Taking a Second
The first real bike race I rode in was the Red Zinger Mini Classic; 11 stages over 10 days, in 1983. I placed second overall.
1984, second.
1985, second.
In 1986 I trained, was motivated and determined; second.
That last year I won 9 out of 11 stages but crashed (see the picture above), and didn’t finish one stage, so there was no way to make up all the points on Chris McCarthy.
When the results of the Best of Aspen 2025 came back a couple weeks ago, Beespoke Cycling was voted the (wait for it…) second best bike shop in Aspen/Basalt. The write up about bike shops in the running (please take a moment to read it by clicking on the hyperlink, the underlined words) sets the stage for the rest of this month’s newsletter, but more importantly, it actually nails what is best about all of the bike world, universally, and here in the Valley.
A former co-worker quipped “that ‘best of’ stuff is nothing but a pissing match” and he’s right. …isn’t he? I believe it means more than that because you voters don’t care who has the best sign or fanciest logo or biggest inventory- you care about how welcome you feel going into that environment. It is the intanglible qualities of having someone greet you when you walk in, knowing that the expertise you require is housed within and you are going to come out smarter. Because, in this day and time, you don’t even need to leave the comfort of your couch to order anything you want, so making the effort to go local deserves to be rewarded.
The first place shop has been an entity in this Valley for 42 years- Basalt Bikes began life as Ajax Bike and Sport in 1983, and employed me for nearly 10 years, until 2023. The third place shop, Hub of Aspen also began in 1983 (according to one source, or 1989 by another). Both of them have very long, established rapports around here, but neither is anything close to what it started as. Predicting what anything will be like a couple years in the future is dicey, so thinking that they have another 40 years…
If you read the preamble to the Best of Bike Shops article, the importance of a bike shop in a small community like ours is palpable: a welcoming place of coming together, where you go to have your beloved steed put back together, and to share wisdom — primarily about bikes, but really that’s only the starting point. Each shop has it’s own merits and deserves a place amongst us as long as they contiune to earn your trust and respect.
The twist comes at the end of the article. Shocker alert: it was written by ChatGPT. WTF? But, that AI chatbot nailed it!
That’s where we find ourselves in 2025.
Computer brains can dissect the situation better than humans can now, but they can’t walk in the doors of a shop and interact with the reality of the well intentioned staff. So, what really is the truth?
Bike shops that were started 40 years ago and are on their third ownership group are still trying to sell you the next best thing to get you where you need to be; the thing that can make you go faster, further, lighter, smoother, step up the ladder of excellence, and cost ever more each round. It works too- your bike will be fast af. But is that what you need?
I’ve decided that this will be my last year of “serious” racing, that 55 is old enough to push the boundaries that hard.
Don’t tell Butch Peterson that. He has always been one of those outrageous athletes that picks up anything, excels, and also possesses the ability to push himself with dedication. He’s a few years older than me, has always been faster than me, and enjoys the competition immensely. I hope he races on to glory for years to come.
How many of you know Jacquesy, the old French guy who lives in Carbondale? I first met him in 1998 in Salida at a montain bike race. He had ridden over from our Valley, raced in the race, then pedaled home; not in the same day, but still… He was in his 60’s then, god knows how old he is now. He and I almost got in a fight after the Porcupine Loop race (2011?) because he tried to get me dq’d out of the race for not giving him the trail when I was riding the race with my 8 year old son — we were the last three racers, 100 yards from the bacon station, in a fun race that encouraged costumes on the Sunday of Mountain fair. Jacques has raced over 500 races in his life and still yells at you, even from last place.
So, going fast and taking it seriously is definitely a thing. If you want that.
What if you don’t want to go that fast (don’t bother telling me that you don’t care about going fast, because you really do, you just want it with minimal effort) or to pay full price for things that simply upgrade what you already own? There’s chatter about that too — the trying to figure out how to make the cultural elements of bike shops mean more than making a buck off every cyclist/customer that walks in the door.
Here’s one of those guys, I found him on Substack; he talks about “raceification syndrome vs experiential biking” and he is definitely on to something. The “problem” with the bike industry, according to Juansi, is that it beatifies the glorious winners rather than the mass middle. The catch is, in any given bike race, there is one winner and a whole lot of sinners (second winners). What makes one different from the other? Is it gear, dedication, training, luck, fueling, genetics, ethics? All of it?
The reason I am thinking this will be my last year of racing is that in order to just be in the age group running for Unbound and Gravel Nats, really I need to buy a new bike that weighs 6 lbs. less, spend money on a coach who will find and unleash my potential (when I told Tom Danielson what my current power numbers were, he just kinda changed the subject) and bury myself in specific training. Also, quit drinking, eat (more) perfectly, and adopt a diet of only sugar and caffeine while riding.
What’s not to love?
What I’m actually going to do is use the bikes that I already have, experiment with AI coaching, set up a training camp in April somewhere in California (because we need to go there to acquire superb quality dried fruits for Misti’s masterpieces), fine tune my form on this perfect little 10 mile course I have laid out in the back yard, find more ways to ride with all of you, and put my wheels on at least 100 miles of new-to-me road/trail in this valley, all while developing my human side into a better version than today’s, with wine included.
Then, I’m going to go like hell when the gun fires so that, come 2027, we can go exploring at a more sedate pace in new worlds with no regrets.
Seconds definitely count.
Cheers
