Day 3 Rockford to Galena: Doreen ‘Captain’ Crenshaw and Tom Ordway, Team Indiana
Day Three. The best day thus far for Team Indiana! 62 plus riders headed out on a misty cool morning for one of the longest days on the 2010 Chicago Loop tour. The ‘Captain’ rallied the Team – totaling two, only one of whom bothered to show – to be ready for stretches with Maggie Harthoorn at the crack of dawn. Thanks, Maggie! Of those total tour participants, not all made it through the regimen and some had to sag to the starting position at Illinois Beach Resort. Now, by Day Three, the Fast, the Slow and the Ugly groups have started to take shape. We won’t name names…yet.
Stuart Crow’s mentoring program appears to be gaining some momentum, bringing in the next generation of tour riders. It has been fun seeing young riders, like 14-year-old Jeffrey May, join us and make us look and feel older than we already are. Hopefully, Jeffrey will inherit all of the best habits from the Texas crew, like 5 AM coffee, hammer’in SAG support, bikes for whoever might need one, etc. The bad habits can be left behind, such as …(edited portion of blog, ha!)
Amy Kraak has officially joined the Tour des Trees support crew, offering a wide assortment of tasty snacks to hot and weary road riders. When not helping with rider support, she rides a tandem with her dad Thom, making her the youngest Tour rider on record!
Despite the rainy road conditions in the morning, riders rode without incident. The road rash from the past two days is healing nicely, thank you very much. The skies cleared in the afternoon, allowing riders to push and pull through the change in terrain. In other words, we finally hit some hills…as Andy mentioned above, the horizontalized locality was made vertical!
The end of the ride day is always a welcome site. Isaac Harthoorn made up for the lack of markings by steering all riders into the back ‘servants’ entrance of the DeSoto House on Main Street in Galena, IL. Dinner, hosted by Utility Lines Construction Services with the support of Silver Sponsor ITC, was most graciously devoured by most. Thanks to Maggie and Isaac’s dad, John.
As the week progresses, Team Indiana will begin to grow in number, as we will welcoming Mr. Scott Bennett, Chuck Dykes and Andy Callahan.
This has been another great ride, memory maker and reason to get more people to ride next year and really put pressure on Paul to do another really great job.
Signed, Team Indiana
I think that I can speak for all past Tour riders who are missing this years’ adventure when I say that I’m with y’all in spirit and sincerly missing every mile, flat tire and tall tale along the road!!
The dedication, friendships and camaraderie behind the TdT are just a few reason which keep folks coming back year after year. Vive La TdT!!
Ride safe and ride tall…it’s an amazing accomplishment that only those who have ridden can truely appreciate.
KEEP SMILING!
Greg Hill
TEAM CANADA ROCKS