I'm Famous...and Mis-Quoted

Seattle Times article, with a brief mention of me. Yes, it is true that crits are not my favorite type of bicycle race. Yes, I do get pulled by the officials all too frequently from crits. For the record, however, never once have I hoped to be pulled from a race. On those occassions when I fall off the back, I hang on to the misguided idea that I'll somehow catch back on and ride accordingly.

But I'm not surprised by a media quote that is not what I said, even with the most liberal interpretation. I've been quoted a number of times over the years, and with exception of email interviews, I can't recall a single time when what got printed wasn't exactly what I said. If I counted it up, I'd bet that the majority of the time the reporter didn't even get the gist of it correct in one place or another.

No matter, it's an otherwise fine article that chronicles one guy's journey into the topsy-turvy world of amateur bike racing (unlike heavy rock, leave the solid piece of wood at home). It should probably be read by anyone thinking that bicycle racing is on the level of effort and committment of, say, finishing a sprint triathlon or local 5K run. When's the last time someone got pulled off the course of a 5K because they were too slow?

Bikeless in San Diego

This is the third year in a row that my June racing has turned into a steaming pile.  2007 isn't so bad, I'm actually still in decent shape, and could pop out a respectable criterium if called upon to do so (meaning, I might not get dropped four laps into it).  But in years previous, I've spent nearly the entire month of June off the bike.

I blame work.  Work makes a convenient scapegoat.  It can be a vicious circle of convenience.  Not motivated to ride?  Hey, guess what you've got more time for if you're not spending hours in the saddle?  (For those who answered "family" and "home improvement projects", I have to wonder how you got to this page in the first place.)  Now, because of all that extra time spent at work, there just isn't time to ride, is there?

In the past, I probably had a problem with motivation about the time June rolls around.  The big road races are about all done, it's probably been a mediocre season thus far (if not just outright shitacular), and now crit season is rolling around.  I call out crit season for the simple fact that my criteria for selecting a crit to race is the following:  how large is the field that is going to drop me half way into it, and is there likely to be a large crowd to watch me get pulled by the officials?  I kind of enjoy crits, it's just too bad I suck at them (short, repeated, high-wattage efforts are often not the specialty of 6' 150lb. racers).

By June, not only is my favorite type of racing more difficult to find, I've also been racing for three months.  Racing, on top of a long, dark, rainy Seattle winter of long miles, which came after a multi-month period of being a gym rat tied to a squat rack.  Maybe by June I'm a little burned out, who knows?

The workload around the office isn't any more than usual, I just find fewer excuses to blow off work to go ride.  July then rolls around, and after a refreshing break from saddle time, I wished I had spent more time riding because, hoo boy, sitting on my butt in front of a computer racing from one PezCyclingNews Daily Distraction to the next sure didn't make me any faster. 

This year was different.  This year I wanted to ride.  I haven't hit as many races as I'd like, and I'm pretty fresh (there's a lesson in there somewhere).  I still love the idea of a three hour training ride, I even relish the idea of 45 minutes of 95% heart rate hanging on to the back end of the Seward 6:00 race.

But it's been another crappy June.  I was sick most of this week, and right now I'm sitting in a hotel room in San Diego, where I'll be until Thursday for a work conference, and I'll be here with no bike.  The airlines these days might as well just put a big banner on their company web pages: "Don't even bother to try to bring a bike with you anymore.  You can try, but oh man, are we going to make you regret it."  They'll let you, but one would have an easier time deciphering the U. S. tax code than trying to figure out the rules for transporting a bike these days, and the I. R. S. at least gives you an estimate up front before you write the check.

Not so with airlines as they try to squeeze another buck or hundred out of the unwitting cyclists who remember back in the day of tossing the bike in a box and paying a small surcharge to bring a pair of wheels with them.  Flying to Monterey to Sea Otter on Southwest involved a maze of lengths, widths, weights, and charges for each dimension.  As the agent was going through all of it, and explaining that it would be this much for that length, and extra because it weighed so much, and blah, blah, blah, all I could think was, "I don't give a shit.  I need this box to go in that plane, and for it to show up in baggage claim when we're all done.  That has to happen, because I've booked a ticket, I've reserved a hotel, I've paid race fees.  I'm not scrapping the whole thing because you want $20 more than I think is fair.  Here's my credit card, fuck me in the ass; alternatively, charge whatever it takes to make this happen."  Because the agent was at least nice about it, I just smiled, nodded politely, and waited to hand her a credit card.

And fuck you they will.  $80 to bring the bike to Monterey.  To Monterey; getting it home would take another $80, or a long training ride, my choice.  That's cheap.  United, who used to give USCF members two vouchers for bike transport every year, no longer gives vouchers and wants $85 one-way.  That's if the box isn't too big and it doesn't weigh too much.  Go over either limit, and the price goes up.  I'm a software professional with a decent amount of disposable income.  I bitch about the price, but I'm not deciding between eating or flying a bike.  How the budding young Cat 1 who's barely getting by is supposed to afford to fly a bike to a big race is a mystery to me.

So I decided it wasn't logistically practical to bring the bike this trip.  I packed running shoes instead.  At the end of the trip, I will have been on a bike a total of three times in two weeks, one time being a recovery ride.  What I swore wasn't going to happen this year has happened again:  another crappy June.

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