Man, it seems like it has been non stop since I got to Louisville. I really haven’t had a free minute the last two days. But, that is all done now. I’ve done two PT sessions and one, actually two injections and now I’m free, sort of.

Backing up to yesterday, I got an email from Don Walker, the guru of the NAHBS and custom steel framebuilder. He invited us to come to his house and stay. It has been so enjoyable. He builds from his home in two double car garages. He has a full machine shop and lots of super cool custom bikes. He sure knows a ton more about the sport, especially from the industry side, than I ever will. He used to race track in California and still really follows that aspect. He told me that he had met me once before, in 1983, at Track Nationals in LA. He was a junior. Obviously, I didn’t remember that, but it goes to show you how small the sport is. Anyway, he’s a super interesting guy, one of the good guys of the sport. He now builds and sponsors a local team, from cross too. Talk about opposite aspects of the sport of cycling, track riding and cross. But there isn’t a track in Louisville, so he jumped right into cyclocross.

I went over to Stacie’s office and got the PRP and finger fixed. The PRP thing is super interesting to me. The rep of the company that makes the equipment, Jonathan Wolczyk, happened to be there and he was a cool dude too. He rides bikes, more than just casually, and told me a ton about the procedure. He reps the Arthrex equipment that spins the blood to separate the plasma/platelets and the rest of the blood. I don’t know a ton about physiology, but it makes total sense to me. Concentrating platelets around an injured area seems like a basic, no brainer to me. Anyway, I got the procedure done and hope it helps my shoulder heal stronger.

Tonight, Don Walker is inviting a bunch of guys he sponsors to come over for dinner. He said in the summer, it’s nearly most Friday nights. Sounds like a tight bunch of guys. Then tomorrow we’re going to the Body Worlds exhibit at the Kentucky Science Center and then driving back to Topeka. I can’t really see packing any more stuff into a 3 day trip.

My TradeWind team mates are racing tomorrow at Hillsboro Roubaix in Illinois. It’s a good, hard, early season road race. Again, I wish I was going to be doing it too. But, I am going to ride on Sunday. First day on a bike in over 6 weeks. Should be alright. Just a little heavy and out of shape, but that is to be expected.

Talking to Don in one of his shops.

Pretty exact miters.

The centrifuge that spins the blood.

The separated plasma and platelets.

Stacie injecting the platelets back into my shoulder.

I didn’t fall in love with riding my bike initially when I got into the sport. That isn’t completely true, but there was a time after I had bought a nice bike that I was wavering on whether it was my passion.

My brother and I mowed lawns for a couple years to save up enough money to order Schwinn Sports Tourers. There were about $220. My bike came in and he was back ordered. In the meantime, a new bike shop opened in town that sold European bikes. He went over there and realized that a Schwinn was not a good deal compared to the lightweight bikes the new shop sold. So, Kris gave up his $5 deposit and bought a Motebecane Grand Record. His bike weighed about 10 lbs less than mine. It came with Campy derailluers and sewup tires.

Anyway, we started going to bike tours to ride. We didn’t ride much between the tours, just at the Tours. The problem was that we didn’t have a car and usually went with our friend Ed Bauman, who owned a VW pickup truck (I bought it from him and own it still). Thus, we were always late. Unless the tour was local, we never got to the start anywhere close to when it started.

One time we went over to the town of Leavenworth to ride a century. It is hilly over there. We got there at least a couple hours late and there wasn’t anyone at the start. Ed immediately took off and dropped us. So we, started the tour and pretty much rode as hard as we could until we couldn’t really ride any more. And that happened to me sooner than Kris.

It wasn’t a uncommon thing back then to walk the hills, towards the end of the tour especially. You’d come up to a steep hill and there would be a ton of people just walking up them. Since I didn’t know any better and since I was completely done, I just dismounted and walked. I’m not sure if people just didn’t know how to shift or were just so unfit they couldn’t ride them, but everyone did it. I probably weighted about 90 lbs then and the Schwinn was over 30. Anyway, towards the end of the tour, Kris and I were riding by ourselves, no one in sight in front of us or behind. Kris was riding the climbs and I was walking them. Kris kept encouraging me by telling me it was the last climb and we were almost done. It wasn’t really working because when I got to the top and saw the next one it just made me crazy mad.

I barely made it to the finish of that tour. I was destroyed. I was at a tipping point at that time of my life right then. I wasn’t enjoying the sport much. I truly took the addition of the competition to add enough more to the sport to keep me involved. I started racing pretty soon after that and that aspect of the sport drew me in like crazy. It was the racing, the tactics and strategy that intrigued me.

Obviously, that isn’t the only reason that I am still riding and racing my bike. But, I very much doubt I would be still doing it without the combination of all aspects of the sport. I have to admit, I’ve never again had to walk up a hill, training or in a race as far as I can remember. And I’ve ridden a ton of very steep hills around the world. From the 30% grades in the British Milk race to the cobbled climbs in Belgium, I’ve always stayed on my bike. I’m sure there will come a time when I revert back to the beginning and have to walk hills. By then, I’m hoping it won’t bother me much.

This was pretty much Kris’s Motebecane Grand Record. It was a pretty bike.

Looks like my VW pickup, only mine is in much worse condition now.

I rode this street up and down when I was in New Zealand. It is pretty steep.