This season has barely started for me. I’ve done exactly 3 road races. But, I’ve watched a bunch of Euro Races on the internet. And I’ve personally viewed and experienced two racing faux pas, actually, not faux pas, but just plain stupidity, that I feel obligated to comment on.

#1 Don’t drink out of your bottle or eat something when you’re pulling at the front of a break. Both races down in Texas and now back here in Kansas last Sunday, I was in breaks, and inevitably, someone would go to the front to pull and reach down and drink when they were in front. That is wrong. And stupid.

The whole idea of being in the front is to contribute your share and keep the break moving up the road. The time for drinking and eating is when you’re at the back, not pulling. It is better for the group and way better for you. Why would you want to be trying to swallow something when going hard? Why not wait a few seconds and do it when you’re drafting. Plus, tactically, it’s just dumb too. Why reach down and take you hand off the bar to grab your bottle in front of guys that might want to drop you? I don’t know how many times I’ve attacked someone doing just that. It’s just not a good idea all around.

#2 And this one drives me nuts. Don’t try to do a double echelon when you only have 4 guys. I watched the Nokere Koerse yesterday morning and the break finally got down to 4 riders. They had a couple minutes with 20km to go and then they had a little over a minute with 10 km to go. And they were riding double echelon. Like in a square. How stupid is that. It happens to me pretty often. I get into a break with 3 other guys and they instantly start riding double echelon. I usually call them on it immediately. But, these guys in Nokere were all Pros. They have no excuse. All four of them must not of been very smart bike riders.

If 4 guys are riding double echelon, then each rider is in the wind 50% of the time. One small square. If you ride single echelon with 4 riders, each rider is only in the wind 25% of the time and the strongest riders can take longer and faster pulls.

I was once in a race in Peoria, Illinois and I got into a double echelon situation with 3 others guys. No matter how much I tried to verbally persuade them, they wouldn’t stop it. So, I just went to the back and sat. That fixed it immediately. You can’t ride double echelon with 3 riders. So, they started riding single echelon and I started pulling again. They probably would have gone faster with just 3 of them doing single echelon than 4 riders doing double. You get to draft 66% of the time, if everyone is taking even pulls, riding single echelon with 3, compared to 50% of the time, riding double echelon with 4 guys.

The World Championships used to have a Team Time Trial, which was 4 riders. Never was there a team that rode double echelon. It is just dumb.

Okay, these are the 2 observations that have been bothering me so far this season. Not really anything big. But, when riders make a bunch of small, stupid mistakes, then those mistakes eventually add up. Then after a few hours of racing, all the mistakes become an issue. Small things do matter in cycling.

Might as well ride like this at the front when you're pulling.

I was thinking how long a learning curve it is to attain enough knowledge to race a bike intelligently. If you’re really on top of everything, about the number of years it takes your body to morph into a efficient rider, your brain has enough knowledge to allow you to perform well.

I usually get stuff pretty quickly. It only took me two years on the Professional MTB scene to figure out that everyone falls down once in a while and there is nothing to be embarrassed about doing so. Other observations and tricks took longer.

Anyway, I was on the ride yesterday and we were talking about fighting. I remembered a fight that I had back in elementary school when I was in 5th grade.

I went to public schools here in Topeka, Kansas. Right next door to my elementary school was a private Catholic School that had grades 1-8. A tall chain link fence separated the two school grounds. One day during lunch, a verbal argument through the fence escalated into rock throwing. And finally meeting at the end of the fence to fight.

So a big group of us went to the end of the fence to fight a big group of “them”. But, when we got to the end of the fence, everyone sort of chickened out. Finally, my best friend came up with this great idea that one guy from each school should fight for everyone. Immediately I was the guy. I was probably 5 ft. tall and weighed 85 lbs. The Catholic guy was a 8th grader that was at least 50 lbs heavier than me.

I didn’t want to fight, but the guy punched me instantly. So, I was pissed and tackled him to the ground. I’d been fighting with my brother ever since I could walk, so I was pretty familiar with fighting tactics. I finally got the guy in a head lock with my legs, choking him. (That was the position I was always trying to attain fighting Kris.) He kept trying to hit me in the balls, but I just told him I was going to punch him in the face, and then punch him in the face, every time he hit me in the crotch. He stopped pretty quickly.

After laying there for awhile, maybe 5 minutes, the bell rang and everyone went inside. I kept trying to let the guy go, but he kept going crazy and hitting me every time I eased up with my leg pressure. So, we just stayed there on the ground at the end of the fence.

After about 10 minutes, the principle from my school, Dr. Frank Wilson, came striding across the schoolyard. Someone must of told him I was outside fighting. He was the principle of Monroe Elementary School that didn’t allow the Linda Brown to go to a all white school in Brown v. Board of Education, here in Topeka. That was the lawsuit that outlawed racial segregation in the United States. Anyway, Dr. Wilson pulled us apart and grabbed me by my collar and escorted me back to school. He told me to go to the restroom, wash up and report to his office.

I had been to his office multiple times. I’d been paddled by Dr. Wilson multiple times. That was standard procedure then. At least here, in Topeka. Anyway, I got back to his office and waited there forever. Probably 30 minutes. I was scared shitless. Eventually he opened his office door and called me in. I was positive I was going to get paddled. And he paddled hard with a paddle.

But, instead he told me to sit down. Then he asked me how I ended up the one fighting. And commented that I beat that big Catholic kid up pretty good. He then completely changed tact and asked me if I knew how to play chess. I did. He asked if I’d like to play him in a game of chess. I obviously said, “sure”, not knowing exactly what was going on.

So, I spent the rest of the afternoon in the principles office, playing chess with him and eating chocolate. I can’t remember who won. Wish I could. But, it doesn’t really matter. Not another word was spoken of the fight, calling my parents or punishment. When the final bell rang, he told me he had a very enjoyable afternoon and told me to get going. I felt like I just escaped the spanking of my life and I was super lucky.

I never really thought much about it since. But, a light bulb went off last night when I was laying there and thought that Dr. Wilson must of planned out that whole afternoon. Dr. Wilson had a PHD in education, I think. But, I’m not sure they could teach what he did that afternoon. His not paddling me and congratulating me on “winning” the fight went miles with all the students at Whitson Elementary School. Everyone in the school knew about my afternoon by the next morning. For sure.

I treated/thought of him differently my last two years. I think everyone did. He wasn’t “The Principle” anymore. He was on our side. I’d never thought of it that way.

It bothers me that it took this long to realize something so obvious. Most stuff comes pretty quickly to me. This whole thing makes me wonder how many other obtuse observations are really just simple and obvious. Probably tons.