That is to say I have been doing little to nothing. The traditional lack of paycheck in August has only intensified my work/ bike/ sleep lifestyle of this summer. I tried to get out to k-poo as much as I could trying to be fast for the race out there last weekend. As it turned out, the race was nothing really to write home about. I was marginally fast (3rd in my age group in a pretty large field). However, my "fastness" was tempered by frequent falling down.
I fell on my right side twice hard. My right leg from knee up is one large bruise. My right shoulder is very sore... I was honestly kind of worried I had fractured my collarbone last night, consumed 2 vicodin (ironically held over from when I broke my left collarbone). Luckily it felt a bit better today so I think its just badly bruised or slightly separated regardless, bad race.
Next weekend (labor day) is Gateway Cup in St. Louis. However, to be honest, I am not really that excited about it. My mind is really already focused on cross. I can't wait for the Bailey-Bikes "Obrien" to arrive and get to building it up. I think I am going to skip the REALLY early season CX races and shoot for late September start. We'll see. I am throwing some running back into the weekly workout schedule in anticipation.
Although this is where the excitement lies, I still have a few mtb races coming up keeping me interesting... I'm just hoping I don't break myself doing it.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Monday, August 17, 2009
Urban Assault Racing
So... I have been doing a lot of "serious" racing this year. Its been a lot of fun, but was kind of getting ready for something different. My head has already left the road racing scene. I really still want to race my mountain bike, but my heart has really already left for cyclocross season.
In the meantime, I found myself entered in an "Urban Assault Ride". Its a team event sponsored by New Belgium beer. Basically you bike around the city and complete absurd obstacles at various checkpoints. My sister and I entered the very competitive coed division as team "Golden Star Fireballs" We put on our racing kit and got down to business:
We started off to the mystery checkpoint first... The clue was emailed out a few days earlier and was an color coded anagram. We sorted the two words "botanical" and "gardens" but couldn't get the first word... luckily there were enough people to follow that we found the "climatron".
The second checkpoint we hit was "Bike Works" where Leah and I had to navigate a twisting course on modified big-wheels. I think we rocked it. From there we headed over to Tower Grove park and did some kind of three legged tennis ball balancing on a frisbee challenge. We didn't lose any balls and took off for the city museum.
As we arrived we saw some people we knew informing us it was "a long way"... not knowing what that meant I went up to the checkpoint to find out that we had to run up 15 flights of stairs then negotiate our way up an incline to a large slide. This was made less fun by the fact that someone had puked in the stairwell.
A long ride down delmar to Big Shark had us on a plunger powered longboard collecting different colored cans. Due to our team work and Leah's longboarding experience we zipped right through while others were struggling. Down delmar to big bend and on to Mesa where I had to catch Leah thrown sponges in a basket on my head... it took us 4 chances to get the required 3- not our best preformance, but still not bad. From there it was on to the final mystery point.
Leah knew where it was, but I will choose not to embarrass her and keep quiet about the reasons why.
At the end of the day we were told we placed 3rd... I was excited. It was the first "podium" I had gotten all year. Well, we were actually 4th. I have been 1 place off the podium quite a bit this year- even in Urban Assault Racing.
Luckily, I was able to redeem myself by dancing on stage for a Rudy Project helmet:
Good times.
Another relaxing weekend of mt bike demoing and bike riding before I have to worry about racing again. August it working out pretty well.
In the meantime, I found myself entered in an "Urban Assault Ride". Its a team event sponsored by New Belgium beer. Basically you bike around the city and complete absurd obstacles at various checkpoints. My sister and I entered the very competitive coed division as team "Golden Star Fireballs" We put on our racing kit and got down to business:
We started off to the mystery checkpoint first... The clue was emailed out a few days earlier and was an color coded anagram. We sorted the two words "botanical" and "gardens" but couldn't get the first word... luckily there were enough people to follow that we found the "climatron".
The second checkpoint we hit was "Bike Works" where Leah and I had to navigate a twisting course on modified big-wheels. I think we rocked it. From there we headed over to Tower Grove park and did some kind of three legged tennis ball balancing on a frisbee challenge. We didn't lose any balls and took off for the city museum.
As we arrived we saw some people we knew informing us it was "a long way"... not knowing what that meant I went up to the checkpoint to find out that we had to run up 15 flights of stairs then negotiate our way up an incline to a large slide. This was made less fun by the fact that someone had puked in the stairwell.
A long ride down delmar to Big Shark had us on a plunger powered longboard collecting different colored cans. Due to our team work and Leah's longboarding experience we zipped right through while others were struggling. Down delmar to big bend and on to Mesa where I had to catch Leah thrown sponges in a basket on my head... it took us 4 chances to get the required 3- not our best preformance, but still not bad. From there it was on to the final mystery point.
Leah knew where it was, but I will choose not to embarrass her and keep quiet about the reasons why.
At the end of the day we were told we placed 3rd... I was excited. It was the first "podium" I had gotten all year. Well, we were actually 4th. I have been 1 place off the podium quite a bit this year- even in Urban Assault Racing.
Luckily, I was able to redeem myself by dancing on stage for a Rudy Project helmet:
Good times.
Another relaxing weekend of mt bike demoing and bike riding before I have to worry about racing again. August it working out pretty well.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
8 days in St Louis.
After I skipped the Chicago Criterium a few weeks ago, I decided I kind of needed a break from racing my road bike. I was realizing that some weekends I was only doing it because it was available, not really because I was excited about it (Soulard excepted- it was awesome).
So... it was all coming together at the beginning of August. I was going to have a questionable living situation and was planning on staying with the family in St. Louis. This was great timing since the first two weekends in August had Mountain bike races more or less in the city. I had made the decision to avoid road races until the Gateway Cup.
Anyway- a week in St. Louis
Sunday 9/2- MWFTCS race at Castlewood St Park.
I headed down to STL on Saturday evening. I knew the race on Sunday was going to be tough. Castlewood is the "home turf" to a ton of very fast St. Louis guys. Knowing every turn and feature of a trail is a very good thing is a race. I made my first mistake right at the start. I was charging past a ton of dudes trying to make up for a mediocre start on a climb wondering why everyone was taking it so conservatively. Well... the reason was that this climb at the start of the race just kept going up for the first mile or so of the trail. Ugh. I was way past redlining when I hit the top. This over exertion caused a stupid crash on a slightly off camber section that resulting in me losing a lot of the positions I gained on the climb.
This very quickly became irrelevant when I flatted on a loose rocky climb later in the lap. Since I had forgotten my CO2, I was left with my shitty minipump. It took me like 15 minutes to change the tire. Race more or less over.
I kept riding though. Only to flat again on a rough downhill section. After much swearing I began walking back to the start. I decided to quell my grumpiness by fixing the flat and riding another lap just for fun. This turned out to be a good moral boost. My lap time was similar to the winners of the sport class, and lower middle for experts.
Tuesday 9/4- St Louis Tuesday Night World Championships
This is the St. Louis training race. However, training is mostly just a state of mind. The weekly race is actually licensed by USCF and properly officiated. The course was 0.7 mile circuit that involved a climb, a quick downhill and a flat section around the start/finish. Here is my power data to give an idea of the profile:
The race started with Dogfish guy Chris on the front and me at second wheel. I think both of us were kind of interested in this positioning. After 1 or 2 laps he motioned me to pull through, I moved past and he slowed down the field I very quickly had about a 50ft gap... wow. how did that happen? I was confused and uncomfortable never really having been in this position in a race. I put my head down and rode (realizing full well I couldn't hold this for the whole race but decided to ride while I could). To my surprise, I was strong enough/ group moving slow enough to stay out for a few laps. Some fellow bridged, and rode with him briefly. Then a group bridged, I looked back and saw the whole race wasn't far behind. I was kind of cooked, so I fell back into the pack.
I rode the rest of the race amazed by the facts that. 1. there was such a huge field in a "training race" 2. that the pace of the B race was so high. The second was explained when I was informed that a lot of A-Game masters and cat 2/3 guys were in the field. 1. is simply explained by good the race was.
Wednesday 9/5- The Hub ride
Short story, I got to the shop about 45 seconds too late. Good to know that group rides leave promptly the world over. I rode about 27 miles from the shop west, then north. They have something around there that I think people refer to as "hills". Seeing that I don't see them that often, I might be using the word wrong. However, there was a particular bit that took 5+ minutes to climb at over 350-450 watts. I think that qualifies.
Thursday 9/6- Castlewood Revenge
I decided to head out and hit up the race course again. I got 20+ miles in with no flats on very nice FAST singletrack. I am glad I went back in a better mood. These trails dry and hard. Occasionally tight trails, occasionally rooty, occasionally techy downhills and some extended climbs. Castlewood is far from the hardest trail I have ridden, but I think it ranks real high on the fun meter. It flows nicely and is just tricky enough in places that you don't completely zone out. I think its the type of course I normally would have done well on.
Sunday 9/9- Spanish Lake Race
This course is notorious for its lack of extended hills and large quantity of gravel roads. This year there were several new sections of trail to add some intrigue. Over 100 degree temperatures made me fairly thankful that the climbs were as short as they were.
To make a long story short, I actually had a good race! I got a crappy start (as per usual- I really need to work on that). Luckily, the course was open enough that the front of the race never really got a chance to truly escape. I was loving the fact that I was in good enough shape to pick people off every time the trail pointed up at all. I also gapped a few dudes in the single track! Nice, I might actually be a mountain bike racer after all. By the 3rd of 5 laps I had no idea where I was in the race, but knew I had passed a lot of dudes and had not been passed.
When I came through on the 4th lap I was rather crestfallen when the official told me I had one more to go (MWFTCS races are done by time). Luckily my Dad was sat by the side of the course handing me up bottles after every lap. I think I poured about as much of it on me as I drank. I had one more bottle in the cooler, grabbed it from my Dad, and attempted to finish one more lap. I think I ran into every tree possible... not a good lap but still fun. There was one humbling moment when on a gravelly uphill drag Chris Ploch flew past lapping me- shows how far there is to go.
On finishing, I slammed down 2 cans of coke started feeling slightly less lightheaded and looked at my results. 4th in my age group. 5th overall- apparently 30-39 is on average the fastest group out there. The fastest dude was either a 40-49 or 50+ racer, hardcore. Well, apparently I have decent races when the conditions truly suck. Or it was just a coincidence.
So... it was all coming together at the beginning of August. I was going to have a questionable living situation and was planning on staying with the family in St. Louis. This was great timing since the first two weekends in August had Mountain bike races more or less in the city. I had made the decision to avoid road races until the Gateway Cup.
Anyway- a week in St. Louis
Sunday 9/2- MWFTCS race at Castlewood St Park.
I headed down to STL on Saturday evening. I knew the race on Sunday was going to be tough. Castlewood is the "home turf" to a ton of very fast St. Louis guys. Knowing every turn and feature of a trail is a very good thing is a race. I made my first mistake right at the start. I was charging past a ton of dudes trying to make up for a mediocre start on a climb wondering why everyone was taking it so conservatively. Well... the reason was that this climb at the start of the race just kept going up for the first mile or so of the trail. Ugh. I was way past redlining when I hit the top. This over exertion caused a stupid crash on a slightly off camber section that resulting in me losing a lot of the positions I gained on the climb.
This very quickly became irrelevant when I flatted on a loose rocky climb later in the lap. Since I had forgotten my CO2, I was left with my shitty minipump. It took me like 15 minutes to change the tire. Race more or less over.
I kept riding though. Only to flat again on a rough downhill section. After much swearing I began walking back to the start. I decided to quell my grumpiness by fixing the flat and riding another lap just for fun. This turned out to be a good moral boost. My lap time was similar to the winners of the sport class, and lower middle for experts.
Tuesday 9/4- St Louis Tuesday Night World Championships
This is the St. Louis training race. However, training is mostly just a state of mind. The weekly race is actually licensed by USCF and properly officiated. The course was 0.7 mile circuit that involved a climb, a quick downhill and a flat section around the start/finish. Here is my power data to give an idea of the profile:
The race started with Dogfish guy Chris on the front and me at second wheel. I think both of us were kind of interested in this positioning. After 1 or 2 laps he motioned me to pull through, I moved past and he slowed down the field I very quickly had about a 50ft gap... wow. how did that happen? I was confused and uncomfortable never really having been in this position in a race. I put my head down and rode (realizing full well I couldn't hold this for the whole race but decided to ride while I could). To my surprise, I was strong enough/ group moving slow enough to stay out for a few laps. Some fellow bridged, and rode with him briefly. Then a group bridged, I looked back and saw the whole race wasn't far behind. I was kind of cooked, so I fell back into the pack.
I rode the rest of the race amazed by the facts that. 1. there was such a huge field in a "training race" 2. that the pace of the B race was so high. The second was explained when I was informed that a lot of A-Game masters and cat 2/3 guys were in the field. 1. is simply explained by good the race was.
Wednesday 9/5- The Hub ride
Short story, I got to the shop about 45 seconds too late. Good to know that group rides leave promptly the world over. I rode about 27 miles from the shop west, then north. They have something around there that I think people refer to as "hills". Seeing that I don't see them that often, I might be using the word wrong. However, there was a particular bit that took 5+ minutes to climb at over 350-450 watts. I think that qualifies.
Thursday 9/6- Castlewood Revenge
I decided to head out and hit up the race course again. I got 20+ miles in with no flats on very nice FAST singletrack. I am glad I went back in a better mood. These trails dry and hard. Occasionally tight trails, occasionally rooty, occasionally techy downhills and some extended climbs. Castlewood is far from the hardest trail I have ridden, but I think it ranks real high on the fun meter. It flows nicely and is just tricky enough in places that you don't completely zone out. I think its the type of course I normally would have done well on.
Sunday 9/9- Spanish Lake Race
This course is notorious for its lack of extended hills and large quantity of gravel roads. This year there were several new sections of trail to add some intrigue. Over 100 degree temperatures made me fairly thankful that the climbs were as short as they were.
To make a long story short, I actually had a good race! I got a crappy start (as per usual- I really need to work on that). Luckily, the course was open enough that the front of the race never really got a chance to truly escape. I was loving the fact that I was in good enough shape to pick people off every time the trail pointed up at all. I also gapped a few dudes in the single track! Nice, I might actually be a mountain bike racer after all. By the 3rd of 5 laps I had no idea where I was in the race, but knew I had passed a lot of dudes and had not been passed.
When I came through on the 4th lap I was rather crestfallen when the official told me I had one more to go (MWFTCS races are done by time). Luckily my Dad was sat by the side of the course handing me up bottles after every lap. I think I poured about as much of it on me as I drank. I had one more bottle in the cooler, grabbed it from my Dad, and attempted to finish one more lap. I think I ran into every tree possible... not a good lap but still fun. There was one humbling moment when on a gravelly uphill drag Chris Ploch flew past lapping me- shows how far there is to go.
On finishing, I slammed down 2 cans of coke started feeling slightly less lightheaded and looked at my results. 4th in my age group. 5th overall- apparently 30-39 is on average the fastest group out there. The fastest dude was either a 40-49 or 50+ racer, hardcore. Well, apparently I have decent races when the conditions truly suck. Or it was just a coincidence.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Moving makes me grumpy.
It really does. It seems like every time I do it, it takes longer. After every move I swear I am not going to do it again until I leave Champaign. For some reason this never works. I have officially moved almost exactly 1 mile away from where I previously lived. Although all of my things have technically been moved from point A to point B, it barely seems likes its over. At the moment it is almost impossible to get into my bedroom due to the large amount of unpacked boxes. I am trying to do anything (including write blog entries) to distract me from the inevitable puzzle of making everything fit into a new and distinctly different living space. Its odd, I think I remember kind of being excited about this years ago... now it just pisses me off.
I plan on racing my mountain bike in St. Louis on Sunday. I am feeling like I am in pretty good shape and have been riding fairly quickly. I had high hopes for this race, and wanted to head out and pre-ride the course tomorrow. Sadly, I am just too exhausted to make the trip early. Yeah, I hate moving.
I plan on racing my mountain bike in St. Louis on Sunday. I am feeling like I am in pretty good shape and have been riding fairly quickly. I had high hopes for this race, and wanted to head out and pre-ride the course tomorrow. Sadly, I am just too exhausted to make the trip early. Yeah, I hate moving.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Another week goes by.
So here was the decision:
A. Wake up at 4:00 am drive 3 hours, find parking, maybe have enough time to warm up, hopefully find the one teammate I had in the race before the start, then race against a field that probably contained like 40 dudes from XXX racing. Then I would get to drive home trying my hardest not to pass out.
B. Go drink Miller High Life and Tullamore Dew at Mike n' Molly's then ride my mountain bike with Nick all day Sunday.
As I am sure you can gather from my phrasing, I chose option B.
Its weird that this is an abnormal situation for me this summer. I was registered to do the Chicago Criterium on Sunday, but as the time approached, the logistics just seemed too complicated. This was also coupled with the fact that I didn't know hardly anyone who was going to be there and that I wasn't really feeling that excited about racing in general.
I think I might be finally suffering from a bit of burn out. Luckily for me, almost all August has to offer are MTB races and fun stuff like the Mesa Cycles St Louis Urban Assault Race. I think August couldn't have come at a better time.
As for not racing over the course of a weekend? I think it was a success. I hit the trails at k-poo Saturday and Sunday. Nick and I were accompanied by a first timer- John Henry. He was predictably slow. I took advantage of this and doubled up on a few tough sections like the new downhill/ climb. There is one obnoxious switchback that continues to have my number...
Sunday Nick and I intended to head back for some fast ~1 hour laps. This did not happen. Both of us were feeling fairly tired. On top of that, the mechanical problems kept piling up. I had 2 flat tires (only had one tube with me) and picked up a stick of about 1 inch diameter in my rear wheel. Not fun.
Nick had some chain dropping issues and a couple nice ending up a long ways from the trail and bike crashes.
Sunday was not a win. I am sure that reaquainting myself with hangovers this weekend didn't help matters.
A. Wake up at 4:00 am drive 3 hours, find parking, maybe have enough time to warm up, hopefully find the one teammate I had in the race before the start, then race against a field that probably contained like 40 dudes from XXX racing. Then I would get to drive home trying my hardest not to pass out.
B. Go drink Miller High Life and Tullamore Dew at Mike n' Molly's then ride my mountain bike with Nick all day Sunday.
As I am sure you can gather from my phrasing, I chose option B.
Its weird that this is an abnormal situation for me this summer. I was registered to do the Chicago Criterium on Sunday, but as the time approached, the logistics just seemed too complicated. This was also coupled with the fact that I didn't know hardly anyone who was going to be there and that I wasn't really feeling that excited about racing in general.
I think I might be finally suffering from a bit of burn out. Luckily for me, almost all August has to offer are MTB races and fun stuff like the Mesa Cycles St Louis Urban Assault Race. I think August couldn't have come at a better time.
As for not racing over the course of a weekend? I think it was a success. I hit the trails at k-poo Saturday and Sunday. Nick and I were accompanied by a first timer- John Henry. He was predictably slow. I took advantage of this and doubled up on a few tough sections like the new downhill/ climb. There is one obnoxious switchback that continues to have my number...
Sunday Nick and I intended to head back for some fast ~1 hour laps. This did not happen. Both of us were feeling fairly tired. On top of that, the mechanical problems kept piling up. I had 2 flat tires (only had one tube with me) and picked up a stick of about 1 inch diameter in my rear wheel. Not fun.
Nick had some chain dropping issues and a couple nice ending up a long ways from the trail and bike crashes.
Sunday was not a win. I am sure that reaquainting myself with hangovers this weekend didn't help matters.
Monday, July 20, 2009
10 Turns- Yeah, it worked pretty well.
Last weekend I was planning on heading up to Wisconsin and do the WORS race at Sunburst. I am sure that it was fantastic, but my plans ended up falling through for a number of reasons. Aside from the fact that I am looking for more starts at MTB races this summer to get upgrade points, I really wasn't too disappointed (particularly considering that I probably would have entered the "Comp" category and not gotten a top 5 anyway).
The main reason I wasn't really heartbroken was that this Sunday was the Tour of Soulard. People had been telling me how awesome this race was for quite a while now. Honestly, if it weren't for the lure of a WORS race I don't think anything else would have kept me away.
So I show up having no idea what to expect aside from the awesomeness everyone had described. Needless to say, expectations were high. At first there was the confusion that the course was said to have 10 turns and was run clockwise. Fwiw, it looks like this:
Needless to say some preriding would have been useful. Unfortunately my recon consisted of that map and the knowledge that one bit was a "climb" gleened from message boards. I was running a bit late due to the fact that I am not at all used to racing as late in the day as 1pm. Additionally, I was kind of confused by the race running late then mysteriously getting back on track. To add fun and excitement, I noticed my front tire was flat on the startline. Luckily I was able to get my spare on right before the gun. This resulted in a poor start position, but whatever.
The race itself was a lot of fun. I would like to be more descriptive, but with 10 turns I was largely clueless as to when anything was happening. All I know is that somewhere around halfway through the race I was caught behind a crash (I think) and a group of 6-10 depending on the point in the race got caught out. I felt really strong and led the chase group for quite a while. Word on the street was that we were pretty much holding on to a 10 second deficit to the lead group. This also made me feel pretty good about myself.
At some point I dropped to the back of the chase group and held on for a couple laps. My one highlight was when a $50 prime was announced for our group. I attacked the group going up the hill on the back part of the course and shot past everyone from last position. I had about 20 feet at the top of the hill and didn't look back again. Somebody passed me after the last turn before the finish... oh well. After chasing for so long it felt good to actually race a bit.
A note. I was told much later that I came in 15th or 16th. I rode the whole race thinking a huge group was up the road. As it turns out it was only about 20. The main group, and in turn us ended up dropping additional people. That was a nice surprise.
Anyway, one of the amazing things about this race was that there were people (drinking booze) around the entire course. Seriously, Soulard appeared to use this race as an excuse to get Sunday day drunk. It was great... having people cheering you on over the entire course makes you feel very PRO- good times.
Theoretically I am going to the "Chicago Criterium"- where there are going to be actual pros- next weekend. I still haven't worked out the logistics yet unfortunately.
The main reason I wasn't really heartbroken was that this Sunday was the Tour of Soulard. People had been telling me how awesome this race was for quite a while now. Honestly, if it weren't for the lure of a WORS race I don't think anything else would have kept me away.
So I show up having no idea what to expect aside from the awesomeness everyone had described. Needless to say, expectations were high. At first there was the confusion that the course was said to have 10 turns and was run clockwise. Fwiw, it looks like this:
Needless to say some preriding would have been useful. Unfortunately my recon consisted of that map and the knowledge that one bit was a "climb" gleened from message boards. I was running a bit late due to the fact that I am not at all used to racing as late in the day as 1pm. Additionally, I was kind of confused by the race running late then mysteriously getting back on track. To add fun and excitement, I noticed my front tire was flat on the startline. Luckily I was able to get my spare on right before the gun. This resulted in a poor start position, but whatever.
The race itself was a lot of fun. I would like to be more descriptive, but with 10 turns I was largely clueless as to when anything was happening. All I know is that somewhere around halfway through the race I was caught behind a crash (I think) and a group of 6-10 depending on the point in the race got caught out. I felt really strong and led the chase group for quite a while. Word on the street was that we were pretty much holding on to a 10 second deficit to the lead group. This also made me feel pretty good about myself.
At some point I dropped to the back of the chase group and held on for a couple laps. My one highlight was when a $50 prime was announced for our group. I attacked the group going up the hill on the back part of the course and shot past everyone from last position. I had about 20 feet at the top of the hill and didn't look back again. Somebody passed me after the last turn before the finish... oh well. After chasing for so long it felt good to actually race a bit.
A note. I was told much later that I came in 15th or 16th. I rode the whole race thinking a huge group was up the road. As it turns out it was only about 20. The main group, and in turn us ended up dropping additional people. That was a nice surprise.
Anyway, one of the amazing things about this race was that there were people (drinking booze) around the entire course. Seriously, Soulard appeared to use this race as an excuse to get Sunday day drunk. It was great... having people cheering you on over the entire course makes you feel very PRO- good times.
Theoretically I am going to the "Chicago Criterium"- where there are going to be actual pros- next weekend. I still haven't worked out the logistics yet unfortunately.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Admirable Cyclists?
I am what I believe to be a very amateur athlete. From my understanding of being such a person is that I am supposed to idolize/look up to professionals. I have found this fairly easy to do with mountain biking seeing as there are truly awesome guys like Adam Craig out there. Cyclocross is similarly stacked with amusing fellows.
Oddly enough (with a few exceptions) I have never really related to an road cyclists.
That is until I started hearing more about Bradley Wiggins in this year's tour. There are plenty of guys out there that are really strong. I tend to admire professionals for more personal reason... that is to say that I find them amusing. That said, I was liking the fact that he tried to remake himself as a serious road cyclist (from track) and appears to be succeeding at age 29. Also he is riding for Garmin this year which doesn't hurt.
However, there are plenty of riders that fit this type of description. What really amused me was that this dopey looking fellow:
Is a huge fan of 70s British punk. In fact, he is known to blast "The Jam" while preparing for a race- something I have been known to do in the past.
I love it. I would suggest following him on twitter.
Oddly enough (with a few exceptions) I have never really related to an road cyclists.
That is until I started hearing more about Bradley Wiggins in this year's tour. There are plenty of guys out there that are really strong. I tend to admire professionals for more personal reason... that is to say that I find them amusing. That said, I was liking the fact that he tried to remake himself as a serious road cyclist (from track) and appears to be succeeding at age 29. Also he is riding for Garmin this year which doesn't hurt.
However, there are plenty of riders that fit this type of description. What really amused me was that this dopey looking fellow:
Is a huge fan of 70s British punk. In fact, he is known to blast "The Jam" while preparing for a race- something I have been known to do in the past.
I love it. I would suggest following him on twitter.
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