Generally I try to keep it light and entertaining on this blog, and generally I fail, veering off instead to stupidity and tedium. But at least I manage to avoid being sentimental, though occasionally I fail at that too. Hopefully you’ll indulge me if I manage to do so again.
Since that last bout with sentimentality, I’ve been very deeply engaged in re-homing my friend’s many bicycles and cycling-related possessions. Enough time has gone by and, frankly, it’s enough work that I have no problem approaching it pragmatically rather than emotionally. However, yesterday I was at his place meeting Recycle-A-Bicycle for a pickup and saw this:
As I’ve previously mentioned, before Rapha started taking great pains to appear inclusive, they used to organize these big “Gentlemen’s Races,” which were basically big, long, self-supported, unsanctioned proto-gravel rides. (This was back in the day when you’d still say to yourself, “Ooh, there’s gonna be gravel, I better put on 25s!”) I used to make fun of Rapha then as I do now, but of course when they invited me to put together a team for the ride on a couple of occasions it was secretly a big deal for me. It was also kind of hard to get enough people to join me, though in retrospect it’s not surprising since anyone I asked probably realized they were just going to wind up pulling me all day. But the one person who was always ready to commit to these rides immediately was Chris.
Here’s the video of the 2011 ride:
Neither I nor any of my teammates appear in the video, which I complained about at the time, though we did manage to finish in 7th place:
Not bad when you consider they had to nurse me along for 134 miles.
I have no problem going to an event where I know nobody, sticking a camera in people’s faces, and doing a tongue-in-cheek write-up afterwards:
[For example.]
But it’s much different when it’s a ride with people I know–especially if I’ve known them a really long time, and they’ve always know me as the slow guy on the ride and not the HILARIOUS bike blogger and cultural phenomenon:
[I never did get what was going on with that flyer…]
Then it just feels weird. As a result, I didn’t write very much about these rides (I’m sure Rapha was thrilled about that, since obviously they invited me on these rides because of my bike riding and not because of my then-popular blog (that’s sarcasm)), and I have very few pictures, though here’s one from that 2011 ride that somebody else took, I don’t recall who:
[Photo credit lost in the sands of time, sorry.]
That’s my friend Chris on the right. And speaking of being slow, it was strange in those days going from being the slowest guy on my bike racing team to having my blog’s name on my bike racing team’s jersey:
Heady days indeed.
By the way, we did make it into the video of the 2009 edition, though I can no longer find the video:
That’s Chris in the middle, and me on the right, and no, I have no idea why I thought it was a good idea to have my bars so low. (And that was even before the Aero Wars!)
Anyway, Chris was an accomplished rider with a closetful of cyclocross series leader jerseys, so it moved me that he cared enough about this ride to frame the cue sheet, and I’m glad that I was in a position to invite him. And even though he was a very private person, knowing that he did care, I wonder if he wouldn’t have appreciated a few more photos of himself on those rides, or at east a decent post to read and enjoy afterwards,
Or maybe not. Maybe the experience and the cue sheet was enough.