Monthly Archives: February 2013

Cyclocross Worlds Wrap up

This entry was posted in Comments about Cycling on by .

I’ve been thinking about why I enjoyed watching the races on Saturday so much in Louisville. I’ve posted it here many times, I’m that usually that big on spectating bike races. Especially races that I’d like to be racing. Maybe I’m just changing and have changed my mindset on this or maybe the races were just so darn exciting that I forgot about any personal issues and just enjoyed.

No matter what the complaints were on Saturday, waiting in a long line to enter the venue, to not having any nourishment, I didn’t meet anyone that wasn’t crazy excited about what was going on.

I think the main reason for this was that there were just enough people there to allow accessibility to being really close up to the action. There was hardly a place that you couldn’t eventually get up to the barriers and watch super close up. This accessibility made the race seem very special.

I think that is a big attraction that the sport of cyclo-x has going. Watching the riders as the mud sprayed off their wheels into their faces, and ours, made it that much more real. It allowed us to experience the event from as close as we can, almost from within.

I thought the crowds were awesome in Louisville. The Belgians thought there weren’t that many people there. But, from what they are used to, I can understand. But they also said they were so surprised that the fans cheered for each and every one of them. The reason for this is that many of the spectators are also participates of the sport. That is pretty special. That is the reason that our fans were so appreciative of the riders and cheered all. They have personally experienced the effort and realized how special these guys are. It was great.

I haven’t spoken to anyone that was disappointed after the event. It was very cool. Sure, it could have been better. More beer, more food, etc., but those are just ancillary things that would make it better for the casual observer. True cyclocross racers couldn’t have asked for a better day. The course, the races, and the riders guaranteed that.

I took all these pictures with just my iPhone. Pretty accessible.

This picture, of Tim Johnson, was taken through the stair run-up.

This picture, of Tim Johnson, was taken through the stair run-up.

Sven after the barriers.

Sven after the barriers.

A little ways back on the first lap.

A little ways back on the first lap.

Sven approaching the stairs.

Sven approaching the stairs.

Katie coming off the pavement the last lap.

Katie coming off the pavement the last lap.

How about accessibility to the winners. Catherine loved speaking a little French to the 3rd place finisher.

How about accessibility to the winners. Catherine loved speaking a little French to the 3rd place finisher.

Here's an incognito Brad Huff, who had made his way over from Springfield Missouri. I hardly spotted him, being so camo and blending in so well with the crowds.

Here’s an incognito Brad Huff, who had made his way over from Springfield Missouri. I hardly spotted him, being so camo and blending in so well with the crowds.

God Made a Banker

This entry was posted in Racing on by .

I saw this article over at Marketwatch. It is a commentary by Brett Arends. I know most of you won’t click the link, so I have copied the contents, which are below. It’s a spin on the Super Bowl add by Chysler, “So God made a farmer.”

To be read in the voice of Paul Harvey.

And on the eighth day God looked down on his planned paradise and said, “I need someone who can flip this for a quick buck.”

So God made a banker.

God said, “I need someone who doesn’t grow anything or make anything but who will borrow money from the public at 0% interest and then lend it back to the public at 2% or 5% or 10% and pay himself a bonus for doing so.”

So God made a banker.

God said, “I need someone who will take money from the people who work and save, and use that money to create a dotcom bubble and a housing bubble and a stock bubble and an oil bubble and a commodities bubble and a bond bubble and another stock bubble, and then sell it to people in Poughkeepsie and Spokane and Bakersfield, and pay himself another bonus.”

So God made a banker.

God said, “I need someone to build homes in the swamps and deserts using shoddy materials and other people’s money, and then use these homes as collateral for a Ponzi scheme he can sell to pensioners in California and Michigan and Sweden. I need someone who will then foreclose on those homes, kick out the occupants, and switch off the air conditioning and the plumbing, and watch the houses turn back into dirt. And then pay himself another bonus.”

So God made a banker

God said, “I need someone to lend money to people with bad credit at 30% interest in order to get his stock price up, and then, just before the loans turn bad, cash out his stock and walk away. And who, when asked later, will, with a tearful eye, say the government made him do it.”

So God made a banker

God said, “And I need somebody who will tell everyone else to stand on their own two feet, but who will then run to the government for a bailout as soon as he gets into trouble — and who will then use that bailout money to help elect a Congress that will look the other way. And then pay himself another bonus.”

So God made a banker.

I’m not sure why our society tolerates this. When I was a kid, bankers used to watch out for the less fortunate and the people who didn’t have the ability to watch out for their own money. I remember getting my first saving passbook. I looked at it everyday for a month. Kris had to empty his bank account to buy his first Colnago (from the Boulder Spoke) when he was 15. I’m sure he had to sit down with someone at the bank and have a talk. Can you imagine that happening nowadays? It was all much like Jimmy Stewart in “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Now it’s purely business, all fees and, like the above commentary so elegantly states, raping our society legally. They seem to think it’s a game of Monopoly, not people’s lives and well being there are messing with. It isn’t like it used to be. I sure wish someone with some scruples would keep a better eye on these guys.

monopoly