Cycling is a pretty intense sport.  One that can/does take some “guts” to participate in.  In reality, it is relatively safe.  I mean that you would think that by watching it, everyone involved would be getting hurt on a pretty constant basis.  That isn’t the case.  Of course, we all do get hurt sometimes, but a casual observer would think that it would be constant carnage.

To get over the fears that one might have in the sport, repetition is what cures it.  Doing the same thing over and over again until you feel you are proficient at it.  Once you have confidence in a certain aspect of the sport, it comes much easier.

A few of the people that I’ve ridden with over the years have talked to me about trying to regain their confidence.  They haven’t been racing that much and riding much more alone.  They feel that they have lost the ability to ride tightly in a pack of cyclists.

A friend said that he was racing Master’s Nationals and the start was straight down long descent.  He said that he and a few other guys were hanging towards the back, scared and next thing they knew was that they were on the flats, 10 seconds behind.  But that 10 seconds turned into an hour chase.  My friend said he was super fit, but was blown by the time he got back to the climb to the finish.

I understand the worries.  I have to admit that I have no desire to race a wet criterium with left corners.  I do not want to fall on my left hip that I broke a couple years ago.  Not that I think that it is going to explode if I fall on it.  It is more an ingrained fear, emotional fear, not intellectual.

One thing I know in cycling is if you are riding scared all the time, the sport isn’t going to be enjoyable for you.  I’ve seen many good professional riders lose their confidence.  That is the start of the end for them.  When they feel that they are taking too many risks for the benefits, they make an intellectual decision to quit.  But it is really an emotional decision.

I was, and still am pretty much, never the best athlete in the races I compete in.  I have to try to compensate for this by riding smarter and by using my abilities better than the other guys I’m racing against.  This is one of the things that attracts me to the sport so much.  The best cyclist, truly the best rider, doesn’t have to be the best athlete, normally.  He has to be a very gifted human, but being the fittest in cycling doesn’t make you the winner normally.  You have to have more in your package than just the genetics.

Anyway, my friends that have been questioning their peloton riding, descending and such, shouldn’t stress about it so much.  I told them to just do the repetitions, put yourself in the situations and that will eventually become the new normal.

I always do this when I start questioning certain worries I have in the sport.  People always are saying it is because you are getting old or ask what do you expect now.  But I can look back upon all the years I’ve raced and realize that I sometimes had similar problems when I was a teenager, or in my 20’s or 30’s.  Eventually it all comes around.

If you didn’t start racing until your 30’s or 40’s, don’t think that it is not coming.  It is just a matter of time and repetitions.  That is why I encourage most new guys, that are super into the sport, to race as much as possible.  You can’t absorb the information in front of you when you are riding afraid.  You need to be comfortable before you can get to the next level, where you make more observations, learn more and then progress to the next level.

And I don’t think that there is a top level or end here.  I can’t think of anything I can do on a bicycle now, or have ever been able to do that couldn’t use some improvement.  I’ve done some pretty incredible things on bikes, but nothing close to perfect.

It is sort of like Jonathan Livingston Seagull.  Work for the perfection.  The job is very rewarding.

“Don’t believe what your eyes are telling you. All they show is limitation. Look with your understanding. Find out what you already know and you will see the way to fly.”
― Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Tucker gets so tired sometimes he sleeps with his tongue hanging out.

He’s a pretty happy puppy.

Okay, I got an offer, that for some reason interested me, so I’m going to put racing on hold for a few months.

I got a call from a reporter from the LA Times last week and did a fairly long interview about the Nicholas Brandt-Sorenson deal.  The story wasn’t so much on Nicholas selling doping products on the internet but was about the outrage about him holding so many Strava KOM’s in the LA area.

The reporter was asking me if the KOM’s were necessary for Strava’s business model and how much I thought that removing them would cost Strava’s bottom line.

I told him that I was kind of dismayed that the article wasn’t more about a master guy that didn’t hold a license, selling doping products.  And maybe even using them.  He said that was the premise.   I guess we were all still assuming that he was using the products he was selling to grab all these Strava KOM’s under the pseudonym Thorfinn-Sassquash.   I really have no idea if that is true.

The reporter called me up again yesterday and he has been in contact, multiple times, with Strava and they want to do a secret experiment.  At least that was how it was presented to me, but as I listened, the secrecy wasn’t really that important, thus, this post.

Anyway,  someone that knows me at Strava and this guy from the LA Times, they decided that they should fly me out to LA and pay me try to retake as many Strava KOM’s as possible from Thorfinn.  They are fairly sure that I am riding legitimately, ie, no drugs, and are interested whether I can retake any, most, or all of Mr. Sassquash’s KOM’s and how long it would take me to do it.

Obviously it wasn’t an easy decision.  They realized it wasn’t going to be a week proposition, so I told them I needed to drive out to California, to bring Tucker along, and get a place to stay semi-permanently.  Maybe I could set some KOM’s during races?

They said they would put me up in the Shade Hotel, Manhattan Beach, for two, maybe three months, and it was up to me to retake as many KOM’s as I could.  (The hotel has a killer breakfast buffet.)

I went to Thorfinn’s Strava page and saw that he has about 200+ more followers than a couple weeks ago when this all came down.  That old adage, even bad news is better than no news, or something like that ,is true.  Thorfinn set a new KOM on Tom Solane Trail Climb just yesterday.

So, I called the reporter back and told him that I would accept his offer.   I told him that they would need to find someone else to conquer the running KOM’s that Nicholas holds.  They weren’t so interested in those.  He said that the story would be on cycling.

He made sure that I was using a power meter and wanted me to record all the power numbers etc.  I told them that Strava did that already for me.   Another perk out the deal is that I’m getting a new Garmin 1000.  My old 800 is on its last legs and I didn’t think it would cut the mustard for this important endeavor.   We also talked about using a bicycle with a motor to see how many more watts it might take to reclaim the KOM’s that are too far out of reach for my meager abilities.  Seems a little ridiculous.   I don’t think that is a very  plausible idea?

I have a couple weeks to get everything in order.  I’m hoping to maybe race Joe Martin and then go out with some good form.

So,  I am going to be a the first professional Strava KOM reclaimer I guess. Not a bad gig.  Strava is sending me clothing.  I suggested that they get Thorfinn’s clothing company Brandt-Sorenson, to make the clothing(I’m interested in seeing what a $400 pair of bib shorts feel like), but I think they already have their own clothing.  Maybe I can get Nicholas himself to escort me on some of the segments?

I figure I can probably schedule 10 KOM’s per ride, so it will take me close to 90 days to try them all.  Some I might have to ride a few times, wind aided, etc., so maybe it might take a little longer.  I’m excited to be getting paid to do such an important task.    I’m hoping I can rally a few good riders to help me out later this month in the LA area.  Remember to follow me on Strava to keep up with my quest.

Heat map of the LA area. I’m studying it.

Tucker didn’t like the idea of living in a hotel for 3 or 4 months very much. I guess it would be half of his life. (He is such an exhibitionist.)