Congratulations to John Wolf for his new WUCA World Record
Read Josh’s personal account of his record attempt:
Record Attempt: Missouri W – E
Name of Riders: Josh Wolf
Start date: 6.26.2021 at 6:54am CST
Conditions were great. Overcast, party cloudy at 69 deg to start with a high of 82 and mostly overcast, some drizzle. Humidity 97% and fell to 85%. Wind was South at 4 mph, changed to 12 mph from S-SW half way through and then finally finished with 8mph tailwind for the last 2-3 hours of the day!
Why did I want to do the record? I love to ride bikes, to test my limits and to do the seemingly impossible. Last year with the Covid shutdown I went for the Bike Across Kansas, and due to unfortunate circumstances, I came up short. However I learned so much and my buddy, John Arneson, trained all summer with me. This year, we wanted to do something together….and decided to train and I would go for the W-E record and he’d try the E-W the next day. It was such a beautiful and joyful way to do this, because I got to have my training partner and incredible friend John (The Mad Hatter) Arneson by my side the whole day.
Equipment: Castelli Grenadier Speed Suit, Parlee TT bike with Zip 808s.
Eat and Drink: Home-made sour dough bread, almond butter and farmers market sandwich, UCAN, Honey Stingers, Salt Stick, Coke and a few other random yummies.
What was the best part; The crew, having my wife cheer along the way and John taking the E-W record the very next day!
Hardest Part: Head wind miles 130-160 as the road jogged south was a bit brutal. I had to sit up/check my power and chill often for 2-3 hours.
Did anything particularly unusual happen: the weather for the midwest in the 70-80 and overcast was unreal. It was forecasted to storm later in the day. We were spared by the grace of God!
Exact finish: Illinois state line sign on the bridge over the Mississippi River.
Exact finish time: 3:00pm CST
