Freeport Bicycle Company

A Chance Encounter

Sunday, August 30th, 2009 my wife Ann and I had an unbelievable encounter with one of God's creatures. It was early afternoon, sun was shining, temperature around 70, and winds out of the north at about 10-15 mph.

Ann and I were about 8 miles into a 30 mile ride heading north on S. Kent road in the Loran Valley area of Northwest, IL. The wind was fairly strong so Ann and I were taking turns drafting each other. I was on the front pulling at a steady pace of 18mph when a lone Canada Goose glided over my right shoulder, wings fully extended, and slowed to 18 mph only 2-3 feet in front of me. The goose started to pump its wings and paced us for about 30 - 40 secs at about handlebar height. Then it pulled over to my left and dropped back even with me, with its wing tips flapping only 6-12 inches from my hands.

We shared glances with each other for what seemed like a minute. The goose did a few airplane “touch and gos” on the road then moved out in front of me again, still about handlebar height. I was really feeling what it might be like to fly with a flock of geese instead of in a bicycle peloton. I could really feel a draft from the goose! The goose, Ann and I were still maintaining an 18 mph pace.

After about 20-30 secs, I pulled to the left and picked up the pace so I was even with the goose. Now the goose was on my right, again its wing tips flapping only inches from my hands. We again glanced at each other for 20-30 secs then it picked up speed and took the lead position again. The goose seemed to be telling me it was the strongest and wanted to lead the pace line.

Ann and I could not believe what was happening. After about another 20-30 secs the goose powered up to the right and away toward the sky. Ann and I both watched as it soared high in the sky and turned toward the south. We will never know why the goose decided to swoop down to join our Sunday bike ride or why it needed to take a few pulls into the wind. I know we will never forget the encounter.

Ron Mattson



National ABR Road Race, 2007

Bob Kenneke, Russ Damhoff, and I were racing for Freeport Bicycle Company. Bob and Russ are great climbers and it was a rolling course but they used all their energy to try to put me in a position for a medal. They covered the early breaks by Team MACK (4 guys) and allowed me to sit in for the first 16-18 miles of the 50 mile race.

The pace was pretty fast (~23-24 mph). Then, on the start of lap3 (of 6), we got caught out on a huge attack (7 guys) lead by Team MACK. Bob worked to bridge me up. Bob must have covered a half dozen vicious attacks. Bob pulled off after a long pull and I then jumped, with one guy, on my wheel to try to get reconnected with the lead group. I had to go since all the medals were up the road. I TT'd it @ 26-28 mph for ~ 3 miles to catch the lead group (which had 3 Team MACK guys). The lead group was now 9 guys. We worked together until we completed lap 3. Then the attacks started again with MACK guys one after another attacking.

I covered 2 or 3 attacks myself and still felt OK. I made the decision to mark the two best sprinters in the field ... turned out to be the wrong choice. Team MACK attacked again, with two other guys and they quickly opened up a 20-30 sec gap.

I figured we still had guys in our group and someone would help bridge the gap. But no one would take charge, and the gap grew to 1 minute and the breakaway group was working hard together. We had only 2 laps left by now, so I went to the front and hammered, but still found no one to help. One of the sprinters had a teammate in the lead group so he would not work. The other sprinter refused to work. After about one lap, there were only three of us left-- Team MACK's sprinter, a Polish Sprinter (one of the best in the Midwest), and me. 2 guys in our chase group were dropped ...could not hold the pace on the rolling climbs.

With one lap to go I bridged ~30 secs so I kept hammering. The two sprinters were yelling at each other because neither one would do any work and they had no chance to win unless we bridged... but they still didn't help. I knew my only opportunity to get a medal now was to bridge the group and beat one of the three lead guys (6 of us and only 5 medals). So I kept the pace up 25-27 mph but I was starting to feel the strain.

With only 3-4 miles left, the lead group was 10-15 secs up the road, so I kept up the steam. When we reached the last corner ~ 1-1.5 miles from the finish, we were 8-10 secs behind the lead group and they knew we were coming.

With about 200 meters left I has out of the saddle giving it all I could. The 3 lead guys started their sprint and the two sprinters, who sat in for 20 miles, came around me. I had no gas left and took 6th (3-5 secs from first).

Ron Mattson
State ABR Road Race, 2009


Bob Kenneke, Russ Damhoff, Bill Leibmen, and I were racing for Freeport Bicycle Company. Bob, Russ, and Bill again used all their energy to try to put me in a position for a medal. They covered the early breaks and made it easy for me.

The course was just north of the Quad Cities and was rolling with one long climb ~ 1.5miles from the finish. The race was two laps (~18 miles/lap).

The race pace started in the 23-24 mph range with many teams sending riders off the front to shake things up. Each time Bob or Russ would chase them down. Bill was with me so I would have a wheel to sit on. At the half way point in the race the pace slowed down to 21-22 mph. Mike Jones (one of the best Time Trial riders in the Midwest) jumped and opened up ~ 60 sec gap. I looked around and it seemed like the teams were recovering from the earlier series of attacks and getting ready to attack again soon. I thought ... well, I'm rested ... why don't I give Bob, Russ, and Bill an opportunity to sit on a wheel while other teams try and catch me. So I rolled out to the outside and jumped. The guys said I quickly opened a huge gap and alarm bells soon went off. I was focusing on reaching Mike Jones thinking the two of us might be able to stay away. After about 2-3 miles @ 27-28mph, I was with-in 200 meters of Mike but starting to really tighten-up... he did not know I was coming up toward him. I looked back and I could see the pack working together and starting to make ground on me and Mike. When the pack got with-in 100 meters of me, I sat up and relaxed. Once the pack caught me, I jumped into the pack and found a wheel to sit on. We caught Mike about a minute later and the group slowed down again to 21-22 mph to recover. I looked around and the pack which was 65 riders was now down to 20.

After about 1-2 miles the attacks started up again. We climbed a little hill and made a sharp right turn ... we were going about 27-28 mph. Bob and Russ were up front reacting to attacks, Bill was back with me (middle of the pack) when the shoulder turned into gravel. Bill was caught in no-mans land and hit the gravel @ full speed ... I thought he was going down ... but he road it out and jumped back onto the back of the pack! Whew!

We had about 8 miles left in the race, I thought I would take another flyer to see if 1-2 guys would go with me. I jumped and opened up a gap but no one followed. I stayed away for about a mile but knew I would not be able to hold the pack off to the finish. I sat up again and slid into 4-5 place to catch a wheel and rest.

Bob and Russ again covered any attacks and I just stayed in the middle of the pack. With about 3 miles left we knew we had a series of sharp turns before we hit the final hill so we stayed up front to make sure we where safe. Once we hit the final climb, the light guys pushed the pace. I just stayed on Bob's wheel and paced me up 3 quarters of the climb ... Bob pulled off and said its all ours now. At the top of the climb three guys had ~ 5 secs on our little group. I just kept a steady pace and watched the guys ... we had a little down grade before we started a slight uphill climb to the finish (~ 1/2 mile). We caught the guys at the bottom of the climb but Mike Jones attacked. I just kept the pace up and sitting 5-6 places down ... with about 300 meters to go, the chase group really opened it up ... we were heading north and we had a slight northwest headwind so I moved out to the left to position myself ... I waited until about 150 meters to go then jumped out of the saddle, full sprint ... I came around on the left using the draft/wind advantage the best I could and was lucky enough to catch Mike Jones at the line.

This was a nice race with lots of team tactics. I was just lucky to have Bob, Russ, and Bill to help me ... otherwise I would not have won. Fun stuff!
Ron Mattson