I have trying to avoid the doping deal as much as I can.  It is like beating a dead horse, which, sounds really creepy. ( I wonder who came up with that saying.)  Anyway, it is so old.

But, the Pro Tour team, Trek, hiring Ryder Hesjedal, is something different.  I wrote a post, probably more, about Ryder and my general feeling about him.  I’ve had numerous personal encounters with him in races, where, admittedly, he was doping.   I hated it then and maybe even more now.

But, this isn’t about that.  It is about a road team that is financed mainly by Trek rehiring a rider that doped when they previously employed him.  You see, Ryder started his meteoric rise to his stardom in cycling when he was sponsored, pretty much exclusively, by Gary Fisher, a brand of Trek.

I know this happens all the time over in Europe, with other Pro tour teams, but this is different. Ryder started his career here, in the US, beating up on a bunch of MTB riders.

He,  Roland Green, and a few of their friends from up North, started the destruction of sponsorship for American riders for international mountain bike racing.   And years after this, way after Ryder confessed his sins, and had been, according to Ryder himself, been racing clean, Trek decides that he is a perfect fit for their professional road program.

This just rubs me the wrong way.  But, I’m just me.  I wonder why all these cycling specific media people never ask Trek, the pro tour Trek team, or Ryder himself, what was going through their minds when they came up with this great idea?  I guess they assume that no one really cares.

I could come up with a bunch of old MTB racers that care.  It would be easy.  I personally can come up with many friends that were greatly financially affected, to the negative, by Ryder doping his way to the Pro tour level of road cycling.

You probably don’t remember, but Ryder was in contention to win the Olympic games in 2004, but he flatted out.  I wonder if anyone would care more if he had won the Olympic games, during, according to Ryder, “the dark past of the sport”.  Here is a link to his confession at Cyclingnews.  He does apologize to his sponsors.  Maybe Trek thought this was directed exclusively to them?

I know, some will say, let bygones be bygones.  Ryder paid penalty for “dabbling” in doping, during his MTB time.  But, no, that isn’t true. Other than having to “confess”, nothing happened to Ryder.  He still has all his results, his money, his World Championship jerseys.

I’m wondering if Trek has a little exhibit up in Waterloo WIsconsin with some of Ryder’s old Gary Fisher bikes that he used to, so fairly, win the World Championships?  Maybe an exhibit showing the relationship they’ve had with him for so long, spanning close to 15 years.  It is such a nice story.

This guy, Dave Walker, beat both Ryder and I at the Iceman cometh. That should be really embarrassing for Ryder, since this was during his “dark past”. I wrote a post about it.

As a guy in love with bicycles, it is always super exciting riding a new bike.  I don’t care if it is the exact some bike as I just had, a new frame, wheels, etc. always ride just a little different than the previous one.

But, that isn’t the deal here.  I finally had time to put together that new Eriksen (Bingham design) dual suspension frame I got a couple months ago in Steamboat Springs.  It took me a little while to roundup the components and I’m still a little short, missing a XTR rear brake and top pull derailleur, but I had enough to get it together to ride.  The bike is full XTR, with 650b wheels, and a Fox CTD shock and fork.

Assembling bikes take a lot more than when I worked at Gran Sport Bike shop when I was a kid. I used to assemble bikes there and received a dollar a bike to put them together.  My brother, Kris, first had this job, but I took it over eventually.  After a while, when reflectors became law, the pay went up to $2 a bike.  I could assemble 3 an hour before reflectors.  After, it was a lot slower, around 2 an hour, so it was really just $1 an hour raise, which was still substantial.

This “build” took me a couple days.  I’m not exactly sure why.  Just a lot of stuff to deal with. Cutting the hydraulic brake lines and bleeding them takes longer than cable brakes. Plus stuff I hadn’t done before, putting the remote lockout kit on the Fox shock for one.  I have a dual lockout, which locks the front and rear suspensions together with one lever.

Whatever the reason, I was standing in the garage for hours.  I got it done about 1 am and had to take it out for its virgin ride.  I just rode down across the footbridge and headed over to Washburn University to ride on the grass.  I haven’t ridden a dual suspension bike in a really long time.  Man is it smooth over rough stuff.  I don’t know exactly how smooth, but it is pretty smooth on bumpy grass.

Tomorrow I’m heading out to LA to ride with the South Bay wheelmen on Saturday, the Donut Ride, and then go to their annual club banquet.   One of my first big road trips was out to Manhattan Beach to stay with my friend Ed Bauman, so I’ve ridden the ride a few times.  It has been going on for over 40 years.  If you’re in the area, come out out at 8 am Saturday morning. It should be a really good time.

I’m racing the BT Epic next weekend and this new Eriksen should roll those trails super quick. Berryman is a super fun race, but I didn’t do it last year, due to my broken hip.  They changed the course up a little, so I won’t know about a 1/3 of the course, not that I remember much of the other parts I’ve already raced.  It takes a lot of concentration doing that race.  It is over 50 miles and has lots of pretty technical riding.

Today, I plan to ride over to Clinton Lake and ride the trails there today.  Clinton has some pretty crazy rocky sections, especially on the white trail.  This bike should be perfect for that.  I’ll let you know how it works out.

Not the best photo, but this shows the linkage for the dual suspension.

It seems like there are lots of cables with the extra two for the remote lockout.

Here is a picture of Pat and Gwen, with their prizes for winning the Filthy 50 gravel race last weekend. Pretty great prizes, meat.