I went on a ride yesterday with a bunch of folks I have mostly never ride with. They turned out to be one of those “car up” groups. It sort of drives me crazy. The constant car up, car back, stopping, hole, ect. thing. I’m so used to riding in groups where nothing is ever said, unless someones seems to be in mortal danger, that with people are yelling every other minute, it initially scares me and eventually bugs me.

I know how this starts and it is somewhat common throughout the country. I don’t get it. Especially car up. What is the purpose of yelling car up? Telling the guys you are with to not peel off into the oncoming traffic. I always think, “boy, I was lucky they yelled because I was just about ready to ride for a while in the opposite lane.”

We went to eat after the ride at a local brewery in Hayward, The Angry Minnow. It is obvious that people are doing this vocalization to look out for the safety of the other riders. I asked if they actually thought someone was going to be riding over the center/yellow line. They said maybe. If I see someone that is riding or I think for some reason is maybe going to ride over the centerline, I’d said something more like, “WTF are you doing. Get back on the right side of the road.” Car up doesn’t really come to mind when I see something dangerous happening.

Stopping is another “saying” that is pretty valueless. I’m pretty sure I don’t want to be riding with a bunch of guys that can’t tell when the riders in front of them are stopping for a stop sign. Braking. The same thing. Can you imagine in a criterium everytime you pulled your brakes, you have to say braking.

You get my point. I’d like it if guys I’m riding with yell something if I’m running a stop sign and don’t see a car barrelling down on me, but if that isn’t the case, then maybe we can just go out and ride our bikes.

Some local photos.

Oyvind Solvang. Norwegian skiier. Super athlete. But, not such a MTB rider. It is most likely his own tread print on his shirt from his front tire. Probably not easy to do.

Nice camo, North Woods ride.

Stopped by the CXC training center and watched a painful VO2 max test.

Typical morning. They stare long enough and eventually someone will walk in the woods with them.

The boat repair project is getting a little more serious. Note to self, wear long sleeves and pants when sawing fiberglass next time.

I heard this numerous times- “This is going to end badly for Floyd”. That still might be true. I can’t exactly condone Floyd’s actions. I don’t think I’m going out on a limb here – this is going to end badly for Lance. This New York Time’s article is just the start. It is not going to go away.

It amazed me last week, over at the Tour de France, how little press there was in Europe about this whole Floyd thing. No Nightline mention. Nothing. Then when I came back to Wisconsin, it still amazed me, hanging out with local weekend warriors, that no one thought it was a big deal. And they all believed in Lance racing clean.

Jonathan Vaughters has told his guys concerned that they need to cooperate. I think most these riders don’t have any choice other than to cooperate. And the UCI has mentioned that there might be a possibility of shorter suspensions with such cooperation. This, with the fact that most of the riders concerned are approaching the end of their careers, doesn’t bode well for Lance.

Like I said earlier, I can’t support the method that Floyd used here. Frankie Andreau did it right years ago. “I took EPO. Ask Lance if you want to know about that”.

I was hoping this whole thing was going to go away. There is no downside to have a Lance Armstrong around the sport for the next couple decades. Obviously, I don’t think that is going to be the case anymore.