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Block Lies of Truth April 4th 2006 Priorities - Everything seems so life and death. We work so hard to achieve our goals and we are willing to lay it all on the line. That is until we self destruct - sometimes literally. We then have to reinvent ourselves - rethink, rebuild and try to get back to where we left off. We are all addicts in one form or another. Some in a building way, others - oh so destructive... Nothing in life is more important than health. Sometimes an injury or setback can actually be a blessing in disguise. Other times it is a huge setback that will take months to recover from. We will continue taking the risks and making the sacrifices because that is what separates us from the average. If it was easy everyone would be doing it.
March 20th 2006 No matter what type of event you are involved in you have to deal with some kind of sanctioning body. In cycling there tends to be move of a dictatorship than in most other industries. From the major tours we've seen fines, suspensions, penalties, and just plain old discipline. Now we find ourselves in California with some grumpy old bastard dictating the rules and making some stupid decisions, thinking all of the time that he is Jean-Marie LeBlanc.. Take Erik Saunders for example... He goes out and races a few (CBR) local events and the local sanctioning body says he cannot participate in events that are not theirs. We call bullshit. Racing is racing. If they want him to make a decision and chose their race over CBR then make their race more appealing or at least enjoyable. Here are some of our experiences from this past weekend in San Dimas: In the Cat 3 road race a bunch finish consumed a group of Masters 35+ and riders were shelled in all directions. Instead of having to barge through 50 people lining up for the sprint we had nearly 100. The 35s who were ahead were not contesting the win so some were sitting up while others were just slower than the Cat 3 pack. It was not pretty - especially since it cost us a win. Second wonderful decision (which we weren't involved in) was the Cat 3 Green Jersey tie breaker. The top two riders in the points classification were tied at the end of day 3. Rather than making the tiebreaker the final finish the organization decided to break the tie by GC placement. WTF!!! In a race decided by an uphill time trial how can that be the deciding factor for the sprint classification??? The green jersey was designed so that riders who were not as proficient in the hills would have a reason to stay in the race. Anyway to make a long story even longer the event sponsored rider got the green jersey in a tie breaker. You can drive yourself nuts if you start digging into the political aspect of cycling. Our best bet is to ride, kick their asses and make them contemplate getting out of bed to go race the next weekend... If you have a choice of multiple events know that if you choose CBR it will be more fun.
March 13th 2006 Raced hard all weekend and the whole team got results. Team Block has com into it's own in the So Cal region... It is a double edge sword. We get results on breakaways and field sprints. It is any Team Block rider vs. 4-6 riders from 3 or 4 other teams. Bottom line we still have been kicking ass. Brock will break on any opportunity and for the past few weeks it has paid off with wins. He is now Cat 3 and shouldn't stay there for too long. Rich makes power and if he is sitting in the top 20 in the final turn watch out! He just got the call to Cat 2 - so now we'll see if he has what it takes. What is all this getting at? Well cycling is team tactics. It takes a ton of effort for an individual to win a race when a team is working together to defeat you and get their "lead" rider to the front. This finally gets us to subject at hand. We had a confrontation with a team (more like a rider from a team) who lead his rider out, pulled out, then sat up blocking anyone on the outside that were trying to sprint against his riders. Well needless to say he got clipped by a charging 200 pound sprinter (who was slowed by the bump) but went on the chase down the leaders and win the sprint by a tire. After picking himself up and thinking about the experience he decided to negotiate a deal. "How about you switch places with my teammate (give him the first and take the second) and we'll call it good for crashing me". "Are you serious" was the reply... This guy not only had the nerve to ask for the free win but he went on to say: "Well then - apology not accepted." So the moral to the story... Train, train and train some more - because not only will we beat you heads up we'll knock you on your ass!!! Don't be a pussy and don't ask for something for nothing. On a personal note we truly are sorry for his crash and never want to see anyone hit the deck - not a good sport for that.
February 27th 2006 Today we became enlightened and for that I am appreciative. That is all I have to say... Not true... I have plenty more to say, so here goes. We are bicycle riders, so age, sex, religion, race (ok not race but color - racing is still racing), politics, and any other thing that describes our individuality is out the window as soon as we start pedaling. With that in mind I will clarify a few things about us and will not explain or need to explain again. Everything we talk about, advertise, and express is meant to be controversial - BUT - funny. As you interpret our humor, just know that it is ALWAYS sarcastic and meant to be humorous. That being said if you are offended or had your feelings hurt - well then, you are probably French. No, really we are not gay bashing, and it has been brought to our attention that we have been misinterpreted in our presentation. When we use words like homo and gay we are describing the opposite of MACHO. As racers/riders everything is a pissing contest, we compete for everything. The weak lose - plain and simple. Macho (for lack of better words and props to my Mexican brothers for such a fine language and for not having to use the word masculine) is opposite of feminine. Our definition of feminine is soft or delicate (sorry ladies at least that is my definition). Homo and gay are good definition words for feminine (see how Seven Degrees of Kevin Bacon we are getting) but aren't to be taken in a literal sexual sense. I love the L Word - but that has nothing to do with bicycles. We all have our own definitions - don't try to make mine into yours.
February 26th 2006 If I am riding my bike in circles, chasing other grown men in underwear, and sucking their wheels does that make me a homo? Verbally it sure sounds like it... I am the least gay guy you will ever meet - not homophobic - just extremely straight. There is not a sport that we could have choose that has a worse stigma about it. Just try to talk a BMXer into racing or even riding road - you have a challenge ahead. Number one reason why - well one and two - would be the lycra and shaved legs. The lycra is pretty tough to avoid but the shaved legs won't happen here until there is a full time masseuse. I laugh at the reasons that I have heard why racers shave their legs. Please feel free to email me and let me know your reason. I will post the top ten here later. Seriously, this ought to be good - I have a hard enough time shaving my face. Where does it stop? Do you keep shaving north until you make a full porn cut? Do you end up trimming the brush from the waist down or do you keep going, chest, arms, neck ears??? Man I am sounding gayer by the second... It is no wonder I get run off of the road daily. The problem is it becomes addicting. Everything we do in this sport we take to extremes. In the case of the shaved legs - in my opinion - is extremely bad...
February 21st 2006 It is so funny how people take so many things so seriously. Take bike racing for example. Outside of bike riders does anyone really give a shit about a group of people pedaling a two wheel vehicle around in there underwear? The correct answer is no - not just no - but not at all. And... if you think that winning a sprint finish at nearly 1800 watts of power, 38mph, for 300 meters will get their attention you are sadly mistaken. See, we appreciate these things simply as cyclists, but it is self gratification. Even the people that you race against don't care - they don't want you beat them - they say "good race" (maybe), but in their minds they have an excuse or a reason why it wasn't them. I know that is how I think. I don't want to win - I want to crush them. Make them reconsider why they signed up that day. And... if I lose, you can bet it will be me, kicking my ass. All the way until the next race to redeem myself vs another 100 underwear wearing, shaved legged, cookie-cutter wanna-be Lance, bike racers who think that they are the one deserving the prize. Serious - yes - you can bet on it. Focused yes - you have to be. Expecting compliments, praise and respect? You better pick another sport cause lycra, girl legs, and a bulimic model like figure isn't accepted as macho by general public...
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