Reasons for Racing

Indications are that my father thinks I'm a bit off my rocker for wanting to race, and I'm confident that he's not the only one who feels that way. For this reason and others, I feel the need to defend my plan. So here goes.

I've been riding bicycles for about ten years now. I bought an old rigid mountain bike (a Scott - from back when they were built right here in Idaho) in 1998 to get me to & from LHU when I moved off campus with some friends (GAWD that was a great year). For most of my time at ISU, my commute was too short to merit a bicycle, however I started biking to the bus (~7-8 miles) when I realized how much money my daily commute was chewing through after Kate & I moved to Nampa. But as cheap as I am, I've always been a gearhead. Fishing, golf, skiing, cycling . . . whatever the sport, I never missed an opportunity to open a catalog or magazine and covet fancy equipment. And last year I splurged & bought a fancy bike (pictured). Truth be told it's on the low-end in the grand scheme of things and the $800 I spent is pretty tame in comparison to most bikes for sale on the floor of any bike shop you enter, but it's a damn sight fancier than anything I really need - especially since Tyler keeps my old Raleigh in fine shape for commuting. So the point here is that I've bought a lot of stuff that is cool to have and from which I've gotten a lot of use (over 2500 miles this season), but it isn't absolutely necessary for my current level of involvement in the sport of cycling. There's reason 1: to justify these purchases - to allow me to call my fancy bike "my race bike" without being a complete poser.

But I'll still be a gearhead, and there's reason number 2: I want to justify buying MORE stuff. Check out the new LOOK 596 time trial bike. You had a hard time taking your eyes off that beast to come back here and continue reading, didn't you? I don't blame you - that thing is sex on wheels. Now I don't pretend to have any aspirations of ever racing enough to merit that bike (which will reportedly sell for $10K as pictured), but a TT bike of some sort is indeed on my wish list. Maybe an aero helmet and a skin suit too - like that guy in the Comcast commercial that my father says reminds him of me. :) Good comedy.

With reason number 3, I'm finally gonna pull my head part way out of my butt. I like going fast under my own power. It's fun and it's gratifying whether or not there's competition involved. And I love watching my pace quicken over the course of a season. Doing little more than riding a lot of "base miles" (no intense training, just riding at an easily sustainable pace), I've been able to work my average speed up to just shy of 19 MPH over a reasonably flat 12-mile ride this season. I ride my 25-mile commute between 17 & 18 MPH. This may sound impressive to many, but plenty of local enthusiasts ride 20+MPH routinely. I once read that Lance Armstrong's Tour de France time trial team a few years ago averaged 36MPH over a 24-mile course. So I clearly have room for improvement. Training for races gives me a goal, so riding intervals a couple times a week won't seem utterly pointless; and more importantly I have a reason to ride through the winter. So reasons 3 & 4: to give myself a reason to work on my conditioning, and to have an outside party measure the results of said conditioning. And plenty of people (myself included) enter these races with no illusions of winning; as with marathons, most entrants are only out to prove that they can complete the course, and they compete only against their results from previous years.

I think I'm done now. I doubt I've even put a dent in the critics' resolve, but . . . well I honestly just wanted to show you that fancy TT bike. :)