While Snake gets ready to kill it this weekend, I’ve been pondering some thoughts on women’s racing. Since the shitstorm I created this summer, women’s racing has been something I’ve wanted to post about on DC for a long time. Here it goes.
As my first year of road racing comes to an end (can I get a HELLYES!!) I’ve been thinking about future goals, about the cycling community around me, and all of the lessons learned. There have been a lot of tears shed this summer, a lot of hateful comments, emails, and I’ve come to a conclusion. There are a lot of douche bags in my cycling community.
After my horrible experience racing in a crit with men, where I lasted two laps, I made a decision not to support the races that didn’t include a women’s race. Ever.
I just can’t imagine doing this professionally. Check out this post 40 Hands sent me this morning.
The more she listened to the buzz about a new Lance Armstrong-backed bicycle stage race coming to Colorado next summer, the more she hurt. Eventually, Abbott — one of the premier female cyclists in the world — couldn`t take it anymore.
“I actually had to turn it off just because it made me so sad, because I don`t necessarily see it as very likely that they`ll have a women`s race,” Abbott said in an interview with the Camera recently.
Abbott is well aware of the economics and other circumstances that make staging high-level men’s bike races difficult in the United States — much less on the women’s side where sponsorship and public following lag far behind.
“When you have Lance Armstrong on your side, it’s easier,” Abbott said. “But we need Lance Armstrong to say, ‘And we also would like to have a women’s field.'”
You listening Lance??? You have the $$$$! Give the women their own race for fucks sake! Why is it so hard? Will someone please explain to me?
Then there’s this post.
It’s the age-old issue – equal pay for equal work. For bike racing this is a touchy subject as men and women’s prize lists are rarely equal. Not only is the pay rarely equal but the race distances are also significantly shorter……
…….To add fuel to the fire, pre-orders for the 2011 Cyclepassion calendar was announced. Cyclepassion is a calendar which features elite women racers dressed in sexy/provocative clothing. Does this help or hinder the cause for women as being seen as equal or does it just reduce them to objects?
Sex sells. Always has, always will. Money is money, and everybody is pretty much sucking dick for it these days. Including me and you.
So, where can I get a Cyclepassion calendar?
Suck My Left One – Bikini Kill
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjS0R5BmYtg&feature=related[/youtube]
Have a great weekend.
Ack – My sense of humor doesn’t translate well sometimes. I wasn’t taking it personally. Just giving you grief. We had a race in town where we got the promoters to offer FREE regostration for women, and I went out and spent my money on prizes for the women (no cash prizes we allowed), and we still had only five or six ladies. Trust me, I know what you’re talking about. But I think the efforts must continue. My womens hockey team used to have to drag women onto the ice for games. After many years of consistent efforts, this program now has a full two teams, hosts a regional womens tournament (which is now so popular we are adding a second one to the calendar) and has a fantastic travel team that plays all over the country. And hockey is traditionally a male dominated sport. Cycling has a variety of different issues involved (prize payouts, etc) that come into play, but my point (I swear I have one) is that it takes a lot of consistent effort and hopefully, if people keep encouraging female participation, fighting for better payouts, better attendance, etc… then more women will get on board (or saddle) and start enjoying this awesome sport.
And yes, typos are in that post. I’m trying to paint kitchens while typing, its hard.
Low Brow,
No Thanks, you’re too morose and odious for civil discourse. I won’t raise my glass with you.
No Cheers.
Somebody talk to Low Brow, she’s lonely. There were good points made by others in this thread. I’ve been around the bike racing scene even longer then Kerry, but I have decided not enter the serious parts of the discussion other then to say Kerry is someone well worth listening to for advice. Some interesting replies made here for sure.
Does this mean I can’t paint your kitchen? :( I’m real lonely. I need someone to ride ponies with, too. Maybe that’s why I’m so morose.
Rainbows!
@105 low brow, i’ll ride ponies with ya grrrrl. gnomey, you want to come too?
readers of DC, thank you for an awesome discussion. keep the fire BRIGHT and fight for what you want in your sport.
the end.
Reading through this reminds me of one of “Judi’s” team mates on Kenda. Silke Wunderwald.
One day this spring I headed down to the weekly training race on Wed night.
They have two races. An A race and a B race. B race is for 4/5 racers and beginners. Plenty of people get dropped from that race.
The A race is different. Pros, former national champions and plenty of cat 1s and 2s show up. There are 3s and 4s too. Plenty of the 4s are able to hang on with the Pros.
So there’s this big group of men, and Silke. She was out there animating, attacking, pulling back gaps, generally working harder than most of the men.
Point?
EVERYONE gets dropped on the road for the first few years. EVERYONE. Unless you’re some crazy genetic freak. EVERYONE.
It takes time and patience to figure the stuff out. It isn’t like mt biking where when you race, pretty much everyone gets a fucking medal. Mt biking is great, the racing scene just doesn’t reward hard work all that well unless you’re in a hyper competitive category.
Gnome is right.
One thing i’ve learned about the internet: sitting on your ass with a blog or a forum being negative don’t get you anywhere. Actually hurts things. Makes you feel good about yourself but that’s about it. You can joke with your buddies about being a tough douchebag on line and how all those assholes don’t get you or your life experience.
But in the end – ya gotta listen, and learn, and figure out how to make a positive change. Some promoters are douchebags but even the douchebag promoters do actually respond to a bit of sugar (or beer) better then they do when they get sprayed with vinegar.
Can we get to the important part of this already? …who’s sucking cock for cash?
did somebody say something about aero bars…..:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIslEGylGu0&NR=1
Lance has a cause. You have a cause. I have a cause. Some of us have a microphone waiting wherever we go. Some of us get a call from the president when we win a race. Most of us don’t.
Lance’s cause is cancer. However, it’s smoke blowing as far as I’m concerned because anyone with any sense knows that cancer is caused by two things combined:
carcinogens.
improper care for the immune system to handle those carcinogens.
I’d like to tell Lance and all those breast cancer walkers and ribbon pushers that the only way we’re going to stop cancer is cut the cancer out of our lifestyles. Cut out the pesticides, the diesel stink, the ham-fisted tearing out of walls with asbestos sans masks, the new carpets…
All the research in the world ain’t going to stop cancer.
Back to the subject at hand – I doubt Lance can do anything about the state of women’s racing. I think that women could. I always thought that women were less involved in bike racing because at the bottom of it, bike racing is a dangerous and foolhardy glory chasing, ego stroking thing. Some women dig that; most don’t. Almost all men are seduced by it, though. That temptation to compete, that thrill of victory or being near to the victorious – it all comes from that side of us that we call warrior-spirit, it comes from war making. Bicycle racing is not a peaceful activity in that sense. I think that Lance and everyone like him are just addicts to that thrill; even after they stop and say they’ve had enough, they keep coming back. There are worse things to be hooked on, of course. It’s all relative. I still always will appreciate bicycle racing of all kinds.
lj, You’re smarter than that. There’s A LOT more to determining if someone may or may not get cancer than that. Those aren’t going to help your chances, but genetics and random chance also play fair sized roles, as do a bunch of things we haven’t figured out yet. There are people what will smoke and practically bathe in mutagen and never get cancer, then there are people who live healthy lives and get ovarian cancer at 18 (which happened to a good friend of mine). Be careful with your simplistic view about cancer. You’re almost saying it’s the fault of the person with cancer. Are you going to tell the 6yr old with leukemia that it’s their fault?
well put el jefe…
my girlfriend works in cancer genetics at the diagnostic level. genetics have everything to do with what types of cancer an individual is susceptible to and which treatments they will respond best to. certain genes mutate differently.
i also agree w/ lj though regarding the need to mitigate our exposures and the significance of said exposures.
Our local cx race has the highest paying purse for women in the country. Equal to men. Come race in Southampton. Ilovetoracecross@gmail.com
http://barb.velvet.com/humor/flaming.html
And FWIW the New England Verge Cyclocross series has a women’s series:
http://www.cycle-smart.com/blog/2010/08/16/verge-neccs-kickoff-approaches-new-women%E2%80%99s-series-announced
Well, yes- it’s not that simple and every pool of data has it’s outliers and anomalies. Yes, genetics have a role and no, it’s not a child’s fault if they have cancer. You’re taking my words and going too far in inferring it, with such a question.
I just find it fucking ridiculous that people latch on to a pack mentality about these fund raisers and walks when everyone uses a motor vehicle to get to that walk. When people fly around and drive around to fight cancer, it doesn’t fight cancer!! That’s obvious to me, but not to the pack mentality.
There was a time when I would have felt good about doing it too – I went on an 18 mile walk when I was in 6th grade for a charity thing that trashed my legs… all because I believed!
I saw a woman parking for one of those breast cancer rallies who drove a TURBO DIESEL F350 to bring her ass to the meeting place… that’s just too ridiculous for words. Big loud mouth people who dare not be questioned, that’s the problem with them.
Diesel particles are the #1 carcinogen in our environment, according to the EPA, and they’ve put out the money to do the research on that.
I suggested a while ago that Cancer will be divided up into two groups, much like Diabetes.
Type 1 totally not environmental, and Type 2 completely environmental.
The big difference is you can take care of your body with food and rest and what you eat and prevent cancer from happening even if you have Type 1 cancer.
That Anti-Cancer food book is a great place to start. the Angiogenesis TED talk is also something big. Lance’s foundation would reduced cancer by way more if they did food education instead of research.
so off topic but hey – it is a sound example and decent parallel. Misguided intentions – focus not on fixing what is broken, figure out why it breaks and keep it from breaking again.
Adding prize money to women’s fields is like throwing cancer drugs at the disease. Not always productive. Even throwing money/drugs at the problem of womens participation/cancer won’t fix the root, but you can start there WHILE fixing it and make it viable again.
-gewilli
Livestrong does research?
I don’t understand why Women’s cycling isn’t getting the respect it deserves either, but a lot of it is probably USA Cycling fault for not helping promoters push the sport more. I’ve been to National mountain biking events and I’m here to tell ya the women can haul ass just as hard as the men. I’d put good money on Georgia Gould, Katie Compton, and Willow Koerber against any cat1 or cat 2 man. I’m further dumbfounded as to why women’s road racing is virtually invisible to the public. It’s like it doesn’t even exists. I just don’t get it.
First off, Judi rocks and is sincere. I met her on the internet over music taste on another blog and ended up meeting her when we both did Ironman Louisville. She raced hard, cheered others on, and showed that she had a lot of class. I had a great time hanging with her and Dominic.
I doubt she would ever through the first punch, but the girl lived through the streets. I have no doubt she can take care of herself. And she is no shrinking violet.
I hate people who try to argue that because they have such and such degree, their answer is right. Logic needs no degree. Not to mention there may be multiple solutions, or a single solutions involving multiple strategies.
This is basically a chicken or the egg argument.
– Do you get more women racers by raising purses, or do you raise purses by getting more women races.
– Do you get more women’s races and divisions by getting more participants, or do you get more participants by having more women’s races and divisions.
Grass roots support will help. Fostering newcomers will have not hurt. Lowering the entry bar (financial) for young racers will help. Lots of stuff will help. However, do not ever doubt that raising hell about perceived disparities can help. Change never happens unless people voice their opinion and demand change. Speaking out, by any medium, is the only way to start change.
WELL SAID gttim. I’m with you 100% on all of the above. Judi is a friend of mine, and while her delivery at times lacks the diplomatic graces of other womens’ cycling advocates, her heart is in the right place, and she is fearless in willingness to stand in the line of fire as a result of her passion and outspoken opinions. If nothing else, girl’s got guts. And that’s why I like her.
“focus not on fixing what is broken, figure out why it breaks and keep it from breaking again.”
What a ridiculous nonsense statement. We’re not talking about a blown fuse in a car’s dashboard here. When ‘IT’ is broken, it needs ‘repair’.
If there is only one ‘unit’ then there is only one option – to fix what is broken. I love it how people use parables such as this to wrap words around some form of non-logic and make it sound like wisdom.
There was no need to hijack this thread (starting with LJ@111).
Please start a different article/thread, “cancer and its causes”.
Thank you.
Where do these women racers leave their purses, currently? Shouldn’t they carry them with them whilst cycling, like ready-made musette bags full of toiletries, snacks and perhaps muting mood stabilizers?
@ Mikey, who said: “In my experience, the AVERAGE female cyclist is less aggressive and less willing to suffer than the AVERAGE male cyclist.”
I’m a 47-y/o woman, a lifelong bike commuter and cyclotoruist who decided to finally try bike racing two years ago. Was I going to set the world on fire? Nope. Would I win a gold medal? Nope.
Then why do it?
To see what my body is capable of before I’m too old to find out.
I have lived with Crohn’s disease my whole life, but it was not properly diagnosed until I was in my early 30’s. I spent my childhood thinking that the constant fatigue and weight loss were somehow connected to a character flaw, a weakness of spirit that kept rearing its ugly head every time I tried to do something athletic. After my fourth trip to the hospital, the vice-principal of my high school suggested I not go out for sports anymore until I could “gain some weight and get stronger”. I continued to ride for transportation and fun, but I was always dreadfully slow and sometimes had to cut my trips short. Still, I kept riding because I loved it.
Many years later, after a correct diagnosis, two surgeries and finally dialing in a medical and dietary regimen that has allowed me to get my symptoms under better control, I now know that there was NEVER a character flaw, only a physical condition that had to be addressed.
My doctor is not super-thrilled about my racing, but is glad I’ve found a discipline (short-track) that keeps the suffering to a shorter time limit. This year I raced every single week of my local short-track series, finished fifth overall, and then went on to race at my state championships. I finished third out of three in the hardest race of my life, suffering and struggling to stay on my bike in too high a gear on the final climb to the finish line.
Did I mention that I race Womens’ Singlespeed?
I won’t ever beat you in a race, mister, but I’ve already won. And as long as I’m able to, I’m gonna come back and win some more, every effing time I swing my leg over my bike. Don’t tell me women don’t know about suffering. Spend a few days in MY body, and let’s see if your understanding of suffering changes at all.
hot damn, another asshole ripped straight the fuck open.
beth h. girlie, you are awesome for taking the time to comment here. keep racing, keep pedaling, and THANK YOU.
@ Judi. My pleasure. I hope you enjoy your racing! –bh
@beth h.,SS CX!! you are a superstar! i raced ONE cx race on a ss last year and got 4th (masters 35+). all my friends gave me shit and said i would have podium’ed if i had gears. you make me want to race ss now!
Judi — racing SS is free, and freeing, because you don’t have to do anything except Pedal. Your. Bike. A lot. Obviously, it would help if I was twenty years younger, and didn’t have my little poofy-outty middle-aged belly, and well, let’s not even discuss the Crohn’s; but the fact of the matter is that singlespeed is all about FLOW and when I do it right it almost feels like flying. (Plus, it reminds me of riding my BMX bike when I was 10 and that is a feeling I don’t get tired of remembering on a bike.) Which is why I will never race on a geared bike ever, even though, at this point, doing SS exclusively will certainly shorten my, ahem, “career”.
Don’t care. Love it, love it, love it.
If you’re going to set up a SS bike, try to use a frame with track ends (NOT standard road dropouts) so you have enough room fore/aft to dial in your chain tension. You CAN run a Soulcraft Convert or similar on a road frame but it won’t be a durable or feel as solid, IMHO. Give it a go!
@beth, i ride fixed too, rode ss cx last year, choose to have gears now though, for training. im only racing 2 races w/ gears and then im switching to ss for the cxfestival races (YOU inspired me) i wont win those races even if i race with gears.
we will for sure hook up at interbike, im at the ventian tues/wed and am getting hitched sometime while we’re there. CX vegas for sure!!!
Hey Judi, “what did I get and what am I sill getting?” Let me answer that for you, “PRAISE!!!!” I cannot tell you how many people including women (yes women too) have come up to me and praised me for my stance in dealing with you, your unprovoked actions and your vulgarity. You deal in black and white and that’s it. You ask everyone to see your point yet attack others for expressing theirs? Many prominent figure heads of cycling in our area call your views, “a cancer.” I have chosen to keep quiet until now to let you do exacly what you did and that is self destruct. Its been 3 months and you are still ranting over the same issues without anything constructive to add. All the screaming for womens races yet you do less than 1/3 of them yourself (locally). I do not see you pre reg’d for Friday’s womens only class either. I believe that you live your life for the sole purpose of being an inflamitory person. There is much hate in your heart and I pitty you for having to suffer with it. Being called a douche bag by you and countless others who have never even shared a single fleeting thought with me is priceless. I have been attacked by people who don’t know me or what caused the “shitstorm” as you call it. What I have learned from the whole experience is that there are a lot of key board jockeys out there who really need to start living life instead of hiding in their solitude behind a computer finding countless ways on how to try and destruct or tarnish others reputations while they themselves play armchair quarterback pointing out everybody elses faults. As I said once before, “why don’t you stop complaining and be a part of the solution instead of the problem.” You want more races but yet won’t attend the ones we have already? That seems relatively rediculous and quite frankly to steal the word from all your fans, “douchy.” Attend the womens only races and prove to the promoters that it is a viable category (market) and supply and demand will work to your favor. I think you will find life more pleasant if you took the time to praise someone instead of attacking them all the time. I will start first…”Judi you seem to have an exhausting ammount of energy that could be put to great use helping others.” Where it goes from here is your call. You choose your own destiny and I will not allow you to tarnish my name from here on for juvenile amusement and childish antics. For all the rest of you Rick Hoeting haters, good call on making a judgement based on a one sided blog riddled with out of contex quotes and erroneous information. Oh yes their are quotes attributed to me that were not said or written by me. What do they call this? Lible. The funny thing is, all the “haters” hide behind fake names or unidentifiable user ID’s and when confronted to speak about the issues, refuse to even foster a legitimate conversation. One thing me and Judi have in common is that we aren’t afraid of being ourselves. Don’t bash me for doing the very thing you praise Judi for, speaking my mind. For all her points there is a legitimate counter point to also consider. For you haters who want to poke and bash and then hide…All I have to say, “what a weak pathetic shameful existence.” For the rest of you finding me is very easy; in person or for those who are more timid, online. The sad truth is, nobody will contact me but you will still poke and prod even though you have no clue what really transpired. Just make sure you take the time to find out who you are poking and proding though because these words do have consequences and my patience for the topic is growing thin. For those who aren’t impressed with me…great, I wasn’t trying to impress you. I don’t even know you. Matter of fact I don’t even care about you. The only reason I am here today is because a friend emailed the link to me making fun of half of you and your inflamitory posts. As I read through the posts it is so easy to identify the people who are productive in society and the ones who aren’t. You guys and girls are funny. Thanks for making me smile tonight. You make my life seem…well…just a little brighter knowing that I don’t have it so bad. I could be like you hating anyone and everything that poses a challenge in your life. I look forward to the next day and the challenges that life is going to trow my way. Speaking of challenges…
Oh and Judi, next time I see you…I am going to speak to you. I am not going to politely avoid you anymore. I am going to force you to either keep hating me or to actually learn about me and find out who I really am and what I am about. As long as you ride a bike or show up at races that I am at you will be forced to see me and hear my voice if only to say, “Hi Judi.” No more computer bull. I will deal with any additional contraversy like most humans, in person.
Lastly for those who speak of Karma, I would like to thank you all because I did get my just rewards. Sure I wrecked the bike after the shitstorm but Karma kept me from getting hurt and then allowed me to out perform any and all expectations I set for myself. For not racing in 15 years I had a great season back. I achieved all my personal and team goals set pre season. I hope you all share in the same positive Karma I experienced this year, it’s been wonderful. By the way, you create your own Karma. Crashing sucked, winning rocked! You can see those pics online. If you aren’t impressed by the winning then maybe you will be impressed by the crashing. Either way there should be some type of impression for you all to blog about endlessly.
Sincerely,
Rick Hoeting
AKA “Douche Bag”
I have to admit the nick name does make me smile a little bit.
rick hoeting – aka DOUCHE –
damn, and i actually felt BAD for you at the cleves TT this summer, when i had to BEG dominic NOT to say or do anything to you – remember? he stared you down so bad you walked back to your truck, all alone, and no one clapped when your PR was read….remember that nite? i actually texted a few girls that nite, telling them how bad i felt for you. you know what they told me? YOU made your bed.
you wanna say you didn’t write those emails? i still have them. which ones would you like me to resend to you, there are about 95 of them total, still sitting in my gmail inbox.
and those cat 4/5 podiums? you *should* be proud of those wins! wow! did you find a new team to race for? i know reeser wasn’t interested. not too many people want to be associated with you, did you know that? i guess that makes us both “cancers” in this wonderful cycling community we have.
so ya, dominic is super excited for you to come over and introduce yourself the next time you us. we both are. i’ll be racing at kings CX on SAT the 18th.
hope to see you soon rick!
i love this place. and ponies.
Rick, two words: Paragraph Break
What a long winded piece of drivel. Like the emails I got from Rick. Shit, he must have been writing everybody. Douche bag needs to get a life.
Hey Rick. You need to look up the word ‘paragraph’.
Damn. gttim beat me to it.
Can you all grow up? Rick, there was no reason to bring this back up in this forum. A reasonable discussion out of the public eye could have smoothed this over. Judi, quit threatening rick through your S.O. It’s idiotic behavior and has no place in the cycling world. You’re both adults. Act like it you fucking twatwaffles.
Damn, the comments I see when I check in to DC in general have become quite depressing as of late.
I’m going to ride. Catch y’all in the fall.
“prominent figure heads of cycling”? Talk about the tallest midgets in the room. We’re talking about riding fucking bikes here. Just because you and your friends don’t have any other priorities in your lives doesn’t really lend significance to the situation.
Ponies. And rainbows.
This is the “thread that will not die.” I almost feel sorry for Rich H. at this point. He’s a little late to the party, but he did show up with a full bottle of Jack Daniels and a bag of powdered donuts. Game on, son.
…classic, gianni, absolutely classic, all things considered…
…“the runaway rainbow w/ crystal princess, my little pony”…not only that but we’re into “a bonus episode”…
…aren’t we ever…
Yes, cancer girl. You only raced 10 or so races in this, your first season. Pathetic. And those half dozen races you volunteered at this past spring? Selfishiness knows no limit with you. And the upcoming cyclocross events you are working with the organizers on? I mean, seriously, some people contribute nothing. And I really hate how your bike mechanic boyfriend is always giving free tune ups and giving away parts, wheels, etc. And how you go on rides with beginners to help them out with their training… ugh. The worst part is how you keep having opinions of your own. I find this highly disturbing.
Now be a good girl and go get me a Coors Lite before I head out and shoot some ponies.
xoxo
Low Brow
So how do y’all feel about midget rasslin’? Now that the thread’s gone to shit, I mean. 142 comments? Dang!
…joetheexecutioner…
…your talkin’ about mental midgets, right ???…
…or is that even not politically correct terminology ???…
…’cuz there are a lotta little brains working away on any site @ any given time…
…just sayin’…
Truth be told, bgw, I pretty much lost track. I was just hopin’ someone else might have been payin’ attention.
Not me. I haven’t set a PR since 1994 and I ride down to the TT on my bike and don’t own a truck. I hope you aren’t staring down the wrong person? I think that is Jeremy. He is a real nice guy. I am the fat guy who looks out of place.
I will be there @ Kings and will re-introduce myself respectfully and yes I know what I wrote because I have the emails too and no it wasn’t 95 from me. 2 quotes are either wrong or not written by me and all of them are snipped out of context. I really don’t care unless I have to keep addressing the issue. I am still with QCW so no I don’t need a new team and yes I am relatively proud of my placings this year. And yes, you are correct, nobody wants me on their team either. That should answer all your questions. Not looking for pitty just trying to be more grown up and man up to my mistakes. I can’t change your views but I can change my actions. You want to keep hating that is your call. Hey aren’t we both cat 4’s? wouldn’t you be proud of winning too? Just saying…
I notice that when anyone offers a contrary opinion in this forum they get attacked anyway so I expected much of the same.
See you Sat or Sun.
Low Brow***I never criticized Judi for volunteering or racing. But you did hit one of the quotes attributed to me that was never said by me. For that you win the powder donuts I brought with the Jack for the party.
gttim***your a real piece of work. I haven’t written anyone in 3 months. Gonna leave it alone until this blog was sent to me rehashing the old stuff. Love your comments though. A new paragraph starts a new thought. I guess the thought was too long or complexed for you to understand so you just made fun of it instead. You make fun of Hemingway for his run on sentences too? If anyone needs a life it is you! The end.
El Douche
I like that
Rick,
Hemingway could actually write. Are you comparing yourself to him? Good writers can break with convention. That would not include you. There were several obvious paragraph breaks in there, even though it was pretty much a rambling mess.
You just don’t get it, do you? Judi gives far more to cycling and others than you ever will- Low Brow said it very well. She is far more respected. She has overcome things you could never even imagine. You simply do not compare. Get over it.
thanks for keeping this one going guys, this thread is everything that is wrong and RIGHT with blogs…just waiting for Godwin’s Law to hold true
Rick,
Back in June it was:
“I actually retired from cycling after racing 9 years pro/am with the likes of Landis, Hinkappe, Gagiolli, Phinny, Alex Stida, etc. I only came back to coach cat 4/5 riders after being asked too, and it’s hard to do it from the sidelines so I had to degrade to ride with them.”
(email sent to Robin from Rick on June 23, 2010)
Now its:
“For not racing in 15 years I had a great season back.” [wait a sec… didn’t he say he retired nine years ago? I’m confused…]
“I am the fat guy who looks out of place.”
“I haven’t set a PR since 1994”
“Hey aren’t we both cat 4’s? wouldn’t you be proud of winning too? Just saying…”
So which is it? The former GREAT who raced with the pros, and just came back to coach 4s and 5s, or some humble “fat guy who looks out of place” who is just proud to podium in Cat4?