I went to the Jane Goodall Live production in Topeka last night. That woman is amazing. I can’t imagine the amount of energy it takes to live her lifestyle. Traveling 300+ days a year trying to help save the planet. She is truly a hero for mankind.

While I was watching the presentation last night, I got this thought in my head about a segment I’d heard on NPR a couple days ago about the US using drone aircraft to kill some guys in Pakistan. I thought the segment was pretty interesting, but it must of bothered me subconsciously.

I think it was something that Jane Goodall said about “we’re not borrowing from our children and grandchildren, we’re stealing from them.” And that we should be looking at our actions much like the American Indians made decisions, not how the decision only affects us, but how the decisions are going to affect our “tribe” in the long term.

I have a problem with this drone warfare on a lot of different levels. Philosophically, I have a problem with just assassinating people without trial. Not to mention the collateral damage a missile inflects. Plus, it seems like a chickenshit way to conduct yourself. Build a multimillion dollar robot to fight for you. I don’t see that much difference between doing this and the roadside bombings that have now become commonplace.

But those aren’t the major reasons I’m against this. The main reason is that that it opens the door for everyone to use drones/remote control airplanes, cars, ect. to “fight” their battles. And let me tell you, it is not rocket science to strap a bunch of explosives on a remote control plane and fly it into a crowded area. I think we opened Pandora’s box here. I don’t think we should be doing things in the name of war that endanger our future generations. And this is definitely something that, in the short term, might save American soldiers lives, but in the long term, will be very costly to American society.

Okay, enough of that. Let’s all try to act more responsible.

Fritz was at the vet again most of the day yesterday. He doesn’t have any broken bones, but seems to have nerve damage on his whole left side. I thought he was having trouble with his front left side, but it’s his whole side. He is pinned up in our room and is going kind of stir crazy. He mainly spends all day and night outside, so hanging inside, under a dresser, is probably mentally stressing.

I started replacing the domes on the skylights at the building. I bought some new polycarbonate exterior domes that are supposedly hail proof. Disassembling the skylights and reassembling them is quite a process. I put the first two back together incorrectly, reversing the caulk and sticky tape. There is no instructions on this process, so it is kind of made up as I go. I think I have it down now and it will be pretty quick for the last two. I’m not going to redo the first two now. I’m sort of interested if it matters how I put it back together. I can always just redo it later.

I need to figure out what I’m doing this weekend and on. I’m sort of thinking about racing in Fort Collins. I don’t know why other than I’m interested in how bad it feels to race a cyclo-x at altitude nowadays. I’m thinking about going up to Steamboat for a bit to get some new frames, so it is sort of on the way.

There is a 100 mile gravel road ride in Lawrence this weekend, plus local cross races every weekend until next year, so racing is not a problem.

Jane Goodall is an inspiration for all.

Pretty big drone.

Not quite as enormous as “ours”, but would still do the trick. It comes with a camera and gps.

Fritz is not feeling well.

I have 5 of these just like this.

After removing the outer dome.

Back in place all fixed.

My promised photo of the repaired hole in the rubber.

From the USA Cyling Rulebook-
5G. Finish
5G1. Before the start of a race, it should be announced whether lapped riders will be pulled or remain in the race. If riders are to be pulled, the following applies:
(a) Riders who have been lapped shall continue the lap to a designated location before the finish line and withdraw, under the control of the officials.
(b) The Chief Referee may, after consulting with the organizer, impose the 80% rule. Under this rule, riders whose time gap to the race leader is at least 80% of the race leader’s time for the first lap will be pulled by the officials unless it is the final lap. The number of 80% is merely an approximation based on a typical course; the intent is that all riders should be pulled before they are lapped.
(c) Riders who have been pulled because of lapping or the 80% rule will be listed in the results based on their position when pulled and the number of laps remaining. The results will list the number of laps remaining after the lap on which they were pulled.

I’ve been pulled in exactly two cross races in my life. Elite Nationals last year in Bend and the UCI race on Sunday in Madison. Both times it was because the officials “decided” to impose this bullshit 80% rule. Neither of the times was there a chance that I was going to be lapped by the leader.

The rule is bullshit on many levels. Least of all that the officials don’t know how to calculate the time to enforce it. But most of all because it doesn’t allow good riders to have the chance to race, sometime up to the last 30% of the race. Riders that are going to finish in the top 25 of the Elite Nationals field, of over 150 guys on the start line. Riders that lost a huge chunk of their time the first two laps when they were not moving.

Another problem with the rule is that the officials seem to only use the 80% number and not the last section of part (b) that states- the intent is that all riders should be pulled before they are lapped. I think that in important races, that the officials need someone that is exclusively appointed to calculate the time that each, and every rider, will be lapped and then pull them at that point. I know that sounds like a lot of trouble, but really, it’s not. I could do it with a wrist watch and pencil easily. With basic chip timing, it would be a no-brainer.

Let’s use last weekend for an example. On Saturday, for example, the official pulling spot for the 80% rule was the same as Sunday, about 75 meters before the finish line. They pulled 6 riders, approximately 10% of the finishers at that point with 1 lap to go. So, those riders had to ride 75 meters to ride before they started their final lap and there was 0 % chance that they were going to be lapped because Ryan Trebon would have already finished the race. There should be absolutely no pulling of riders on the final lap unless there is a chance that the rider is going to interfere with the leader on the final straight.

On Sunday the same thing. I’m just going to leave myself out of the mix, but maybe up to 25% of the finishers of the race were pulled with very little chance of being lapped. And they have it “officially” stated that 28 riders, out of the 53 riders starting the race were lapped. Total bullshit. You can go all the way back to Mike Sherer, who they have officially finishing in 34th place. He would not of been lapped. He would of had to lose twice as much time with 2 to go, than he had been losing the whole race. And that is presuming that Bart Wellens would keep going the same speed as he had the whole race, which he didn’t. His final lap was 39 seconds slower than his fastest.

When I was pulled, with 2 laps to go, I waited at the line two minutes before Wellens came by. I was told by the official that the time back his was using for the 80% rule was 6 minutes, 44 seconds. I have no idea how he came up with that number. If you apply the rule correctly, 80% of the of the fastest first lap time of 8:37 is 6:51. And Wellens did an 8:26 lap, so if you subtract the two minute I stood there then it would of been only 6:26. And the official had already pulled 4 riders ahead of me, with Brad White, probably being 30 seconds ahead of me, so he was only 5 something back at the time. None of us were going to be lapped.

It didn’t really matter to me because I wasn’t having a good race, but it is the principal of the thing. At Nationals last year in Bend, I would have passed another 10 riders at least, maybe more, during the last two laps of the race I didn’t get to ride. That would have put me into the top 20, which was not a bad result considering how far back I started and how unbelievably hard it was to pass the first few laps. I would have had to lose 2 minutes to Todd in one lap when I was losing about a minute a lap average the whole race. It was just dumb.

This rule is for lazy officiating. It’s just a bad rule all around. What if a rider loses 60% the first lap. He is going to be lapped for sure the next lap, but the rule doesn’t apply. I don’t want lapped guys screwing up the finish of UCI races, but come on, this is just stupid. When there are only 8 USGP races, that have only 60 riders or so starting, I see no reason that they should be pulling over half of the guys of the race when the riders spend all this money and effort to come compete. The riders in these races aren’t shitty bike riders. They are the best in the country. I see no reason to pull them other than the officials can’t do simple arithmetic. Like the rule says, the intent is to pull riders before they are lapped, not if they not going to be lapped.

FYI – Today is National Coffee Day.

This is pretty much what I was thinking after getting pulled at Nationals last year.