History - American

The Tour de France summertime is near. It's a solidly familiar, unchanging time of the year for me and probably for you. I started watching the Tour de France on television in the early 1990s - the English-speaking coverage was of course much more abbreviated, and the race much more mysterious back then. My parents just flipped it on because they liked to see the scenery and reminisce about times that they had lived there in the 1980s (and my dad as a kid in the 1960s too). I remember Indurain as a deity, even when he was no more - even Lance wasn't so God-like, albeit invincible.

Anyway, Phil and Paul are always there for that month in the summer (a much awaited reprieve from Sporza, though with the cost of Saab commercials every ten minutes). And the greens and blues and the yellows. And the hooligans with campers. And now Bob Roll (and my obligatory mention that Stephen Roche should be teamed with Bob Roll to make a most entertaining sport announcing duo).

And of course the histories of these famous climbs and these famous riders in grainy footage, mainly of Bernard Hinault growling and LeMond smiling and Merckx's butt. They're all interesting, but I've heard them all already. And read them all already. Tom Simpson died on the thirteenth stage on the thirteenth of July. Etc.

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Of course I'm a geek for sport history. I know more than most should about 1880s baseball and Roger Bannister's daily routines.

The explosion of competitive cycling in the US and most all of the English-speaking world during my lifetime demands, at least in my opinion, that greater attention be placed on this sport's history here.

The ECCC, and the New England cycling scene overall, had and have a rich awareness and respect for this sport's history here. It is too exhausting to give all of the examples.

A sport team, and a sport league, is about competition, about an enjoyable lifestyle, about personal development, and about being a part of a (hopefully) meaningful social network. Actually, I think that's what being a part of a college or university is largely about. But it's also about being a part of a tradition, a part of a history, and being a link in a certain continuous strain of time.

What I know is: Brown's cycling club was first officially organized in 1896, probably upon Columbia's founding of a collegiate competitive cycling league to organize existing teams (mainly in the NYC/NJ area) and potential ones. I have a picture of the Brown cycling club from about 1905 - posing with their singlespeeds, working-class/laborer's clothes (presumably the exercise attire of their time), and large mustaches, they basically look like the Brown fixie hipsters of today. Providence once had a stadium-sized velodrome - the mysterious Providence Cyclodrome - which is now a Whole Foods, a bank, a Boston Market, and a parking lot.

Oh - the Madison track events are named after Madison Square Gardens. It comes back to NYC always, no?

Back to Brown: I've met or corresponded with former Brown cycling racers who date back to the 1960s - gaps in between some years, unfortunately. It was a sparse affair, usually involving nerdy counterculturists and Volkswagen vans - the same narrative Princeton, Dartmouth, etc give, except that their programs were not as sparce as poor Brown's (we've never won the Ivy League in cycling, ever - and in a rare bitter explosion of a past 2007 grievance with a small few who probably aren't reading this anyway, and who I truly don't wish ill-will between us all: this fact IS F*%$ing RELEVANT!).

I'm looping my thoughts now. My ultimate point is probably:

Let's dig deeper, before the '70s or the '60s or the '50s, while of course giving those more recent 'nascent' eras the greater attention that they deserve of our appreciation, outreach, and historical appreciation. We're doing ourselves a disfavor, often counterproductive, with everyone young and old today in our sport thinking that we're the pioneers. A Holiday Inn is much more pleasant than a Conestoga wagon

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This is the cool part: facts that will make you smile.

These come from Greg LeMond's Complete Book of Bicycling 2nd ed. (Lemond and Kent Gordis; New York: Perigree Books, 1990). I think it's out of print, but can be picked up online used for a dollar or so anymore, as I did when I first bought it right at the moment I said "I want to race bikes." Seriously, it's a good read and a good buy - I lend it out like crazy. The equipment sections are mostly antiquated, and the nutrition section to a much smaller extent as well, but the info on tactics is textbook-perfect and very clear, and the training info is shockingly just like the Friel/Carmichael/etc conglomerate - except without powertaps and other expensive (and redundant) quantification devices, and the bullshit sugarcoating to attract those many who'll spend $40,000 on crap to do two (...you complete the sentence). The last chapter is on the sport's history - it's not sourced/footnoted, but anyway:

-The first known bicycle race, in Paris in 1868 of 1200 meters, was won by an Englishman: James Moore. He perhaps employed drafting, and was the first ever sprinter, as he followed the French favorites to lead until he passed the leader just meters from the line (319).
-The first known bicycle 'road-race', in 1868 from Paris to Rouen over about 83 miles, was won by an Englishman: the same James Moore. He was amongst the racers required to wait at the start 30 minutes after the rest of the field started - presumably as a sort of 'handicapping' (320).
-The first "recognized" road-race in Italy, in 1870 from Florence to Pistoia, was won by an American: Rynner van Neste (320).
-The British dominance, and subsequent popular boom, of competitive cycling in GB from the very start, probably led to the comprehensive outlawing of bicycle racing there in the late-Victorian orderly histeria of the 1890s - the bans which continued very far into the 20th century (321). As is well-known, both legal and strict-'informal' bans of bicycle riding of any sort, anywhere, by anyone in many British counties persisted into the 1950s.


I'll let that all settle-in. Oh, and, go Wiggo!

Fear and Loathing in Anywhere but Rhode Island

I think it's time to turn my life and my world totally upside down. Hell, why not?

I began thinking, just preliminarily, recently about leaving this continent for a few years to do like Masters study (aka 5th-6th year) in a new environment, a new world, a new society - fields of historical study that gain no glancing notice in the United States. Since I've only sparingly mentioned any of these thoughts in person to people I know, since these thoughts are only sparingly making some sense in my mind, let's just say that they're in non-northern-hemisphere British Dominion nations (all of which, at times, I have been wrongly accused of hailing from).

But, wow, figuring all of this out is a complicated maze of non-American-English-logic. Of course I would like cycling and cycle racing to continue to play a role in any potential adventures of this sort. On this vein:

Man, the whole membership and licensing structure of USA Cycling, at least for amateurs with enough experience and ability to at least nominally compete in 'elite' amateur races, is so different than many other countries. I'm only beginning to get my head around the idea of only being granted some sort of 'elite' amateur racing license by membership on an official club. I guess, really, it's kind of like the continental European way of doing racing. And then there are the differences between 'elite' licenses and 'cyclosport' licenses for racing, and then the 'recreational' license. And licenses encompassing most or all disciplines at the same time. Perhaps beer drinking and brawling is a distinct discipline of Australian collegiate cycling. It is difficult to tell if South Africa has collegiate cycling competition.

They say that the United States is a society of merit. I guess the USA Cycling license structure certainly mirrors that claim. But it also embodies such intricate hierarchy. I know British Cycling's racing license system is much like USA Cycling's. It is reminiscent of old-school UK hierarchy. In such a latent, superficial way, such similarities touch my intellectual chuckle bone.

Massachusetts Citizens...

Vote for Coakley. Do it today, do it now. Drive there, ride there, take the train there if you're a citizen of Massachusetts but out-of-state at university right now. Bring friends. Pack the cars, swarm the trains, form the pacelines. Vote for Coakley.

The blood will be on your hands if you do not. The stakes here are real. People will go homeless if you do not - including many thousands of citizens of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Your cities will continue to dive further into poverty, crime, and flames if you do not. Thousands, hundreds of thousands, and then millions of people will die if you do not. I will not respect faceless executioners.

I am completely powerless to act, aside from publishing such words. This is my last statement on the subject.

Hey, Massachusetts - What Are You Thinking?!?

(This is merely a short statement of my personal views. This isn't campaigning or proselytizing. I have no intention for this dusty corner of cyberspace to fill with the political rhetoric of anybody but my own.)

Massachusetts, you're scaring the hell out of us right now. You're one of my favorite states. You've been like a neighbor to me. At times the relationship has been love-hate, but we have to admit it's usually just love. We've spent countless hours together, and it's almost always been very pleasant.

But still - what the hell? Seriously. You're really freaking everybody out with this Senate special election. Yes, this Scott Brown guy looks like the Romney of old on paper (the physical semblance is there, too). Yes, you all are pissed off because the world sucks, but it isn't like everyone else doesn't have it tough these days too (have you even seen Rhode Island recently?!?) and it's pretty darn immature to be throwing such a prima donna childish fit. You're old enough to know better, Massachusetts.

Grow up. If you really don't want the Kennedy Senate seat anymore, don't throw it away. At least give it to somebody more responsible, like Vermont (I was about to say New Hampshire, but, ya, that's probably not actually a good idea). Heck, even Rhode Island will take it if you're not responsible enough to handle it anymore - but we will corrupt it a bit before giving it back to you. Rhode Island may poop where it eats quite a lot, but we keep it inside our borders and do our duty by sending the right people to Washington D.C. Every ballot I've ever casted in my life has included a vote for a Kennedy.

I can't vote in your little special election, but this is fair warning: don't screw it up, Massachusetts. Rhode Island has already been talking with New Hampshire, and we're totally prepared to kick your ass. I think Connecticut would be in on that ass-kicking, too, and they have a lot of people.

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This blog has been silent recently. I essentially quit the Brown cycling team in late November. On one hand it's been good. I was still the head honcho president guy, and it had been painfully obvious to everyone that I shouldn't have been since I could barely scrape through normal everyday academic life with enough energy to be slightly more alive than a vegetable. I wish it had been so obvious to me sooner, but they've got the right leaders and organization now and my observation from afar has been that they're doing a very fine job. I haven't had much of any desire at all since then to be involved in the sport. I've been on the bike a bit recently, and doing some actual serious things in the past few weeks. I think I've turned a corner now. The pain and fatigue is physical, but I'm increasingly discovering that it's been just as mental as well. A lot of positive things seem to be brewing in the ECCC recently, and I'll try to add my little voice here about some of the things in the near future. A week or two of somewhat 'real' training will show if it demolishes or strengthens me, hopefully the latter, and if so I sincerely hope that the Brown team will let me rejoin its ranks so I can tailgun the A field for yet another time.

Experiment: Becoming a Morning Person

I have never been a morning person. I hate the morning. I like going to bed at 3 or 4am. I like waking up in the afternoon. Now that the clocks have changed, it is only a matter of a few weeks when darkness envelops Providence at 4pm.

Early risers somehow inexplicably are more productive, happier people on the whole. Furthermore, it goes without saying that a successful collegiate bike racer in the northeast essentially MUST be an early riser.

Shocking admission that should only add to the verity of my self-appointed title as the worst bike-handler in the ECCC A category:
Over a third of all races that I've done in my life have been on absolutely no sleep the previous night.
That should scare you.

I see three major obstacles in the pursuit of being an early riser:
-Insomnia. I am naturally quite the insomniac, compounded with great difficulty waking up (at any time of the day) once I do get to sleep.
-Procrastination. Though a skillful procrastinator, I am nonetheless a chronic procrastinator. I also do schoolwork in extreme binges, usually in blocks of about 20 to 30 hours straight. It's very unhealthy, but that's been my style for the past three years.
-Rebelliousness. I just tend to rebel against anything 'imposed' on me - even if I impose it on myself. More particularly, I rebel against any schedules that I impose on myself. Stupid.

I also have some strengths to build on:
-I really love the breakfasts in the dining halls at Brown. It's hard to screw up breakfast foods - what I really like is the variety...it's like having an IHOP or Waffle House every morning.
-I have basically outgrown the so-called partying nightlife stage of life. It doesn't appeal to me anymore.
-I want to be a fast racer in the spring. I need to train to do that.


So, I'm going to try being an early riser for an entire week. This means being out of bed between 6 and 7am. I guess that also means going to bed in the pm rather than the am hours. I read that if I can strictly adhere to this schedule for a week, then I will be very much capable of keeping it going beyond. And I pity those who may encounter my morning-mood during the first few days.

Would you please stay in the little ring?

"I would prefer not to."


Entropy:
psychodynamic psychotherapy
bartleby.
Wall Street ghosts.

New Poll: How Will my Power Test Turn Out?

I've never used a powertap before. I have no idea how I stack up in the world of power (aside from knowing that, as ex-President of Brown Cycling, I'm entitled to Secret Service protection and a pension for a lifetime). I never train with power or a heartrate monitor.

My roommate Joey has a powertap wheel, and I think in about a week I'm going to do a baseline 20min power test on the trainer with it. I think it'd be cool to periodically test my fitness throughout the fall and winter.

Useful facts (I guess):
weight - between 145 and 150lbs
height - 6ft 0in
fitness - none/next to none