Tour de Dane Femmes: Crystal Clear
Every other day, every other day
Every other day of the week is fine, yeah
But whenever Monday comes, but whenever Monday comes
A-you can find me draftin' all of the time
The Mamas & The Papas and 22 Drafters were singing up Far View Road. What a view. What a night. What an amazing group of people.
Daisy, Shaq and Loose Screw comprised the mighty DEF team members. Not sure if Shaq is indicating "Two Strong" or "Peace". Why not both?
The B Team dominated the Draft. Skipper resurfaced after two weeks in Norway and Gopher dug his way out from underneath the exhaustion of moving and recent induction into Fatherhood. Captain Joe found his way back from Montana and Thing 1 found her way out of a grueling Internal Medicine rotation. It was wonderful to see so many faces.
A trio of Femme Drafters made up the A Team.
Until they were joined by Slim, who dutifully pulled the trio a good long stretch.
Slim and Keez wore their matching Bad Kitty socks. Deep conversation and speculation about the significance of the couple's matching socks scared Slim away. He sped off to find some non-Femme companionship. His motor was purring as he caught Skipper on the home stretch.
CONGRATS to Squeak on her 70.3 finish in Door County. Dan-yelly credited her 6/54 age group finish on her "magic Drafter shorts". Her splits were so fast, despite her training being limited to chasing around 3 kids, TCB accused her of cheating. Coach Midas continues to have the golden touch. Congrats to Midas and all of the Madison MultiSport athletes on their Door County finish.
Cannibal's tutu must have been lucky, too, as he smoked the field at the road race in Platteville to claim 3rd place on the podium.
Speaking of races, the maillot jaune is soon to be decided, and upon the completion of this exciting Tour de France, another less publicized Tour commences. In an effort to bolster support for the Tour de France Femmes, and support women's cycling locally, the Draft will be hosting a cycling challenge. The Tour de Dane Femmes will be commiserate with the official Tour from July 23-30.
The yellow jersey will be awarded to the Femme Drafter who completes the greatest number of miles over those 8 days, AND completes all 3 stages of the tour (Crystal Clear Drafter ride, mountain and sprint stages). Polka dot and green jerseys will be worn by the winners of the mountain and sprint stages, respectively. Please contact BrickO for more details. Prizes (thanks to Nemo and Trek) will be available for all participants.
The 35 mile route for Monday, and the first stage of the Tour de Dane Femmes, is Crystal Clear.
RidewithGPS link BD: Crystal Clear
The short pour is an abbreviated 30 mile route, Latham Loop
RidewithGPS Drafters | Latham Loop
Draft responsibly,
BrickO
Far Far Far View
One word sums up the Draft Monday night. Hot, hilly, windy are all in the running, but the winner is beautiful.
There are many perks to departing from Crossroads Coffeehouse. For starters, the rollers on Airport Road are avoided and replaced with breathtaking (figuratively and literally) climbs up Moe, Greenwald, Forshaug (aka For-sh*t, F*ck-shaug), Blue Mounds Tr, Fesenfeld and Reeve (ok, maybe that one could be left off the list for quads sake). Finishing up with pizzas and Warp Speed Scotch Ale ice cream floats is worth the climb. It is no wonder that Ninja and GFK made the trip from Green Bay to Draft on this particular night. A huge thanks to Katy and Abbey for taking such good care of the Drafters.
The 5PM group included Drafters from the B, D and E teams. It is starting to sound like a musical scale.
The short pour quartet definitely harmonized in n the key of F. F for Fun. F for F'in hills. F for First to Finish. And best of all, F for beer Floats.
Once Keez and Granny declared they were out, the XY A Team members lost all incentive to push and joined the 5:15 B+ Team.
Well, nearly everyone. Slim bravely drafted solo for 24miles before catching the peloton. And Booker J set out just before dusk, returning to Crossroads as the last drop of Warp Speed Scotch Ale ice cream was consumed.
For those Drafters who have ridden with GFK to the north at Chequamegon and the Fat Tire Birkie, it is no secret he has game. But he got some sideways glances from those Drafters unfamiliar with his aptitude as GFK mounted his gravel bike.
"Here come old fat tire
He come grooving up slowly
He got joo joo eyeball
He one holy roller
He got hair down to his knee (or in a man bun under his helmet)
Got to be a Drafter he just climb what he please"
As the boys pulled over for a nature break, Cannibal muttered, "Who invited this guy?". In other words, he's killing us. And he's riding a frikin' gravel bike. Cannibal regretted not wearing his tutu so help him dance on the pedals.
"Come together, right now, over me. "
The nature break provided an opportunity for all the long pour Drafters to come together.
In dirty news, the Tuesday night Dirty Draft is small but mighty. Interested in joining? Please do! The more the dirtier.
All ages are welcome.
Our Junior Team is growing!
CONGRATULATIONS to Cannibal and Keez for their efforts at the Fitchburg Festival of Speed last Saturday. Somebody came dangerously close to hitting 1000W...
Looking to ride some events for a good cause? Let's see if we can have some Drafters represented at these upcoming events. Give a shout out on GroupMe if you are interested in Drafting.
Move 'and'N' Groove 4BGC July 15
Lake Ripley Ride July 29
Tour de Dane Femmes July 23-30. Those interested in competing for the General Classification (most miles ridden during the Tour and must include Draft July 24), Polka Dot jersey (fastest Mountain Stage including segments on Barlow and Blue Mounds Park Rd) or Green jersey (sprint stage), contact BrickO. Thanks to our partners at Online Cycling Gear for creating these jerseys!
The 35 mile route for Monday July 17 will take us to a land far, far away. Or at least give us a far Far View. The A, B, D and E teams continue to merge, emerge and diverge such that nobody really knows what time to depart. Moving forward, let's try to keep to 3 departures: 5, 5:15 and 5:30. Slower rollers wanting to ride the full strength route should leave at 5PM. Drafters planning to ride the short pour, please depart at 5:15 or 5:30. It is hard to say if the A team is getting stronger or the B team is getting older (read: slower but with a cause), but there is a wider gap than in previous years. Please choose wisely.
RidewithGPS link Drafters | Far Far Far View
For those looking to enjoy a short pour, here is a 27 mile option.
RidewithGPS link Drafters | Pine Loop
Draft responsibly,
BrickO