Weighing In On The Richie Porte Controversy

At the Giro d’Italia on Tuesday, the UCI penalized Team Sky’s Richie Porte for receiving a wheel from Orica-GreenEdge’s Simon Clarke. Porte got a flat tire near the end of the stage and was desperate to limit his time loss. Despite having teammates nearby, Porte accepted Clarke’s wheel. Both later claimed they were unaware of the rule that prohibits such exchanges across teams. There would have been no violation if Porte had taken a wheel from one of his own teammates.

Porte began Stage 10 in 3rd place, just 22 seconds behind race leader Alberto Contador. The 2-minute penalty on top of the time lost to the flat tire has seriously damaged Porte’s chances of winning the Giro, dropping him into 12th place, 3:09 behind Contador. The impact of the penalty on the general classification contributed mightily to the outrage than has come from Porte’s fans. It’s hard to imagine that the incident would have attracted any attention if the wheel exchange had occurred between riders with no GC ambitions.

Yesterday’s enforcement of a little-used rule was not unique: Romain Sicard was punished for the same violation at the 2009 Tour de l’Avenir. Sicard won the race anyway, and the Tour de l’Avenir doesn’t have the status of the Giro d’Italia, so few people took notice. But no one now should say that he is unaware of the rule. It’s nothing new.

Some of Porte’s supporters argue that the rule should not have been enforced because of its effect on GC. Other fans argue that the rule should not have been enforced because it negated a gesture of sportsmanship by Clarke. I disagree. To me, rule enforcement needs to be impartial and applicable to all riders in all situations. I applaud Clarke for wanting to help his friend, but he might have rendered assistance in another way. Had Porte accepted a teammate’s wheel, Clarke could have contributed to the pacemaking that brought Porte back up to speed. One of the reasons we appreciate sportsmanship is that it cannot be assumed, and gestures like Clarke’s are sweeter by their rarity. Somewhat lost in the uproar is the fact that Clarke was assessed the same 2-minute penalty. Fans who are outraged on Porte’s behalf seem to have little to say about justice for Clarke. The difference, of course, is that Clarke occupies a lowly spot in the overall standings and his time loss means nothing to his Giro objectives.

But the different objectives of the two riders are independent of the rule in question. Justice was served. The UCI does bear some responsibility for the controversy though, because it has been inconsistent in other matters. With every “sticky bottle” and “magic spanner,” the UCI fosters an expectation that rules won’t be enforced when the outcome would be unpopular. It’s the inconsistency that needs to change. The impartial and universal enforcement of well-crafted rules is the answer.

Alberto Contador And The Designated Hitter

Every sport has its marquee athletes, the superstars who attract attention from the media and from the fans and, therefore, money from the sponsors. It’s good for business to maximize the exposure of such athletes; it’s bad for business when they are unable to compete due to injury or other factors.

The biggest stars in the National Football League are the quarterbacks. In recent years, the league implemented several rule changes to keep them on the field. Some are intended to prevent injuries—e.g., the “in the grasp” rule that brings play to a halt without requiring that the quarterback be tackled. Other rules produce more plays on offense by stopping the clock—e.g., allowing the QB to spike the ball or, if outside the pocket, to throw an intentionally incomplete pass without penalty.

Major League Baseball, it could be argued, takes the concept another step by allowing some of its star players to avoid the parts of the game in which they do not excel. Under the designated hitter rule—in use since 1973 for games played in American League stadiums—pitchers are not required to hit. Hitting is something most pitchers do poorly, so the DH rule ensures more offense and allows pitchers to remain in games when they otherwise would be removed for a pinch hitter. The DH rule also allows pitchers to avoid baserunning, another activity that can result in injury. And the DH rule has created a lucrative niche for players who can hit well but whose defensive skills would make them a liability at any position on the field.

Cycling has a rule that provides some protection for riders who suffer misfortune in a stage race. It says, in part:

“In the case of a duly noted fall, puncture or mechanical incident in the last three kilometers of a road race stage, the rider or riders involved shall be credited with the time of the rider or riders in whose company they were riding at the moment of the accident.”

The rule is an acknowledgment of the dangers the riders face in the final moments of a stage designed for a bunch sprint. (The rule does not apply to mountaintop finishes where riders typically arrive individually or in very small groups.) But while the rule can allow riders to remain competitive in a multi-day race when otherwise their time losses would be too large, it applies only after misfortune strikes.

Alberto Contador, the greatest Grand Tour rider of the present generation, crashed in the final meters of last Thursday’s stage of the Giro d’Italia. Wearing the pink jersey of race leadership, Contador was near the front of the race when a multi-rider crash swept across the road and knocked him to the ground. Contador injured his left shoulder and there was serious doubt that he would be able to start Friday’s stage, but he was able to continue through the weekend. Today is the first rest day of the three-week race and it should bring Contador, still the overall leader, closer to full health.

Without Contador the Giro would be far less compelling. In 2014, both Contador and top rival Christopher Froome crashed out of the Tour de France. Vincenzo Nibali rode well and may have won the race anyway, but there’s no denying that the Tour was diminished by the absence of Contador and Froome. In the memories of many cycling fans, Nibali’s victory will always come with an asterisk.

In last year’s Tour, the injuries to Contador and Froome were not sustained while sprinting. Crashes and mechanical failures can occur anywhere on the course, and there’s no way to insulate every rider from every negative possibility. But given last Thursday’s events at the Giro, I think we soon might see an expansion of the three kilometer rule. It’s not hard to imagine a rule that allows riders to turn off the gas shortly before the finish line with no loss of time in the general classification. Fans want to see high-speed sprints and riders like André Greipel, Thursday’s winner, will continue to deliver. But in the mountains, where he struggles, Greipel will work with the other sprinters to avoid the time cutoff. No one will expect them to finish with the GC men, and the time they lose will have no bearing on the points classification. Why, then, should riders like Contador be compelled to mix it up with the sprinters on stages that don’t affect the general classification?

Personally, I don’t like the designated hitter rule. I think baseball is a better game when managers have to decide between offense and defense rather than always having the best of both. And I don’t like many of the rule changes in the NFL that have made quarterbacks and receivers almost untouchable. In cycling, if the general classification fight were over with three kilometers to go, we might just see more crashes at that point and fewer at the finish line. I don’t know what the UCI will do, but I think some kind of rule change is coming.

Back To The Wild Goose

Jeff Wren and I took on the Wild Goose State Trail today, a 69-mile, out-and-back adventure between Clyman Junction and Fond du Lac. It was my first time on the Wild Goose since crashing there in 2010. This time things went a lot better! The weather cooperated, I felt great and nobody got hurt. It was Jeff’s first ride since last Saturday’s mountain bike race at Greenbush and his legs didn’t want to wake up. Our moving average was just 15 mph but that’s fine. Because of the distance, it was still a good workout. For Jeff and for me, today’s ride was the longest of the year so far, surpassing the 63-mile Cheesehead Roubaix.

A Fox Guarding The Hen House?

Near the end of my ride on Monday, I traveled south through downtown West Bend on the Eisenbahn State Trail. Arriving at Water Street, I could see a big group of pedestrians ahead. I chose—not for the first time—to leave the trail rather than run a gauntlet of inattentive parents, reckless kids and unleashed dogs. Long experience has taught me that, on average, they were going to be more trouble than any motorists I would encounter on our “mean streets.”

Moments later I arrived at the intersection of Indiana and Kilbourn, a four-way stop. A car traveling east on Kilbourn reached the intersection first. The driver stopped, waited for me as I approached the intersection from the north, then motioned from his open window for me to continue. I stopped. The law required me to do so. If I take a few liberties on remote Washington County farm roads, I am conspicuously law-abiding in town. The driver continued through the intersection at my verbal request, then I took my turn.

I completed my ride without incident, which is only as it should be. I’m a safe and courteous rider and I was operating my bike in accordance with the same state vehicle code that applies to the motorists with whom I shared the roads. As a safe and courteous rider I chose Indiana instead of Main, two streets that are roughly parallel and equally close to home. Of course, they are not equally traveled by motor vehicles, so I chose the one with less traffic. I didn’t choose Main just to make the point that I have the right to be there. I didn’t need a bike route or a bike lane, and the dedicated non-motorized infrastructure of the Eisenbahn State Trail was, in this case, not the best choice for me.

Having choices is a good thing. But if only one road leads to your destination, then special accommodations for cyclists may make sense. I am not opposed to them universally, but they are not the panacea anticipated by many cycling advocates.

The League of American Bicyclists—a nationwide advocacy group—released its 2015 Bicycle Friendly State rankings on Monday and Wisconsin fell from 3rd to 9th. Why the drop? “Governor Walker has proposed a repeal of the Wisconsin Complete Streets law, cuts to state funding for bicycling and walking, and the elimination of the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program, which often provides matching funds for trail projects.” So, based on a proposal that is still being debated in the state’s budget cycle, Wisconsin slipped down the list. Things haven’t gotten measurably worse, but the League thinks they will.

The League bases its state rankings on five broad categories:

• Legislation and Enforcement
• Policies and Programs
• Infrastructure and Funding
• Education and Encouragement
• Evaluation and Planning

But there’s an even easier way to summarize the League’s priorities:

• Money

Plainly stated, the League wants governments to spend more on cycling. You can’t have legislation, enforcement, policies, programs, infrastructure, education, encouragement (by government), evaluation or planning without funding.

Don’t look so surprised. After all, the League of American Bicyclists is a Washington DC-based lobbyist group. Like any corporate entity, its first priority is its own perpetuation. The oil and tobacco special interest groups are funded by sales of oil and tobacco products. The League is funded by ordinary cyclists, and the product is the perception of safety. For as little as $40 a year, you too can be persuaded to abandon millions of miles of roads to which you have a legal right so that you may confine yourself to a handful of protected lanes for urban commuters.

To the League of American Bicyclists, all cycling infrastructure is good cycling infrastructure, but a quick Internet search will provide many examples of bike lanes that are impractical or unsafe. To the League of American Bicyclists, all cyclists are good cyclists, but dumbing down the definition is a poor substitute for achievement. Everyone who rides has a responsibility for his/her own safety and conduct. Dedicated cycling infrastructure can retard the process by which good cyclists develop, creating a dependency on special accommodations. It’s better to master the skills—they are not many—to understand the law, and to treat other road users with respect. Doing those things will allow you to ride almost anywhere.

West Bend is still a great place to ride … even the Eisenbahn State Trail when it's not littered with pedestrians who probably should have their own protected walking infrastructure. (I kid, I kid.) Washington County is still a great place to ride. And if Wisconsin as a whole is somehow worse for cycling than it was a year ago, then the difference is not apparent to me.

Trading One Frustration For Another

I could feel the warmth in the woods today, but not the high winds!

Today was the warmest day so far this year. In West Bend we hit 81 degrees, making this our first 80-degree day since September 28, 2014. And yesterday I was riding with knee warmers! Of course, at this time of year an 80-degree day comes with a downside: very high winds from the south. With sustained winds in excess of 20 mph and gusts above 30, I didn’t want to be on the open road.

Mountain biking is a great alternative when the winds are high, so today I joined a couple of Team Pedal Moraine friends at Greenbush, site of the Northern Kettles Endurance Challenge. I will be there on Saturday to help the team but I won’t be racing. My only attempt at racing the Greenbush trails was my very first mountain bike race, way back on May 29, 2011. Riding a borrowed bike that was too small for me, I completed one lap in 75 minutes and called it a day. I had done two practice sessions at Greenbush in advance of the race: a full lap in 80 minutes on May 24, and Loops 1 & 2 on May 27 before I ran out of daylight.

I considered my race performance to be so poor that I didn’t return to Greenbush until April 21, 2012. On that occasion I completed one full lap but I don’t know what my time was … not fast, I assure you. And, believe it or not, that brings us to today. I completed one lap today and my time of 59 minutes, 52 seconds is easily the fastest of the four laps I have completed all-time.

Race laps at Greenbush are slightly longer than practice laps, but in a race I would push myself a little harder than I did today. So, today’s time is a pretty good estimate of how I might perform in competition. On Saturday the fastest guys will turn 45-minute laps routinely. That’s far beyond my ability, and it’s important to remember that there are no age groups or USA Cycling categories in WEMS races. Limping along at about 1 hour per lap, I might sneak into the Top 20. That prospect isn’t exciting enough to pull me into the race.

Today I rode Greenbush better than ever before, but I didn’t ride it cleanly. I stalled on a steep, rocky climb and I balked at a technical descent. I’m just not comfortable there. With more experience, maybe I could be. But New Fane is much closer, much more fun, and certain to remain my first choice when I want to go mountain biking.

End Of The Road For Racine Cyclery

Racine Cyclery, a family-owned bike shop since 1956, is selling off its remaining stock and soon will close forever. In 1982 I bought a black Raleigh Rapide from the store on Washington Avenue. I lived just two blocks away. Racine Cyclery was a Schwinn dealer when that meant something. I wanted a Schwinn—it was the high-status, “cool kids” brand—but comparable Raleighs were much less expensive. The Rapide should have been the bike that turned me into a serious cyclist. But when I got my own car in 1983, the bike started to collect dust. I rode it infrequently and then sold it when I moved to suburban Philadelphia in early 1988. I didn’t ride a bike again until 2003!

The Rapide was my first real road bike … at the bottom of Raleigh’s line, but a real road bike all the same. With its heavy steel frame and its stem shifters, it would be comically outclassed today. In the 1980s I had a faint notion of touring aboard the Rapide but I didn’t think of racing it. If I still owned it today, I might be able to use it as a dedicated indoor trainer bike. I am not nostalgic for the Rapide or, indeed, for Racine Cyclery. I wasn’t a teenage shop rat who knew the staff members by name. But I am sorry to see the demise of another independent retailer. We are fortunate to have three locally-owned bike shops here in Washington County. I am on a first-name basis with those guys, and you should be too.

Vision Thing

On Thursday I told you about my April outings at New Fane. Today I hit the mountain bike trails for the first time in May, driven there by very high winds that made the prospect of a road ride unattractive. And because it was Plan B, I arrived at New Fane alone and with no expectations. But for some reason I was way better today than I was on my previous visits this year. I turned in laps of 26:29, 26:31 and 27:37, all of which were faster than the 8 laps I completed last month.

Was it the temperature? We got close to 80 degrees this afternoon and I was able to ride in summer gear. That helped, but I don’t think it’s the whole story. I do know that posting a good time on my first lap inspired me to keep pushing on the next two. But I think the big change today was my vision. Most of my New Fane rides fall late in the day. Today I started at 3:30 when the sun was bright and high in the sky. I didn’t have any long shadows to decipher; the whole trail stood out clearly.

My all-time fastest lap at New Fane is 25:16, set last year on September 8. If I could ride at that level for 3 hours I would be a Top 5 contender instead of a Top 10 contender in the WEMS race this fall. But I won’t reach that level without hard work. Let’s see if I can consistently deliver sub-26:30 laps by the end of this month, then go sub-26:00 in June or July.

Nothing If Not Consistent

The mountain bike trails at New Fane opened for the 2015 season back on April 17 and in the last 2 weeks I practiced there on 4 occasions, including today. On each occasion I did 2 full laps, plus a little bit of warming up and cooling down in the parking lot. My lap times have been far from spectacular, but at least they have been consistent:

4/30     27:56     28:10
4/24     28:44     29:06
4/18     27:46     28:04
4/17     28:33     28:17

As slow as I feel, I’m not doing badly for this time of year. I'm actually faster than I was at the start of the 2014 season.

Jeff Wren (Team Extreme) joined me on each trip to New Fane this month and it was humbling to watch him ride away. But Jeff has ambitions in the Wisconsin Off-Road Series that I don’t share, so it’s only appropriate that he be ahead at this point. The WORS season begins on Sunday in Iola. The Wisconsin Endurance Mountain Bike Series season begins with the Northern Kettles Endurance Challenge on May 9 in Greenbush, and I plan to be there to help Team Pedal Moraine with race administration. My racing ambitions are on hold while I sort out my employment situation, but I hope to resolve everything in time to challenge Jeff in the WEMS race at New Fane on September 19.

In last September’s Northern Kettles Fall Epic at New Fane, Jeff beat me by just 5 seconds after almost 3 hours of racing. My 6 laps ranged from 26:41 to 27:14. The race uses a very slightly modified lap to slow the riders down as they pass the timing station, but a strong correlation remains between practice times and race times. I still have 4½ months to find the 90-120 seconds per lap I need to repeat last year’s Top 10 performance. In 2014 I did 17 practice sessions at New Fane in advance of the WEMS race. This year I expect to practice there even more frequently, and I have made a good start.

2015 Cheesehead Roubaix Recap

Listen up: This ride is awesome! (Nicki Lock photo)

What a stunning day for the 6th Annual Cheesehead Roubaix! After a dismal-looking week—and credit to the weather forecasters for telling us it would be—today was brilliantly sunny, almost 50 degrees as the ride began, and breezy but not blustery. I can’t count how many times I heard someone comment that today’s weather was perfect … or, at least, a big improvement on last year’s. I’m actually a little bit sunburned but I’m not complaining.

And with great weather came great numbers of riders. There’s no official total, but we know there were more than 275 and probably around 300. That’s roughly triple the total from 2013 or 2014, and many times more than we had in the early years. Larger attendance resulted in a generous collection of $1,044 for the Newburg Fire Department, money that will directly benefit Fireman’s Park.

The growing popularity of Cheesehead Roubaix attracted the interest of a few entities that had not noticed us before. The West Bend Daily News published a ride preview on its cover page last Friday. Valentine Coffee Roasters set up a tent for coffee sales in Fireman’s Park before the ride. Shimano provided a technical service van that offered pre-ride support and then met the riders again at the Belgianwerkx-sponsored, mid-ride rest stop.

Fun new signs contributed to the atmosphere. We even had a mini-cyclocross course at the rest stop, equipped with a sand pit and double barriers.

My own performance? Today’s ride was my longest so far this year, and my fastest. I finished the 63 miles in 3:38, a 17.3 mph average. That’s 2 mph faster than my 2014 ride but 1 mph slower than my 2013 ride. High winds made last year’s ride something of a statistical anomaly. I might have matched or bettered my 2013 performance if I had spent more time riding in groups. As the host, I was among the last riders to leave Newburg. I spent much of my day chasing down groups, sitting in for a while to recover, then going off on my own again. I was very proud to ride up Lovers Lane cleanly when many other riders stalled and had to dismount. I rode a very good Cheesehead Roubaix, but not a perfect one. On the unpaved part of Sauk Trail, I rode straight through a wet rut that left my bike muddy for the remainder of the ride. On the final unpaved sector, St. Augustine, I hit a bone-jarring pothole that I was sure had just killed my front tube … or the tire, or the wheel, or all three! Everything held together but those were mistakes I should not have made.

This year’s ride was really satisfying for me on many levels. Still, I’m glad it’s done for another year. Team Pedal Moraine’s annual mountain bike race is rapidly approaching, Park Site O is still awaiting development, and other important initiatives need attention.

Hard-Working Weekend

Cheesehead Roubaix is just one week from today and I think it’s going to be great, but this weekend was pretty great too. On Friday and Saturday, I spent about 6 hours on Cheesehead Roubaix-related tasks. You don’t think that ride just happens, do you? It takes a long time just to drive the 63-mile route, stopping at every intersection to paint directional arrows on the road. And this year’s setup is more intricate than ever. I hope everyone enjoys the fun new “atmosphere” elements. Some things won’t be set up until the morning of the ride, as they will be experienced best as surprises rather than as something a friend spotted ahead of time.

Friday and Saturday were mountain biking days too, my first this year after an aborted attempt at Glacial Blue Hills on Wednesday. Trying to ride singletrack for the first time since last September, I discovered that the smallest chainring on my 29er was basically useless. I left Glacial Blue Hills after only a few frustrating minutes. On Friday the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources opened the state-owned trails of the Northern Kettle Moraine for the season. With a new chainring on the bike, I headed to New Fane and turned in two 28-minute laps. My two laps on Saturday were marginally faster: the better of which was 27:46, about 1 minute slower than my race pace on that course. Encouraging stuff. Last year I didn’t ride at New Fane until May 3, and the two laps I did on that occasion were almost 32 minutes apiece.

For what it’s worth, at New Fane I use only my middle chainring. But that’s not the point; I hate a malfunctioning bike. I did a few laps of the parking lot in the small ring to make sure the repair eliminated my shifting problem, but the trails at New Fane would be perfect for a 1x setup.

Today began with streaming coverage of the Amstel Gold Race from the Netherlands, an often overlooked one-day classic that doesn’t have the epic reputation of Paris-Roubaix or Flanders but never disappoints. Late this afternoon I did a head-clearing solo road ride.

The week ahead looks kind of unpleasant: high winds (still), periods of rain, and temperatures 10-15 degrees below normal:

But if that’s what I have to get through to ensure a dry Cheesehead Roubaix, it’s a fair trade.