Re: Throwing down the gauntlet

Dave wrote:

MagillaGorilla wrote:

cyclintom@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

On Dec 5, 8:55 am, MagillaGorilla <magi...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

If you win a lot, you can go around and tell everyone you're the No. 2
ranked Cat 3 in your district and think that actually means something in
life.



Joe - this is what happens to people who can't find motivation to have
fun doing what they love to do. Remember this every time your kids
wakes you up in the middle of the night, every time you're thinking
twice about that last hill sprint and when your wife wants you to miss
your race so that you can attend a PTA function with her.



Dude,

You need to calm down, Taxi Driver. Stop downloading B arry Manilow songs for a minute and pay attention.

I'm not telling people NEVER to race or NEVER to ride their bike.

You gotta admit...some people in here treat Cat. 3 and Cat. 2 racing like it really matters in life.

If it did, most pros would continue to race amateur classes after they retire. But they don't. No pro in the world races amateur classes because they can't figure out what the fucking purpose of doing that aimless task would be. You're basically training 80% of what a pro does but getting NONE OF THE BENEFITS (i.e. financial).

It's funny to sit here and listen to how precise everyone gets about their wattage and their training techniques. But they can't answer the most fundmanetal question that their psyche will eventually ask every amateur racer whose done it long enough: why does any of that stuff matter when you're not making any money doing it and the act of bike racing itself really can't be considered fun. Is it really fun to wake up at 5 a.m. and drive 108 miles only to scrape the skin off your shoulder in turn 3 because some jackass took the reactor to 105% of power through the turn in the rain?

It just cracks me up to go on a group ride with some a-hole racers (95% of you fit this profile) and listen to them take their racing so seriously as if winning the Thursday night crit in the corporate park will get them the cover of Cycle Sport, a 6-figure contract, and the ability to finger Gisele Bunchen.

If you win a race that pays out $350, why are you so happy when you're suppose to split that with your 5 teammates and have the knowledge that it took you 300 hours of training and maybe another $750 in new equipment and maintence to get there not to mention gas, tolls, and other miscellenous costs. Even when you throw in your free socks and 10% A-Team discount at the race shop, you're still in the red. And if you say you do it for the competition and fun, then who are kidding with that - all you did is dumb down the competition through age and other arbitrary USAC-category metrics and then beat those lepers. So you won a leper colony race.

In case you haven't figured it out yet, the reason why most pros dope is because they realize the only thing that matters in cycling is winning big races and getting lots of money. Otherwise, most pros don't even like bike racing or training and most of them would never have become amateur racers had they not made it as a pro.

When Bettini comes to race the Tour of California, his main goal is to take his wife and kids to Disneyland and load up on some jeans and souvenirs and then figure out how he's gonna lie on the customs form so he doesn't have to delcare any of it.

If you were to find The Cricket in the food court of a California shopping mall and tell him that there was the "District Cat. 3 Championships" going on right now in the parking lot, he would probably act fake-excited out of respect, but he would never leave the Orange Julius line he was standing in.

Most amateur racers don't get better because they don't think like a pro. If they did, they would just load up on the EPO and testosterone and spend their time trying to figure out how to get a 72 hour jump on the OOC testers from USADA. Because all you're really doing is racing in a big leper colony anyway.

There use to be a time - before Lance came on the scene - back in the late 1980's when Jonas Carney and Roberto "I do Bagels" Gaggioli were the big men on campus. It was a day when it was a big deal to win Somerville and when guys like Wayne Stetina and John Howard were viewed as heroes. Today, having a goal of winning Somerville borders on embarassment. And when you look back on the career of John Howard, you gotta wonder why a guy would waste his time doing that for nothing. Local races are now relegated to the equivalent of a leper colony sporting event.

And most of the age-classified races you dumbasses aspire to win call into question your sanity. Put your rollers away. Stop staring at your SRM graphs. And get with the program.


Magilla


So answer me this, monkey breath, if all that you say is true, then why do you even bother to post to rbr? You seem to be the one treating all this as meaningful in life and worth arguing about. I always sucked at racing, but I still had fun. Why, because I was challenging myself, staying fit, and hanging with my buds. No more, no less. Now if having fun isn't meaningful in your life I can understand your position. Then again, I can see how having fun is difficult for a person like yourself.

- dave

Well, you better not be "having fun" when you're racing your bike unless it's your first or second year. If you're in college, then you are probably still having fun, but eventually you will meet some rider who isn't having fun and you will want to be like him because he knows something you don't, to quote Jackie Simes. You shouldn't be showing up to a race after your first few years with a smile on your face. It's actually a USCF rule violation, but I don't feel like citing the exact rule. Well maybe it's an unwritten rule come to think of it.

The problem is when you escalate the training and traveling and costs to the point where cycling is no longer an avocation and it becomes a vocation but you are still not making any money or seeing any return. Now all you got is a fucking permanent state of anemia, a $600/month grovery bill, and a journal full of 350 mile week entries that saps your time and energy week in and week out.

It's at that point where you should re-evaluate why you show up to 7 a.m. to go around in circles at the corporate park just so you can run one of the guys from D&Q into the sewer grate because he didn't wait for you on the B-training ride when you flatted.

Here, let me break down some real-world examples. Let's take Neil Stansbury, a Cat. 2. Here's a guy who is an orthopedic surgeon but he's still relatively competitive in races like Somerville and at one point even road USPRO Philly. But his 'real' incentive in life is taking a Black & Decker drill to people's femur and taking home $500,000 year. That's how he saves for his daughters weddings. He's still racing competively at 45 because he has a purpose beyond riding in circles until you break your clavicle and Campy Record shifters in 3 places.

Now let's take a guy like Brain Maroney - 1991 winner of Somerville. After winning "The Derby" he eventually downgrades to a Cat. 3 because he realizes there is no point to being a Cat. 2 and he would rather sandbag the 3 field rather than blow his lungs out chasing all those TOGA dopers from Brooklyn at Chris Thater.

I got no problem with what these guys did or do.

But there's a lot of guys who race without a purpose and don't realize it for years until it's too late. Well, eventually their psyche realizes it and it causes subtle depression which manifests in the form of burnout every June. Every monkey grinder amateur cyclist in here has been there. Even most pros.

Most amateurs get burned out by June not because of over-training, but because their mind is telling them they are training and racing for no compelling reason whatsoever. And they need to put the air brakes on this insanity train before their fucking head explodes because they can't take staring at asphalt for 3 hours a day any longer. You don't need a 32 heartrate and Mr. Universe veins coming out of your thighs to take out the trash on Wednesday night. Amateur bike racers are perhaps the most elite athletes in the world who use their fitness to do absolutely fucking nothing more than mow their lawn in 95-degree humidity without running out of breath or take their dog on 9 hour hikes at 8,000 feet in elevation.

But rather than quit, I suggest you just find a purpose.

But it better be real and not that you want to get a top 20 in the Cat. 3 Cup simply because last year you were ranked 23. It better be something worthwhile like you want to win the Cat. 3 series or die while trying because first place is a used moped and Odessa Gunn's baby sister often rides a moped down your street when she goes to the Starbucks.

But of course, once she finds out you're just a Cat. 3 she will probably dump you anyway for an import pro from South America. But at least you can get to third base with her for a good week or so before one of the Gasolina drifters from Brooklyn steals her because they got the Antonio Banderas look going on and a promise from Profaci for a contract on Colavita B-team for next year. And even though you can climb a hill within sight of any pro within a 4-state region, the training leaves you looking like a refugee from Treblinka and one of those barbed wire tattoos just wouldn't look right on your 4 inch circumference biceps. But that's the only look that Odessa's baby sister likes, so then you gotta make a decision - do you go to the gym and hit the free weights so you can do justice to the tattoo, or do you maintain your Rasmussen anorexic diet so you can get 9th in Vermont come September?

I can't answer this question for you.

But the real plan should have nothing to do with cycling unless you're talking about fucking up the other Pro Tour riders on the way to Morzine on worldwide TV so you can score a 7-figure contract. The days of John Howard crushing people for no real reason are gone and not even Roberto Gaggioli's 2 billion V's were enough to convince his 26 year old wife to not serve him with divorce papers once he was relegated to driving a lowrider BMW in the caravan.

You need to have a solid plan, Stan.


Magilla Training Systems
$29/month Winter Coaching Specials



.