A blast of speed from the past… the return of “the Badger!”

May 5, 2008 on 3:09 pm | In Mountain Bike Racing |

BioWheels racer Kevin Caldwell aka “the Badger”, returns to the heat of battle after 6 years of retirement, calls Louisville, KY home, and takes victory at Younger’s Creek, KYMBA race #2.

Kevin was one of the original “OG’s” on the BioWheels Racing team back in the day. It was circa 1994, when BioWheels Workshop was starting it’s ascent to becoming one of the nation’s finest bike shops. Nestled in the Ludlow Garage in the heart of Clifton, Cincinnati, OH, sporting a full half pipe for bike display and for after hour fun festivities, BioWheels was just getting its feet wet in the bicycle industry. Right from the get-go BioWheels understood the importance of community outreach and bicycle advocacy. I’ll never forget the pain we endure at our first big event, the 1995 24 Hours of Canaan. Look at the hoodlems in this shot. I am the clean-cut guy on the right in this picture.

What continues to draw me near BioWheels is the heart of BioWheels philosophy. It is not to not keep the secrets of bicycle maintenance and training away from their customers, but to interact with them and allow them to be involved at any level they so choose. The days of the wizard behind the curtain wrenching mysteriously on your bike were over with the creation of BioWheels.

Kevin returns to racing and to the BioWheels team after 6 yrs of hiatus. Kevin and his wife Nicole are proud parents of 4 children. Kaija age 8, Malaki age 6, Karyss age 4, and the newest addition at 18 months Azaryah. Kevin works at Humana Inc. as a Provider Relations Consultant and he also runs an online sports nutrition business with his wife Nicole.  Kevin and his family reside in the promise land of Louisville, Kentucky.

Kevin and his family call Louisville home and the “promise land” why one might ask?

Louisville has become one of the friendliest cycling cities in the Midwest with huge cycling advocacy which is embraced by the city’s Mayor Jerry Abramson.
The city of Louisville is host in 2008 to some of the largest cycling events in the Midwest including; The Ford Ironman, USA Cycling Master Road National Championships, US Grand Prix Cyclocross Nationals, and 6 of the 12 Kentucky Mountain Bike Association (KYMBA) mountain bikes series races are within 45 minutes of the city. The city is home of several large cycling teams including; Texas Roadhouse, Papa Johns Racing, Team Louisville and several others.
The city of Louisville is in the process of creating a 100+ mile bike loop circling the entire city, connecting the city parks and is called the Louisville Loop.  Louisville is giving an enormous amount of attention to commuting by bike to downtown; with an extensive project currently underway adding miles of bike lanes.  With support from all kinds of community members and cyclist enthusiasts Louisville is destined to become one of the most sought after cities in the Midwest cyclists will want to call home for many years to come.

The Badger’s first race venue victim was slated to be a Time Trial at the annual Sam Swope Switchback Attack at Younger’s Creek, the 2nd stop on the KYMBA race series circuit.  Leading up to the race the Badger’s training regiment was extremely intense with super long 15 minute commutes to work downtown. 
His base miles consisted of hours and hours of saddle time, it just so happens this saddle time took place 40 hours a week in an office chair in his cubicle.
The night before the big day, the Badger made some finishing touches to his aged race rig which sported a spattering of ancient eye candy, high tech, race ready parts. Here is the break down of his equipment. The heart of his race steed was a 1997 Jamis dragon frame he raced to numerous local and regional victories. The Badger felt right at home on this ride, a couple of draw backs included a Spinner rigid fork (non-suspension adjusted) and the fact that the frame had developed a crack and had been re-welded. The patch job was evident as the frame lacked paint around the bandaged area. The drive train was on its last leg. This was highlighted by a first generation Sram derailleur downed at the time as the Plasma Dirt (8 Speed of course). The Plasma was mated to a snappy X-Ray grip shifter (you know the ones you could see through). The crankset was a stout XTR probably dated back to late 90’s and it sported a non-usable middle ring, due to the fact it was worn out. That was OK, as the badger had no plans of attempting to use the middle ring anyway. The badger would be slipping into his Shimano shoes that he wore for numerous years probably from ‘94-’01 and he would be clipping them into same Shimano DX clipless platform pedals, that brought him to scores of top 3 downhill and dual slalom victories. The Badger would be mounting his rear on what resembled a WTB rocket saddle, as it looks as thou it had been chewed up and spit out by a fellow brother badger. The veteran racer aired up tubes seeded to some Sun Ringle RPM lites that had been supplied to him from Sun Ringle back in the day, and with that, the Badger was ready to rock!

The Badger showed up early Saturday morning to scope out the Younger’s Creek race venue, do some dirt sampling and possibly a pre-lap. The Badger would need all the prep time he could get considering he had not ridden off road for months. The Badger decided a whole pre lap may be a little too physically draining and opted to check out the start and finish to get a feel for the bike and for what would be in store for him on his hot lap. During the test ride session he would take his first dirt and rock sample as he got his first and last wreck out of the way. The injuries would be a little painful, but bearable, with no damage to his antique race rig. Upon finishing his warm up he would get the privilege to be the first to start the time trial runs for the weekend. With that, the rest was history. Reaching back into the deep recesses of the Badger’s racing mind and muscle memory banks the Badger proceeded to hammer out a very reasonable race lap, finishing in 25 minutes and 5 seconds. This time would give him a 1st place race victory in the Sport class which he entered and would have placed him 7th in the Expert category, back only about 2 min 30 seconds off the leader. The Badger was encouraged by his performance as he has yet to train and was riding a bike that can use some major modern day updates. The Badger enjoyed his teeth cutting TT experience and is ready to start his climb towards local mountain bike competition fame in the “Unbridled Spirit” state of Kentucky.

Kevin “the badger” Caldwell proudly chooses BioWheels as his support team and shop on his returning journey, and Bio Wheels Racing looks forward to having the Badger back running BioWheels racing colors!!