2. Just a word of advice: if you are a roadracing cyclist and you aren't racing in the cobbled classics, or at least in some miserable rain-soaked cow crap-plagued kermesse - don't try to tell the rest of us you just had the hardest ride ever. I am positive - it wasn't.
3. It pays to be confident in your abilities. It really pays, however, to occasionally have some doubts.
4. The roadie ethos of minimalism - rolling with a flat wallet, a clif bar, a $20 and two water bottles is pretty cool in the summer. If you're serious about training in the bad weather though, consider fenders. It's nice to look hip. It's nicer to not have a Stegasaurus spine made out of ice and mud frozen up the middle of your back. Good enough for Team CSC, good enough for me.
5. Your feet getting cold on long winter rides? Try DeFeet wool socks or some other brand of wool socks made for cyclists. They seriously don't suck.
Thank you. We now return to our regularly scheduled programming.
6 comments:
Have a close look at the CSC rig. They aren't mudflaps, they're chopped up bidons.
"Mr Riis, can we have a moment? What was your race strategy."
"Improvise."
"What was your nickname at highschool?"
"McGyver."
Yes, fenders! And if you ride in a group, not those stupid ones that attach to your seatpost. Some Los Alamos level calculations went into designing those fenders such that they fling all the water from your wheel DIRECTLY ONTO THE PERSON BEHIND YOU.
The mudflaps pictured make sure the water goes down.
Love the Socks, I'm in serious need of some good ones.
yo man, next time give us these tips at the beginning of winter!
Jim - Amy will either die or end up in jail. Let's leave her alone and hope she gets clean.
Thanks for the tip on those socks!
Hopefully spring will be here soon and we won't be thinking about wool.
Judi, I hope for her sake she lands in jail right now. That might give her a chance of going clean. Seen too many friends burn in to get any fun out of watching anybody follow that path, no matter how funny the antics might seem from time to time. I just posted that up there to remind people, the doping we see in cycling is a reflection of our society.
Mayhew - damn skippy about the fenders. You can think of yourself as a cycling purist but if aren't willing or able to make your bike more functional for cycling, there's something a little wrong with what you're doing. FWIW, I think Randonneurs are the true believers among cyclists, and roadracers a pretty close second. Randonneurs truly get it... plus if you've ever been crushed on a mountain climb by some big bearded dude on a Rivendell, with full aluminum fenders and a Carradice bag, wearing a Carhart flannel shirt and Timberlands - you see the light about what cycling really can be. It's like those "meeting Jesus on the road" stories if Jesus was out there kicking your ass on hill repeats.
Greg, John - I may have posted something like this a few months ago. Shoulda been reading the. Seriously though - DeFeet wool socks make the difference between feet being a little chilly, and discomfort. They work better than polypro or thinsulate socks, which don't work badly. (Those are about $3 at Bass Pro, and they should be on clearance by now... they are a good stopgap).
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