Michael Fransen’s Blog

 I am back home after completing my third Red Ribbon Ride.  What an adventure it was.  For those of you that don’t know what the Red Ribbon Ride is, it is a bike ride throughout southern Minnesota.  It is four days and 300 miles.  Its purpose is to raise funds for eight organizations in Minnesota that are dedicate to help people living with HIV/AIDS.  This year was fun because my roommate and friend Eric did it with me.  Last year he crewed so I didn’t see much of him.  On day one we left Mall of America and go to Lake City, MN.  It is a little over 82 Miles.  They had an option to do an extra 18 miles to make it a Century ride, however, after the 82 I didn’t feel like doing anymore.  Imagine that!  The second day was interesting.  In between the start and Pit #1 I had my first flat tire on the road.  It was on a busy highway as well.  I luckily got it changed in less than 5 minutes.  If you are a biker and haven’t purchased CO2 cartridges, I highly recommend it.  In about 10 seconds I had my tire up to 120 PSI and was on my way.  At pit #1 I broke my sunglasses.  Luckily, Erik’s Bike Shop had a tent setup and had some for me to purchase.  On our way out of Pit #1, Eric got a flat.  These problems caused us to get into camp in Rochester at 4 PM which is kind of late.  On day three we rocked and got in around 1:30.  There are 300 riders and we were the 30th and 31st one in. On day four we arrived at our final destination, a school in Richfield, Minnesota. 

This is a picture of myself (left) and my roommate, Eric.  We are holding our company flag as they generously supported us on the ride this year.

This is a picture of all the riders while we were waiting for closing ceremonies.  The two people in the front are my friends, Jeff and Dr. Kris.

My tan lines after the biking season.  Thanks to Keith I had to get up in front of 500 people and show them off.    It was embarrassing.

This is the Burrito Bago.  As I mentioned earlier, Chipotle presents this ride.  I have never seen better corporate sponsorship than them.  They bring this big RV every year and park it at the top of a two mile long hill and pass out Gatorade, ice cream and pop.  Inside you can cool off as it is air conditioning.  They do way more than just foot the bill, they make the ride what it is.

On day three, Chipotle set up a mobile store.  They had a full menu and it was all you can eat.  YUMMY!!!  I am not surprised that I biked 300 miles or raised 1500 dollars.  I am, however, surprised that I ate two Chipotle burritos.  I didn’t think that was humanly possible.

    Overall, it was a great experience as always.  After this ride I have now rode my bike for 900 miles (excluding training) and, more importantly, raised nearly 5000 dollars for this important cause.  There does not appear to be a cure or vaccine in the near future so these beneficiaries are still very much needed.  Because of this, I have already registered for 2008!!!

This entry was posted on Monday, July 23rd, 2007 at 5:14 pm and is filed under Biking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.