Saturday, July 12, 2008

The summer doldrums

I noticed as I logged in to write this that there had been a post once every 2 to three days from January to June. Now its July 12, and there hasn't been a post yet. Does this indicate that the novelty of blogging has worn off? Or that I'm to busy watching the tour to write interesting blog entries? Maybe I just forgot my log in?

No, in fact folks, we've hit what I like to call the summer doldrums. I'm not even really sure what a doldrum is, but I imagine its something less bad than a sinking boat, but less helpful then a giant squid of friendlyness.

So in bike racing terms we've reached the point in the season where everyone's ridden plenty and raced a bunch and is starting to think things like, "hey, fishing sounds like fun," and "yes, I do like competitive wiffle ball." What this means for the bike racing, is that our once favorite son of sport becomes the red headed stepchild of hobbies.

I've never understood why we start the season when there's still snow on the ground and then everyone gets sick of racing by June 15. It is really a big challenge to be getting on form by the time the first of April rolls around, and then keep that high end through until August, then also think you're going to be Sven Nys all fall. This is why you don't see too many guys win the Tour of Flanders and anything in July in the same year.

For us mere mortals who aren't paid to ride in terrible conditions, I suggest we do something ingenious, and ski all winter long, then when the snow melts, start racing our bikes. Then in July, you'll only have been on the bike for 3 days instead of 3 years straight, and maybe you won't be too burned out to race a 20 mile crit!


That's my suggestion, but obviously I'll see you all at Johnny Cake One 2009 without thinking twice.

1 comment:

Andrew J. Bernstein said...

Eric, I think you're onto something with thinking the season is too long to stay fity throughout ... which is why July provides an important rest... instead of riding, we can watch the tour, while we think about conquests in August/September/October/November/December