NorCal Cycling News

Good evening ladies and gentlemen. Here is a bit of humorous advertising to kick things off:

OK, we’re done here. Let’s get on with it.

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Before tonight’s blogwriting commenced, I sat down with a decidedly extravagant portion of ice cream and reflected on this weekend’s racing. I needed inspiration, and nothing was particularly forthcoming. I found myself pondering the following question, which I now pose to you:

What about our sport inspires you?

I quickly realized that, for me, this is not as straightforward a question as it seems. Certainly, I am not immune to this weekend’s traditional inspirational topics: Chad Gerlach’s commanding return to pro cycling, Lance’s appearance at a local criterium, the Tour de Nez victories of TIBCO’s hometown hero Amber Rais. However, as I reflect on this weekend, what really amps me up are guys like this:

It’s against the law to delete blogposts, so I will leave my descriptor text below.

[I cannot find a photograph of the guy yet. This text will be a placeholder until I locate such an image, which I will subsequently post. Until I do, imagine a handcyclist at the Tour de Nez. Imagine him slung low on a handcycling crit-machine, wearing a garish neon cycling jersey and even more garish neon socks. Atop his head was perched a neon old-school helmet, and he was adorned with color-coordinated neon cycling shorts. Finally, imagine his flowing ponytail that served to accentuate his speed by flailing about in the wind. It was the kind of style that few can pull off, but one he achieved with confidence and flair.]

This handcyclist may have lost the full use of his legs, but he certainly has not lost the fire, the passion, and the style required to be an ultimate badass. As he warmed up for Friday’s downtown Reno course he was exclaiming at the top of his lungs “Oh man, I am gonna be going SO f&^%ing fast through here! F*&^% yeah this is gonna be insane! Whooo!” This man makes no concessions to subtlety or propriety–he obviously loves his sport and he makes damn sure everyone can see (and hear) it.

That passion, and the people who exhibit it, is what I find truly inspirational. How about you?

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The Tour de Nez is a lot like this semi-creepy next-door neighbor I grew up with. Let’s call him “Jim.”

Jim was in his late 20’s, and he liked firearms, explosives, fast cars, and ninja weapons. As a 12-year-old boy, I was certain that he was Chuck Norris, or at the very least, that he had fought Chuck Norris and survived. So what does Jim have to do with a bike race, you ask? Well, not unlike the Tour de Nez, Jim was crazy, he was disorganized, he was dangerous, and I certainly shouldn’t have been skipping school to hang out with him on a Thursday afternoon…but when my friends and I went to Jim’s we always had a great time, and we always survived in spite of the hazards.

This year’s rendition of the TdN consisted of the downtown Truckee Crit, the classic downtown Reno Crit, and a hilly circuit race at the Northstar Resort. Both crits are crazy-technical and are littered with screaming people, live bands, and more narrow corners and chicanes than you can shake a stick at, which earns them a spot within my top-10 races of all time. If you haven’t been to the TdN before, I’d recommend it…the only downside this year was the consistently delayed racing and odd scheduling.

Now, I don’t have a ton of time, so I’m just gonna touch on some highlights:

1) Gerlach straight-up steamrolled the Men’s competition, winning the first two events and the overall omnium title. Hardcore.

2) Reaney got the callout last week, so I won’t belabor his Nez results here. However, on the final day’s stage at Northstar, CalGiant pulled a different strawberry out of the proverbial basket, this time sending Jesse Moore rocketing to victory off the wheel of his teammate Justin England.

As you can see from this image, Moore won the race by throwing a sucker-punch at Graham Howard (Bissell), and the impact was powerful enough to knock him out of the frame. True story.

3) The final stage of the Women’s race was riddled with scandal and intrigue (or perhaps simply an honest mistake). Alison Starnes (TIBCO) suffered a mechanical, got a wheel change, and chased all the way back to the lead group of six. She then attacked the leaders and soloed away for a brilliant victory, while her race-leading teammate Amber Rais won the sprint for second, securing the overall omnium. It was true heroism–or so it seemed to everyone watching. [Note: given their gender, I nearly typed heroinism…turns out it’s not the same thing]

Then came the dramatic twist. To the disbelief of everyone present, Starnes relayed in her interview that she had taken a free lap after her mechanical. No one saw her do it. I watched the whole race and would testify in court that she won legitimately. Anyway, it was clearly stated in the race bible, as well as on the start line, that free laps were NOT in effect given the difficulty of the course. She therefore forfeited her win, passing it on to her teammate Amber, who had a great three days of racing and won the overall Omnium in style.

Image from Denison Design.

Before we move on, let’s admire Starnes’ talent–not only was she strong enough to attack and stay away (regardless of the free lap fiasco), but she is also the only person in the world capable of making announcer Dave Towle speechless. After her admission, Towle (the perpetual, professional noisemaker of bike racing) literally said into the microphone, “Wow. I dont even know what to say, so I guess I’ll just stop talking.” I never thought I would hear that.

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Say what you will about Lance Armstrong, but the man is a crowd-pleaser. He dragged Levi, Horner, and about 20,000 crazed fans to Nevada City and then proceeded to flog the bloody hell out of NorCal’s finest.

Assuring himself the best photo-op, Lance lapped the field (with Levi and BJM in tow) and then launched himself off the front again, this time without his Bissell-colored shadow.

Now, Mr. Armstrong may have won handily, but there are two things I would like to point out:

1) He suffered, or at least he is a great actor. Yeah, he lapped the entire NCNCA 1.5 times, but at least it wasn’t EASY:

2) Ben Jacques-Maynes is a badass. Lance even twittered so:

I am waiting for the day when people start saying “@” before people’s names in verbal conversation.

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Blogs are useful argumentation tools. Didn’t get to interject the last word in your most recent confrontation? No problem! Just post your retroactive, well-thought-out response on your blog!

Check out this recent post on Steve Tilford’s blog, regarding an altercation with Frank Pipp at the Tour of America’s Dairyland:

“Immediately after the race, Pipp and I had some words. Pretty heated. He beat me and is winning the series overall now. I thought it was a pretty shitty way to accomplish that. He implied that I was at fault. Loudly, in front of most of the front of the field warming down, he said that I hooked him from the outside. My question to him, which I wish I would have asked him last night is that if that was the case, why weren’t we going toward the inside of the corner instead of going straight to the outside. Since it was a right hand corner and I was on the outside/left, if I had “hooked” him as he contents, we would have been going right toward the center of the course. Instead, he was slamming me and everyone else into the far left curb. There can be no hooking from the front on the outside when the field ends up on the outside.”

This can be summarized graphically:

I am not taking sides here…but the physics involved in Tilford’s argument are not convincing. Then again, I am no scientist, nor was I present.

By the way, check out the sweet Maillot Heifer on the series leader. That is a good-lookin’ jersey.

——————————————————————————————————————————————— Alright, it is bedtime for me. Barring any random, midweek, blogworthy internet finds, I take my leave until next week. Adios!