during the world championship road race where did they ... pee?

Seriously. They were on the bike for 5 1/2 hours or so and, from what I saw on tv, the course seemed lined with spectators. And the pace was fast! (I've always been interested in the mundane in the midst of the non-mundane.)

------- from Joe Parkin's book, A Dog in a Hat -------------

[ He's racing at the worlds in the 80's in Ronse, Belgium ]

The course was also not conducive to peeing. In any other race of that distance, peeing would have been a breeze, as large groups of riders would have stopped en masse somewhere when the pace was easy, but that wasn't happening here. The other problem was that most of the course was lined with spectators. The part of the course that was most remote was also pretty fast. I started getting nervous about my full bladder. I had gone a couple laps more than I wanted without peeing, and I was losing my focus. In reality the pace was probably not too fast for me to have stopped, but I didn't want to risk it. I had to pee off the bike. Unfortunately, I had never practiced that before and was even a little unsure how to proceed. I had to give it a shot anyway. I dropped to the back of the peloton. I swung my right knee out and leaned off the bike as much as possible. My wrist was keeping the front of my shorts out of the way. I waited. Nothing happened. Since I couldn't pedal, I started losing ground on the back of the peloton. ****! I really had to go. I felt a hand on my back, giving me a push. I looked back to see an American teammate, Michael Engleman.

"Looks like you need some help," he said.

"Thanks," was all I could come up with. About the last thing in the world that would have been acceptable at the urinal in a public bathroom would have been another man's hand on my back. I assure you that in this case it was not only appropriate but also completely necessary. I successfully emptied my bladder on the streets of Ronse, as well as on my legs and shoes and parts of my bike. I didn't care. I had my concentration back, and both of us were able to rejoin the the peloton with minimal effort.

yirgster a écrit profondement:

| Seriously. They were on the bike for 5 1/2 hours or so and, from what
| I saw on tv, the course seemed lined with spectators. And the pace was
| fast! (I've always been interested in the mundane in the midst of the
| non-mundane.)

Ah yes.

Renaix, famous, or infamous, for some Kanuk Neverwozzer putting the boots
to Claudy and getting himself disqualified so that another Spaghetti could sneak
in for a win.

But as for taking a leak, as Davey remembers the Worlds Circuit, and Davey
was there, there was plenty of open country, the course being a right
hander exiting Renaix via the Rue de la Croix, winding around the
countryside and re-entering Renaix down the long, straight
Hogelicht/Wolvestraat with a slightly uphill finish where Claudy was
forced into the barriers by Nanook of the North and crashed.

Davey could be wrong, but thinks not, although Renaix was a hotbed of
bike racing way back before the UCI's Mars Bar salesman and his
Humpty-Dumpty (**** the Kilo, I wand a _skateboard_ event in the
Olympics and don't ask how much that increased my "Pension Plan") gopher
screwed the sport up, and there were several regular events using much
the same course.

So taking a leak wasn't an overly difficult proposition, besides which,
anybody lacking the brains to ask another rider where the ****oir was
and lacking the mechanical ability to execute the manoeuvre shouldn't
have been there in the first place.

--
Davey Crockett
Say no to the Commie New World Order
http://azurservers.com:7080/rbr/vlaams-belang.jpg

On 10/29/2011 2:10 AM, yirgster wrote:
Seriously. They were on the bike for 5 1/2 hours or so and, from what I saw on tv, the course seemed lined with spectators. And the pace was fast! (I've always been interested in the mundane in the midst of the non-mundane.)

It's done pretty much the way Joe describes, on a
downhill, at the back of the group, possibly with a
push from a teammate. A race like Philly works the
same way, they're out there for over six hours.

F