Cold, Pros and the End of an Era

Another weekend bites the dust, and it was a pretty good one. Originally, I was headed south to ride with the boys, but after a few beers on Friday night, I bailed on 5 hours of driving for 3-4 hours of riding. The temps were supposed to be in the high 30s so I skied for a few hours on Saturday morning and then kitted up for a ride. Riding in the winter up here is killer. No really, it is. Granted it is freaking cold most of the time and usually windy as all hell, but it is cool. The best part is the car traffic you see. The locals drive by and honk, wave and hoot when they see you. Many of them are people that I ride with during the warmer weather and many of them just know me as the guy that rides all the time in his “spider man suit”. Either way, they are stoked to see me out there hammering (or not) during the winter. Then there are the tourists who think that they are vacationing on Siberia. They look at you like you are a freak of nature. You can see them pointing and saying “did you see that guy on the bike?!?!”. It is in the high 30s and sunny people, we are not in Siberia. I saw two SUVs practically drive into the ditch because they were looking back at me trying to figure out what the hell they just saw. Pretty amusing.

On the “I am too Pro to train at home” front, I heard from Wardo this weekend.. He is in Silver City (that’s New Mexico for those of you Amateurs and/or Geographic Morons) and he was dropping the names of all sorts of pros . . .Creed this, Lipton that, TIAA-CREF this, altitude training blah blah blah. I am not sure how that is better than riding your bike in Myers’ garage, watching the 1970somthing Paris-Roubaix on a 12” TV and listening to me talk smack about how chubby he is do you?

Finally, I believe that I will be way faster this coming season., way faster. You want to know why? Hard Training? New Coach? Killer Team? Nope, none of the above. My favorite redneck bar burned to the ground Sunday night. That’s right folks, the Mooseland Grille is no more. Imagine the second hand smoke and beers that I usually consume during an average season at that establishment?!? No more. R.I.P.