Why won’t I race, this year? Well, part of it is that my ego has been thrown hard down that pit of pure digression. That’s a nice and vague way to put it. I moved. I couldn’t mountain bike. I gained weight. I got slow. I am completely realistic about my “condition.”

Things are definitely changing, but my confidence has not. Add to that the anxiety I get about racing on a trail I’m not very familiar with among a group of people I don’t really know. I feel like I’ll be in the way. I have a nagging feeling that someone is going to be an ass and drag down my day. Does it sound like I’m talking about a specific race? I am.

One day, we were just sitting around a table at a brewery drinking beer. Marty suddenly made a comment that we had a full female team for the 12 Hours of Addison Oaks that is coming up this Saturday. Of course, you know that I was included in that tally. Yikes.

So, Marty, I know you’re reading this. If you find another “fourth,” feel free to replace me.

Just in case Marty doesn’t replace me, I have a pre-race cramming week planned. Monday was Dragonmead night, cuz that’s the best night to go there. Now, don’t go there because I don’t like it when there isn’t room for me at the bar.

Today, I went to Stony Creek and rode two laps. I felt great! I am definitely stronger. I am climbing a lot of the hills about 3 to 4 mph faster than a month ago. I was climbing at 3 and 4 mph; but today, my climbing was more in the range of 6 to 8 mph, with 8 being more of a rarity. I managed to hang onto that pattern even through my second lap. I blew through my final lap of the Pines.

Tomorrow is group ride (kind of like group therapy). I think I will head over straight from work and do a lap before the group ride. After tonight, I’m expecting it to be a little more difficult, but I also want to leave the ride feeling good about what I did. One lap just isn’t cutting it anymore, unless I’m having an off day.

Thursday is my day off. I will spend some quality time with my dog. I might even go check out the new De Niro movie cuz, well, I love De Niro.

Friday is the pre-race night. I have to ride. If I don’t, then it will take me forever to warm up on Saturday. I plan to ride an easier trail for about an hour. This is going to be nothing more than a fun ride. I will then order the customary pre-race pizza from the most awesome pizza place right by my house. Happy slumber will follow. Or not. That damn anxiety will probably ensure that I get only four hours of sleep. Perfect for a 12-hour race!

…has been waiting for! Pictures of the Logsplitter are located in two spots as slideshows attached to these articles:

• 2010 Michigan Bike Festival
• Michigan Bike Festival’s Logsplitter Race Photos

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Enjoy!

As many of you know, I started covering the Tour de France at the Examiner.com at the beginning of July. I really enjoyed it. I discovered my inner Lance groupie and even fell in love with Phil Liggett. I mean, seriously! this guy is the bomb! Even Cameron Diaz wanted to meet him when she and Tom Cruise got VIP passes to the Tour. So not fair.

The National Cycling Examiner actually went to France to watch the Tour and cover it from there. I wonder if he purchased the Versus HD access online so he could later watch the Tour on Versus and hear Phil’s magnificent commentary.

I will continue to cover cycling on the Examiner. I’m really enjoying it. I plan to do a mix of international and local coverage. It is supposed to be local, but the national coverage is where it’s at for someone trying to gain a little financial stability.

Check my Michigan cyclist’s guide to the Tour de France to see what I’ve been doing.

Frank Schleck hasn’t exactly been in the forefront of my mind during this Tour de France, especially since it is his brother, Andy, who has been the focus of the newscasters. Frank did steal the show with a rather unfortunate accident. He went down fairly early in the stage on one of the cobblestone sections. He went down hard.

Spectators could see Frank just lying on the road as he was checked over for injuries. Frank’s tour came to an end when he was whisked away to a hospital to treat a broken collar bone. While crashing is fun to see, no one really wants to see anyone get hurt. Unfortunately, broken collar bones are not unusual in the sport of cycling.

Speedy healing to Frank, and the best of luck to the rest of the racers.
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Michigan Mountain Biking Examiner: Armstrong loses ground in stage three of the Tour de France

It’s kind of funny how people say that Lance can’t possibly ride that fast unless he’s doping, yet they don’t really go after all of the other super-fast, “can’t-be-human,” cycling stars. There’s something about Lance Armstrong.

Perhaps it’s jealousy. Even after Lance first retired, he managed to stay in the limelight and continue to be a star attraction. He’s everywhere, and people love that whether or not they love him; and sometimes they love to see him everywhere simply because they love to bitch about him. There’s also the fact that he looks damn good on a bike…and pretty much everywhere else.

For those of us who would love to see Lance win his final Tour, maybe it really has nothing to do with whether we believe he dopes or has doped. Maybe it has a lot more to do with the fact that we want to cheer on someone we are familiar with–and that someone is currently Lance!

Some argue that doping only gives cycling a bad name, but is that really a bad thing? They always say that no publicity is bad publicity, and that goes for cycling, as well. Are more people watching the Tour de France? Possibly, and if so, it could be because doping allegations simply serve to remind the public that the Tour is going on. Face it, in the U.S. cycling really isn’t that big when compared with other sports.

No matter what the situation may be, the fact is that people like me simply want to sit back and enjoy the Tour de France. I really don’t give a damn that someone may be using erythropoietin. I just don’t.

In the end, I just want Floyd to shut up.

Related Articles:

• Michigan Mountain Biking Examiner: Sylvain Chavanel moves ahead in Tour de France despite treacherous Col de Stockeu
• Moronacity Cycling: The Purposeful Lance Armstrong

Even more unbelievable was the final crash that destroyed Tyler Farrar’s very real possibility of winning. He had it…he HAD IT…HE…DOH! He was taken out by the Frenchman in the back!

You can read my review of the race, “Alessandro Petacchi avoids multiple crashes to win stage one of the Tour de France,” at my Michigan Mountain Biking Examiner column.

What I really love about watching the Tour de France is how it inspires me to ride. I thought about riding, today, but after yesterday’s early a.m. ride and a marathon of 22 hours with no sleep plus plenty of beer consumption, I chose to postpone my ride for tomorrow.

I will quite possibly do two rides, tomorrow. I really do want to do a road ride. It does a lot for my motivation to knock out at least 30 miles. I also plan to go to the group ride at Anderson Park in Lansing, tomorrow. That will probably be about a 50- or 60-minute ride.

Happy Independence Day on this beautiful 4th of July!

I wasn’t too keen on the forecast for rain, but I chose to tough it out and pre-register for the race. Once I got there, the clouds had already begun to clear away and the sun came out. It was suddenly a beautiful day and I was ready to ride my bike.

When I reached the starting line, I was pretty happy because there were only three of us. After a bit, I turned and saw that there were quite a few more women in my class who were standing behind us. Uh oh. Yeah, I had a bad feeling because I know how racing works in the Lower Peninsula, and I knew the race was going to suck for one big reason: my confidence was quickly running away…far, far away from the race course.

We started racing and I immediately took my position in about third or fourth from the back. After a short while, everyone passed me, and then I passed another girl so I wouldn’t be last. What I did not realize is that the girl I passed must have passed me back, because I found out that I was last towards the end of my first lap.

I don’t mind being last, but I do mind getting smoked. At the rate I was going, it was going to take me about two hours and ten minutes to finish the course, and that was probably about 20 minutes behind the girl in front me. Not kosher.

In addition to my frustration, I started having some abdominal cramping early in the race. This is something I’ve started experiencing this year, and it happens on climbs, or hard efforts, that occur very shortly after the beginning of my ride. Between that and the fact that I was smoked by the others, I decided to quit the race before crossing the lap mark. It probably wasn’t a bad idea because I felt worse as the night went on and I felt like I was going to explode.

I made a very important decision: I am dropping down to the Beginner class. I know I’m not a beginner, but I also know that I am significantly slower than I used to be. I also know that the Beginner class is full of non-beginners who are actually average riders that belong in Sport. Hell, why shouldn’t I be there?

Another very important reason why I’ve decided to drop back down to beginner class is because I just can’t do the laps or the distance. There was no way I could’ve done more than then beginner distance at the Barry Roubaix. Sport at Yankee was only one lap, like with Beginner, so that wasn’t an issue. Fort Custer was two laps, and I just didn’t want to do that. If I do the Boyne Marathon, there is no way I’ll be able to complete the Sport distance. With that said, I am a beginner. Hear me roar.

Unfortunately, this is evidence that I am in massively bad shape. Unfortunately, with all of the exercise I’ve been getting, I don’t feel I’ve been getting into better shape, and I sure as hell haven’t been losing weight. Something is amiss.

“What do you mean, ‘actually enjoy it?’ Its mountain biking. You should always enjoy it!”

Sure, if you enjoy racing, then that’s great. I have mixed feelings about it, though.

I enjoy seeing mountain biking friends and fellow advocacy freaks at the races.

I am quite competitive. I love to gauge my progress, and racing is not only a motivator to continue improving, but a great method of gauging progress with some accountability. Not only that, but it is also fun to get together with a couple hundred people and do what we all like to do: mountain bike.

What I don’t like about racing is the compelling need to go as fast as I possibly can. The reason is that it hurts. Now, I do like pain. This is obvious because I mountain bike, but I push myself to a different level when I race. I’ve finished several races after bonking. I’ve had coughing fits and a raw throat because I pushed so hard that my lungs felt like they wanted to die. I don’t necessarily enjoy the routes that are chosen for some races.

I love the “chilling out” period that follows the race.

What is the reason I race, then? Why do I race? Because I can. I truly believe that. When it comes to competition, I seem to like to push myself about as hard as I can. I push to my limit. Maybe it makes me feel like I am truly alive. Maybe it is because I appreciate being able to do this crazy stuff while my body is young and healthy. I know for a fact that part of it is because I enjoy hanging out with mountain bikers.