Thanks to an act of Congress (probably the Republican led Congress, but I don't know that for sure) daylight savings time started on March 11. That means that the road bike season could have started three weeks earlier than last year on March 14. But even someone as hard-line as myself will admit that perhaps a March road bike start is a bit too early. So in keeping with past tradition, here is the schedule for the first three rides of the year.

April 4 Rib Lake.
Frosted Mug on the
south end.

April 11 Phillips To
be announced.

April 17 Medford
Hosted by the
Bormanns.

The first three rides will be small chain ring rides. Also for the first three rides we will have a "no drop" rule. That is we will not drop anyone for the entire
length of the ride.

Ken Kraft has generously agreed to host a preseason ride on Sunday, March 25. The ride will start at 1:00PM from his house. Food and beverages will follow the ride. This will be a low key ride so that if you want to bring your mountain bike and not rip up that shiny new set of SRAM Force components you just installed, that is OK.

Lyle and Kathy Blomberg, would you be interested in hosting a ride from the Catch-A- Dream Lodge this year? I will contact you in the coming weeks to see if that works for you folks.

So that you can plan your entire summer around this event the Pie Ride will be held on the last Medford ride in June. And on a final note let me remind everyone that we start the season finale ride at 6:00 PM instead of 6:30.

Club Website

As I reported in the end season newsletter Mark Wenzel has graciously set up a website for the Club. This is the best place to go for information concerning where rides are and rides reports on what happened the previous evening's ride. The location of the site is www. geocities.com/flambeau_freewheelers.

Your Treasurer managed to avoid attending Prentice basket ball games and patronizing the concession stand Ken Kraft was running. Hence we have $65.62 in the treasury.

In the beginning a number of road bicyclists decided to get together and ride each Wednesday during summer. And after the ride they said it was good.

Man does not live by bread alone and hence a number of generous people put on a number of truly great post ride meals.

Although I ride in the shadow of the valley of Cemetery Hill I fear no climb as a 39x26 will get you up a lot of hills.

(President's wife's commentary: "Wish all his sermons were this short!")

A number of us rode our mountain bikes in the Medford Halloween Parade. Riders in the event included Gary Czarnezki, Ken Kraft, Buzz Meyer, Chris Kepner, Paula Liske, Tom and Trevor Harris, Mike Baker, Tom and Jack Holmes. Bryan Bormann again tugged the float this year. After the parade a number of people met over at Bryan's house for food and beverages. I'm pleased to say that there was no harassment of poor defenseless trick- or-treaters this year.

A number of bikers showed up this year for the Perkinstown Snowshoe Race. Racing at Perkinstown were, Kyle Schmidt, Gary Czarnezki, Michelle Brost, Chris Kepner, Mindy Searer, Cathy Miller-Temme, Russ Blennert, Ann Schield, and Paula Liske. Chris Kepner puts on the Athens Udder Snowshoe Race. Racing at Athens this year were Kyle Schmidt, Gary Krueger, Gary Thums, Mindy Searer, Michelle Brost, and Kathy Blomberg. The Badger State Games were pretty well wiped out by the weekend's cold spell. A number of us were going to do the Quadrathlon but it was canceled due to cold weather. Once again this year nature played havoc with the Birkebeiner. The race was shortened 23 kilometers. Only the elite 200 racers had their time officially recorded. All other participants were allowed to ski the course in a unrecorded time in the interest of safety.

Club member Andy Weddle skied to a 98th place finish in the time of 1:18:50.

It's back! In 2007 the Club will once again award a Golden Gizzard award for the best post ride meal. I think that after a one-year hiatus this year's Golden Gizzard award will carry some additional significance.

So break out your cookbooks, test your recipes on unsuspecting family, and be prepared to suffer the same scrutiny as a five star restaurant. The Golden Gizzard is once again up for grabs in 2007.

Is there any interest in continuing the highway cleanup on County Highway C out of Prentice? I'd like to keep this up. To do this we'll need a little help from the Price County folks. If someone is available to help out with this I'll try any coordinate it on this end In other years we held the highway cleanup in conjunction with a ride.

by Russ Blennert
(Editor's Note: l am
pleased to say that we
have Russ Blennert back
talking about what he
knows best, pie!)

What else can you say about the recent Democratic victories in the Fall 2006 elections. The recent realignment of the American political scene is a bit the same as a picnic table full of pie.

Like a well crafted cherry pie Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is both vivacious and out going. Like an apple pie served up on the Fourth of July with a scoop of ice cream, the Democratic victory is patriotic and in the best interest of the American people.

Like a blueberry pie the recent Democratic victory is down to earth. Just as a pumpkin pie served at Halloween is a surprise. I am sure the Democrats
will surprise the American people with a number of favorable legislative initiatives.

Just like a peach pie, the recent Democratic victory is like a bright yellow sunrise in the morning

The FFBC newsletter has it from a highly informed source that North Korean strongman Kin Jong II will leave his position as the head of North Korea to
take over as CEO of Trek bicycle. The source has said that Trek believes it needs a hard-line CEO to lead a hard-line organization. When Kirn Gong II becomes the CEO of Trek, this is what you can expect:

Kirn Jong II will produce five feature length movies per year centering on Trek Bicycles.

Kim Jong II will call Specialized the "running dog capitalist bicycle" of the Tour De France

Kim Jong II will offer to stop production of the Madone for 250,000 gallons of heavy fuel oil.

Kim Jong II will introduce a bicycle for Trek under the 15.5 pound weight limit that the UCI will have trouble verifying.

All Trek sponsored riders will have diamond studded cycling glasses in 2007.

Trek bicycle clothing will bear a similar resemblance to Mao Tse Tung gray tunics.

On occasions too numerous to count your editor has popped his Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon cassette into the tape player for the
ride home from Phillips to Medford after a Club ride. If you Google Dark Side of the Moon, this is what you will find out.

The album Dark Side of the Moon was released on March 24, 1974.

The album spent 741 weeks on the Billboard 200 chart, a record.

Dark Side of the Moon is the 20th best selling album in the United States.

Dark Side of the Moon's reign in the Billboard Top 200 lasted until April 23, 1988.

It is estimated that in the US 1 in 14 people under the age of 50 own the album.

The album still sells 9,600 copies per week.

The next time you are reading the fortune from a fortune cookie do this. Read the fortune and then at the end add the phrase, "between the sheets." You can add the phrase to almost any fortune and the combined fortune and phrase will make sense.

It is certainly comforting to know that NASCAR teams like to cheat as much as professional cyclists are accused of... The Iraq Study Group sounds like a bunch of college students cramming for Mideastern geography exam.. .In New York City possessing an illegal handgun or drugs can get you in as much
trouble as having a bag of Doritos on you...Russ Blennert is the only famous Democrat not running for President in 2008.. .A recent news article stated that meat is the most shoplifted item in stores. PETA is recommending the death penalty for shoplifting.. .European soccer star David Becham is getting $250 million dollars to play for the LA Galaxy. Most people are asking who the LA Galaxy are... A person really has to wonder about a grown man named Scooter Libbey.. .Cuban dictator Fidel Castro has been on the death watch almost as long as Spanish dictator Franciso Franco..Brittney Spears shaved her head to ostensibly avoid a drug test from ex-husband Kevin Federline (Fed- Ex). Don't be surprised if professional cyclists start to do the same... Socialist singer Bono from the band U2 wants the government of Ireland to spend more tax dollars in social programs. However the band recently fled Ireland for the Netherlands because the tax rates would be lower on the estimated 273 million dollars the band has earned to date.. .Gasoline prices went up $.06 per gallon on election day...Presidential candidate John Edwards showed he's just a regular guy by trying to reserve a Play Station 3 at WalMart when everyone else had to wait in line.