I think some of you are missing the point.

You don't eat cupcakes.
You don't eat ice cream.
Nobody gives a shit how cool your kit is, or who made your bike, or how bling your wheels are.
You don't deserve a special race just because you're old, or because you have a job, or because you only have one gear.
There are no secrets and there are no shortcuts.
There's only one reason you go off the back, and that is because you are not good enough.
So either you ride or you don't.
It really is that simple.

EnduroSnob: Endurance Cycling, Single Speeds and Assorted Snobbery: Assorted Snobbery: Henry Rollins

saw this in my Google Reader today:

EnduroSnob: Endurance Cycling, Single Speeds and Assorted Snobbery: Assorted Snobbery: Henry Rollins

I knew there was a reason I was listening to so much Black Flag this week...

Another Monday.

Something has to change. Just has to.

Pause

Sorry about the gap in posting. I'm just not into the long form blogging thing right now. To be honest it hasn't been a great spring on a whole bunch of levels, and the motivation to document that just isn't there. Maybe it's just because it's been too cold for too long- or I don't ride my bike anymore, or who knows, but I'm firmly stuck in a rut and don't really have the motivation to get unstuck.

I have however been thinking about a series of potential posts/essays/commentaries- I'm calling them "the unpopular posts" that I'd like to write. They mostly fall into that "look- dude- just STFU. Here's the deal..." category- the category of responses to stupid/noob/exasperating questions and situations that run through my brain but (hopefully) don't make it to my mouth. I've been thinking about letting them out, for better or for worse. For now though, I'll keep it to myself for a while at least.

In the mean time, I'm doing the Twitter thing (140 characters is just fine for me thanks) here:
http://twitter.com/JDBilodeau
You can check that if you like, and I'll keep working on something bigger to put up here.
Thanks-

Happy Mothers Day

#99 Problems

Good Job Manny!

I wonder- do you think Manny Ramirez put all of his old uniforms on ebay before his suspension was announced?

Is is funny or pathetic that every time some pro athlete gets popped they use the same lame excuses? You would think that they'd come up with something new- or heaven forbid tell the truth. It's ridiculous to look at the numbers of professional athletes who have "asthma" or "erectile disfunction" or whatever the excuse of the month is. The only thing that's worse is the scores of Cat 3's and Masters who are running out to get that 'little blue pill' this week....

Pwned

The cycling public just got pwned by Lance. Again.

If you've been following the manufactured drama around the Tour of the Gila you know that the UCI is allowing Lance to ride. That's not what's got my knickers in a twist. It's that Lance and his cohorts have played this whole thing off as "oh can't we just let Levi and Lance go do a training race in New Mexico..."

And that is a bunch of crap. See, it's not about the training- Lance never did much racing in the US before his retirement, so why should he suddenly want to now? Is it to prepare for the Giro? By doing a 5 day stage race against US amateurs? A race that only totals 340 miles? Is he going to ride all of the stages at once? Will he pull a "Frankie" and let the field get a head start every day?

Or could it have something to do with the fact that Lance Armstrong has a substantial financial investment in SRAM, the title sponsor of the Gila? And that by creating pre event drama he keeps the "SRAM Tour of the Gila" in the media? And moves the spotlight off of one of the greatest US stage races and right onto him? Do you think Lance is squeezing the Gila promoter for an appearance fee? After all he's rumored to have gotten over a million bucks to do the Tour Down Under.

Maybe I'm just too cynical, but I'd prefer that the cameras and the microphones at the finish of todays stage be around the winner of the race, and not around Lance. Maybe that's because I prefer substance to celebrity and sports over sports entertainment.