Local Racing
As I said on Twitter
We’re covering local racing this weekend because we’re done with Pro racing and this era of dopers, bitterness, and controversy.
We love the sport itself and when Landis was first accused I wrote, “I don’t believe anything about professional cycling anymore. I just believe in the bike,” and enjoy how the sport is thriving at the local level.
I raced earlier in the week in Portland at PIR with 85 guys – we were there for the Mobile Social – and then onto the Mutual of Enumclaw Stage Race with over 500 racers.
Pro 1/2
The majority of those racers are spending their weekends racing because that’s what they love to do. Fitting in the training while working and sacrificing their free time for a prime in the crit or a good overall result.
Women
Women racing hard
Masters Men
Old guys that go fast
Off the Back
On Tueday, at PIR, I felt awesome. Yesterday not so much and worse today. I’ll take a day off then back at it next week. It’s crit season now.
Kids Race
Always fun for the kids
Richter
Part of racing in the Pacific Northwest, is the weather and Mutual of Enumclaw usually has a storm roll through on one of the days, sometimes both. You spend a lot of time looking at the sky and reading the clouds. The crit isn’t one you want to do in the rain and if so, just keep the bike up right to survive without crashing. Richter, a long-time local pro reflects on the decisions to race or not:
A half hour before the start of the crit it started to rain. It was already cold & windy. I was not excited to race. I’m simply tired of racing in crappy weather. Also, there are a bunch of races coming up in the near future that I want to stomp…and I’m recovering from a crash last week in training. Now, old Rocket would have suited up and suffered. New, older, wiser, retired Rocket realized he did not have to race to keep his job.
As bike racers, it’s natural to try & not be a “pussy” when it rains, gets cold, etc. But I know that I’m tough. I don’t need to prove it. I’ve suffered. It takes a true baller to do what he/she wants & not care what everyone else thinks. I’m proud of myself (and TH & Flash) for keeping my joy joyful. Besides…I won that race last year.
So, don’t forget that bike racing is fun…keep it that way. Ball.
It is fun at the local level and when it’s not, it’s time to re-evaulate. We have had a few cases of doping and when Landis did come up yesterday, the general consensus was, “ready for this era to be over. Whatever, here to race my race.”
And we’ll do it again next weekend.