I have a headache today. It started last night. I’m not sure if it’s from dehydration or altitude or smoke or what. It is super hazy around here from the fires out west. It is hard to believe that smoke blows that far to make the mountains of Colorado’s air bad.
Yesterday we rode over to Alma and back over Hossier Pass. It was only 32 miles but it had a lot of climbing. Today is the time trial at the Pro Challenge. Watching time trials isn’t normally my cup of tea, but I think I’ll end up over in Breckenridge later in the afternoon to watch the last few guys race.
Okay, below are a few pictures from yesterday.
The air in Summit County is pretty bad. You can’t really smell the smoke, but it is everywhere.
This guy was at the little coffeeshop in Alma. He told a story about signing up for Ironhorse in Durango over Memorial Day, mistakenly in the Pro division and they wouldn’t let him change it. He ended up starting the race with Ned and all the other Pro 1/2 guy, even though he’d never raced a race before. He said all the women passed him too. It was a good story.
The coffeshop had dueling ATM’s.
A pot dispensary in Alma. It is advertised as something like “the highest high”. I think Alma is the highest, by altitude, incorporated city in the United States.
The crowds for the race were just so/so in Breckenridge. This photo was taken about 30 minutes before the finish.
BMC took home nearly all the awards yesterday, finishing 1st and 2nd. Rohan Dennis is winning all the jersey categories it seems. I though this box sitting by the BMC bus was interesting.
Optum’s time trial bikes for today. It is pretty much a Hed advertisement. They look pretty fast.
And this guy is still in the race. The way of “Pro” cycling”. Go figure.
Re: Laurent Didier and that elbowing off the road. It’s a shame that certain, perhaps most, WT riders have so little respect for their Continental pro colleagues. I’ve heard Mike Creed talk about this before on his podcasts – even in the hotel hallways and lobbies some of the WT riders won’t even acknowledge or look at the continental riders.
What is amusing to me is that I was treated the same way by U.S. domestic pros as an aspiring amateur Cat 1 . And I was not the only one. Team and race staff are guilty of it, too. And it happened both on the bike and off. Competitive cycling has a twisted way of primary valuing the worth (how they are talked to or treated) of a person based on their results or their jersey. This can be unfortunate in both directions. The rider you admire and respect because of their performance may actually be an asshole. And the rider you ignore because they are a “nobody” may actually be the most interesting/fun rider to talk to and might have all the qualities you would want in a great friend but you’d never know.
I’d love to see one of these domestic guys with nothing to lose give it right back to some of the WT dudes. Push Dider into a mailbox and handicap him bad. Get those skills you learned as a domestic crit racer to work for you! Escalate the situation until he realizes that he fucked with the wrong dude. Fun!
… is this how LA got so popular?
A whole box full of staples!!?
yea, that’s road racing at all levels.
Agreed. Man, guys from Saturn, 7-up, nutra-fig tried to ride me, a lowly amateur, off the back at superweek and other NRC races — merely because I was an amateur.
Complete BS.
You and I raced in the same era. Getting ridden off the back, hooked because you had the wrong jersey, bumped for no reason, getting hip slung, etc. Not to mention how officials and promoters would be deferential. I remember seeing pros get tune-ups and parts replaced free by the neutral support Shimano/SRAM mechanic then when it was my turn it was a grudging agreement to quickly work on my bike followed by a lecture on proper bike maintenance. Good times.
Indeed. Makes me appreciate the racers who were friendly and helpful when I was starting out.
I don’t know. Forcing someone into a crash with the intention of causing harm that could likely result in being maimed, permanently disable or killed isn’t something you “would love to see” if it happened, much less if you were the cause of it. Far better to approach the person and/or the team manager/DS after the race to speak with them about it. Besides, there are ways other than crashing someone to ruin their race.
That’s the pussy’s way to solve the problem. Guys like Laurent don’t understand anything but retaliation and pain. You think his team director gives a shit that he pushed around some domestic rider? His team management probably encourages that behavior.
Come on out to Boise and try to ride. You will certainly smell the smoke. Probably cough like a smoker afterwards as well. Sky is way worse out here.
So Phil Ligget doesn’t even call it as an elbow? That is quite deferential.
I am no longer a fan of professional cycling. I have and will continue to curtail my once excessive cycling related expenditures. I will no longer watch races in person, on TV or the Internet. The behavior of a few, though probably not representative of the greater, is creating an effect in the small dark corners of the cycling industry. My interest has waned.
And perhaps my participation doesn’t count for much. But, maybe I’m not the only one who feels douchebags should not be rewarded by the aggregate of people they disdain.
I live in an area with many narrow streets and I’m also frightened by how fast so many drive down them. Given what I notice every day, it’s not surprising to read those sad statistics. I miss whipping along entirely too fast, a speed of my own making. I miss riding along bumpy forest paths. I miss the clank of the gears changing and the sound made when coasting along a quiet road.More efforts are made to make roads bike friendly. Bikeable areas improve property values, increase the number of customers at smaller retail stores, lower crime rates (since more people are visible on the streets), and enhance the sense of community among neighbors— it’s a lot easier to get to know people when they’re on bikes, rather than zipping past in their cars.