Procrastination is normally not a great trait. It usually ends up a little less good than addressing the issue in a timely manner. I tend to procrastinate. Not always, but most of the time. I tend to procrastinate to leave options open. When you make a set decision, then all the other options are off the table.
USAC procrastinated last week. Or way before. To ride the World Cups in Las Vegas or Iowa City, if you weren’t in the top 50 in UCI points, or on the podium at Worlds, or some other unrealistic boundary, then you had to petition USAC to ride. A discretionary form. I filled one out, along with a bunch of other guys, I assume.
You had to do it three weeks ahead of time, to be notified 2 weeks before. I got an email from them less than a week before the race saying sorry, we just used the current (last years) UCI points and went down the list. I very much doubt all those guys sent in the discretionary form.
It was pretty unfair. Come on, they went down to something like 117th in UCI points. And the same 16 riders get to race both the World Cups. These are last year’s point, mind you
The deal is that there is something around 5 guys that should be racing both the races. The other 11 guys, all good, have no chance of finishing in the top 20. The best US rider in Cross Vegas last night was Jeremy Powers, our National Champion, at 18th. Belgian riders finished 13 guys in the top 16.
So, the guys that are 8th American and back aren’t contending. I’m not saying that the process was that flawed. I’m saying that USAC was super lazy. They didn’t have their meeting and go over the names. The didn’t take into consideration home court importance.
Brian Matter wasn’t in the top 16. I think he was the 18th US rider on UCI points. He has been stellar at Jinglecross the last 10 years. And he is from the Midwest. But, he didn’t get a slot. It is just wrong. Why not spread the wealth? They didn’t because of laziness or because they ran out of to make a fair selection. Procrastination.
I procrastinated working on cross bikes this past week. I’ve been too busy riding singletrack, swimming with Tucker and hanging with friends. The cross bikes just stayed in the van. Last night I put new cables on Catherine’s bike and got it up to speed. I just had to put race wheels on my bike and lube the chain. I have another day to dial it in. This is going to be one of those weekends. WIsh it was the Bora Epic.
Okay, the gang is eating breakfast, so I have to go. I’m all packed up and heading to Iowa City when we’re done. It is about 7 hours. It will give me time to sort out the weekend, brain-wise.
Taking the plunge, in the swamp, after the wood fired sauna.
Tucker is way more interested in going for a run/swim than fixing Dennis’ van door.
I’m way more interested in Tucker than fixing Dennis’ van door, too.
Lots of rain so far this week in IC. More rolling through today. Might be a tad bit gooey.
Why do you doubt those guys didn’t fill out the discretionary form? Also, why should USAC have a special meeting and open themselves up to accusations of a lack of impartiality when it make more sense to simply go off the current points list (albeit from last year)? You said it yourself that from 8th American and back they wouldn’t be contending. Are you sure it would even go that far down the list? I enjoy your blog, your old war stories are great, but frequently it just seems like you are looking for things to get annoyed with.
Did I miss something? What was wrong with Dennis’s van door?
These are world cup races with the best euros showing up. Isn’t this what we have been fighting for? How else besides last year’s UCI points would you choose riders? It’s still September.
You do realize your name is on Sunday’s start list, right?
Steve, you could have put off posting this and made your point even better.
I meant to post a reply earlier, but I had other things I wanted to do more.
steve, you gonna put up a race report on your mt bike race from last Saturday?
I replied to your post from a few days ago, re: some guy pushing you off the wheel you were on.. my question to you, did you confront him after the race ?
East of Java: Seems like we are about the same age and grew up around the same time in San Diego. Did you compete in running back then or just cycling? I actually bought an over-sized Bianchi Special (didn’t want to outgrow it too fast) way back in ’83 as a 16 year old and rode a bit, but never raced. Looking back I can’t believe my folks let me hop on the bike and ride 60 miles (usually a RB to Del Dios to Del Mar to Mira Mesa back to RB type loop) sans helmet let alone cell phone and all the other shit guys seem to need to get on a bike these days…
That might as well have been Belgian nationals. Absolute disgrace for every other country on Earth.
Mike, Steve is getting ready to answer both of your questions right now, no wait, maybe he will get to them sometime in the future.
Is that dude wearing briefs…to swim in a swamp?
how deep and cold was that water your jumping into Steve?
Jeff – Pretty cold, not deep. Like 5 feet. But it had a muddy bottom.
conrad – If they were only going to use UCI, what was the point of having a petition to race the event. Like I put in the post, there are maybe 5-10 riders that should have done both of the races. The other 6-11 slots should have been filled by different guys for each race. Riding a World Cup is very important for individuals and sponsors. Aren’t we trying to make the US sport of cyclocross more healthy?
Andy Paulin was one of the (ahem) larger members of the peloton. Perhaps THE largest. No, back then people tended to roll with things more, and not keep it real. We all just sat around afterward and said “what an asshole!”.
In contrast, now you see situations like those of Adam H. Meyerson (a few years back) where words were exchanged after a similar encounter. Adam got sucker punched and ended up with a caved-in skull. I don’t need shit like that. I was 18 and weighed like 140. What the hell was I gonna do to Andy Paulin…and then Kent Bostik, and so-on? They were huge guys. All except for Todd. I’m talking the ten speed drive guys.
We all raced together, yes, but for these guys it was a 9-5 job. They took things very seriously (much like SoCal Cat4 riders today!). I think I might have been on Gogulski’s (or even Bostik’s) wheel when it happened. To me, it was just a wheel. To them it might have been a paycheck. Or perhaps (to Paulin), it was a case of “who’s this puny shit racing with us?”
LOL Paul B., I thought that was you. We’d been classmates since sixth grade, but didn’t hang in the same circles. I’m from RB (Westwood). You were quite the XC star as I remember. No one really knew me at school because I was so heavily into bike racing from 10-12th grade. I was able to craft my schedule to get independent study PE, and do zero period so I could leave early and put in my miles, so you wouldn’t have seen me very much in H.S.
I did those same crazy insane rides too. Shame we didn’t cross paths more. Had I known you liked bikes, I’d have definitely ridden with you, as I knew damn well how talented an athlete you were then. Do you still run?
Coach McClannahan wouldn’t let me try and run XC in the fall unless I agreed to NOT bike race during the summer and train with you guys. I told him that summer was the height of bike racing season, and I was going to nationals, stage races, etc. In tenth grade, I was doing 5:30 miles in PE, with only 1 lap per day of training (during volleyball class) and he wouldn’t budge. I always wanted to try it, though. But I get it. MCHS had the best XC program around. Who was I to play Prima Donna?
You still live in SD?
Patrick Mannion
pjmanyunATyahoo
He’s writing about the Saturday World Cup race, I think. There are two UCI races (Friday and Sunday) that sandwich the World Cup race the Euros will dominate. I agree its a shame that riders like Brian Matter won’t get a shot.