And now a word from our sponsors...

Thank you, generous cashier at Au Bon Pain (Capella Tower) for providing me with two plastic bags with which to cover my beloved sneakers. The skies opened up on Wednesday right as I prepared to ride the bike home, and I didn't want to ruin a perfectly good pair of Adidas. I promise I will patronize your skyway level pastries and/or coffee soon.

Twin Cities Bike Walk Week came and went (June 4-12) without much fanfare here. After two years of setting up a work team, I've learned that most people in public accounting aren't interested in these kinds of activities, so I didn't even bother signing us up. I did participate in Bike-Walk Day (Thursday the 9th) but arrived somewhat late so most of the excitement had faded by that time.

If anyone hasn't heard of the Nature Valley Grand Prix, it's a great freebie spectator event to take in. I made it to the Crit races in both St. Paul and Minneapolis this year and enjoyed every second of it. You can check out some video highlights at the website, and here are a few teaser pics from St. Paul and Uptown, respectively:

Watching this race almost makes me want to drop a few grand on a high end racing bike, some tight fitting expensive clothes, and some clipless pedals. Almost.

Whoomp! (There it isn't)

I wanted to title this post in the present tense when I rode past the Ace of Base themed pillar this morning. But by the evening commute, the graffiti police had already cleaned it up:

I'm continuing to tack on the miles from commuting and other rides. Last week was pretty good:

Monday - No commute (Memorial Day)
Tuesday & Thursday - Bicycle
Wednesday & Friday - Carpool

On Thursday after work I rode almost 20 miles, then logged a 55 miler on Sunday morning to finish the week right at 95 miles.

YTD Mileage
The last confirmed reading I have on my odometer is 613 miles at 11/1/2010 which was about the time I switched over to the winter steed. So my estimate for year to date mileage is 483 miles.

How many miles are in a fortnight?

Well, the fortnight ending May 29th had about 120 miles. Most of this (80 miles) was spent riding to rural Zimmerman, MN, then back to the Elk River North Star station where I caught the 5:15 train back to Minneapolis. The rest was from some recreational rides and commutes.

The miles should start building up now as I'm getting ready for a full week of RAGBRAI this summer. Other things on the summer bike agenda: complete a ride from the twin cities to Iowa and get rid of a few bicycles in the garage/basement.