new season

the skies are grey and time in the shop is gaining momentum. all week i have been telling myself to write about this and to write about that. what does everyone want to har about anyway? time in the saddle? time in the shop? how much coffee i drink everyday? when their bike will be heading off to paint? all i can say is that cross is winding down and i am happy to have some days where i can read the whole sunday times before i put on rain gear and booties and head out to ride on my day “off.” the inertia it takes to race every weekend is tough. i am a cyclist that loves to ride and train and will happily ride all day and all night, but something about the race face is hard for me to get. i buckle under the silly stress of all the serious looks and nervousness at the line. it is hard for me to take it too seriously when there is more to life than racing. in my opinion, the number of people riding their old bikes with racks and rain capes to work everyday all winter do more for the “cause” than all the carbon race bikes in the world combined. i straddle the fence of interest. on one side, i am a self proclaimed roadie-fag. somethin about seeing the 1996 mapei kit covered in dust on the way to the velodrome finish gets me right in the heart. old briko sunglasses and hairnets on belgian pros from the 80’s stoke up my first memeories of bike racing and training as a junior. my other side needs the underlying movement of millions of people quietly riding their bikes to work every day of the year not questioning their heartrate or the bike under them. often times it is the same bike they have had for 10 years. this sort of petina on a machine tells me a story of a million  things this person might have seen on their way to work or the store. i go back and forth between these two motivators to why i want to build and ride bicycles. sometimes i feel like i am training for my commute.