Got to start somewhere

John Forrest Tomlinson said:

http://www.nyvelocity.com/content.php?id=460

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Good stuff JT! Thanks.
Hope people here add some first race stories.
Mine was local BMX stuff when I was about 10 and about as interesting
as wallpaper paste.
Bill C

John Forrest Tomlinson said:

http://www.nyvelocity.com/content.php?id=460

Hey--nice specs!
I don't see Jonathan Massey too often anymore. He's kind of a profile
in courage himself.

Steve

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John Forrest Tomlinson said:

http://www.nyvelocity.com/content.php?id=460

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damn urkel, sweet pic. want me to talk about my favorite subject huh?
ok.
my first race, snelling CA. flat and smelled like cowshit,
I felt great (it was feb and like 40 miles or something) and I attacked
in the last k, thinking I could ride the whole
field off my wheel (you all did this when you started out, don't lie)
and I got 15th.
All these FREDS just flew by me in the last 100 meters, I was positive
it was only because of "negative" racing that
I didn't win that bad boy, but it was the beggining of a long
delusional career of not winning races.
Talented at getting many 9th places, I upgraded to 3 that first year
and did win a hilly New Mexico road race in october when everyone was
cracked from a long season of racing.
I waited for Wordin or Mapei or somebody to call me that winter and
offer me a pro contract, nothing, but I still trained hard like I was a
pro, and got a 4th in my first PRO/1/2 RR (yeah it was local and in
feb, there was one pro there) - it was all downhill from there.
The thing with newbie racers is this - you don't want to discourage
them, hey you never know, they could be super talented and be the next
pro, but really, somebody should have
slapped the [censored] out of me, but a few more seasons of getting
absolutely hammered locally (by guys 20 years older than me) and out of
state did destroy any ambition or ego I had. I was delusional at the
beggining though...
I still laugh whenever I see a new rider do the "I'm gonna ride this
whole pack off my wheel alone, Ekimov style" trick, I love that.

oh, I also remember a cat. 5 or 4 in norcal named Steve Koeller who won
every single race that year, 1994? - literally won ever race I did, he
would ride the field off his wheel, I never saw or heard about him
again...

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John Forrest Tomlinson said:

http://www.nyvelocity.com/content.php?id=460

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That's beautiful.

I have two first-race stories.

My first bike race (2002) was a "twoonie race," a local beer-league
mountain bike series. I suffered like a dog on a mountain bike borrowed
from my brother (a not-bad Marin Palisades Trail with a very light, very
cheesy fork), and finished not-last. In that series my benchmark was to
try to "win" the Ladies' B race, and I didn't always achieve that in the
first year.

My first road race (2003) was a citizen's race at the local university.
Turns out it was worth somehow-valuable participation points to members
of the UBC frats, so it was me (on a used Pinarello with the fenders
still on), two serious-looking frat boys on road bikes, one non-serious
frat boy on an old road bike, and about fifty other hung-over frat boys
on complete junk. We're talking hockey helmets and Wal-mart
full-suspension mountain bikes. After a few laps, it was down to me and
one of the serious-looking frat boys. We stayed together until the last
lap, when I finally attacked and dropped him. Victory was mine.

That was the last race I looked good in until this year. In between were
a lot of World Tuesday Night Championship races where finishing in the
pack was a victory.

--
Ryan Cousineau [email hidden] http://www.wiredcola.com/
"I don't want kids who are thinking about going into mathematics
to think that they have to take drugs to succeed." -Paul Erdos

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Wonderful! The Conrad's profile really took me back. I worked a block over
from Conrad when he was on 46th Street. He was a loveable pain in the ass.
Nice to learn that John bought the shop.