January 4, 2010

Hi Joe Loved the book. I was wondering on your viewpoint of the Bradley Wiggins and Sky transfer saga. Did this contract breaking happen back in your era?

Dave - Shropshire, England scalesofjustice

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the kind words. I am happy you found the book entertaining.

The Bradley Wiggins transfer to Sky is interesting to me because so many people (in this country at least) are having a hard time with it. As a former (underpaid) pro, I really don’t have too much trouble with his desire to make more money or ride for a major team that’s based in his home country. I am not suggesting in any way that he was underpaid by his former employer, but if a guy can find a better paycheck and/or situation, and the rules make it possible for him to leave, well, good for him, I guess. I broke my contract with Transvemij (later TVM) to go to another team in the silly season of 1987/88, but it wasn’t for more money. It is certain that young Mr. Wiggins is making a deservedly large amount more than the young Mr. Parkin did, too.

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December 30, 2009

Joe, I understand you lived in a rain cape for 6 years, but what did you use to keep your hands and feet warm/dry during all those early season days of cold rain?

Brian Ignatin - Pineville, Pennsylvania

Hands and feet? Honestly, I cannot remember because they have long succumbed to frostbite and fallen off.

Brian, it took me a really long time but eventually I wised up and fled the cold weather. This is one question that I have absolutely no answer for. I have tried any number of different kinds of shoe covers (aka booties) and gloves of every shape, kind, color and construction, to absolutely no avail. Yes, there are a ton of outstanding glove and shoe cover option available now but, for the most part, keeping your feet and hands warm has a lot to do with your own hands and feet.

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December 21, 2009

I have always personally loved the black shoes on the bike, black socks too, but as of late the euro cool thing of course is ‘white only’. I just don’t like it, haven’t adopted it, and probably won’t change it, but wonder as I look for new shoes if I should even entertain white as optional. Afterall, mavic has some primo junkie shoes in black, carbon and all. So do Sidi, so, if euro makers make them, can they be all that wrong?? I am a masters cat. racer and love the euro look otherwise, just not white shoes. Did you wear white or black during your tenure as racer??

dettoDan Johnson -  Missouri

My name is Joe and I have a shoe problem. I think you might even refer to it as flat-out craziness. I have owned (bought and been given) more cycling shoes than I can remember. I have filed, cut, heated, bent, sawed, glued and otherwise mutilated them in, pretty much, every way imaginable -- shoe mania. Imelda Marcos had nothing on me.

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December 17, 2009

Training wheels

smbikeRecently, it has become my habit to scan various cycling media outlets several times each day in hopes of finding news. In this era of reading the news as it is happening, the race to get a story up on the web is just about as intense as the racing itself. It is fun for me to watch the chips fall, if you will, and to see what country or language will break the story first.

Tuesday, as I glanced at the headlines on various different sites I came up with a story about riders from the Omega Pharma – Lotto team crashing during their training camp, which is happening Spain, as we speak.

Yesterday, I read another story about a rider from Liquigas who crashed while training and suffered a double collarbone fracture.

Let me summarize here for a second – professional bike racers are crashing during training rides. Ladies and gentlemen, I need your help to figure out what exactly is going on here? Have the world’s best bike riders forgotten how to ride their bikes?

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December 14, 2009

Hey Joe, now that it is cross season, along with visions of “being the only one in the photo” at the end of a raining, cold early season road race, tell us about the real “Belgian Kneewarmers”. What did you use on your legs in the races or what did you see being used as embrocation in Belgium in the changing rooms. I know that the application of products on the legs is as much of the ritual of riding a Kermis as is training. Can you enlighten us?

redhotDavid A  -  Portland, Oregon

It’s funny, but actually didn’t know what “Belgian Kneewarmers” referred to until about a year ago. I guess it might be, perhaps, that as I was in the habit of putting on one or another type of embrocation gunk on the knees and legs, and that everyone else was doing the same thing, I never knew there was an American term for it.

Yes, for those of you who have never been in a dressing room immediately prior to a Belgian kermis, classic, semi-classic, or cyclocross race … the air becomes thick with the fragrance of at least a dozen different analgesic ointments. Some of these are familiar smells – a lot like that Ben Gay smell you got when you went to visit your grandparents. Some of them, on the other hand, are like nothing you have smelled before – and quite possibly could be some sort of cross between a freaky hillbilly poultice and a high desert meth lab.

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December 11, 2009

I am bored with the 2012 Olympics … already.

olympic-ringsOn my Versus column Wednesday I wrote about the International Olympic Committee’s decision to turn track cycling upside down at the 2012 Olympic games. The UCI really didn’t help matters much either. As I stewed in velodrome juices over the course of the last couple of days, I felt the need to hit the subject again … here.

It seems that the heart of the matter stems from the fact that the IOC wants equality between events for men and women. At the 2008 games in Beijing, for instance, there were 7 events for men and 3 events for women. It seems that the IOC has demanded 5 events each. Additionally, the IOC has argued that the events excluded do not make for good TV coverage.

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