July | 2013 | Steve Tilford

Let’s talk sprinting. I got a little riled when I was watching the finish laps of the Junior 15-16 National Championships in Madison last weekend and the announcer was saying something about now is the time when the elbows come out and that the sport becomes a contact sport. I was wondering why he would be spewing something that is really obviously wrong and against the rules of cycling. It seems that he was doing a disservice to the spectators who most likely raced bicycles. So he was signing off on contact during sprints.

Then flash forward to yesterday in the Tour de France. Cavendish knocking down Veelers at the finish will be the most common topic. To me it looks like it wasn’t intentional, but Cavendish obviously was at fault. I guess when you have a car named after you, any publicity is good publicity. It just adds to it all. But, that wasn’t the reason for the encounter. It is very hard keeping track of the riders in front of you that are peeling off from their leadouts. It surprises me that there aren’t more guys smashing into the leadout guys from behind constantly. It looked like Cavendish tried to avoid the contact, but then leaned back in, which is what he would have had to do to stay upright.

But, his statement about what happened should have not included – “All I do is follow the road … There will be net forums with people going mad about it but I follow the road, I’m not going to hit the barriers …” They weren’t anywhere near the barriers and you can’t follow the road if someone is in your way, ie you can’t ride through other riders, which he did. No matter what, he didn’t deserve having urine thrown on him today in the time trial.

Anyway, enough of that, I want to address what happened before the Cavendish problem. If you can find the sprint on video somewhere, which I can’t, and watch from 2 km in, you notice all the contact before the red kite. Peter Sagan is bumping continuously with a Orica-Greenedge guy. But the real obvious foul is when Greg Henderson headbutts a Argos-Shimano guy to keep him at bay.

When the officials went back through the video to decide if they were going to relegate Mark Cavendish, they should have DQ’d Henderson for instigating contact. Headbutting isn’t a part of bike racing. It is so weird because it seems that 90% of headbutting, historically, is done by Australians and New Zealand ex-track riders. I never noticed anyone headbutting when I was racing down there, on the road, but they definitely do it now a bunch.

Someone needs to start addressing the contact issue. Like I stated above, publicity is publicity, but let’s try to attract publicity to the sport through extraordinary feats, not by endangering our peers by doing something anyone that clips in can do.

During the Tour de France, it is easy to blow the whole morning. Well not the whole morning, just the morning until 10 or 10:30 depending on the length of the stage. Up in Cable, there are lots of choices of things to do.

Yesterday I decided it was about time I try to ride off road some. I haven’t ridden a MTB bike this year. I was pretty sure that my shoulder wasn’t going to be up to it. I was pleasantly surprised that I was wrong.

The MTB riding up here is wonderful. There are so many options. We rode from Telemark Resort to OO on singletrack the whole time. They just completed the final section from the Firetower base to Bodecker. I didn’t realize how much I missed riding in the woods until I did it again. We rode back from OO on the Chequamegon course up to Cable.

I did have a few problems. My butt hates me right now. It is completely chaffed. Last year, Bill, Catherine and I had to stop in Hayward, after 3 hours, and buy some Vaseline to limp back home. I wish I would have had it yesterday. Bill and I ended up riding about 3 1/2 hours and had to stop because of our butts. Man, are we pussies.

My shoulder didn’t work perfect, but I made due. A couple times, when my rear wheel slipped, while I was climbing off my seat, I ended up with my chest on my handlebars. I don’t have any ability to stop my forward momentum if something unexpected like that happens.

I’ve been swimming a fair amount the last couple days. Yesterday I swam 15 minutes, 3 times, for a total of 45 minutes.. It seems to be pretty good therapy. I love swimming out in the middle of nowhere, alone, under the sun. I say alone because I can’t seem to get Bromont to take a timeout of his time romping in the woods to join me. He always comes back soaking wet, so he obviously is swimming, just not with me.

My friend and orthopedic surgeon, Stacie, has been feeding us at night the last couple days. Grilled salmon, chicken, plus tons of fresh fruit. Since Trudi had to take off to work some, the food supply here is slim pickins.

Watching the finishes of these flat stages of the Tour makes you want them to be over and the mountains to start again. I hate seeing all those guys laying on the ground. Most of them are just trying to stay out of trouble and they end up hitting the pavement. Seems like Kittel has gained a lot of confidence and Cavendish’s number. He pretty much just out drag raced him today.

Alight, guess I’ll head out for a morning swim.