Lance Armstrong to open bike shop



"Ryan Cousineau" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:rcousine-2F5727.20263319032008@[74.223.185.199.nw.nuvox.net]...
> In article <[email protected]>,
> "Tom Kunich" <cyclintom@yahoo. com> wrote:
>> And how was I doing it?
>
> You never left Cat 5 and you declined to contest sprints. You should
> have done time trials and stuck with it.
>
> Even a personal best is sort of honourable.
>
> At least you didn't ride in Harrison Hot Springs:
>
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/rcousine/2336500893/

Geez Ryan, firstly I can't TT. A personal best would be 3 mph below the last
guy. Secondly, if you can't win the sprint even on a lucky day, "contesting"
the sprints is stupid and dangerous. By all means get in there with the
other 12th place finishers and endanger them and you in your attempt to
finish 11th.

I loved the feel of a fast moving pack and I liked helping, even leading
out, our team sprinter. But that doesn't mean that I should somehow have
felt the need to win what is in essence a bicycle ride.
 
Carl Sundquist wrote:
>
> "Crescentius Vespasianus" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>>>> ------------
>>>> I think it has to do the ass opposite, ....distance itself from
>>>> racing as much as possible. For most people, including myself, bike
>>>> racing is a big turn-off. I didn't really like the people, when I
>>>> was doing it myself.
>>>
>>> You were doing it wrong.
>> ----------
>> I should have done something like ski jumping, at least there is a fan
>> base in that sport.
>>
>
> If that's your priority...
-----------
I just wish I would have been involved
in a sport where the fans actually like
the participants. What few fans there
are in bike racing, are only there to
watch someone they hate, lose. Just
read rbr, in the summer, it's all about
hating that guy, or the other. I'm not
saying it isn't deserved, it is. It's
just that the whole culture sucks.
 
On Mar 19, 8:42 am, Crescentius Vespasianus <[email protected]>
wrote:
> [email protected] wrote:
> > If Lance is smart he won't run the shop or hire a consultant. Racing
> > and running a bike shop are different realms. One big advantage that
> > Lance has is that he actually rides a bike. I was always amazed at how
> > few people in the bike industry ride a bike. Most people in the bike
> > business don't ride at all. Another problem is that there is far to
> > little interaction between bicycle racing and bike business.
>
> ------------
> I think it has to do the ass opposite,
> ....distance itself from racing as much
> as possible.  For most people, including
> myself, bike racing is a big turn-off.
> I didn't really like the people, when I
> was doing it myself.  It's apples and
> oranges, but if you want to try your
> theory, open a bike shop that is
> specific only to bike racing, and see
> how many people come in.  The average
> guy, I'm guessing, that wants to buy a
> bike, wants a little adventure, and to
> stay fit and lose a little weight.
> That's light years from the haughtiness,
> and self absorption that bike racers
> cling on to.

I agree completely.

Mort
 
In article <[email protected]>,
"Tom Kunich" <cyclintom@yahoo. com> wrote:

> "Ryan Cousineau" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:rcousine-2F5727.20263319032008@[74.223.185.199.nw.nuvox.net]...
> > In article <[email protected]>,
> > "Tom Kunich" <cyclintom@yahoo. com> wrote:
> >> And how was I doing it?
> >
> > You never left Cat 5 and you declined to contest sprints. You should
> > have done time trials and stuck with it.
> >
> > Even a personal best is sort of honourable.
> >
> > At least you didn't ride in Harrison Hot Springs:
> >
> > http://www.flickr.com/photos/rcousine/2336500893/
>
> Geez Ryan, firstly I can't TT. A personal best would be 3 mph below the last
> guy. Secondly, if you can't win the sprint even on a lucky day, "contesting"
> the sprints is stupid and dangerous. By all means get in there with the
> other 12th place finishers and endanger them and you in your attempt to
> finish 11th.

Well, please don't take it too seriously. After all, it's entirely
possible I was drunk when I posted that.

> I loved the feel of a fast moving pack and I liked helping, even leading
> out, our team sprinter. But that doesn't mean that I should somehow have
> felt the need to win what is in essence a bicycle ride.

That said...

"Road racing imitates life, the way it would be without the corruptive
influence of civilization. When you seen an enemy lying on the ground,
what's your first reaction? To help him to his feet. In road racing you
kick him to death." - Tim Krabbe, The Rider

--
Ryan Cousineau [email protected] http://www.wiredcola.com/
"In other newsgroups, they killfile trolls."
"In rec.bicycles.racing, we coach them."
 
"Ryan Cousineau" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:rcousine-85FB07.17530920032008@[74.223.185.199.nw.nuvox.net]...
> In article <[email protected]>,
> "Tom Kunich" <cyclintom@yahoo. com> wrote:
>> I loved the feel of a fast moving pack and I liked helping, even leading
>> out, our team sprinter. But that doesn't mean that I should somehow have
>> felt the need to win what is in essence a bicycle ride.
>
> That said...
>
> "Road racing imitates life, the way it would be without the corruptive
> influence of civilization. When you seen an enemy lying on the ground,
> what's your first reaction? To help him to his feet. In road racing you
> kick him to death." - Tim Krabbe, The Rider

So do you believe Tim Krabbe to be an expert in these matters?

I rode with a group with whom I was always 300 yards behind going as hard as
I could to catch up. Whenever I got close enough to be part of the group
they sped up.

After racing for 3 years I was much faster than all of them but I would
simply ride with the group since that was my desire.

Now that I've been out of racing for 10 years and that fitness is well and
truly gone, I find everyone else riding the same way they did when I
started.
 
WELL, then how about COUSINEAU or KUNICH on the door ?
would that please you?
 
In article <[email protected]>,
"Tom Kunich" <cyclintom@yahoo. com> wrote:

> "Ryan Cousineau" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:rcousine-85FB07.17530920032008@[74.223.185.199.nw.nuvox.net]...
> > In article <[email protected]>,
> > "Tom Kunich" <cyclintom@yahoo. com> wrote:
> >> I loved the feel of a fast moving pack and I liked helping, even leading
> >> out, our team sprinter. But that doesn't mean that I should somehow have
> >> felt the need to win what is in essence a bicycle ride.
> >
> > That said...
> >
> > "Road racing imitates life, the way it would be without the corruptive
> > influence of civilization. When you seen an enemy lying on the ground,
> > what's your first reaction? To help him to his feet. In road racing you
> > kick him to death." - Tim Krabbe, The Rider
>
> So do you believe Tim Krabbe to be an expert in these matters?

Yes.

I have not read widely in the field of cycling literature, but I have
read a fair bit of literature. Krabbe's novel is one of the truest books
I have read in ways large and small, and his fictionalization of a bike
race is so sufficient that I feel no other document is necessary to
describe the essence of amateur racing.

http://www.rapha.cc/index.php?page=420

> I rode with a group with whom I was always 300 yards behind going as hard as
> I could to catch up. Whenever I got close enough to be part of the group
> they sped up.
>
> After racing for 3 years I was much faster than all of them but I would
> simply ride with the group since that was my desire.
>
> Now that I've been out of racing for 10 years and that fitness is well and
> truly gone, I find everyone else riding the same way they did when I
> started.

The themes of road racing are cruelty and suffering. When you are really
in the race, you will be suffering. If you are lucky, the other guy is
suffering more. When you are sure that is the case, you attack, because
the weak must be eliminated from the pack.

But always, there is suffering. You try to minimize your own pain, but
it is literal, and if you have half a brain, it will be overwhelming.
You should just give up. But as I once read in NYCVelocity, all bike
racers are mental.

To be spit out the pack is the worst pain of all, and the agony of
failure is all that keeps most riders suffering along.

In my own racing, I haven't really become inured to the suffering. In
many of my most successful races, I have gone through a period when the
race was clearly too hard for me, when I went into a funk that was like
depression, and when I understood that the amount of suffering going on
was ridiculously disproportionate to the ludicrous task of winning a
Tuesday night crit, and that it would be okay to stop trying.

Then I got better, and in some cases I won. Because everybody else was
suffering too.

Bike racing is not for everyone. It is mental. The riders are, too. Some
people who ride bikes do not have the temprament for racing, or the
interest, or the ability. They are the lucky ones. The only thing that
keeps it the least bit sensible is that it doesn't matter, and that it's
wonderful.

As for TTs, they are of course a ridiculous parody of bike racing: all
the suffering, but with only a stopwatch as your adversary. It hurts,
but there is no winner.

So to sum up, I love racing, and would recommend it to everyone.

--
Ryan Cousineau [email protected] http://www.wiredcola.com/
"In other newsgroups, they killfile trolls."
"In rec.bicycles.racing, we coach them."
 
amazing! life as a bicycle race. excellent.
you'll get over it
SAY, Trek orders Lemonds, no?
or was that the ;point
 
Ryan Cousineau wrote:
> The themes of road racing are cruelty and suffering.
<snip>

I think all truths about bike racing can be found in "The Good, the Bad, and
the Ugly" with Clint Eastwood.

Mark
http://marcofanelli.blogspot.com
 
Off The Back wrote:
> I think all truths about bike racing can be found in "The Good, the Bad,
> and the Ugly" with Clint Eastwood.

Presumably Flandis is the ugly, so the question is who's the good and the
bad.
 
"Ryan Cousineau" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:rcousine-6093BF.23310520032008@[74.223.185.199.nw.nuvox.net]...
> In article <[email protected]>,
> "Tom Kunich" <cyclintom@yahoo. com> wrote:
>>
>> So do you believe Tim Krabbe to be an expert in these matters?
>
> Yes.
>
> So to sum up, I love racing, and would recommend it to everyone.

Man, to think that somehow you correlate an amateur race with a pro race.
 
In article <[email protected]>,
"Tom Kunich" <cyclintom@yahoo. com> wrote:

> "Ryan Cousineau" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:rcousine-6093BF.23310520032008@[74.223.185.199.nw.nuvox.net]...
> > In article <[email protected]>,
> > "Tom Kunich" <cyclintom@yahoo. com> wrote:
> >>
> >> So do you believe Tim Krabbe to be an expert in these matters?
> >
> > Yes.
> >
> > So to sum up, I love racing, and would recommend it to everyone.
>
> Man, to think that somehow you correlate an amateur race with a pro race.

You've trimmed my post, so what amateur race did I "correlate" with a
pro race?

As far as I can tell, I used an imaginary race as an exemplar of all
amateur races,

--
Ryan Cousineau [email protected] http://www.wiredcola.com/
"In other newsgroups, they killfile trolls."
"In rec.bicycles.racing, we coach them."
 
In article <[email protected]>,
Donald Munro <[email protected]> wrote:

> Off The Back wrote:
> > I think all truths about bike racing can be found in "The Good, the Bad,
> > and the Ugly" with Clint Eastwood.
>
> Presumably Flandis is the ugly, so the question is who's the good and the
> bad.

Lance is the bad. I nominate Greg Lemonde for the Good.

--
Michael Press
 
In article
<[email protected]>,
datakoll <[email protected]> wrote:

> wong flick
>
> HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER

If we're nominating there is

Johnny Caspar: It's gettin' so a businessman can't expect
no return from a fixed fight. Now, if you can't trust a
fix, what can you trust? For a good return, you gotta go
bettin' on chance--and then you're back with anarchy, right
back in the jungle.

--
Michael Press
 
Ryan Cousineau wrote:
>
> I have not read widely in the field of cycling literature, but I have
> read a fair bit of literature. Krabbe's novel is one of the truest books
> I have read in ways large and small, and his fictionalization of a bike
> race is so sufficient that I feel no other document is necessary to
> describe the essence of amateur racing.
>
> http://www.rapha.cc/index.php?page=420
>
Thanks for that, it's an excellent supplement to his book. I reread The
Rider for the second time around 6 months ago and, like the first time,
did it all in one sitting. It didn't feel right to put the book down in
the middle of a race.
 
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