Metal Bridges/Cables/Geese

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I was riding out West in Flint Hills on Sunday and there is a long metal bridge that crosses the Kansas River. There aren’t that many bridges crossing the river between Manhattan and Lawrence. Really just a couple West and then one East in Lecompton. That isn’t counting the 4 in Topeka. Anyway, we were talking about the bridge, and my friend Jack says something about trying to ride across the bridge when it was wet. I was horrified. I thought it was common knowledge, especially for all cyclists, that metal bridges are pretty much to be completely avoided with the smallest amount of water involved.

I told him a story about racing the PAC (a race around the Performing Arts Center) criterium, during SuperWeek in Milwaukee, one time, a while back. I was in a 6 or 7 guy break. We were about 3/4 of a lap ahead and were going to lap the field for sure. The problem was that there were two short metal bridges each lap. So, all of a sudden I start feeling a little drizzle on my face. I instantly said I’m done, that I’m not riding across a bridge. These guys thought I was nuts. I pulled my brakes and got on the sidewalk. To my amazement, they made it close to two laps before they all fell. Plus the field crashed too. There is a 0% chance I could have ridden over those bridges 30 times or so.

The Dupont Stage Race on the East coast one year had the same problem. There was a break, a metal bridge, rain and then no more forward movement by the break because they all fell. I couldn’t believe that the race marshals would let the riders attempt to ride over a wet metal bridge. It defied all common sense.

I spent most of the night last night screwing with my cross bikes. Everything needed to be rebuilt. And it is barely working still. It it amazing how much damage you can do to every bearing on a bicycle, wallowing in mud for 3 days in a row. Plus, the cables. I just cut them all off and started over, which is normal. What always surprises me, changing cables, is how much housing and how many cable ends it takes. I always stretch the cables pretty seriously after I put them on. It is so weird how much the cables stretch. I don’t know where I learned that, but I know a ton of guys that don’t stretch their cables at all. I have no idea how their bikes even shift the first couple days. A team mate, a couple years ago, Nick, changed his cables before a road race in Iowa. I tried to adjust his derailleur on the go, from my bike, half way through the race, with not much luck. Afterward, we messed with it and the cable needed to be tightened a half an inch at least. Common sense again.

The geese are flying over Kansas right now. Today, it was only in the mid 20’s and we rode MTB on the trails down by the river. The geese were on a flight plan to land on the river. It was great. Then walking Bromont tonight, around midnight, there was the constant sound of the geese migrating. The wind was from the north all day and tonight, about 30 mph, so it was probably a big mileage day for them. I love listening to geese migrate at night. Ever since I spent most every night for 2 months roofing that building a couple years ago, I have a special relationship with geese. They were my only company most nights and I really appreciated the companionship. I’m going to have fond memories, probably the rest of my life, which is nice.

The metal bridge by Willard Kansas.

A picture shot down through the bridge looking at the river.

Now this bridge looks interesting.

A pile of cables after changing them.

Geese migrating near sunset.

Here is a video from the race in South Africa that has the bridge in it.

Vino Bought L-B-L???

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I read an article a couple days ago about someone hacking into Alexander Vinokourov’s email account, but didn’t really think much about it other than he might get caught up in some drug scandal. Then Velonews.com had this article from a Swiss magazine about Vino buying the 2010 Liege-Bastogne-Liege from Alexander Kolobnev for 100,000 Euros or so.

I don’t know what to think about the whole thing. Obviously, I don’t want to see classics being bought and sold. But, that being said, I’m not sure I want the media making something out of nothing when they find out that money exchanged hands after a race. I very much doubt that we’ll ever really know why Vino paid Kolobnev the money. I can think of quite a few scenarios where Vino might have agreed to pay Kolobnev that isn’t really unsporting.

I’ve written about this before, but cycling is a very strange sport because of drafting and team tactics. The best guy doesn’t always win the race. And a rider conceding to not win before the race is officially over isn’t “fixing” the results. It is the weaker rider trying to maximize his results. It happens all the time.

Below is an article from the 80’s about me having a similar problem in an important criterium, The Coors Devils Cup, outside of San Fransico, in Walnut Creek. The problem was that our team was trying to secure a Levis sponsorship, so having this article on the front page of the Chronicle’s Sports page was about as bad as it could have been, since Levis’ headquarters is in San Francisco.

If you were reading the article, as a non cyclist, you might think that the race was fixed. But not even close. The guy that finished 2nd, Charlie Holbrook, conceded the race as soon as we were off the front. He couldn’t pull and I was about to shell him when he told me that he wouldn’t sprint.

The race was strange, being a miss and out criterium. We were just about to lap the field, but the problem with that was we could still get pulled. The reward for lapping the field was one free “not get pulled” token. So, when we came up to the back of the field, we just sat behind them as the last 10 guys or so sprinted each time at the finish line and then sat up and rested. It probably looked extremely weird as a spectator. Anyway, after riding a couple laps at 20 mph behind the few riders left, Charlie tells me he is feeling much better and thought he would sprint. I explained to him how it worked when you make deal. I told him I would split the primes I had won while we were off the front, which was a lot, maybe $1500. He said that all he needed was $200 and said sure.

In the meantime, Hugh Walton, my team mate, got away from the field and lapped us in about 3 laps. I told Hugh that we had a deal. Huge wasn’t big on it, but he agreed to get third.

Now, I have a different view of this. When the combination changes, then all deals are off. Now I would have just told Hugh to take off and I would sprint with Charley. But, we didn’t do that. Anyway, Charlie secured his placing, but then went and did an interview the the Chronicle after the race that made the result look fraudulent. The paper didn’t bother to talk to me. I didn’t want to expend the energy to get rid of Charlie early on, so I agreed to pull him around. That was a gift to him, but it caused a lot of grief down the road.

Anyway, I hope that this whole Vino scandal doesn’t blow into something crazy. Like I said above, I doubt that we’ll ever really know the true story, since I can just about guarantee you that neither Vino or Kolobnev are going to talk, so it’s not really that interesting in the long run. Cyclingnew.com just published this that seems to insinuate that Kolobnev didn’t race to win. I’m still thinking that they are not going to talk, but maybe the Swiss magazine has more emails. The whole thing seems pretty shady, from both sides, the cyclists and the journalists.

Here’s the article. Click twice to enlarge.

I obviously couldn't have outsprinted Hugh at the end. Here is a photo I stole off his facebook page of his and Gordon Singleton's legs.