NorCal Cycling News – Cycling and Racing in Northern California

This summer David LaPorte, the organizer of the Nature Valley Grand Prix, gave me an interview for a project i was working on.  He spent about 15 minutes telling me that while the road races in the NVGP were great and popular with the riders he wanted to make it very clear that the crits (Stillwater in particular) is what brings the crowds, the sponsors, and is the most American form of racing in existence.  Take that for what you will but i thought it was cool.

As i was bashing on SoCal a resident of Visalia (or the closest thing i can think of to hell) commented that NorCal folks paled in comparison to the SoCal Crit monkeys.  Of course Rand went down that very weekend and won a crit so it looked good for us, but I have to say for the most part, he’s right.  NorCal does not work hard enough on it’s crits.  We have some of the best crit riders in the country, Holloway, Reaney, McCook, Brooke Miller, and even Rand but these guys are the exception not the rule.  If they show up it’s game over.  In general the prestige is saved up for races like Mt. Hamilton, or Merco, not slug fests like Davis, or the recent Santa Cruz Crit.  Unlike other parts of the country like NYC/NJ/Philly or LAX where crit racing is how riders move through the system a strong Cat 2 can progress easily in NorCal without learning how to turn a tight six corner crit.

This weekend  is the famous Copperopolis, the Roubaix of NorCal, but there are two crits which i feel replicate classic east coast style courses.  The Menlo Park Grand Prix and Easter Cri are flat and have plentiful sharp corners, and are the type of course that need to be ridden more often by the rank and file of NorCal riders.

Menlo Park Grand Prix

The MPGP is right down the street from me so it’s kind of my home race but I have always like the course, despite the truck that always seems to be parked in the last corner.  The first iteration of the course had two long, long, straight aways and four solid corners.  It reminded me of Sommerville (without the drunk Jersey crowd) and after promoter Lori Lee Lown added a few corners the course became a flat technical course that could end in a bunch sprint or break if riders brought their A Game fitness.  It is also great for women riders as LLL stacks the event with a great combination of races for women riders.  It’s a great course for Peninsula riders to get a real feeling of what a decent course is like.

Easter Crit (Fremont)

This is a bastard child of an early bird running two hair pin turns and two 90 degree turns.  This is the kind of race that I would do in Toronto which would be a few hairpins and about 50 people just slugging it out in an office park.  It’s not a pretty race but it’s the kind of crit which does two things. 1. it makes you fast since you are sprinting out of every corner. Intervals for 45-90 minutes 2. If you survive you have a really good shot at winning.

Why Are Crits important?

I think almost 60% of races on the calendar are crits (at least that was the figure a few years ago.) If you have any aspirations of being a real bike racer (like a pro, nearly pro, or master pro) they way you are going to make money is on the crit circuit.  Your big domestic salary will not cover your lavish lifestyle.  There may not be any money in NorCal races but what little there is usually is doled out at the crits.  In other parts of the US crit money can be substantial.  If you are one of those riders that “don’t like” crits or don’t think they are real racing..well, give up now, cause you already lost.

I have a follow up piece on a race strategy, closely related to rand style aggressive crit racing, that incorporates an Image Score concept inspired by Brooke Miller. I will try to publish that before the weekend.   I might even go back and re-read and edit this post in the AM – but don’t count on it.

 

It has been a rough few weeks at my house with traveling spouse, sick kids, and then sick me.  My writing/riding time got a little hit and then my motivation was totally destroyed by a stomach thing.  I even stooped to reaching out to Hernando for motivation… and while i’m not going with his suggestion, when in doubt make fun of Lance, i got this idea seconds after he responded so I give him credit.  It’s in a hippie energy thing… no other way of explaining it.

So I kind of want to write something about Sea Otter, in fact, I totally want to go down there, but they did not respond to my one request about media credentials (don’t laugh, there are way freakier bloggers out there that get press credentials than us – we we get traffic), but I’ve been hedging since I have to work, well….at least show up,  and i’m a-feared I’ll have to pay $20 for parking.  I was about to look up results when i saw picture of Kristen Armstrong in a Sea Otter stage race yellow jersey.  Holy crap it’s ugly.  I mean it’s like Nebraska Century Club ugly.

I just realized this is going to be long and rambling.   Guess it’s good you are all at stage races and shit.

I suppose I understand why US stage races all feel compelled to use yellow as their race leader jersey color but it doesn’t keep me from feeling a little annoyed.  I have one yellow jersey, which I inevitably wear in July, meaning that everybody i see on the Spectrum, Valley Ride, or morning ride makes fun of me.  Why am i mocked?  Because yellow is the color of Le Tour.  It’s their jersey color.  They own it.  They should trade mark it so somebody like Sea Otter doesn’t go and create a hot mess, which is my favorite Project Runway expression, that they then slap on riders who I like to see do well.

What’s wrong with that sucker?  Where to start…. First, they have font problems.  It’s three different font treatments stuck in a black blob.  The variable font gives me a vague sense of neon.  What they hell is that!  A vague sense of neon? Can’t they just pick a freaking font and stick with it?  I don’t think it even matches anything they have on their website or logo. I really don’t think they could have come up with that lettering unless they gave one line each to three different designers, and then had a fourth designer go and then put it in a frame under pain of death not to modify the thickness or color.  Or they had a city college design student work on it.  Now i feel like i’m hurting somebody’s feelings, but you should be told.  The font isn’t working.

Second – Where the hell is the cute little otter that they put on shirts and stuff.  The only thing that Sea Otter really has going for it is they can use a cute little otter in an Olympic mascot type of way.  I see no reason they don’t get that otter on the jersey. In fact, why not make the color brown like a sea otter’s fur. I now it’s not an obvious choice and maybe it wouldn’t stand out enough but it would be better than using yellow which panders to the notion that the only thing American’s understand is a winner wears a yellow jersey.

Third – they have that crazy tiger strip stuff going on the front.  That tiger stripr stuff has “Cipo fashion miss” all over it.  It’s not as bad as the Slim Good Body suit he wore one year, which literally almost made me throw up, but it’s kind of tacky.  Now the tiger stuff probably wouldn’t be too bad, if it wasn’t for the crazy neon like font that is all over the front but the two together equals hot mess. Oh, and to cap it all off, they forgot to leave room for team logo iron on so you have to cram that poor little monkey at the bottom of the jersey.  Which of course reminds me of a joke… “A sea otter and a monkey walk in to a bar…”

I’ll let Sea Otter off the hook for a second to rant about this pathological need to put race leaders in yellow jerseys.  We get it, the leader of the Le Tour wears yellow and since that’s a race that many American’s can relate too I understand why you stick a leader in yellow.  However… the more memorable races, which look to unseat the ASO from their pre-eminent spot at the top of the world stage racing scene have their own trademark colors.  The Giro has the pink jersey, and after a few years experimenting with the color “gold” the Veulta has settled on red, which does have a Spanish vibe to it given their flag, bull fighting, and FC Barcelona.

What do American stage races do?  TOC, Mt Hood, Cascade, NVGP, San Dimas, Merco, all use some version of the yellow jersey.  It makes sense but is really pretty boring and does nothing to help their events stand out.  Now that I think about it… Sea Otter just didn’t go far enough.  They needed to go full Cipo.  They need a “Zebra” jersey or something that can brand their race and make the leader identifiable for fan’s that can’t easily identify a disgraced former Euro-Star (Mancebo), random Australian (Ben Day), or American that should famous  like Kristen Armstrong. (No Dad! She is not Lance’s Sister)

 

The lesson here?  Yellow is safe, but Zebra stripes are forever.  Definitely time to get Tim Gunn into the picture to figure out a jersey design for a race.  I vote for rhinestones.  Everything looks better when it sparkles.

 

Every once and a while an article comment is so good I have to make it into it’s own article.  Our comments feature kind of blows, and one day we will get it fixed, but I like to highlight smart, but mostly stupid, comments we get from our Peanut Gallery.  The post I am highlighting today was one of the smart ones.

After our NorCal local num-nut got suspended by the USADA, and then consequently, Peter Cannell was given mandatory time off, comments on masters doping rolled in more frequently than in the past.  We all know it’s a tricky situation… most likely we know somebody (and know them well) thats doing it, but it is so hard to say if it’s anybody good or if they are just mediocre.  Suffice it to say the offenders probably cross the spectrum.  There is no money for extensive testing, and yet, a person’s willingness to dope for a race with $200 in prize money seems pathological and pathetic.  Paul D. chimed in with a post which i think summed up a great, healthy, well articulated NorCal attitude and mirrored some of my own thoughts on the subject.  I am putting it up here so it gets a broader read.  Reprinted here with Paul D’s permission.

Based on the notion that the main object of life is to be a happy fella or gal — in a dahlia lama balanced and inner-peaceful kind of way — perhaps the saddest part of amateur doping is that it is a recipe for true unhappiness for those who do it.

There is nothing more satisfying than putting in an honest off-season’s work to better oneself, and to see the results of that effort bare themselves out on race courses the following spring. This certainly doesn’t mean winning all the time. Winning isn’t really the result that matters. It’s about enjoying the daily process of effort and truly knowing that you did the best you could.

But amateur doping — which must always be done out of some starting place of negative emotions like fear, low self esteem or greed — will never allow the racer to experience that honest inner satisfaction. The doper will always have that secret to hide, along with the lingering question of how much of their result was really “them” vs. the drugs.

I guess that’s why I’m not actually angry at any of these amateur cheaters. In fact, I actually feel sort of bad for them, not only because I know that they’re suffering inside (thus the reason they doped in the first place), but also because they don’t have the wisdom to recognize that their cheating will do nothing but make them even unhappier in the end.

And being unhappy in life is a lot worse than finishing last in a bike race, if you ask me.

That is wisdom at its best.

 

If we think of cycling in america as being a mob controlled by five families Colorado is one of the older, but waning, powers.  They used to have a serious mafia there – USA Cycling in Colorado Springs, 7-11 in Boulder, and the Red Zinger/Coors Classic, and the entity that would become VeloNews.  But that has all vanished – ProTeams have drifted to California, efforts to revive a stage race are only just coming to fruition, and VeloNews just doesn’t feel awesome anymore when you can read any one of 50 other sights about pro cycling in Europe and a handfull of beter ones about pro cycling in the states.

If anything Colorado is going to loose even more of its luster.  USA Cycling would bail on Colorado Springs in a second if they weren’t getting free office space (or some crazy stupid deal), a drug scandal rocked the local Boulder cycling scene this summer, and VeloNews…well, they have good distribution for their print magazine. Good luck with that! They are one step away from becoming Bicycling Magazine.  Their editorial policies must be something like… If Lance was there go with that; if somebody tested positive, put it at the bottom of the page; if it was an American try to find a good “innocence” angle, and see if you can get a quote from Lance.  Keep up the good work!

They only thing they have going for them is the Quizno’s Tour and what seems more precarious than a major one week tour in the US?  And what will happen to the race if Novitsky’s investigation into Armstrong gets more serious?  The Quizno Tour built their race on his back!

People will still move to Boulder and Colorado for the outdoor lifestyle and strong cycling community but their power broker days are coming to a close.   It’s a land of good training rides, and no races.  Who wants that?

Since Vaughters and McQuid steal all our material anyway I have some more stuff for them to mull over.

The recent news about the “breakaway” league should be awesome for NorCal. Any pro league is going to need it’s minor league to help fill the pipeline.  There are only a few places in the world that can fill this role and NorCal has to be at the top of the list.  Belgium, Italy, and the US domestic ranks definitely fill that first level down.  I see them as the AAA Baseball, the American Hockey League, or Arena Football of cycling.  You can almost make a living here if you are careful, know what you are doing and don’t mind the travel and second rate hotels.  NorCal is down one more rung where you go to get noticed and get bloodied.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think NorCal can fill that first tier.  I see NorCal, and the Belgian lower ranks as filling the role of the Iron League.  A league filled with kids, veterans, and misfits who just want to ride their bikes and attack each other until they puke.  The names would be awesome too… Madera Marauders, or the Santa Rosa Rednecks.  I reserve The Chief’s for my franchise, that name has history.

This whole post is just an excuse to stick in a Slapshot clip (best sports movie evah!)  And… to see if those guys keep stealing our material.