Thoughts on cycling

In case you didn't already know my husband is the 3rd generation owner of our town's local bicycle store. So bicycle riding is a pretty huge factor in our simple little life. I'm also proud to say that I was into mountain bike riding before me and the hub got together. I had always done some "trail" riding around my town as a kid with my dad and then when I lived upstate I did some more "aggressive" riding with my college beau on several occasions. So by the time I moved back home I was pretty stoked on mountain biking. So when Rick and I reconnected (since we had already dated back in middle school) I was pretty pumped on the fact that his family owned our town's bicycle store. I mean rugged Long Island girl marries into bicycle store owning family?? Jackpot!! But don't get me wrong, we're not millionaires by any means. Our little shop struggles like hell especially when it comes to competing with the big box stores that can sell bikes at a fraction of what we sell them at. But at the same time those big box stores can barely assemble one of those bikes and they sure as hell won't take them back for repairs. So that's where we come in. My husband's grandfather opened the business back in 1964 as part motorcycle part bicycle store. It eventually morphed into just bicycles by the time my father in law bought the business but there is still a huge part of our business in motorcycle repairs. We are super happy to say that we are one of the oldest continuous family owned businesses in our town. Its kinda scary though because owning a small business these days is HARD!

But anyway where I'm going with all this is that me and hubby are very much into bicycles. He commutes to work each and every day via bicycle, we own 12 bicycles between the two of us and we spend a good portion of our summer and fall weekends racing them. We also enjoy watching competitive bicycle racing like the Tour de France and lesser known races like the Giro d'Italia and the spring classics such as the Paria-Rouboix and Tour of Flanders. May is the month in which my favorite race the Giro d'Italia takes place so I've been watching very sneakily at work (since its on live between 8-11:30am US time) and then what I don't catch I watch later at night. So Monday I was watching at work (ssshhhhhh don't tell anybody) when suddenly there was news of a terrible crash involving a rider. Well anybody that watches professional cycling knows that not a single day goes by during these 3 week long races where a rider doesn't get f---ed up. And its part of the sport and its part of the reason why we love it. As sick as it sounds. But anyway it turns out this poor lad from Belgium on Monday clipped a low wall while descending the Passo de Bacco in Italy going about 50mph and was thrown probably about 30 feet from his bike landing on his face which tragically resulted in his death. Absolutely horrifying! I mean one minute this young guy (Wouter Weylandt age 26) is stepping off his team bus in the morning in his brand new team kit ready for a day on the bike and next thing he's laying dead in the middle of the road of some mountain pass in Italy. I'm sorry if I'm being kinda blunt on this whole thing, but that's pretty much the reality of all this. And I've been deeply saddened and troubled by this poor innocent cyclist death the past few days. It just goes to show the extreme risks cyclist and athletes in general go to in order to be the best. And to make it all the more worst this poor cyclist's girlfriend is 5 months pregnant with their first child. God help them. My thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends.

So this cycling tragedy really shook up the cycling world. And it shook up my world too because each and every morning my husband wakes up at 5:30 am and heads out on his bike for 30 miles on the crazy roads of LI. And every morning by about 10am I start getting super stressed when I don't hear from him. Usually its because he's at work by that point and too busy, but still I end up calling him like a psycho stalker because I can't focus on my own work thinking the inevitable. Needless to say we've been lucky so far.

Out on the trails during races though.. well that's a whole other story. My husband Rick is fearless. I don't know what it is but he's missing that "maybe I should take it slow" gene or something. Hands down he has No Fear. Just like those t-shirts from the 90's haha. So sure when it comes to racing that's great because he ends up winning so many of his mountain bike races because of it. It makes me think though because these professional cyclists who are descending these mountain passes in the Alps of Europe have to be missing that same gene as my babe. So I worry that at some point he's going to have a major crash and end up getting hurt too. Now he's had his fair share of crashes, but being a mountain bike racer myself so have I. But still he goes way faster than me and hits way crazier lines than me. Truth is, I'm not embarrassed to get off my bike and walk down or over stuff I'm scared of.

Ok Ok I'll stop with my worrying so much here. I just have a lot of emotions going on over Wouter Weylandt's death. And I can't help but be able to relate a bit of those worries I feel every day with this tragic event. I'm going to sign off now so that I can watch today's stage of the Giro but I'll leave you with some photo's of Rick's fearlessness. Yikes! Good Night Friends.

Crashed out of the 2010 World Cup at Windham Mountain with a taco'd wheel.
Going over the handlebars at the Saratoga Spa Cyclocross Race. Ouch.

Oh and its not just cycling that he's fearless at. Yeah he'll go ahead and launch a rock off some steep ass slope that I could barely even ski down for gosh shakes. It was so high up that those mountains off in the distance are the La Sal Mountains of freakin' Utah. We were in freakin' Telluride Colorado. Sigh... thats my babe!!

RIP Wouter Weylandt 5/9/11