In the spirit of classic European one day races, some of the riders around Madison came up with the idea for the Madison-Basco-Madison. The idea was to have an out and back competitive ride that mixed as many cycling disciplines as we could think of into one tough day in the saddle; a healthy dose of road, some mountain bike and a dash of cyclo-cross just to keep your feet warm. A BKB team mate of mine, John McNeill, lives out in Basco, Wisc and has for years told of an old railroad grade that starts at the edge of Madison and passes by his house before heading down into Iowa. During a chilly but dry January day, we rode the trail to scout a course, and what we found was just right.
The course is about 35-40 miles that are a mix of everything: road, gravel, thickets, single track, hills, flats, bridges, etc. For the last few weeks we’ve been watching the snow pack slowly recede, and now, we’re slowly watching the Doppler as Mother Nature brings in a new, very interesting weather system that is threatening to dump some serious snow on our race plans.
A group pre-rode the railroad trail just 2 days ago saying; “as long as it stays dry we should be okay. If it gets wet, it could be a death march.”
As I sit and type this, it’s looking like its going to get VERY wet in the coming days, as well as cold.
Now, those that are racing are starting to rethink their equipment choices, and I’m certainly thinking about digging back into those recently packed neoprene shoe covers and toasty lobster gloves. I was planning on riding my cross bike with wide knobbies, but the mountain bike is looking better now. Time will tell, but I’ll have a full report on Monday.