RACING UNION - i take requests

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

from robb hampton:

can you talk more shit on your blog? i'm tired of doing it all.

you bet i can. so i'm riding down at hains point today during lunch and we're heading into one of those sprints. I'm behind phil hepburn and next to nima and we're moving fairly quickly with a solid tailwind. we're not entirely in the gutter but the riders are sort of swinging back and forth so no one is really overlapping wheels. there's a brief window where the echelon moves out of the gutter and the right side of the road opens up. in the time it takes me to realize all this, a rockville harley rider who i do not recognize comes slamming through in the gutter. for the purposes ofdiscussion, we'll call him jackass #1.

the problem is that the right side didn't really open up and there's not nearly as much space there as he needs. at this point, jackass #1 has a head of steam and a lot of momentum. he sort of bumps shoulders and bars with phil, glancing off him on his way past. kudos to phil for sort of shrugging it off. i was completely freaked out. we all immediately sit up wondering what the heck that was all about. a few people said something to him. i elected not to, figuring he'd get it. but i happen to be riding near jackass #1 on the other side of the point, and he's complaining that people are giving him an earful. and there's where i lost it.

i thought what he did was colossally stupid, but i wasn't going to say anything until he seemed to feel like he was wronged by being yelled at. that's sort of the line for me. we all do stupid stuff now and then, and me more than most so i know what i'm talking about. but if several people independently tell you that you are doing stupid stuff, you need to check up for a second and think about it. my beef with him wasn't necessarily that he did some risky stuff, it was that he seemed to be oblivious to some clear warning signs, and making other riders uncomfortable. as most of you know, there's kind of a narrow tolerance at hains point for error. people take risks all the time, but his resulted in a greater degree of friction being generated. we can't have that. it will make a somewhat dangerous ride too dangerous for me to be down there. and that, in the end, is what ultimately matters: whether i am happy and able to ride my bike. you don't fuck with a man's ability to get on his bike and ride. there are consequences if that ends up happening. enough said.

don't bother writing comments, i don't plan to read them. instead, write robb and ask him to update his very excellent blog more than once a month.

-sg

3/14/2007 2:25:05 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

3/14/2007 5:17:56 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Rob's blog isn't half as good as Frenchy's.

Pete

3/14/2007 5:34:18 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

you can't leave a note like that and not offer a link. I'm interested in reading it, but I'm sure as hell not going to spend the time to hunt around for it. oh, and fo rthe record, i assume that pretty much everyone feels the same way about this blog as well.

-sg

p.s. esta noche, soy comprar nuevo zapatos para futbol. manana, pateo extremo! verdad!

dear leader |dear_leaderAT NOSPAMracingunion dot org

3/22/2007 8:01:35 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

There is no such thing as an echelon at haines point. In fact, I doubt that I've ever seen an echelon in all of D20 outside of the top 10 in a spring 1/2 race. I sell water for a living - how is it only me that knows what an echelon is and how to form/ride one?!?!? For the love of freakin' god get it together people!!! And pull through!!!!! You have to actually WORK every now and then to improve...I can't believe all the people that sit in and then sprint. It's pathetic...step up folks. You didn't take a 2hour lunch to lay up did you??

Ben |landersbenAT NOSPAMyahoo dot com

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