We are excited to announce that online registrations for the 2013 Jesse James Bike Tour are now open. This year''s tour will take place Saturday September 7. Please click here for more information about registration: http://jessejamesbiketour.zapevent.com

We also have a new logo. Want to see it? Please visit our Facebook or Twitter pages and let us know what you think!

We are in the process of updating the Tour''s website, so please pardon our dust. But soon we will announcing this year's routes and other new exciting features. Also, mail-in registration brochures will be available soon. Stay tuned!

Sincerely,

Roberto Zayas

Chair Jesse James Bike Tour 2013

NOTE: This is a work in progress. Please check back later when more items have been added.

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The Twin Cities Spoke is the Minneapolis-St. Paul chapter of the International Christian Cycling Club, and our goals are aligned with theirs:

• To unite Christian cyclists for a worldwide testimony in lifestyle, training, and sportsmanship
• To be a way for each cyclist to see Jesus Christ, His love and grace, and want to receive Him

We'd love to have you come out for a ride with us and learn more about our club.  Check us out at TwinCitiesSpoke.com and contact us to let us know your're interested!

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For the second year in a row Alan and Bev Gustafson joined Carol and me for a two week vacation  in Tucson.  Alan and I used FedEx to ship our bikes which really worked out well.  So far, we have had five rides for a total of 184 miles.  We hope to get a couple more rides before we head back home on Saturday.  Tucson is a very bike friendly community with many major streets with great bike lanes.  The motor traffic really seem to respect the bicycles and we feel safe riding the roads even in town.  Between days on the bikes the four of us have enjoyed some great hikes up into the many canyons in the Tucson area.

This year we were able to connect with Michael Hast, a Tucson Spokes rider, for a great ride on one of the trails along the river.  Michael is strong Christian who loves to ride.  Tim, he pointed out that he is ahead of you in miles so far this year (just in case you are keeping track).

Attached are a couple pictures:  Alan Gustafson with Michael Hast and Bob Boothby with Michael Hast.

What a great world The Lord has given us to enjoy,

Bob Boothby

Some of you may know Jon Tofoty from dominating TnT whenever he shows up to race. Some of you may remember he is the one who helped me shed a lot of unwanted weight last summer. Now Jon has stepped up to become an official sponsor of the Twin Cities Spoke!  A little about Jon:

Dr. Jon Toftoy is the owner of Toftoy Chiro, a chiropractic clinic in South Minneapolis specializing in helping their patients reach their health goals. While attending Chiropractic School, Dr. Jon discovered time trials and eventually road racing. He upgraded from a Cat 5 to a Cat 1 in his first year of racing and continues to race nationally and internationally for the Revolution Cycle/ Twin Six Elite Cycling Team.  His favorite race continues to be the Tuesday Night Time Trials.

Jon will be contributing on a regular basis to our club newsletters with an "Ask Dr. Jon" question and answer section, so CLICK HERE to send in your nutrition questions. Whoever's question is chosen for that newsletter will receive a free patient visit [$80 value] to consult with the good Doctor. 
Jon is also offering ½ off initial exam ($40 value) and 20% off nutrition orders for all club members.

Let me start off by saying what a privilege and an opportunity it is to be the new directorof the Twin Cities Spoke of the International Christian Cycling Club. It is my hope and prayer that I will be able to fill the shoes as well as those who have preceded me. A special thank-you to our outgoing director Jeannie and the encouragement of many that have expressed their confidence in me.

A little of my background: I have now reached the milestone of being the big six-oh. Although I would prefer the title of Senior Saint or even that “maturing guy”, the reality is you could join the chorus of my wife who calls me "my little old man" and my children who referred to me as elderly. I have been married for over 38 years to an absolute solid Proverbs 31 woman, who lived and modeled Christianity for a full 12 years before I was saved. I have three grown daughters, one granddaughter, and another one due in early September. Therefore I do have a soft spot in my heart for those little ones. Serving in Vietnam as a Marine has given me a connection with those that have served in the military and especially those who have given their lives to ensure the freedoms we have in this country. I do not take those for granted! I used to be a “Neanderthal Biker”, commonly known as a runner. However, with the advancement of arthritis and three knee surgeries I have gravitated towards this wonderful sport. I am still getting used to the nuances, such as you sit on a saddle, not a seat, but the saddle sits on the seat post!

Well, enough about me and on to our club. The Twin Cities Spoke is one of 33 clubs listed as members of the Minnesota Cycling Federation (MCF). The members of these various clubs represent a wide spectrum of interests. Many want solo rides to enjoy scenery or to keep fit, some relish the social aspect of group rides and then there are those who love to compete and will concentrate on the racing opportunities the sport offers. Our club is no different as we offer multiple group rides on different days and locations geared towards different goals. Please consider joining a group ride to experience the camaraderie of fellow members or if you’re on that sweet solo ride give glory to God for His wonderful creation. Have that burning desire to go way long? We offer that too as it is called Randonneuring and is headed up by Steve Gerber. Many mid-range “Tours” are also available. Matt Lovaas heads up the Racing Team if head to head competition is an interest. Numerous opportunities exist to race through-out the state. Want to race but just against the clock? Then try our very own Tuesday Night Timetrial. It is our clubs direct outreach to the bike community and continues to be well recognized as one of the premiere time trial events. Joel Boelke is the point person; so whether you want to give it a go or lend a hand to continue our fabulous event, contact Joel for more information. But beyond these activities we have the distinction of having our Lord Jesus Christ as a personal Lord and Savior as the common denominator for all of us. That is exciting as well as sobering. It is by His grace and grace alone that we can be called children of theKing. So no matter what your interest, why do we exist as a club? The answer is in I Cor.9:23: “I do all of this for the sake of the gospel that I may share in its blessings.”

My vision moving forward? I would love to see us grow in numbers and involvementin the activities of the Spoke. To see us reach out in witness and grow in sanctification would be a blessing. One goal is to have a “club wide” service project such as Serve My Starving Children or Adopt-a- Highway program. Maybe even providing a neutral water hand-up at a road race and let the riders keep an IC3 water bottle.

But I cannot do these alone and I am asking the membership to partner with me to make us a club that makes a difference in people’s lives.

Our main method of communication continues to be our web site which is driven by Tim Turnquist’s capable and diligent hands. It would be great to have everyone log their miles just to see what sort of totals we could achieve. Please stop by the site frequently to keep abreast of our activities. I covet everyone’s insight and wisdom so always feel free to contact me directly in case a general forum post might not be the best for you. I have no problem with constructive criticism, but when bringing a complaint please also bring a workable solution! My personal e-mail is: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

We have a prayer team that is ready, willing and able to hold your requests before the Lord. Please use it as there is power in prayer.

Finally, remember that as you “Ride the Colors” we are all ambassadors of Christ. MayGod Bless and keep the rubber on the road.

--Don Callander

I am finally getting caught up. I love to see everyone out there representing us in the colors of the IC3! And I love to have new images to add to the top banners of our website. So, keep up the racing and keep getting images to me. If you have some pictures from any event -- tour, race or just riding with firends -- get those to me and I will add them to the rotation. Also, be looking for chances to snap some photos because now that we are getting a good selection of images, I want to do some seasonal groupings. Thus, this fall, keep sending me pics of CX'ing, mtn biking, or anything else you might be doing.  This winter I would love some cross-country ski or snowshoeing pics as well as some from our indoor spins.  Next spring I want to have a whole slew of 'Spring Training' pics, etc.

Since I have just added a eight new images from this fall to the banner photo rotation, I think this would be an appropriate time to get some specific guidlines out there for how to submit new photos and the various parameters that they should be. The size we need to fill in 1000px X 300px, so images that are short and wide work best.  I can "fill" the ends with a grey fade, but I really like to fill the whole space with image when I can.  The larger the image and the higher the resolution, the better the banner looks [and the more creative I can be with it].

Lighting can also be a problem with action shots.  It is sometimes hard to get a riders face with the proper light when they are hunched over the bars.  If you have the ablity to light/color adjust before sending that would be appreciated. When you feel you have some worthy images, please This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . If you have a few, you can zip them up to save space.

All of these new banners work well, but if Eric or Matt has a higher resolution image I would love to get that to work with.

Here are the eight new banners:

From Darryl Smith of the NorCal Spoke:

All IC3ers......

Your chance to win the tour... Yes the tour de France fantasy league...  You have heard your friends talk about fantasy football well here is one better...cycling..

Please send link to those club members who may be interested.

Winner receives  two tires 

You must sign up before Saturday...this league is run from England, so I would sign up early Friday the tour starts Saturday morning.

You must sign up for our mini league to qualify

Please sign into our mini league---- see # below
Please use real name on team name so we can track your results, there will be thousands of teams.
Currently over 6000 teams

http://www.velogames.com/index.php

League Name: IC3 National
League Code: 29223443


Any questions please call me...

Darryl

I have officially lost track of how many times I have done it. It might be eight. It might be ten. It doesn't really matter. I still love it. And this year it promises to be better than ever. I am talking of course about my favorite race -- Greenwood Dairy Days 38 RR. Greenwood is just a little po-dunk town of about 1,000 people smack dap in the middle of Wisconsin. Just east of Willard; west of Loyal; south of Owen; north of Neilsville -- yup, pretty much the middle of no where. But that is where my dad grew up and went to High School. My mom grew up nine miles away just outside of Loyal. I spent my summers growing up on those two farms working, playing and sometimes riding my bike. I never dreamed I would someday race in that area.  Then, about ten years ago I saw a race flyer for the Greenwood Dairy Days Road Race and thought it was a joke. I HAD to do it. 

What I saw blew my mind. The town nearly doubled in size with racers and families from as far away as Minneapolis, Chicago, Green Bay and beyond. And nearly the whole town came out to support the event with booths and food and people cheering on the roads. The 4H had a pie stand and a church group sold malts and shakes. Not exactly "race food" but perfect for the middle of no where.  I rolled up to the start line with over 200 other people. There were your normal racers, plus tandems, recumbents -- even mtn bikes and some brave dad with his kid in a burley. I thought "This is the size of the Tour de France".  The race is part of the Wisport series and was in the home town of Wisport founder Dar Vollrath and this race was meant as a mid-season party -- and it lives up to that every year.

So, when we started the Twin Cities Spoke in 2007, one of the first races we did as a club was the Greenwood Dairy Days 38. Seven of us made the trip, camped out at my Grandpa Leonard's farm, did the race and had a ball.

The next year it grew to 11 racers and about 20 camping on the farm. This was our biggest group to date on the farm and was marked by a wonderful [depending on who you ask] thunderstorm in the middle of the night.

In 2009 Don brought a tree to add to "Leonard's Woods" -- a memorial for my grandpa.  

And last year, we hosted our first non-IC3 racers, Fred and Tom.

For 2011 we will be missing the new pappa's -- Cory & Aaron -- who have made it every year up until now, but we are excited to be hosting more non-IC3 racers.  We have invited people from the Balance team, Flanders, Penn Cycles and the entire Big Ring Flyers team to camp out with us.

Please join us, too -- RSVP so that I can make sure we have the correct accomdations for everyone.

Below are more details on the weekend. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Amenities include:

• Out buildings [like a machine shed with loft or haymow] if some would rather sleep in there than under the stars or in a tent, you are most welcome to do so. They are also good for shelter in inclement weather.
•  There is a farm house with a basement if weather gets really bad, but we try not to use it since I will have some family staying in there and want to respect their space.
• Bathrooms will be primitive. Again, respecting the guests in the house, we will provide a port-a-potty or two and there are acres of fields and bushes that will work great.
• We have a spigot with running cold well water. I, personally, prefer not to drink it, but it is available for washing up. If you want to bring a "Sun shower" feel free -- we don't provide such lush amenities. We will bring some drinking water but you might want to bring your own to make sure there is enough 
• We don't advertise a dinner Friday night, but I usually put a kettle of spaghetti on the stove and cook up a few pounds of it. Let me know if you are coming that early and we will make extra and may ask you to bring something to pass, like bread or salad.
• We usually have a bonfire, but since it stays light until after 9:00 and there is a race the next morning it is usually broken up by 10 or 11. Guitars and other "camp-fire" instruments are welcome for anyone who wants to lead us in song. Since we are a Christian group, we may break out in spirituals or hymns, but we do not limit our singing to that.
• We used to make pancakes in the morning, but found that hindered performance, so we have dispensed with that practice. Please bring your own b-fast or patronize the locals and eat in town.

Things to bring:

• Tent
• Sleeping bag
• pillow
• towel or cloth
• flash light(s)
• bug juice
• water or other drink
• If you are coming for the Friday night meal bring something to pass [we will get a list out once we get a head-count.]
• Your own version of B-fast
• Sense of humor. Although we try to use Christ as a model, and He accepted everyone as they are, we, as humans, fall well short of that and have standards that must be kept.

I will be there sometime Friday morning and use the afternoon to set up tents, prepare the grounds [i.e. mow the lawn] and spend time with family. You would be welcome anytime you can make it on Friday.

Everyone welcome the latest addition to the Silver Cycling / Hollywood Cycles race team -- Roscoe P. Coltrane:

Order NOW for early August delivery. Don't forget to order all of your FALL riding gear, since this will be the last order of the year.  THIS ORDER CLOSES JUNE 12th.

If the early season race results is any indication, it seems our Spring Training Camp was a success -- at least for those who have pinned a number on. Congrats to all those who have been racing, even dispite questionable weather.  So far this early season we have seen:

• BMan [Balance] WINS 2011 Ragnarök 105
• BMan [Balance] WINS the Cat3 Ken Woods
• BMan [Balance] 5th [time] Opus II; Cat 1/2/3
• Dave Jones [Nature Valley/Penn Cycles] 5th in 50+ Open at Ken Woods
• Eric Sundstrom [TC.IC3] 11th in Cat 3 at Ken Woods
• Craig Anderson [TC.IC3] WINS Team Wisconsin (Whitnall Park) Spring Classic; Cat4/5 heat.

Did I miss any results from thosw who were are Spring Training?