Does anyone care

About the actual racing anymore on the Pro Tour type level?
For me, personally, that was an awesome women's TT top 5 but I just
can't get excited about it this year. All the other BS is just killing
it. I'm totally BS fatigued.
Had a blast working a great local cross race last weekend, just two
of us, scoring by hand, old school. It was a blast to do that again.
The youngest of the kids is starting to want to play at cross,
especially, and did his first real practice tonight. Just blasting
laps on a nice old Canondale single ring setup that Adam Myerson
loaned to our kids years ago. Passed down skinsuit from JD Bilodeau.
Lots of good people, some pros, just having fun out there until it was
too dark for more. That was a blast, both for the memories of the
other kids on the bike, and the great people who continue to help out
racing and might even still post here once in a while.
Seems to me that all the crap is a great reminder how much fun riding
and racing is at the local level, especially cross where everyone's
usually at lot more laid back.
Bill C

"Bill C" wrote in message
ups.com...
About the actual racing anymore on the Pro Tour type level?

I've had the two-faced backstabbing UCI, WADA etc. up to here.

I feel sorry for the pro riders but I won't bother with professional racing
as long as WADA, USADA, UCI and the rest are run by morons.

In article . com,
Bill C wrote:

About the actual racing anymore on the Pro Tour type level?
For me, personally, that was an awesome women's TT top 5 but I just
can't get excited about it this year. All the other BS is just killing
it. I'm totally BS fatigued.
Had a blast working a great local cross race last weekend, just two
of us, scoring by hand, old school. It was a blast to do that again.
The youngest of the kids is starting to want to play at cross,
especially, and did his first real practice tonight. Just blasting
laps on a nice old Canondale single ring setup that Adam Myerson
loaned to our kids years ago. Passed down skinsuit from JD Bilodeau.
Lots of good people, some pros, just having fun out there until it was
too dark for more. That was a blast, both for the memories of the
other kids on the bike, and the great people who continue to help out
racing and might even still post here once in a while.
Seems to me that all the crap is a great reminder how much fun riding
and racing is at the local level, especially cross where everyone's
usually at lot more laid back.
Bill C

I couldn't share your sentiments much more. I like reading the ProTour
dispatches (and for that matter, the US Continental dispatches, where I
cheer for Symmetrics, especially since they have three (soon to be four)
alumni of my racing club on their team), but it's not a big deal to me.

Meanwhile, I'm on staking duty for this weekend's cross race, plus I'll
be manning the laptop (if I can get a wifi connection from the school
across the street, I might be able to get the results up in record
time), and I was walking the course with an organizer Tuesday night to
finalize the course and estimate how many stakes we'll need, and I'll be
racing on Saturday too. Not sure how I'll fit that last one in. Oh yeah,
and if everything else works out, I'll shoot video, too.

Plus, I'm growing a beard for a mustache-themed drunken cross ride
coming soon, and I will organize the second annual Drunken Polar Bear
ride, which Doesn't Actually Exist [actually, it exists].

So yeah, I like local-level amateur racing, which sure seems a lot more
fun.

--
Ryan Cousineau http://www.wiredcola.com/
"I don't want kids who are thinking about going into mathematics
to think that they have to take drugs to succeed." -Paul Erdos

Ryan Cousineau wrote:
I'll shoot video, too.

I did that last weekend, from the back of a motorcycle. All very new
to me but great fun while I wasn't really able to race myself. It was
a very unofficial event organised by the rowing club, ITT 13 km + TTT
30 km + RR 55 km. Combined classification for teams of 3. Here's the
finish of the RR:
http://www.usrtriton.nl/rondjeutrecht/2007/finish.php


--
E. Dronkert

Ryan Cousineau wrote:
Plus, I'm growing a beard for a mustache-themed drunken cross ride
coming soon, and I will organize the second annual Drunken Polar Bear
ride, which Doesn't Actually Exist [actually, it exists].

Global warming has driven the polar bears to LIVEDRUNK ?

So yeah, I like local-level amateur racing, which sure seems a lot more
fun.

If you can't win a race, at least you can try to win a training ride.

In article ,
Ewoud Dronkert wrote:

Ryan Cousineau wrote:
I'll shoot video, too.

I did that last weekend, from the back of a motorcycle. All very new
to me but great fun while I wasn't really able to race myself. It was
a very unofficial event organised by the rowing club, ITT 13 km + TTT
30 km + RR 55 km. Combined classification for teams of 3. Here's the
finish of the RR:
http://www.usrtriton.nl/rondjeutrecht/2007/finish.php

Hey, was the guy who suddenly appears at the 33 second mark trying to
draft your motorcycle? It looks like he was able to take some fairly
crucial advantage from that!

Also, your rowing club sponsored a stage race? And an unofficial race
had a finishing banner??

Wherever you were riding, that's beautiful,

--
Ryan Cousineau http://www.wiredcola.com/
"I don't want kids who are thinking about going into mathematics
to think that they have to take drugs to succeed." -Paul Erdos

Ryan Cousineau schreef:
Ewoud Dronkert wrote:
http://www.usrtriton.nl/rondjeutrecht/2007/finish.php

Hey, was the guy who suddenly appears at the 33 second mark trying to
draft your motorcycle? It looks like he was able to take some fairly
crucial advantage from that!

Yeah, we didn't see him coming. (Actually the driver did, in his mirror,
and pointed that out for me to film, but then the rider was already too
close. I saw him drafting and told my driver to get a move on.) He was
one of the two chasers that we passed earlier, who sat on a little too
long for his own sake. The advantage taken was unsignificant in the end
because he didn't win Plus he was already too far back in the
standings after the TTs for the time gain to make a difference.

Also, your rowing club sponsored a stage race? And an unofficial race
had a finishing banner??

Local bikeshop "Snel" (Howard has a cap) helped out by providing support
materials for the voiture balai and jerseys for the winners (M/W team,
M/W road race). In exchange we put up their banner. So they were the
sponsors, we (I say we but I had nothing to do with it except shoot
pictures) organised. It wasn't a race! Because otherwise we would have
had to seek police / local government approval and road closures... The
RR had one traffic light, the TTs none, fortunately. Oh and "stage
race", well, it was all on the same day. Pasta for everyone afterwards.

(In addition to commas, I also use too many parentheses.)

Wherever you were riding, that's beautiful,

Near my hometown Utrecht. Hey, it's called "Rondje Utrecht" (Little Tour
of U). There's a mighty ridgeway east of Utrecht where most of local
cyclists do their training rounds. Max. elevation 65 m.


--
E. Dronkert