The Lutheran Circuit Riders in the 2023 RW24

The Riverwest 24, for those unfamiliar, is an annual twenty four hour bicycle race through the Riverwest neighborhood of Milwaukee, and a weekend in which one gets to experience Riverwest at its strangest and perhaps funnest. Except for the COVID blip, the RW24 has happened every summer since 2008, which was also the summer I moved back to Milwaukee, and into Riverwest. Ruth and I enjoyed the race as spectators for a few years, and have helped some as volunteers. Then, a few years ago I decided to form a team and get into the race. It has been said, mostly by me, that our team, The Lutheran Circuit Riders, is the most Confessional Lutheran bicycle race team in all of the Riverwest 24, maybe the world. 

    This year we had a four man team, with Jonathan Paul, Joe Bratz, and Logan Scheuer, able to participate. I must say, it's an incredible experience to camp in the middle of the city with a handful of Lutheran friends of the same sex as you strive toward a common goal, like getting through a night and a day taking turns biking up and down Riverwest. 

Our team had the distinction of being the first to have someone sign in on Friday, as I managed to be first in line at Club 99:

Scenes right before the start of the race at 7 p.m. on Friday:

Here's a view of the cityscape, from above the Beerline B, at dusk:

Rain fell hard for a good couple hours overnight, an experience we won't soon forget. Upon my return to camp at about 3 a.m. I was happy that I brought a change of clothes, and that I had that bag in the garage safe from the rain.

After the sun came up, our pastor, Fr. Michael, dropped by our camp and visited and prayed with us. 

Our camp, by the way, was the backyard of fellow parishioners, Carl & Judith Swanson. We were able to set up in their yard, use their bathroom, and even take cover in their garage when need be.

The nature of a 24 hour bike race in Riverwest is such that you can expect to see a lot of things that you won't necessarily find in the brochure, like the ice sculpting, or the cheese-jumping challenge:

There was also the kids handing out free twizzlers on Reservoir Ave, the people handing out fresh cooked strips of bacon on Booth Street, and the guy giving out shots of bourbon on Burleigh Street by the checkpoint across Humboldt Blvd. 

When the race was over, after 7 p.m., everyone was hanging out in the area around the start/finish, by Pierce & Center Streets.

 where I saw some friends in the crowd, like Damien from Scardina Specialties, and Luther from Lakefront, and also Andy from Lakefront:

The 2023 RW24 was an unforgettable experience, and an educational one. One thing I have learned from riding a bike with hundreds of others for an event like this is that in bicycle racing, as in life in general, it seems that virtually everyone is "on my left." With bike skills like mine, the key to being competitive would have been to get a lot of bonus laps. And we did get a few, but not as much as in previous years. We got one for helping with the Kids RW24 at Fratney School, and another for some sort of dart competition that Logan entered. The experience is different every year. And I look forward to what next year will bring.