Story originally printed in the Winona Daily News or online at www.winonadailynews.com
Published - Sunday, August 03, 2008
Twin Cities Bike Club returns to Winona area for the first time in six years
 The Cochrane sisters, Maya, 7, right, and Ella, 9, left, finish packing snacks on the back of the tandem bikes they ride with their parents Rick, center, and Amy, not pictured, on Saturday morning in Winona. The family, from the St. Paul area, came down Friday to participate in the Weekend on Wheels event put on by the Twin Cities Bike Club, which drew more than 150 people. "We have a theme," Rick said of where the family choses to ride, "It has to be hot, hilly and a college town." (photo by Katie Derus/Winona Daily News) |
The sun burned hot early Saturday on a Spandex-clad crowd outside Sheehan Hall.
More than 150 people perched on their bikes, ready to hit the road.
The Weekend on Wheels, an annual event put on by the Twin Cities Bike Club,
traveled to Winona this weekend for the first time since 2002.
Bikers out on Saturday’s trek had the option of going 28, 62 or 100 miles through the bluffs and valleys down to St. Charles, Minn.
Different stops with water to rehydrate the bikers were available, manned by the event’s coordinator, Julie Kosbab.
She organizes everything, from housing — the club stayed at Winona State University’s East Lake Apartments — to food and the bike routes.
“We have to scout out routes that are suitable,” she said. “They have to have
places for the bikers to refill liquids.”
Four water bottles were perched in the holsters for the Cochrane family.
The Cochranes of St. Paul ride tandem bikes, with mom, Amy, and dad, Rick, manning the front and Ella, 9, and Maya, 7, assisting with the back pedals.
The girls have been to many Weekends on Wheels, riding in burleys until they were old enough to pedal themselves. Maya started riding on her own at 4 years old.
“It’s fun to be in the back,” Ella said. “You can look around and just pedal.”
Amy’s parents, Kathy and Pete Hawkins, attended the event as well.
When Amy was in high school, Kathy and Pete took her out to a very different kind of Weekend on Wheels.
“It used to be 300 or 400 bikers when I was a teenager,” she said. “We started on bikes in the cities, and we’d bike to where we were going.”
The club will return for the third day of riding today with 25, 39 and 63 mile routes out to Pickwick Mill and beyond.
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