Neil, the Editor of ROAD magazine, has a blog and has a great post on why he got into racing. It's a pretty good read, so go check it out.
I will expand on this topic myself, but it is a great conversation starter; why did you/ do you race bicycles?
Tim
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
i didn't know about that blog. Nice read.
I ran track and cross-country in high school, and in college I had a cross-country scholarship. I was sort of into cycling while I ran, but I got into a lot more and discovered I really really liked it. Cycling is not nearly as painful as running is :-)
small world
I went to high school with neil's wife
Because I have a need, a need for speed. O shit! I hate top gun references!
I was a runner (marathons, etc) who made the mistake of reading Runner's World. They said 'buy a bike and cross-train!' so I did, and never ran again. That was fifteen years ago.
Some friends said 'hey, you should try racing with us.' So I did, and I got shot right out the back. It was as if I had a big sign on my back that said "I didn't train enough." One could be a mid-pack runner, but there is no equivalent in cycling you either can or you can't.
At my age (I'm 45) it would be either a) mix it up with master's racers who have racing for 30+ years and be killed or b) duke it out with young and dumb kids in the crash 5s. All that serious training would take the fun out of riding, so I'll do my brevets and ride the Saturday Morning World Championships.
Let's see, I started racing BMX at about age 9. Does that count? I was obsessed with that as a kid, but tapered off as soon as I turned 16. A few years later in high school, I got my first road bike, a Trek 500 with Suntour components. At age19, I got a USCF license and started doing criteriums, which were few and far between down south in the late 80s and early 90s. Tim, I wonder if we ever did any of the same races back then. You probably did the few Atlanta races every year and the Twilight Crit in Athens didn’t you? I’ll have to go though some of my old race picture and see if I can spot a young Masiguy.
At the tender racing age of 55 I was following a guy to work one morning. He was on a training ride, I was just getting to work. After realizing we knew each other, he emailed me and challenged/goaded me into a 20K TT race. My time was respectible, and I then purchased some lighter `race' wheels and took a minute and half of my time the next month. I was hooked.
Post a Comment