hilton Head

The drive was not as painful as I thought it would be.  We brought down two cars, 6 guys and 5 bikes.  The ride was a little crammed but manageable. We only got one speeding ticket on the way down which sucks but it isn't the end of the world.

Thank you to the Anderson family once more for sponsoring us with the great condo.

Rolling onto the island the area seemed relatively flat therefore will be good for longer rides and more time on the bike. Tomorrow we plan to "test the waters." We are going out for a 70-100 mile ride but don't want to blow anyone up early in the week. We are treating the week as a marathon opposed to a sprint. We plan to log over 400+ miles. I will be adding an excerpt every day about our training efforts. Keep looking for posts.


-kai-
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