Bring in the Pro

Now I fancy myself a bit of a shutterbug and I’ve taken some “acceptable” shots over the years but I’ve discovered that there certainly is an advantage to bringing in a pro when you want pro results.  Currently all of the photos on my web site were either taken by myself or my sixteen year-old son, and they look exactly like what they are – amateur. 

Yesterday my buddy Matt and I went on a two hour photo shoot with local photographer Andy Bokanev.  Basically Andy just followed Matt and myself as we rode around downtown Seattle.  The results are fantastic.  They are going to give my web site the pop that it needs.

Matt is wearing a shirt and sweater from Ben Sherman.  He’s been around for a while – a popular designer during the British Mod scene – and he kind of caters to a thinner physique, which is often just the thing for guys who ride a lot.   I was worried that the orange shirt and blue sweater wouldn’t work, but as the photos suggest they are an ideal match.

 

For this shot Andy shot down Post Alley while Matt and I rode by.  We were lucky to catch some nice light.  I like the tucked in tie look.  I’ve tied a tie something like four times in the past fifteen years, seems some things you never forget.

All Over

Well it’s over.  Time to dismantle old Blue in order to power wash all of the dirt and grit out of the inside her aluminum tubing.  I gotta get my business up and running, finish that kitchen remodel, complete my half-done deck, grout the shower at the cabin, put finish on the windows that were installed last March, refinish that rocking chair, build a greenhouse – whoa better stop there before I become completely demoralized.

Here in Seattle we are lucky enough to have two thriving cyclocross series’: SCX and MFG.  I raced every MFG race and did well enough to land a front row call-up in all but the kick-off race.  My SCX attendance was a bit more spotty: I chose to miss a few races in order to avoid burnout.  The SCX series ended this past weekend at the fairgrounds in Enumclaw.

Quintessential is a cool word.  It means the pure and essential essence of something.  Enumclaw really was the quintessential Northwest cyclocross race, and not just because a guy named Quinn won the overall Masters 45+ Cat 4 SCX series championship.  Wick and the SCX guys really laid out a beautiful course (they needed a bit of redemption after the Tall Chief debacle) including mud, grabby grass, a tape maze, a series of three off-camber chicanes, a soul crushing run-up, a little single track descent, a long, but ridable, mud bog, three slightly too high Blue Rooster barriers, some pavement for passing and a sandy ride through a horse arena.  All of this was raced in fifty degree dry weather.  At the end of the race I was covered in just the right amount of mud: not enough to rip off my rear derailleur, but enough to know that I’d just raced cyclocross.

Since I’ve missed three SCX races I didn’t get a call up, but I managed to squeeze into the inside lane of the third row.  I must admit to liking the third row.  Up front you feel a lot of pressure from the row two guys.  The fellas directly behind you, literally breathing down your neck, are all serious, experienced racers and they are hungry, they want to get up there, so a bobble or a missed clip can result in losing five, six, even seven spots.  Starting third row, on the other hand, reverses the roles, now I’m the hungry one pushing past all of the wobbly guys.

I had a great start and passed half a dozen riders before the first turn.  On the second turn I was in a lot of traffic and really big guy leaned on me – he was on the inside of the turn, I was on the outside.  It’s nice to race with good riders because good riders know that when two guys lean on each other it’s best to just keep leaning until you get out of the mess, and then separate.  Fortunately the big guy was good and we went shoulder-to-shoulder through the turn.  It’s fun to dodge a bullet.

The run-up at Enumclaw has a well-deserved big reputation.  It’s a killer, no matter how strong you are.  This is where I lost the top five guys.  I just couldn’t get my butt up that hill fast enough.  On the other hand many of the guys who high-stepped it up the incline were left gasping at the top, and I easily passed them once back on the bike.

It was a three lap race and thanks to a super good warm-up I never really felt the heart attack sensation that usually plagues my first lap.  I got stronger as the race progressed, but unfortunately so did my competition.  I figured that I’d have to work hard and ride aggressive in order to finish top ten, as I was somewhere in that number eight to twelve never never land.  In the end I pushed past a couple of guys and ended up ninth.  I finished feeling great and totally exhilarated, it was a great day.

Next year I’m getting me one of those mint green RockLobster bikes.  Damn I love those.  

The Lance Thing

This Lance Armstrong thing is, for me, like finding out that you’ve been living next door to a serial killer: the partial-confession is bad enough, but to make matters worse they keep digging bodies out of the crawlspace, and worst of all, I can’t help but peek over the fence.

Yes I did shell out thirty bucks for the hardcover version of Wheelmen – Lance Armstrong, The Tour De France And The Greatest Sports Conspiracy Ever, and yes I will go see The Armstrong Lie, as soon as it hits theaters here in Seattle on Nov 27^th.  I just can’t help myself.

If you could go back in time to the nineties and walk into a bike shop what you’d see would be a whole bunch of mountain bikes a couple of cruiser bikes and maybe, somewhere in the back, a racing bike.  Despite Greg Lemond, bicycle racing, and bicycling in general, here in the U.S. was obscure at best pre-Lance (all you have to do is say “Lance” and everyone knows who you are talking about – kind of like “Arnold” now that is fame); what that guy did for the cycling industry here in the States is unparalleled and undeniable.   The damage that to the sport doesn’t nearly equal the benefits.

Wait a minute, it sounds like I’m defending this asshole.  No I’m definitely not on Team Lance.

I guess I was a bit naive when it came to Lance, I figured that sure in his early days, maybe even the first two years he was doping, but after a few victories my thoughts were that cost of getting caught (i.e. losing his titles) would vastly outweigh the benefit (i.e. another win).  In 1999, 2000, even 2001 there is no way that Lance, or anyone on Team Lance, could have thought that he would win seven Tours, no way no how.  To risk losing all the success that he already had in pursuit of something unimaginable, that just didn’t make any sense.

And how could anyone lie like that.  It’s one thing to lie, it’s quite another to bankrupt and destroy the livelihoods of anyone who even remotely didn’t dance to your tune.  I mean that’s crazy – it just didn’t make any sense.

So when he came blubbering to Oprah (there’s another one name famer) I was honestly a bit surprised.  I’m sure a lot of folks would say that you had to be stupid or intentionally naïve not to see it coming, and I guess that’s fair.  I suppose I wanted to believe that it was impossible to be that big of a jerk.  Now with every page I turn in Wheelmen, I discover new depths of jerkhood.

One More Dig

I was watching Behind the Barriers the other day and at the end of the episode Jeremy Powers (AKA J-Pow) was being worked on by a physical therapist/chiropractor.  The two guys got to talking about what it takes to win at cyclocross and the PT mentioned something that really hit home with me.  He referred to “one more dig,’ that the guy/gal who won was the typically the person who had “one more dig” than the competition.

Cyclocross is different than your typical American ball sports in that in order to have any success at all you have to operate at beyond what you might have previously thought was possible.  Cyclocross races typically last from between thirty to sixty minutes and during that entire time you have to be operating at maximum possible output, and at several times during the race you’ll have go past what you thought was possible – you have to dig.  It’s the guy/gal who can dig just that one more time, the person who can accelerate out of that last turn just a few seconds faster, generate just a few more watts than the competition, who wins.

I think it’s safe to say that the vast majority of Americans have never experienced what cyclocross racers consider routine.  Perhaps that’s why I love this sport so much: it makes the seemingly impossible possible, and when that happens you come out the other side a stronger (read better) person.

 

On Being Free

I opened up my Seattle Times this morning to see a two inch headline stating:

Police speed trap

snaring bicyclists, too

Immediately I felt the hairs on the back of my neck rising.

Before I go any further I should state that I’m a rule following nut, furthermore I view myself as an ambassador of bicycling.  My goal, and the goal of my company – Greenlite Heavy Industries – is to promote cycling and you ain’t gonna do that by pissing folks off.
Now for the other side of the coin.  Bicycling for me is a passion, but my passion isn’t about turning pedals, instead my passion is all about being a free man.  The bicycle is a means to an end. 

The American adult – despite vociferous clams to the contrary – is being squeezed into a continually shrinking box.  People can’t pay for the cars they drive so they borrow from bankers, they can’t fix those cars (even when they are not really broken) so they pay mechanics, they have to put gasoline into those cars so they look the other way when faced with the realities of the oil extraction business, they are anxious from traffic and in poor health due to a sedentary lifestyle, so they pay pharmaceutical companies to make it all better.  When you are at the mercy of bankers, mechanics, big oil and big pharma you’re pretty darn far from a free man. 

In my life the automobile is necessary, I don’t deny that, but I see it as a necessary evil, to be avoided when possible.

A guy on a bike most likely isn’t contributing to the underwater financial situation of most American households, he isn’t contributing to air pollution and climate change, he isn’t putting money into the pockets of oil companies, he isn’t contributing to traffic congestion, he isn’t damaging the roads, and, more than likely, he isn’t downing jar fulls of prescription drugs to combat the ill effects of a sedentary lifestyle.  On the other hand, he is sweating, he is getting wet, he is feeling the cold.  I say give him the benefit of a doubt.  (Note that I use “he” in the gender neutral sense –writing he/she every time makes for awkward writing).

I don’t believe that cyclists should have free reign to ride in a dangerous or inconsiderate fashion, but bicycles are not automobiles and shouldn’t be treated as such.  Consider a spectrum wherein walking is on the left end and driving an automobile is on the right; I would place cycling very far to the left.  A cyclist, like a pedestrian, is very in tune with the surrounding environment (head phones should never be worn while riding), whereas the driver of an automobile is quite removed from his/her surroundings.  A cyclist can see, hear and even smell what’s going on around them, which I believe gives the rider some leeway.  For example when I approach the four-way stop near my house I can easily look and listen for opposing traffic, if it is clear I’ll roll through without coming to a complete, one foot on the ground stop.  When I’m in a car I can’t really see or hear what’s going on at that intersection, so coming to a complete stop, assessing the situation and then proceeding seems reasonable.  In other words we don’t expect pedestrians to make a complete stop at a stop sign, nor should we expect it of cyclists.

When I see headlines stating that bicyclists, many of whom don’t have a speedometer, are being pulled over and given a $103 fine for exceeding a 20 mph speed limit in a downhill zone I can’t help but feel a bit angry as this type of action only serves to impede cycling, instead of doing what we should be doing: promoting it.

A Little Harder

Peter Clancy from Woodinville Cycle comes out every week to shoot the cyclocross races, I always look forward to Monday morning when I can look at what he put in the can.  Usually there is an image that keeps me in line when I start wondering if maybe I should have pushed a little harder, dug a little deeper.  I think this shot shows that I was maxed out.

That's all there is and there ain't no more.

Be Tough

I read a good article today:

http://www.artofmanliness.com/2013/10/03/you-may-be-strong-but-are-you-tough/

The one concept that I really liked was to create little obstacles for yourself while going through the motions of daily life: walk instead of drive, run instead of walk.  Take the stairs instead of the elevator.  Do forty push-ups while watching TV.  Go barefoot.  The easy way is the soft way.

I find this MovNat stuff interesting.  May be worth checking out.  Go climb a tree.