Blog Soul-Searching

I'm going to be honest with you: I'm burned out on the blog. I've batted around the idea of killing the blog all summer but something keeps bringing me back to it. There is a strong sense of Groundhog Day whenever I post a race report yet there are times when I feel like I really have something I need to say. 

In the nearly two years of this blog's existence I've seen some good and some bad come from it. My life hasn't significantly improved or decreased because of this -- I've made acquaintances with a few people I otherwise would not have met; I've also hastened the decline of a friendship. To be perfectly honest those things would have, in all likelihood, occurred nonetheless. The blog seemed to make them occur faster. 

I even had a bona fide blog stalker last winter leaving thinly veiled death threats, making extremely rude personal comments about me on blogs I linked, and even creating a fake gmail account with my name. It was a fun little puzzle to solve, which took all of about three days with the help of Ryan Knapp and sitemeter. (Unfortunately his wife died in a freak accident this week so any revenge I had been considering would now be in pretty poor taste.)

The question remains: What to do with the blog? To answer that I've been asking myself "what do I like about blogs I read?" -- that is those I enjoy for their own sake and not to see if I was mentioned in someone else's race report. 

Good writing. Humor. Intelligence. Insight and knowledge to which I don't have access. A different perspective. Good writing. Yes, perhaps most importantly, good writing. Some examples:

• Competitive Cyclist. Interesting race analysis, irreverent, and a candid view of the bike retail industry from one of North America's biggest e-tailers.
• Unholy Rouleur. Fat guy jokes (from a fat guy), damn good writing, a strong libertarian bent, and a passion for all kinds of riding.
• Belgium Knee Warmers. Excellent writing and a passion for down-and-dirty bike racing.
• Alex Simmons's blog. Very insightful training info particularly if you use a power meter.
• The Service Course. Again, good writing and insightful race analysis.
• Cozy Beehive. Science - what else!
• Red Kite Prayer. See BKW above.
• Embrocation Cycling Journal. See BKW.

The theme then seems to be quality writing and passion for cycling. Quality writing is not quantity writing. A number of years ago I fancied myself a writer. I wrote for writing's sake. Now writing is something that feels obligatory. If I notice the blog hasn't been updated in some time I feel obliged to dash off a post blathering about nothing of consequence. 

I need to break out of this. I need to write something good. Something that has meaning.

A small writing journal now resides in my bag. Thoughts, insights, concepts I want to explore in the future -- all are jotted down in the hope that they will bear fruit in the form of more quality writing here. Think of this as a future anti-Twitter: Long posts that appear rather infrequently.

Until that time I plan to take a break from the blog. It will remain in its current form until such time that I have determined the new look, feel, and content. My hope is that it will inspire others to produce quality writing rather than compete in a race to the lowest common denominator.

How I Spent 90min in the Pain Cave, Dropped My Flashlight, and then Fell Down

Or, Marion NRC crit. 

The quote of the evening was when I saw an old friend from Marion that hadn't seen me since my track sprinting days. When we finished talking and I walked away he shouted after me "damn dude, how'd you get so skinny? Are you wearing your wife's jeans?"

0.8mi course, 10 90 degree turns, 90 minutes, about 40 pros, and 15 locals. This was actually quite a bit better than last year when there were a ton of local guys who had no idea what they were in for, making the hardest part of the race passing all the guys who imploded.

20 minutes before the start the rain moved in and stopped 10 minutes into the race. I think there were a couple crashes each lap in the beginning -- I know for sure I heard one on each of the first four laps on the final turn.

It was single file and fast all night. I just hung in and made lots of ugly faces as I was WAY on the rivet. Hang on and stay up right for 90 minutes. Not really much else to say. The final 6 laps were incredibly fast. Every corner was taken at warp speed on the edge of tire adhesion with sparks flying from clipped pedals. I was 5th last wheel in the pack of 30 and really wanted to get somewhere in the top-25. I pushed harder and harder in every turn and finally pedalled too deep into a turn with just over a lap to go. I clipped my pedal pretty hard, went into a two wheel slide, couldn't recover, and hit the deck.

Thanks to all the people I heard cheering for me. I hope you enjoyed the freak show that was my various facial expressions. Will post links to photos when I find some.

In Hindsight I'm Glad I Didn't Make the Cover

NUVO did an awesome feature on the upcoming Mass Ave crit. I did a photoshoot with them last week in preparation for the article. I knew that Birdman was being photographed as well but I didn't know who would be on the cover shot. A small part of me was hoping I would make it but it turns out they used Chad, which makes sense considering he is the defending champ and the "guy to beat." After seeing the print version yesterday I'm glad it was Chad and not me on the cover -- it would completely weird me out to see my face plastered all over the city in full-color tabloid-style. With the cover teaser of "Boys, Bikes, and Bragging Rights" I'm sure Chad will garner quite a lot of interest on Saturday, if ya know what I mean. Heh heh heh... (You'll need to pick up the print version to see my beautiful visage in the article.)

Here's a very interesting article on wheelbuilding. If you dig deep you'll find reference to the imminent release of a production-version PowerTap track wheel. Interesting... no more kludgie setups to run a PowerTap on the track.

T-minus 3 days to Downer's Grove National Crit Champs. I guess this year I have my best chance of doing something interesting there. I'm certain I won't win or anything, but top-10? We'll see...

Only a few weekends of racing left:
-Marion NRC and the local West Clay races are next weekend
-No racing the following weekend other than the Velodrome and Moto GP!
-Some combination of the local-ish Richmond crit and Gateway Cup on Labor day weekend

Then it's time for Bandito Cross racing!

MC Spandex

John Jacob Jinglehammer Smith brought this to my attention. Trust me, it's hilarious.

WORK - Turn to the Left! WORK - Turn to the Right!

That’s right. RuPaul. Why is this relevant? Because earlier this evening I was on Mass Ave doing a photo shoot for NUVO. They are doing a big spread – perhaps a cover story – on the Mass Ave crit. Earlier in the day they did the same with Chad and Puffer. I think they are planning on doing some kind of a UFC angle. Rumble downtown. Something like that. But what is funny here is that Chad and I are frinds so the whole rivalry thing is fairly amusing.  We’ll see what it all looks like next Wednesday. For those who might be wondering if I used Magnum or Blue Steel, I say: neither. I dropped the neutron bomb of sexiness that is Le Tigre.

There’s been some bike racing since the state champs in Bloomington:

-I did some track racing one Friday night and won the Elimination and the Points Race. It’s been at least 10 years since I won one of those.

-I did the double at downtown Chicago and did the 35+ and the Pro-1 races for 120km of crit racing in one afternoon. I won a nice prime and was 7^th in the 35+. I was a little knackered at the end of the Pro-1 NRC and popped out of the top 25 with a half lap to go. I decided that doubling up is OK in the local races, but perhaps not before an NRC crit, mmmkay?

-Last weekend was spent back up in Chicagoland at Elk Grove. Day 1 was pretty cool – I felt good, won a $200 prime, and was 8^th in the field sprint for 13^th overall (I never got a clean set of wheels and had to brake about 3 times in the final 150 meters) so I paid for the weekend in an hour and a half. Day 2 was not as excellent as I felt a little sluggish, missed the big move, missed two opportunities to bridge, failed to bridge with a small group later on, and then finally sat up in the last lap with all the money up the road.

Some thoughts on the last couple weekends of racing:

-While I’m flattered that you mentioned me in VeloNews, Brad, but I wasn’t trying to flick you. Sometimes the guy next to you moves over on you and you have to move over on your other side. You just happened to be there.

-Menzies, I’m sorry I scared you. I did bomb that turn near the end of Chicago. But I have been racing my bike a long time and I’m not going to crash you or anyone else for that matter. I am a pretty safe racer.

-To the dude from Dallas Bike Works at Elk Grove: Moving up in an incredibly narrow space on the gutter is a borderline d-bag move. But then bitching when I don’t open the door and let you move in front of me, saying “no need to fight for that one wheel when there’s 25 miles left in the race,” clinches your d-bag status. I will continue to reserve the right for creative use of the f-bomb when you say something as idiotic as that following a move a douche-tastic as that.

At this rate I won’t have to update for another two weeks, so I’ll have a Downer’s Grove National Crit Championship update for ya. Here’s to hoping I stay upright.

Alpine Ridgeline

I keep looking at these photos. Not for the riders, but for that freakish ridgeline in the background, Damn...

NUVO Article Pre-Edit: Bloomington Crit

To appear in NUVO, prior to making my edits to meet word-count:

The annual dowtown Bloomington criterium, with it’s finish line directly in front of Kilroy’s on Kirkwood, had an amazing cult following yet no one quite knows exactly why this is so. For the central Indiana locals, Bloomington natives, and current and former Little 500 athletes this race has a certain amount of street cred that transcends a prize list – the single largest factor in determining racer turnout in the Pro-Am category. Yet this year the designation of the Indiana State Criterium Championship made Bloomington even more irresistible.

Somehow many manage to avoid the allure. Those uncomfortable with tight corners at high speeds or those who remain un-enthralled by this modern racing legend (am I being overdramatic? Somehow I think not) cannot comprehend the mystique. My friend and Bloomington resident Ryan Knapp told me of a conversation with his teammates where they could not understand why he would not race at any of the other races this weekend with several-thousand dollar prize lists to do this race with less than $1000 in total prizes. His teammates, mostly Purdue alums and students or Buckeyes from Ohio, were incapable of understanding. The course is exactly what a criterium should be, six corners in less than a mile, so unlike those boring state park races. The crowds are knowledgeable, raised on watching Little 500. And the spectators are enthusiastic, as they move between Nick’s, Kilroy’s, and the other bars on the strip.

And so tensions were high during the various group rides in Indianapolis and Bloomington this week. I personally heard of large sums of cash being offered to independent riders for help in the upcoming race. Some riders tried to hide their good form, others tried to use bravado to bluff and intimidate their would-be competitors, while some attempted to treat this race as just another weekend.

The NUVO Cultural Trail team feels a sense of ownership of this race. We won it twice in the last five years. We have several Little 500 winners from the Cutters on the team. We have IU alums. In our pre-race meeting I asserted that we were going to win this race or fail colossally trying – no second places. We started the race with a dream team of potential winners: Andrzej Banaszkiewicz, David Caughlin, Declan Doyle, Erik Hamilton, Mike Lantz, Weston Luzadder, Ben Weaver, and me.

Our team plan was simple: Win the goddamn race. There were ample cards to play that would allow us to win in almost any situation but the small field of 30 had incredible depth. Local pro Jake Rytlewski, Jason Smith and Jason Fowler from Zipp, former pro Todd Cornelius, Bloomington-based badasses John Myers, Ryan Knapp, Isaac Neff, and Brett Stewart – any one of these guys could have proved to be a handful.

Personally the first 45 of 75 minutes of the race were a blur. Constant attacks and aggression kept the field perpetually strung out at speeds between 28 and 35 miles per hour. The team rode impeccably by instigating many moves and following the few we did not start. Our desire to win drove us, as did the knowledge that as the largest team in the race we had a responsibility to be the prime aggressors.

With 30 minutes remaining it was obvious to me that the field would not allow a breakaway to escape and at that point I slid back to the middle of the pack to rest for the inevitable mass sprint finish. Twenty minutes later I hit my hardest moment of the race – hardest emotionally, that is. My friend Brett Stewart attacked and as I happened to be sitting on his wheel it was my responsibility to follow him. I did so and we quickly gained a gap of five to 10 seconds. I traded a few pulls with Brett but as I looked over my shoulder I saw a hard charging field closing in on us. At that point I stopped working in order to stay fresh for the sprint. Unfortunately this meant I needed to screw a friend. Brett was willing to lay it all out to stay away – I was not. I knew a sprint was a far surer outcome but Brett could not say the same. I apologized profusely as Brett asked “why?” and shook his head in frustration. Of course we were caught and I immediately looked for prime positioning near the front.

My teammates Dave, Ben, Weston, and Mike kept the speed high in the final several laps. In the final three laps Declan and Erik took over pace-making duties with Erik making the final lap blisteringly fast. Declan and Erik moved aside as we entered the final turn and they made it nearly impossible for me to lose. Their fast speed prevented anyone from moving up to contest the sprint in the final lap. In the end NUVO Cultural Trail placed first, third, fifth, and sixth, with Fowler and Knapp finishing second and fourth.