So, it wasn’t long after President Cabezas swept to power as the leader of TCPC (on a somewhat
dubious mantra to “make road great again”) before he issued orders to me. “Write a new
member blog post.”
“Yes sir,” I replied. Not wanting to be deported. Or for him to be deported...something along those lines.
With that background, here goes. As a member of about a year with a few races I do have some observations. First off, I’m mostly a roadie, and I hadn’t pinned on a race bib since (I think) 1992 in Wilmington, DE. Racing didn’t go so well at that last criterium in ’92, so I had decided to be content just being a fairly fast recreational rider. That was going just fine until Ivan kept showing up in McPherson and we became friends. He eventually encouraged me to join the team.
This came with some trepidation. First, I’m mainly a roadie and have ridden with many road groups informally for years. As you may have noticed, roadies (especially men) tend to be real pricks. It always seems that a group reaction to a new rider is to systematically work together to crack the newbie, then be condescending about it afterwards. Second, as a non-racer with a fairly compulsive personality, I was concerned about taking this all too seriously and ending up back at 155lbs, divorced and unemployed...but really fast.
Turns out, all my concerns were wasted. This really is a fun, laid back group of riders. I’ve detected none of the über prickish behavior so common among road (or even fast recreational riders) racers that I find so distasteful. Even though I had taken 20 years off mountain biking and am now not good at it, everyone is encouraging. Perhaps best of all is that it turns out that Cyclo-cross is an absolute blast. If you’ve not tried it, scope out a bike and give it a go. Personally, I’ll ride a lot of road miles this year, but they’ll all be towards the goal of being light and fit for the beginning of the CX season.
Finally, thanks to Britton and the staff at Volker Bicycles for keeping the team well stock with great bikes and gear at insane prices (insert Crazy Eddie ad here for those of you who are older east coast types...check YouTube). When I was a kid and used to hang out in bike shops wrenching for free all shops were just like Volker, so go enjoy the environment.
Well...this is done. We’ll see what President Cabezas comes up with next.
Frank White
“Yes sir,” I replied. Not wanting to be deported. Or for him to be deported...something along those lines.
With that background, here goes. As a member of about a year with a few races I do have some observations. First off, I’m mostly a roadie, and I hadn’t pinned on a race bib since (I think) 1992 in Wilmington, DE. Racing didn’t go so well at that last criterium in ’92, so I had decided to be content just being a fairly fast recreational rider. That was going just fine until Ivan kept showing up in McPherson and we became friends. He eventually encouraged me to join the team.
This came with some trepidation. First, I’m mainly a roadie and have ridden with many road groups informally for years. As you may have noticed, roadies (especially men) tend to be real pricks. It always seems that a group reaction to a new rider is to systematically work together to crack the newbie, then be condescending about it afterwards. Second, as a non-racer with a fairly compulsive personality, I was concerned about taking this all too seriously and ending up back at 155lbs, divorced and unemployed...but really fast.
Turns out, all my concerns were wasted. This really is a fun, laid back group of riders. I’ve detected none of the über prickish behavior so common among road (or even fast recreational riders) racers that I find so distasteful. Even though I had taken 20 years off mountain biking and am now not good at it, everyone is encouraging. Perhaps best of all is that it turns out that Cyclo-cross is an absolute blast. If you’ve not tried it, scope out a bike and give it a go. Personally, I’ll ride a lot of road miles this year, but they’ll all be towards the goal of being light and fit for the beginning of the CX season.
Finally, thanks to Britton and the staff at Volker Bicycles for keeping the team well stock with great bikes and gear at insane prices (insert Crazy Eddie ad here for those of you who are older east coast types...check YouTube). When I was a kid and used to hang out in bike shops wrenching for free all shops were just like Volker, so go enjoy the environment.
Well...this is done. We’ll see what President Cabezas comes up with next.
Frank White
