June 2022 HBC President’s Letter

Ride with your HBC Friends on the Fourth of July

HBC is again sponsoring the Independence Day Ride Series.  I invite you to sign up and join your HBC friends for a great variety of rides, fun, food and fellowship.  What a great activity on the 4^th of July!

Location: Brookview Park in Golden Valley 

The large pavilion located toward the center of Brookview Park is the starting point for our Independence Day rides.  The large pavilion is also the headquarters for socializing, snacks and lunch following the rides.  Parking is adjacent to the pavilion and bathrooms are located in the pavilion.   Navigation tips:  Brookview Park is located immediately south of Hwy 55 and Winnetka Ave North.  The street address is 100 Brookview Parkway North, Golden Valley.

HBC will provide pop, water (still and with bubbles) snacks and cake.  Because managing a coffee maker in a picnic pavilion is all too often unpleasant, bring your morning coffee from home or stop at Caribou along the way.

Rides:  The Long, the Medium and the Short of it

Three routes are posted on the Ride Calendar. For agility and safety, HBC ride leaders will divide the riders into groups of 15 or fewer.  To help us plan the number of leaders needed, register now for one of these routes:

• Long Route:  Leaves the Pavilion at 8:30 am  This hilly 40 mile route is led by Greg Swanson and Jim Luoma. 
• Medium Route:  Leaves the Pavilion at 9:00 am –   This moderately paced ride over 28 miles of rolling terrain is led by Colette Sulser and Ron Jensen. 
• Short Route:  Leaves the Pavilion at 10:00 am – This moderately paced ride of about 20 miles will be led by Shelli Hesselroth and Bruce Allyn.

Post-ride Lunch and Socializing:  11:30 am to 2:00 pm   Lunch options:

Bring your own lunch and store in one of the coolers we’ll provide. 

Get your lunch from D’Amico & Sons located right across the street.  Lunch from D’Amico is not funded by HBC and is a transaction between you and D’Amico.  The manager asks that you order online by 9:00 pm on Saturday, July 2 to give the staff enough planning and prep time on the morning of July 4th.  Specify in your order that you are part of HBC and that your pickup time is 11:30 am on July 4th.   We will dispatch an HBC member to pickup all of our orders.

Pavilion Monitors

Judy Burdick and Tom Renner will manage the pavilion while the rest of us are out riding.  So no worries about your picnic lunch or cooler walking away.

Thanks to Shelli Hesselroth for planning and managing the Independence Day Ride Series.

HBC News

In May the HBC ride leader team conducted the annual ride leader refresher.  37 HBC ride leaders and 7 members who want to become ride leaders attended.  Our speakers were Hoang Pham who introduced the event and presenters.  Greg Swanson reviewed the capabilities of the Ride with GPS mapping software and the steps to add rides to the club calendar.  Alan Wichman provided an overview of topics including rider safety, insurance, waiver and web resources.  Dan Robinson provided additional information about club insurance and Mike Becker provided an analysis of ride and rider metrics.  Thanks go to Shelli Hesselroth and Carmen Price who helped ensure the success of the refresher.  

The annual HBC Spring Kickoff was held at Burnes Park in Hopkins on May 21.  Despite balmy 56 degree temperatures, riders enjoyed three route options.  Following the ride, many attendees enjoyed lunch from the MinnyRow Market.  The traditional HBC cake was also a hit with the participants.  Thanks to Jean Mangan who organized the event enjoyed by nearly 50 club members.

In other news:

St. Paul Classic on September 11, 2022 – Edie Kalweit is organizing HBC volunteers to staff the rest stop at Indian Mounds Park in St. Paul.  Contact Edie at ediekalweit@cs.com for more information.

Get out there and ride during our Minnesota summer.  If you are a ride leader or a ride leader in training, post more rides.

Thanks, be well and be safe.

Alan Wichman, HBC President