Smithers MINNEAPOLIS

Stop Yelling

Dude, I am really getting tired of the yelling on bike rides. It’s bad enough when life is stressful in other aspects, the last thing I need is yelling when I am trying to relax and relieve some stress by riding.

So the National Champion invited me to come up to the track tonight to try out the structured training workout. Mrs. Smithers gave the OK so I figured why not? It would give me a chance to dial in the new track bike.

Going up there I knew that I was only going to have a limited amount of time to spend at the track so I was going to maximize the time that I had. The way the workouts were set up is that a group of 6 or 8 riders would set off for some very fast laps with riders pulling at the front for one or two laps and then pulling off and attempting to get back onto the back of the group. Once this group finished their session, which took between 12 and 15 laps, another group of 6 or 8 riders would get ready and set off for a similar session while the first group recovered. Since I was going to take off after about an hour I thought I would just do back to back sessions until I exploded.

I was feeling pretty good, a lot better than I expected to feel. It was getting close to 7pm and I was thinking about taking off and heading home but I decided to do one more session before I took off. The National Champion said something to the effect of “I guess we need to make these harder if you are doing them back to back.” I was going to blow up soon but I figured that I would be able to hang in there for one more.

So off we went, faster and faster, harder and harder. I was feeling ok and hanging in just fine until the National Champion got the front and started to pour on the steam. It only took 2 laps before things went sour for me.

There were a couple of guys behind me left in the paceline so I had a couple of options. In theory I could have speeded up to prevent the rider behind me from having to shut a gap down. But I was rapidly losing it so this was not an option for me. I could have just sat up and not moved up track there by preventing the riders behind me from trying to get back on the wheel, but that would have been tres uncool. So I swung up track and got the hell out of the way.

I knew that I had created a tough situation for the rider behind me as he now had a bike length plus that he had to close on the National Champion as the pace continued to heat up. I felt bad about it and apologized profusely as I moved out of the pace line. The guy behind me in line got all hot about it and swore something at me as he rode by.

I understand the feeling. You are giving 100%, on the rivet, total red line, and some dude just opens a gap that you now have to close. It sucks ass and it’s natural to be unable to control your emotions in this situation. I am not going to get all upset about some dude swearing at me once, even if it is just training.

I cooled down on the track for a couple of laps and then rolled off with the intention of riding a couple of laps on the infield track before I left. But the guy who I had gapped was apparently still all pissed off about my move and decided to let me have it.

Look, when someone makes a mistake that negatively affects you there are two options. You can be gracious and dignified and speak with the individual that made the mistake and explain how it affected you, or you can be a dick and pitch a fit and make yourself look like a jackass.

I’ll be the first one to admit when I make a mistake. I had already apologized on the track and apologized again in the infield. But it wasn’t enough for this guy and he continued to rail on and on about what I should and should not do and blah blah blah. I finally told him that I got it and that he should just lighten up.

So whatever. I obviously wrecked his life by forcing him to try and close a gap and chase down the National Champion in session of a free of charge training ride. How tragic. Trust me, life can get a lot worse than this.

Anyway, he won’t have to put up with me during these training rides for the rest of the season anyway. They switch to Tuesdays next week and that’s Urthel ride night.