...especially bikes with big fat tires that I can ride by myself or with cool people on asphalt, dirt, gravel, mud, concrete, sand, all kinds of stuff.
Bikes are great, a bike ride can release you from the world and give you true freedom of spirit.
Now, if you wanna read about the plague that's inflicting road racing, do it fast, cuz I'm minutes away from deleting this crap...
20 comments:
I love bikes too!
Lets hope cycling is the first 'clean' sport in a few years. Let MLB, NFL, etc etc follow our lead...
Til then, it sucks.
And til then, you'll find me riding my bike all jacked up on coffee. And medicated with a cool frosty one. Come on out, we'll show you around Mod.
sorry to bring everyone down on a friday.
lets go for ride!
I know how to chase away those blues - read up on the Great Divide Race going on right now.
Oh, I'm not blue, I'm fucking over it. The last months been nothing but blah, blah, blah, DOPING, blah, blah, blah.
I'm glad I gave up on competing in that sport over a decade ago. It's been corrupt as hell forever.
Let the immortal words of Pepperman ring out.
"IF IT AIN'T MOTO, IT'S WORTHLESS"
Sorry.. a little off subject here, but I'm not a contributor to this blog, so I'll post it here.
Ever check out Craigslist Omaha - Rants and raves?
Cut-n-paste:
http://omaha.craigslist.org/rnr/176960370.html
If you want to be mad about something - make it this guy. The team managers are handling the problem in France and I like what CSC team manager Bjarne Riis said:
"We have to protect cycling"
Go George!
Delete it!
This is a race worth paying attention to. No prize money, no substantial media or money invlolved.
Let them oversponsered dopeheads have their race I never watch it. It ranks the same as baseball and Golf. Boring to watch.
I stick to riding and racing with the local scene for my biking fun.
CYA on the trail.
Tom
Geez Mark, get off your high horse. Doping is prevalent in ALL of cycling...there are good guys and bad. It has nothing to do with dirt or pavement. It's great that everyone can say "oh, I don't care, I just ride my bike and have fun." Beautiful. But don't come with this road racing is plagued BS...
What are you John, road racing's gaurdian angel?
It's corrupt, face it, way more so than mountain bikes.
I'm just trying to put a little love back into it
Ride and be happy.
I ride and race my bike and have fun doing both. Do I live by the watch and start line anymore, NO, there's more to life than that.
If that's your thing, I'm truly happy for you.
But, YES, this situation is a plague that is unfortunately effecting cycling around the world. Notice how I say cycling? It brings us all down.
I think it plagues elite level cycling of all types.
I don't think being passionate AND active about racing, both as a spectator, competitor, and promoter, means that's all there is in life. In fact, I would argue that having these kinds of passion, for the sport, for the people, etc, is what makes life worth living.
I think I live a pretty well rounded life. I think John Jr does too-- son, husband, comedian, father, racer, promoter, and singer. Being passionate, outspoken, and willing to work hard, to take a risk and lay it out on a race course often is all a part of using every second of this gift called life.
Whats sad, and makes many of us emotional, is when our "idols" of the sport disrupt passionate competition by adding deceitful, unfair advantages.
MOD, you've probably forgotten about more races than I'll ever enter. At one time, I bet you focused very hard on racing, competition, and improving your racing. Kent did too, I'm sure.
That makes you part of the good peeps you are today. Its what makes you who you are, and the sum of those experiences helped create the loveable log riding, singlespeeding, bacon eating, bike shop rat you are today.
So everyone give each other a f*&king hug, and ride your damn bike.
Yep, I'll continue to focus on racing, riding and taking pictures of plates of bacon out at Platte River state park.
Because I love cycling.
I'm just a euro shirt tucking hippie that likes bikes. So get that High Life hand-up ready.
My goal now is to be the fastest guy with wheel reflectors!
I'm not the guardian angel of road racing, Mark.
And all you have to do is take a look at my life to know that cycling is a small part of it...but to your point, ultimately grassroots efforts are what grows the sport. Some people will grow into fans of the pro level, some will be content riding bikes with buddies and nothing more. The latter are hippies and should be eradicated. That was a joke.
It just seems to me that sometimes a line is drawn and you have to be a dirt-loving, beer drinking, non-competitive, fixed gear, bacon-loving, camera-phone toting, blogging dude to be "down."
I am a VeloNews, Cycle Sport, Pro Cycling subscribing, race promoting, rider stats reading, Jay Thomas fearing, father of one who just wants to remain cool as possible as he approaches the Masters 35+ ranks. If I can lose a few pounds along the way and bitch-slap Shimonek in a sprint...excellent.
Show me the way, Mark!
Bottom line: Cycling is a beautiful sport...that is being overrun by hippies.
Before any of you spill your coffee or drop your camera-phone to respond...relax!
But, I am serious. Hippies.
Oh, now its on! Watch your back, I will be out for a good bitch slap! And your gonna be my bitch! You catch that three exclamation points, now I gotta go get a ride in.
It's "you're"...bitch. ;-)
Lelfer is right, it's not just a problem for road racing. How easily you have forgotten Jerome Chiotti and Chris Sheppard, just to name a few. Thanks to Lance and the marketing geniuses behind him, road racing takes up a vast majority of the cycling world's spotlight, and therefore it's problems have a greater focus. On the international scene, MTB racing has been declining for years and hasn't garnered much attention.
Lefler has hurt me with his hippie comments, because I've been commuting on a fixed gear since 1991. With wheel reflectors.
Yeah it was worth a fourth post!!!!!
Dial-up!?! C'mon Christian...
I'm glad you have wheel reflectors CD, they're going to make a comeback soon.
I think I'll put them back on my Madone!
I'm gonna drag my hippie ass, wheel reflector riding, one gear is all I need attitude over to Swanson for an AM session now.
Post a Comment