Jerry K - Birmingham, Alabama

Well-sir, to tell you the truth, my feeble brain has a hard time with box scores sometimes, which is ultimately why I had to quit baseball and take up bike racing - baseball is all about box scores and numbers and whatnot, while bike racing is just about "go."

Seriously, I have known/known of Jonathan Page for a long time, and utmost respect only sort of starts to come close. But back to the box score thing ... I am not proud to say it, but I really haven't paid close attention to how JP has been riding lately. I often think that if I had a chance to do it all over again I would have gone the cyclocross route, so I am at least glad that someone with the initials JP has.

Jerry, you bring up a good point - and further applause for you for paying attention to a rider who has chosen to do it the hard way. But your question has also opened the floor for a wee rant ... so I will go ahead and grab hold of the talking stick.

For me, and I mean absolutely no disrespect to those who don't share the same opinion, having a chance be the opening band for the Rolling Stones is infinitely more impressive than playing as the headliner at Dipshit's Redneck Asshole Cheap Beer Hut in Askov, Minnesota. Trust me, many of you know that winning races feels great, but going toe-to-toe, shoulder-to-shoulder, and wheel-to-wheel with the best in the business is more rewarding than standing on another podium and wondering about what could have been.

Outside of the true literary critics who have attacked A Dog in a Hat, there have been very few cyclists who have outwardly blasted the thing. I like when the critics punch me - most of those folks are a lot smarter than me and it has been interesting to try and address some of their issues in book #2 -  which is called Come & Gone, by the way. These are experts, for the most part, so when they say I suck because ... I listen. When I am criticized for having a bad attitude toward American-based racing on the other hand, I continue to listen but the arguments are, by and large, completely impotent.

Back to JP and the Rolling Stones though - I am sure that if de heer Page came back to the States to campaign an entire 'cross season he would see huge successes and some failures. By that I mean Jonathan is an amazing cyclocross rider but there are surely guys based in the US who are stronger, physically. The difference between bike racing in Europe and in the United States at this point is no longer about quality of talent, but about history. Your average 16 year-old road racer in Belgium knows all about the history of the sport - a history that is sometimes more of a motivator than all the books on training combined - a history that, in many cases, supersedes the latest and greatest advancements in wattage training, and powerbar eating .... etc, etc.

Bike racing for me is more than a mathematical equation, and that, I believe, is why the people from the crossroads of Europe excel at this form of torture few people can handle.

There is a human aspect to racing - a Keith Richards Fender Telecaster kind of thing. Any moron with an reasonably decent VO2 max can be taught to pedal a bicycle fast - but only a very few fortunate ones (or unfortunate ones, depending on your viewpoint)  can learn to race a bicycle fast. Likewise, there are many people out there with advanced degrees in music who cannot make a Telecaster sing like ol' Keith can.

Bike racing in Europe is kind of the same -- the competitors might not be as good, physically - they might not be trained as well - they might not eat as well -- but there is something about the passion you feel for bike racing inside the race and among the fans that elevates it to a higher level.

You don't have to go to a live show to hear great music, and you don't have to travel abroad to experience great bike racing .... but I think it helps. I am glad to see that so many people are giving it a try now.