The end and the beginning

A few years ago — late summer of 2010, I think — myself and a few others started talking about making a Midwest Cycling Community (the Trek Store's club) race team. There wouldn't be a board or officers or "rules," per se, but those who eventually ended up on the team rode together all the time, anyway. Might as well be a real team. The only real directive that I can remember was "go fast."

And it was pretty fun. We won many things. We went fast.

For this season, they'll go fast without me. I've decided to race for Flatwater Cycling this year. I'm well aware that we're talking about amateur bike racing in Nebraska. This is not the biggest deal in the world — or the biggest deal anywhere, really. But it represents a pretty big change in my little cycling world (which revolves around me, of course). Anyway, it's time to move on.

Flatwater is based in Lincoln and is sponsored by Lincoln Industries. This is essentially a rebirth of sorts of the old Lincoln Plating team (hi, Munson!). Other sponsors include Joyride Bicycles (and Specialized), Spy Optic, AAA Roofing and Sheetmetal, Capital City Bootcamps, Screen Ink and Alchemist clothing.

Looking at that sponsor list, it's a pretty clean break from what I've been doing for the past few years. Like, a 180-degree break. But that happens sometimes. I may not properly be able to express how much I've enjoyed the bikes and clothing of the past few years. The Trek Madone is a fantastic bike, as are the Cronus and Ion CX bikes. And Capo makes fantastic clothing. It's pretty much all I have in my clothing drawer now. I'm looking forward to checking out the new stuff here in the next couple of weeks. It will be pretty interesting to see how it compares to the tried-and-true. My guess is that high-end stuff — no matter who makes it — is all pretty good.

I'll also probably fail to come up with proper gratitude for my former teammates. The reason we decided to start racing together is because we all enjoyed riding together. I was never the fastest of the bunch — not even in the top half, really — but I had a great time doing whatever I could to help the team secure the top step (and maybe a few others) on the podium. I learned a ton and had a blast. Thank you. And thanks also to Jay and Kent for letting us have our fun, for ordering up a batch of great kit every year and for making it a fun place to be. I'll miss that.

Thank you, Midwest Cycling friends. I had a blast — even when I felt like barfing. I'll always have fond memories of the past few years.

 (photo by Mark Stursma)

But it's a new year now, and it's time to ride. Rest week is almost done, and I'm not sad that my workouts for the next two days are short and sweet. Come on, spring.