Archive | June, 2014

Sort of Disappointed

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As many long time blog readers know, along with being an avid mountain biker, cyclist and cycling fan (both road and mountain), I am also a football fan. Football as in soccer, not football as in brown, pointy, throw, carry and only occasionally kick throughout the game ball. But for the sake of this blog post, I am going to make it easier on my five readers and refer to football in its (apparent) God-given, American, Christian name: soccer (vurp). I will also add that much of this post is aimed at my American readers, for in America soccer is not the in your face, national headline dominating sport that it is in the rest of the world, it’s primarily known as a sport for kids that don’t/won’t play “real” sports like football, baseball, basketball, hockey, softball, volleyball, golf or tennis. You many have noticed that amongst the sports I just listed there is another sport absent… cycling.

Yep, whether you like it or not fellow cyclists, there is NO doubt in my mind that most of America does NOT view what you and I do as a sport and that cycling is way more like soccer than some of you would care to admit. This is why I have to confess, I am a little disappointed at seeing some of the recent Twitter and Facebook posts from cyclists bashing soccer players as weak, faking, diving babies who need to “harden the fuck up and race bikes.” I expect these sort of things from mainstream American journalists who make their living off of football, basketball and baseball and attempt to gain readers and listeners with over-the-top statements every four years when the World Cup comes around. You know, sort of how every July when the Tour happens, some dick headed sportscaster or journalist goes on a diatribe about cycling… cardio freaks, funny hats, too tight clothing, get off the road, slowing my commute, not a sport, yada, yada, yada.

Sigh…

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Missoula Pro XCT Coverage? Part 2

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This is Part 2 to yesterday’s already updated blog post where I lamented the lack of media coverage for the 2014 Missoula Pro XCT race. I’m still lamenting, but to show that I am not just sitting around bitching about how our National cross-country race series gets roughly the same media coverage as a community college intramural volleyball match, I am updating that post with some links and a photo I stole from the Sho-Air Cannondale Team Twitter feed (I await contact from their lawyers as I type).

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A Fave

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This past weekend was one of my favorite races: The Hilly Billy Roubaix near Morgantown, West Virginia (just about 45 minutes from my old home in Western PA). I’ve done the HBR twice in the past (2010 & 2012) but much as I wanted to head back home and race it again in 2014, it just wasn’t going to happen this year.

I’ve loved the concept of Ultra CX races for years now and have long championed the formant and the series. Some longtime blog readers may even remember the weekly raids I used to make in the mountains of PA where I would mix together 40 to 60 mile loops of forest roads, double track and singletrack that featured more climbing in one ride than I get here in half a season. Sigh, memories…

Like I said, I wasn’t there this year, but much to everyone’s surprise the race happened anyway. It looked like it was a mud fest in parts and as per usual– a damn fine race. Check out winner (and fellow Michigander) Mike Simonson’s blog and his race recap. Nice to see Mike get the win and show folks that Michigan flatlanders can hold their own in the big hills (not me, but at least SOME).

You can find more about the Hilly Billy on the race’s Facebook page.

Missoula Pro XCT Coverage?

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8:17 PM UPDATE CyclingNews.com updated their site with brief coverage
and a few photos by Tom Robertson, go check it out
.

Round 4 of the USAC Pro XCT happened this past Saturday, but if I wasn’t telling you, you would be hard pressed to know it. It’s now Monday (10:45 a.m. US EST) and there are still no results listed on usacycling.org or coverage on any media outlets.

As of the time of this post the Missoula XC web page DID have the results posted, so below are the top five elite men and women.

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Dirt Day II

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Very fortunate to get out for another 2.5 hours on the bike today with very little pain. It’s been a pretty awesome weekend of riding after the long layoff. I’ll take it. However, between riding and the time I spent watching the U.S. NEARLY escape the “Group of Death” in the World Cup, I am out of time for blogging. Time for bed. So I will just post up some pics from today’s dirt road ride below…

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Less Pain, Not Pain Free

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I recently spent ten days off the bike… TEN DAYS!! Possibly the longest I have been off the bike in nearly twenty years. Some of that time off was an attempt to rest my lower back–which has been a making riding less than fun for the past month or so–and parts were due to bad luck with weather, spending time with my family unit away from home at B-Man’s soccer tournament and occasionally just not giving a shit about riding my bike. However, my back finally started to ease up a bit and I finally started to give a shit again, so I rode. It was swell.

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The Standings of The U.S.

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This morning as I clickity-click-clacked around the interwebnetsphere, I was reminded (pretty much by accident) that the U.S. has a national cross-country race series: USA Cycling’s Pro Cross Country Tour. A seven race series that is a combination of a few US Cup Pro Series races on the left side of the country, plus a race in the middle and one on the far right.

Once I was reminded of America’s dirty little cycling secret, I got to wondering who was dominating our great nation’s race series. It turns out, not many Americans. Take a look-see…

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