"Roger Zoul" <
[email protected]> wrote in message
news:
[email protected]...
> zsilverball wrote:
> :: How in the world can you ride 12,000 miles a year. Are you
> :: stretching the truth a little. If not how do you have the time for
> :: this much riding? I'm actually curious.
>
> Being self-employed would certainly help. Being a fast rider helps too.
> Riding most days of the week would make it possible, too. Thing is,
> riding solo in a rural area would seem to make one a lonely person . 
I didn't move down here 'cuz I craved a crowd. I do own my own business and
have plenty of people in my life to deal with. I also head to Anderson and
Greenwood for twice-weekly club rides. But I've never had any problem being
alone with my own thoughts. I cherish the solitude, and I usually get
better training riding alone than I do with most groups with whom I ride.
To be brutally honest about it, riding with some of the pricks and
primadonas I've met up in the Greenville area (The Sobe Masters team guys
jump to mind) has made me appreciate the pleasure of riding alone. There
was a time when the faster folks would work their way to the front of a
century ride and work together so everyone could do the best time possible
for the ride. A nice bond would form as the group would work together and
lasting friendships would be made. But over the last few years, a group of
masters racers from Greenville has been coming to all the local events to
practice their team tactics on any group that gets going at the front. They
deliberately disrupt attempts to get a good group formed and they launch
solo attacks, etc. That's fine. They pay their money, they have a right to
ride the way they want to. But they've pulled some really lousy stunts,
too. Last year at one event, their tactics didn't shake a few of us. At 65
miles we made our only rest stop ... just long enough to fill our bottles.
These guys barged to the front of the line, filled their bottles, then left
in a sprint before the rest of us could get filled up. It was just lousy
and immature. I got sick of all that kind of **** over the years. Plus,
these guys are real impressed with themselves that they can pee from their
bikes. It's the stupidest thing I've ever seen. Sure, the pros do it ...
sometimes. These guys do it to show off to each other ... and when they're
riding AT THE FRONT of a group. I never saw it happen, but I was sure it
would, that one of them would go down with his ***** in his hands and some
poor soul behind would end up being the guy making a trip in an ambulance.
Anyway, the animals I encounter here in these parts seem more civilized.
--
Bob C.
"Of course it hurts. The trick is not minding that it hurts."
T. E. Lawrence (of Arabia)
