Yesterday was Bernard Hinault’s birthday. He is 57. Cyclingnews did a short article here celebrating a little of Bernard’s career. The name of the article was “Bernard Hinault: The greatest of them all?”

That was a nice thing for those guys to write. It really was. And I know that you have to come up with some kind of spin to try to get people to read your writings, but I’d personally have to disagree with the title.

Don’t get me wrong, Bernard Hinault was a very, very good/great cyclist. He did win 5 Tours and a multitude of other races, about anything he wanted to win if he put his mind to it. But to imply that he was the best cyclist of all ages, that would be a stretch.

I had the pleasure of racing with Hinault quite a few times over the years. Usually racing against him, but also as a team mate for a while. While I did witness some pretty great bike riding, I never personally saw him do anything that was super human, something that I couldn’t have done on my very, very best day.

I don’t have the knowledge to be able to compare riders from different eras of the sport. But, I can compare riders that were from the same era and Greg Lemond was a far superior natural. I know his results don’t outshine Hinault’s, but when I had the opportunity to observe, Greg’s feats were off the charts incredible. I saw Greg do many things on a bicycle that I thought were impossible. Sometimes when Hinault was in the race, sometimes not. Given, I’ve had to opportunity to race with Greg many more times than Hinault, thus having much more opportunity to watch Greg do his thing, but I’ll still have to stick with my belief.

I honestly think that Hinault would not have stopped racing at such an early age, 32, if Greg Lemond would not have come into the sport. Hinault saw, first hand, how great Greg was and saw the writing on the wall. I don’t blame him.

Anyway, I feel fortunate and honored to have been able to race bikes with both of those guys. They both showed me a much higher ceiling than I could have imagined on my own. Something to try to aspire to, even though most it of it was way beyond me.

Me, Thurlow Rogers and Hinault before the start of the 2nd to last day of the RCN in Columbia. Boy, don't we look happy? We'd all crashed a bunch and were just trying to get to the finish.

Bernard pulling with me sitting. We're not off the front here, but just the opposite.

Hinault in the Reno Criterium in the Coor's race, me in 2nd. He wasn't a big fan of crits. Here he pulled the first 5-10 laps continually, super fast, 30+mph. I won close to $1000 in primes because of his method of staying out of trouble.

Lemond and Hinault in their last Tour together.

And I'd go with Bernie to take Greg in a fisticuff for sure.

I’ve been not feeling that great the last week. I’m not sure if I got some funk flying back from California or what. Plus, I have a tooth ache that seems to be not getting better even though I went to the dentist a couple days ago.

I’m not really worrying too much about it like I normally would. It is still nearly 2 months before I want to be riding well, so I don’t mind being “down” now. The only problem is that I’m supposedly doing 5 cyclo-x races in the next 9 days and as we all know, it’s pretty hard to fake it in cyclo-x. And it’s pretty hard to get better technically in the sport when you’re redlined the whole race.

Training has been a chore the last week. I’ve been going through the motions, but not really training, just riding. Mainly on gravel, which breaks up the monotony.

I went down to Lawrence yesterday to meet up with my Tradewind Energy team guys and have dinner. That was fun, but I have a super headache today and only had two beers. I am such a lightweight. I must be allergic to something in it because I never feel good after drinking beer.

It was nearly 70 degrees here in Topeka yesterday and now the high today is going to be in the mid 40’s. It’s gonna seem cold. In Tulsa, over the weekend, it’s supposed to be in the upper 70’s. It is weird how that seems hot racing cross when just a few weeks ago it was nearly cool riding road bikes. The body is strange in that re-guard.

Anyway, I decided that I’m going to learn how to surf after all this cyclo-x silliness is over. I watched a couple surfing movies and decided it was about time I actually did it. I’ve spent lots of time in the ocean and have had tons of opportunities to surf, I just never did. I body surf nearly everytime I go to the ocean. I’ve always enjoyed it more and thought it was more physical and a better workout that actually surfing. Plus, all you need is a swimsuit. It is the same as I like to snorkel more than scuba dive, even though I’m licensed to dive. It seems more streamlined, less encumbered. Or cross county ski instead of downhill.

But, all that above aside, I’m going to learn how to surf. I’m not sure where. I’ll probably start somewhere in Southern California. Maybe not. Maybe Costa Rica. I have this friend, Greg Miller, that I used to race with who now owns a hotel on the beach in Costa Rica. Greg used to own a bike shop in Seal Beach, CA called Sand Piper and he finally came to the conclusion that it is nicer living in Costa Rica on the beach than in Seal Beach fixin’ bikes, so he pulled up roots and moved. He’s been trying to get me to come down to Costa Rica for a long time. His place in Costa Rica is also called Sand Piper and he is always posting photos of great breaks right from his place. And the water is warm there.

I don’t know anything about it really. I do know I’d like to have a new athletic challenge and relax some at the same time and surfing seems to fit both. I have no idea how long it will take to get proficient enough at it to be satisfied. Probably longer than I’ll be alive.

I saw this photo somewhere a couple months ago and it is what got me thinking about wanting to surf. I know I'll most likely never be able to experience something like this, but I can always hope.