Stage 1 - Alpha

Elvis couldn’t ask for a finer day to begin this year’s 50% of the Miles 100% of the Effort Tour de France Challenge. Cloudless skies, light breeze, warm but not hot temperature and good cycling buddy Darin at his side.

Darin is an interesting fellow. He is riding a brand new Trek Madonne bicycle and brand new Bontrager Race X Light wheels, that he got free. All of it. Free. He tells a rather mysterious tale of cracked chain stays and micro cracks near the spoke nipples on the wheels. Something about Trek telling him too bad, Darin not accepting that answer and suddenly he gets his new stuff. Further, Trek originally sent him a frame without a fork since Darin had not said anything about cracks in the fork. Since the new frame did not match the old fork something had to be done, according to Darin. Trek obliged by sending out a brand new (matching) fork. Weird. I’ve never heard such a wild tale ending so splendidly for the protagonist. But kudos to Darin for getting bicycle giant Trek to stand behind their stuff. Next time I’m in the market for a new frame I’ll be going over every millimeter of my old one with a scanning electron microscope and then providing the details to Darin so he can contact Earnesto Colnago on Elvis’ behalf.

Today’s stage took us northwest out of Germantown, into Slinger and then west to Rubicon. Nice country roads the entire way. Farmers were out cutting hay and the sweet smells made Elvis smile. That and the light breeze. This is the first day in months that the winds haven’t been blowing somewhere between 15 and 45 miles per hour. If Elvis had any extra cash he’d invest in a wind farm. It’s been so windy that severe weather alerts like the one below have been commonplace;

From Rubicon we turned south, skirted the town of Hartford and soon found ourselves climbing up and over the Holy Hill range. Today’s route had a bit too much climbing for an opening stage and I hope there is not a high price to pay.

Elvis has spent so little time on the bike that he forgot to bring the camera - a mainstay during Tour stages. Fortunately, he did have a cell phone with a camera and was able to capture this moment - Darin rolling past an outhouse in the middle of nowhere. Must be a government installation of some sort, since the rest of us would just pee in the woods. Darin could roll confidently by since he has read the now classic, Elvis Kennedy’s Guide to Peeing While Riding a Bike.

By the time we arrived back we had put in 62 miles. One more than needed. Elvis is already ahead of schedule. Good thing too, since there lots of long days ahead. All in all, a good day.