Saturday Rides Starting from Starbucks in Rosemount, MN
Let's take advantage of (better) weather forecast for Sunday and ride at 13:00 (1 PM) that afternoon, instead of Saturday. We will follow the Orchard Lake route counter clockwise. The full route is 45 miles, and you can shorten that by ten miles by returning to Rosemount via Hwy 3. We’ll make a pit stop at Orchard Lake, even though the rest rooms will probably be closed.
Read MoreIt’s spring and the weather and roads are looking good, so we are going to meet for our first outdoor ride of the year on Saturday afternoon. The wind is expected to be from the South, so we will follow the Northfield route, but we’ll shorten it by staying on CR 86 through Castle Rock. for a 47-mile loop.
Read MoreFor 2019, we are again offering custom RCC clothing from Louis Garneau. You may go to their store now to order our new arm warmers and our 2018 jersey and bib shorts, which are available in men’s cuts. Garneau's store for RCC is open until Thursday, March 21 at 11 PM, and it is time to order and pay for your 2019 club kit. Your next opportunity to order a these items will be 2021, or later.
Those of you who own the 2018 kit know the quality and fit of the Garneau kit. And, if you have the 2018 shorts, you know that they have an incredibly comfortable chamois.
Read MoreLast Saturday, six of us did a virtual ride via Zwift and we used Discord to talk to each other during the ride. Our first ride went well, so I'm going use Zwift’s new meet-up feature to do another group ride Saturday. The ride will be Saturday at 09:00 and it will be led by Cory Wagner. This week's ride will follow the NYC Mighty Metropolitan route for 26 miles (42 KM). To join the meetup, you must be a Zwift user who follows Cory, and he needs to invite you to the ride. If you are a Zwift user and you haven’t been invited, follow Cory Wagner and he’ll invite you.
Meetups are like other Zwift events, where you must join the event before the start time. You may join up 15 minutes before the start and you can leave at any time. Don’t be late.
At 09:00, we’ll roll out slowly and get everyone together near the yellow beacon, which is used to help you find the ride leader. Saturday's are very busy on Zwift, so I'll call out my location (mileage) until we are together. Join us on Discord to talk to other riders in our meetup ride group.
Read MoreWe’re going try Zwift’s new meet-up feature to do an indoor, virtual group ride. The ride will be Saturday at 09:00 and it will be led by Cory Wagner. The ride will follow the NYC Knickerbocker route, in reverse, for 50 KM (31 miles). To join the meetup, you must be a Zwift user who follows Cory, and he needs to invite you to the ride. If you are a Zwift user and you haven’t been invited, follow Cory and he’ll invite you.
Read MoreThroughout October, we collected feedback from our riders via a short, nine-question survey and 37 people participated. There are 45 paid members and 100 addresses on our mailing list.
The first four questions were basic satisfaction inquiries. All participants reported that our group rides meet their needs, 97% of participants said they were very satisfied or satisfied with our club, and 95% said we have very-high-quality or high-quality rides. Safety of our rides was rated as above average or excellent by 92% of participants. None of these responses are surprising, because you’d probably riding elsewhere if we weren’t meeting these basic needs.
Read MoreOur club shop and sponsor, Grand Performance, is offering special club discounts, through December 15. Sale items include several models and builds of Wilier Triestina bicycles and frames, HED and Zipp wheels, SRAM components for road and MTB, helmets from Giro and Kask, Sidi shoes, Speedplay pedals, Vittoria tires and tubes, and more.
Read MoreIt's going to be a rainy weekend, so we won’t have a group ride. So, get outside today or jump on a spin bike or trainer to keep up your fitness. Hopefully, we’ll get a few more group rides in before the snow and winter comes to make the roads dangerous for road bikes to end our season.
Please take a couple of hours to volunteer at Free Bikes 4 Kidz this weekend. Volunteers, like you, have already refurbished more than 2,500 bikes. FB4K needs your help to fix about 3,000 more bikes, so they can give them to Minnesota kids in need. Every volunteer and every hour counts. I will be there Saturday, at Noon, and I hope to see you there, too.
Help FB4K meet the goal of refurbishing and giving away every bike that they can salvage. Please, sign up to volunteer! The time you spend changes lives.
Read MoreWe should have normal temperatures and light wind this Saturday and that will make our ride this week more enjoyable than the previous couple of weeks. If you've been riding indoors, try coming back outside and join us this weekend.
This week, we will leave Rosemount at 09:00 and ride to Prior Lake and back, with a stop at Edelweiss Bakery. I think the trail along Blackdog Road and 35W is closed due to construction and flooding, so we may need to take another route to Prior Lake. If you’ve ridden there recently, let me know the status Saturday or via email. I have a couple of other routes we can use.
Read MoreI hope you had a chance to get out for a ride today, like I did, because it was beautiful and this weekend it will be back to abnormally-cold and windy conditions. The forecast for this Saturday is worse than last Saturday, so we’ll ride on Sunday morning. At 09:00 Sunday, we’ll follow the Orchard Lake route, which will provide some shelter from the wind and give us a good workout.
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