Our professional debut, CIA connections, early morning raids and our plan of attack.

The last week has been quite a good week for Team Will. First, we got our "training" kits. For those non-cyclists, "kits" are matching jerseys + shorts. Thank you to Ken for getting these to us as soon as they arrived! They look great - can't wait for the actual "ride" jersey. As Andrew (my 6-year old son) would say, "cyclists wear kits, bicycle riders just wear clothes". Once we all get dressed up, we actually look like we have our act together. It is amazing what matching clothes and Photoshop can do to an otherwise motley crew!

Team Will - Shift 2 - from left to right: Rob, Kenny, me, John, Louis, Randy


More riding and riding and riding and riding:
We spent Friday and Saturday doing back-to-back team rides, including testing all of the logistics, support and technology that we plan to use on the cross-country ride (June 15-24) --- and, as expected, we learned a lot! Friday was 120 miles - and the team completed that at an average pace of 19 miles per hour... Friday was the first day for most of us to interact with a moving SAG vehicle. This includes moving water bottle handoffs (to and from the truck), getting food, etc. During the cross-country ride, we don't stop...particularly if John is around :).

The CIA angle:
As one of or technology tests, we were carrying a SPOT tracking device on Friday... and it was broadcasting our location to a prototype version of the Go The Distance 2010 website that we be posting to during our cross-country ride (June 15-24). Although it isn't "live", you can have a super secret preview - check it out at: http://sites.google.com/site/teamwillride2010/Home. Keep in mind, this is a very early prototype and will change frequently. As of this posting, the top map on the main page shows the tracking capability.

As you can see, it looks as if we rode from Folsom, down the bike trail, past the airport and around to Beale Airforce base... and then stopped. That's because, we lost the SPOT! We didn't realize it until we returned to Folsom. The upside - if you are going to lose an expensive piece of equipment, a tracking device isn't such bad thing to lose --- because you know where it is!

So, with some impressive sleuthing, the internet and a couple of CIA contacts, Doug was able to retrieve it during an early morning commando raid (Doug is in charge of tracking, but due to the CIA connection - his name has been changed to hide his identity). I think it worked something like this: "Hi, I am here in my Porsche, and you have my SPOT, and I mean business... GIVE IT BACK - or else - I will go get my BMW motorcycle, because I mean business".

This live tracking capability is very cool. It will allow our fans, the kids we are going to be visiting, media, our sponsors and friends to track each of the shifts as we cross the country. You can check in on us and make sure we don't stop.

Saturday was another great day... we covered about 97 miles and climbed well over 6000 feet. The route went from Folsom thru Auburn to Meadow Vista and then on to Colfax. We got lost a couple of times - which reinforced the need for a little more discipline in the way we plan routes and program our bike-mounted GPS computers, as well as the GPS units in the SAG vehicles. Getting lost in Auburn isn't too bad as we know the area, but in Topeka, a wrong turn could send us a long way in the wrong direction.


Our Professional Debut:
On Saturday, our route took us the the foothills around Auburn. The 2010 Tour of California was starting the following day in nearby Nevada City. Our team was repeatedly misidentified as one of the pro teams that would be racing the next day as they warm up on the roads nearby. Several cyclists that we passed wished us good luck, "fans" waved and yelled at us... it was rather entertaining. I can see how it would be easy to think we were pros - unless of course you saw us.

Really - We are NOT geeks:
We were also testing our technology this weekend. We have the website mentioned above and can post photos & video from the road. In the SAG vehicles, we will have three cellular connections (Sprint, ATT and Verizon), each connected to an in-car WiFi network. In addition, we will have one portable Sprint WiFi network that we can take with us into the hotels. Each van will have a few still cameras, a couple of "flip" video cameras, notebooks, an iPad and if this weekend was an example, 6-7 smart phones. A couple of bikes have high-definition video cameras attached. All of this requires two power inverters and power strips to keep the stuff powered. There will be 5 complete setups of this type (one for each of 5 vans). Each riding team (3 of them) will have a SPOT tracking device providing real-time updates via satellite to the website. Two engineers in Folsom will be maintaining the website, collating photos and video, posting blogs, etc. SIMPLE - WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?

Anyhow, it was really great to get out with nearly the whole team, including 6 of our 7 riders and 3 of our 5 drivers and get some miles in... by the end, we had a pretty good system going, and we had a lot of fun.

Cards for Kids:
In my last post, I discussed Cards for Kids. We are working with schools to create cards for us to deliver to the kids we will be visiting. At a high level, we will give a packet of construction paper, pre-printed stickers and instructions to teachers, den leaders, youth group administrators, etc. They will have the children in their organization make cards for the children in the hospitals. The key message is "You are my HERO!". As a reminder, the team will be visiting 18 hospitals as we traverse the USA.

Now - I need a little help. I expect this program will come with a $275-300 price tag by the time we are done. Our goal is was 500-1000 cards. At this point, we have commitments for over 1400 cards. That is about 5 cards per dollar! We are looking for someone to sponsor "Cards for Kids"... it is an opportunity to really do something wonderful! If you are interested, please let me know at "m a g r   i  n d s at gmail.com" (without spaces and replace 'at' with @). It is tax deductible.

This activity is going very well... and we are very excited by the possibilities. It is a positive experience for both the kids making the cards and for those receiving the cards. More great things to come in with Cards for Kids.

Our plan of attack:
Many people have asked for our route... each leg is below. These are the shift 2 / Team Intel legs.


6/15:   Sacramento Rally @ Capital
           Truckee, CA - Reno, NV
6/16:   Mill City, NV - Carlin, NV
6/17:   West Jordan, UT - East Carbon, UT
6/18:   Gypsum, CO - Genesee, CO
6/19:   Hoxie, KS - Glasco, KS
6/20:   Marshall, MO - New Florence, MO
6/21:   Camargo, IL - Franklin, IN
6/22:    Flat Lick, KY - Jupiter, NC
6/23:    Pittsboro, NC - Allen Grove, NC
6/24:    Elizabeth City, NC - Kill Devils Hill, NC


OK - enough for now... thanks for reading.