Tuesday, February 25, 2020

The Kids are Alright


I have been involved with youth sports for as long as my kids could kick a soccer ball or shoot a puck. It has had its ups and downs and for full disclosure my kids don't really like bikes. Syd did race 24 minutes of Great Glen that one year thanks to Michele! And Zoe has crashed in front of Resultsboy on more than one occasion. I mean don't get me wrong. I tried. We rode bikes. And they always enjoyed it. But racing was never their thing. It is barely my thing let's be real. But I love coaching and being involved with youth sports. For the last 5 years I have been very active in Girls Lacrosse coaching and being on the Board of our Town league. It was hugely rewarding. When Syd aged out I stepped down as a coach and a Board member. Being involved in NEHSCA has really changed how I look at cycling. Colin's recent data mining for the annual NEBRA promoters meeting certainly gave me some pause. What we are seeing at NEHSCA also supports what Colin found out. Basically in New England mountain biking is thriving. And NEHSCA keeps growing at about 20% a year. That is incredible.



It has been so different looking at the sport from the youth perspective. Last season we saw some amazing results from our Juniors. We saw history being made with our Junior women racing and crushing it in Europe. Lizzy Gunsalus won the Helen 100 Trophy race at Azencross! It was a great Fall for juniors and the MudFund. The MudFund was created to support juniors and it is a cause I feel strongly in. As a show of support we will be donating all the profits from the sale of a limited edition Zank t-shirt to the MudFund. The t-shirt is available in both men's and women's styles and comes in some very cool colors. To order one (or more!) and support Juniors development and the MudFund go to Endurance Threads webstore

Lizzy Gunsalus photo by Mark Gunsalus

As part of being a Board member of NEHSCA and a volunteer for the Wild Ones team based in Hale I am getting so stoked. It is weird how riding with kids makes you feel like a kid on a bike again. The coaches and teams and everyone involved are just so stoked and so positive. It is so refreshing after so many years racing and putting on events to just get back to that pure joy of riding a bike. I met with Matt Aumiller of BC High and Donny Green of 1PVD recently to talk about how we can grow NEHSCA and expand into CX. The Wild Ones had a really cool CX training course going last Fall. And a bunch of them raced Iced Weasels and had a blast. I would love to see this generation of mountain bikers move into CX just like we all did way back when. I know the mountain bike was my gateway into CX. It just was such a natural transition. The two disciplines really go well together. I am excited to see what this next chapter holds. I would love to hear your thoughts on how we could help these kids get into CX. Anyone who knows me knows CX is my true love. It is the bike I feel most comfortable on and the one I have the most joy on. But this mountain bike boom is sure rad and I know I am not the only one who feels like a kid all over again out in the woods smashing into rocks and hopping logs. Hopefully see you out there!



Wednesday, February 19, 2020

Some Pig Redux


Ok what is with this photo of a Rainbow Pig with my name on its butt? Funny story that. Waaaay back in the early days of the NECX Coach Al was my first coach. He really was one of the first people to help me get better at CX. He has helped tons of people. Anyone who knows him knows how much he has done for cyclocross. Al and a crew went down to NJ for this crazy race called SpectaCross at the NJ State Fair. Somehow the promoter got in touch with me about doing a race prime. I was totally into it but really had no idea what it would be. I wrote a post about it here. We were all just so jazzed on CX that any promoter who was doing something "fun" got us all kinds of excited. I honestly don't even remember how much I sent the guy. But Al won it. And it was hilarious! The photo above is of him winning it and the photo below is of him showing it off to me at the first JAM Fundo.


I have known Coach Al for 11 years. The JAM Fundo was one of the first true "gravel" rides that I did. It still is hands down one of the coolest events I have ever done. Al had a stroke recently. He is home recovering but needs support. a GoFundme has been set up in his name. Please help support one of the nicest people in cycling. Everyone on some level has him to thank for where cyclocross is now. If you have raced CX in New England or cheered for New England's own racers at Nationals or in Europe this man had a hand in their development. Please help him out with what ever you can. This community was built upon us all having each others back. Let's show Al the love. 

Monday, February 17, 2020

A Love Letter to Cycling

Bill gave me an idea last week. For Valentine's Day Bill asked people to DM if they wanted to receive a Cycling Valentine. As a Gemini I was all over that. I mean who would not want a Cycling Valentine from one of the coolest cyclists on the planet? He had me at Valentine obviously. And it was much appreciated. There is so much negativity right now. Cycling is and was always supposed to be an escape and outlet from the craziness that life throws at us. On a ride I was sort of thinking about what Bill was doing and thought "I should write a Love Letter to Cycling" As many great ideas go it got tabled because of more important things than blogging. Such is life. But a sort of blog challenge has been thrown down and I am taking that challenge. I didn't get into blogging for any reason other than to put my thoughts down. Maybe inspire or motivate. Or just celebrate cycling. Who knows. But without any further ado I give you my Love Letter to Cycling.


All of my friends are cyclists. I prefer the term "biker" but I know not everyone likes that. So cyclist it is. But it is a fact. I have a real hard time with civilians. It has gotten harder as I have gotten older. Maybe it is Peter Pan syndrome. I don't know. But my love of cycling isn't new by any means. Most of my fondest early childhood memories involve cycling. Some of the stories involve pain. For anyone who knows me it will come as no surprise that I got hurt a lot as a kid. And my crashes on the bike were pretty legendary. I forget how old I was but my street was kind of a circle. All the neighborhood kids would get together for bike races, rock fights, you know all the stuff kids did back then. Anyway the bike races were different than how you would think of a race these days. As I said we lived on a circle. So the race would start at my house. Rider A would go to the left of the circle. Rider B would go right. The left had a nice descent. The Right was mainly flat. We raced to the Piersacks house. You could "cheat" by looking through the houses to see if your rival was ahead of you or behind you.


So on this fateful day I took the Right. The high side. I was neck and neck with Robbie Sullivan. I really wanted to beat Robbie. Not sure why. Maybe I was more competitive back then. So I am looking through the houses to see Robbie. Pedaling as fast as I can. And then WHAM. I clearly did not see the parked car at the Harkins. People really didn't park their cars in the street back then. People usually only had one car anyway so it isn't like you had to park them in the street. Well cars were pretty solid back then. And they had hood ornaments. What you don't know what a hood ornament is? They were these fancy metal pieces that stuck up off the hood of a car. Really cool. Anyway. So next thing I know I am flying through the air. I guess the good news is I was going so fast that momentum carried me over the car. But I of course hit my leg on the hood on the way over. Somehow I wasn't "hurt".  I get up off the pavement and my whole pant leg is wet. Even in my stunned state I realize this is probably not good. I pedal home to my house. I go in and tell my mum I crashed my bike. This as I stated before was not unusual. My mom was a nurse. We go into the bathroom and she lifts up the pant leg. There is a massive gash with fat hanging out of it. She washes it off, pushes the fat back into the wound, puts a butterfly bandage on it and sends me back on my way.


That story says so much about my relationship with cycling. I love it so much that when it hurts me I don't really care. I just patch myself up and get back on the bike. That is when my love affair began. Bikes were freedom back then. It was how we got around. We biked to baseball practice. To school. To friends houses. To the woods to have rock fights. We lived on our bikes. It was cool to ride a bike back then. And then we got our licenses. And it wasn't cool anymore. Love can be so cruel. I forgot all about bikes. I had a string of crappy cars that I would total in the same epic manner I totaled myself on the bike. Luckily only the cars were totaled. Again, the cars were much sturdier back then. When I went to college cycling almost got me back. RISD had a cycling club. A bunch of the kids on my floor rode. I got a black road bike. I don't even remember what kind. We rode out to the RISD beach a few times. But I was much more interested in going to Brown frat parties than riding bikes. So sad. If I went to RISD now my life would be soooo different. That black road bike got stolen sophomore year and that was the end of my collegiate cycling career. Once again I broke up with cycling. Love is cruel sometimes.


After college my future wife and I packed all our things into my red Jeep and we headed west. Hard for cycling to compete with a sick red Jeep. Sorry but true. Anyway we get settled in SF. In my attempt to find better employment than being a lacky in a Law Firm or delivering pizzas I attempt to use my brand new RISD degree and get a job in a magazine's art department. The magazine in question is a regional cycling magazine. I know absolutely NOTHING about cycling. But they are a really cool crew with an office in SOMA before SOMA and SF sold out. Oh I forgot one critical part of this story and how I fell back in love with cycling. And like lots of things the third time is the charm. So back to my early days as a lacky at a Law Firm. SF is LOUSY with Law Firms. If you need an entry level job they have tons. But talk about soul sucking. I mean absolutely brutal. Anyway so my job was a job. No real complaints. Part of my job was to drop off all the legal docs at a Fed Ex in downtown. As I am walking to the Fed Ex office I get this bizarre vertigo feeling. Then the concrete road appears to be coming at me as a wave. The buildings start shaking and people start running. Have I mentioned we had been in SF for about 6 months?


They had given us some basic training about earthquake preparedness but really I was sleeping during that presentation. I remember it being super important to get in a doorway or something. I see all these office workers running TOWARDS the doorways so I am like ok Chip if you want to live run. So I run. This was a mistake but what do I know. Something comes flying past my head and hits my leg as I am running. It feels like I just got hit with a bat. Anyway I want to live so I run into the Fed Ex office dive over the counter and hide out with everyone under the counter as the building rumbles above us and sounds like it is going to fall on our heads. I may or may not have held a strangers hand under that counter. The earthquake stops and a eerie silence falls over the City. I am almost certain my leg is shattered. I somehow convince a stranger to drive me to the hospital. I get to an ER out in the Sunset and they are prepared for the worst. I get all the attention as I am the only one in the ER. Somehow my leg is not broken. By the next day I have a bruise from my upper thigh to my ankle.



As part of my PT my DR recommends cycling. I am like cycling? He is like yeah get a bike and ride. It will help the healing. So I borrow a two sizes too big mtn bike and then start riding from my house in the Marina over the Golden Gate Bridge to Marin. It is 1989. Mountain Biking is BLOWING UP. So I quit my Law Firm job. I can't go back in an office building after that Earthquake and my office manager really isn't down with the whole PTSD thing but as I was "on the job" we come to a bit of an agreement. I spend time healing the leg and the mind. In this process I somehow find out about this cool job in an art department of a magazine. I somehow land the job. Maybe it was the RISD education. So I start a whole new chapter of my life. Sometimes things happen for a reason. If that earthquake hadn't happened I would probably still be getting lunch for Lawyers in SF.


My love affair of cycling is about to take a deep dive. My new job has given me access to a whole world I never knew existed. The staff is so cool. I somehow go from making ads on a tiny computer and pasting up the magazine to New Products Editor. I honestly have no idea how that happened. Basically, the editorial staff just took me under their wing. We have so many cool experiences and I fall totally in love with cycling. The Bay Area at that time was going full gas into mtn biking. And cycling was cool again. I fell in with the Swobo crew. Rode with Tom Ritchey, Joe Breeze, Scott Nicol. If it didn't actually happen it would seem like some dream. I fell in love with cyclocross. I blame Pineapple Bob for that. And the Ritchey team. I made friends who would shape my whole life moving forward. Jeremy Sycip, Paul Sadoff. The late '80s early '90s were amazing. Again, it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows. I got knocked down a lot. Not just on the bike. The bike industry is a cruel mistress. My dream job came to an end as lots of dream jobs do. The beginnings of the end of publishing were in the air. But every time I got knocked down I got back up. I probably learned more from some of those hard times than the good.


When we moved home in 2004 I had some major panic attacks. I was like how can we leave this paradise where all my friends live to move back to that Hell Hole we left. My opinion off the east coast as you can imagine was less than kind. But what was truly bizarre and in an odd twist of fate was that the Town I grew up in was a Mecca for cycling. I had some great mentors when I first moved home. Made lots of connections. I flew my Sycip Team kit with pride for a few years. Then I somehow ended up on HUP. I still to this day remember talking to HUP founder Zac Daab at Providence. It was so simple. "You want to be on HUP?" Hell yes I do. Those early days on HUP were an eye opener. HUP was an anti-team before it was cool to be an anti-team. What is an anti-team? An anti-team means no sponsors. No drama. No nonsense. You do it because you love cyclocross and you love your teammates. HUP became my family. And I loved them with all my heart. I still do. HUP has outlived so many teams. Teams I really miss. But our unwavering belief that we should be our own sponsors has kept us intact. No ones gets mad because Karen got cooler wheels than they did. No one gets pissed because Chad got free race entries to Rasputitsa.


My love of cycling obviously is as much about the people as it is about riding the bike. And while I like racing I have never been much of a racer. I just like going to the races and seeing all the cool people and maybe mixing it up with my friends or frenemies. I have made so many friends over the years. I guess that really is what this letter is about and who it is too. This Love Letter is to all those people who got me stoked, picked me up when I was down, took a leap of faith with me, got lost with me, shared a water bottle, didn't get mad when I got us lost. All the people who just make this sport so amazing. I am not sure if the internet made cycling better or worse. I certainly have gotten into my fair share of twitter fights. And some of those twitter fights have moved into the real world and that is unfortunate. But I think things have calmed down. Twitter fights and drama were never my jam honestly. I love the internet for its ability to connect us not rip us apart.


So, Bill, thank you for reminding me how much I love cycling. And thank you cycling for loving me back. What always blows me away is that I just keep falling deeper and deeper in love with cycling. I am getting slower, older, less skilled in many ways. But I always find a new trail, meet a new person who is totally cool, new opportunities and communities arise. It is so unique. I hope you too love cycling as much as I do. It means different things to different people. But for me what drew me to it way back when I was a kid is true even today at almost 55. The bike to me means freedom. And adventure. It might bring me pain once and a while but that pain is a small price to pay for all the joy.



Friday, February 7, 2020

Mud-life Crisis


I recently had a mud-life crisis. Yes, you read that correctly, "mud-life." I have been riding dirt for as long as I can remember. And my friends have been bugging me to get a full suspension bike for ages. It has been a running joke among my friends. I make excuses......I am a gravel rider. I don't really like mountain biking. I am not good at mountain biking. blah, blah, blah. But something changed recently. I started riding with a new group. They are certifiably insane. In a good way. And they love to ride mountain bikes. And through them I joined NEHSCA. It is so bizarre how connected this biker community is. Joining NEHSCA and riding with the coaches and the kids made me feel like a kid again. I am not even joking. It is funny how that works. It is why I coached Lacrosse for so many years. I ended up at NEHSCA because my daughter aged out of our local lacrosse league and it didn't make sense to coach or be on a board of a league I didn't have a kid in. 


My good friend Jim Grimley reached out to me about it last August. I had heard so many good things about NEHSCA but really it was the last thing on my mind. But as any of my friends who know me will attest it is easy to get me #hyped. It only took a few meetings for me to join NEHSCA and become a board member. When a friend asked me to coach I was like sure. All the while knowing I am a terrible mountain biker. Ok that isn't true but compared to some of these kids I am. They have so many skills it isn't even funny. They have zero fear. It is awesome.


I joined the Wild Ones a really cool team based at Hale. My dream was to create the Cutler Cutters in my own back yard but that dream may have to wait a bit.....the Wild Ones have kids from Needham, Dover, Westwood and the surrounding area. NEHSCA is set up a bit differently. The teams are regional which I think is actually really cool. High School sports are great but it is nice to have a group that is from a bunch of different towns. I first started riding with the team at the end of CX season. We would meet at this farm in Sudbury and go on these hilarious CX training rides. Again these kids are so talented on a bike. None of these kids rode CX before. And they were ripping it up. A bunch of them raced Ice Weasels and had a blast. I can see a LOT of NEHSCA kids trying CX next Fall!


Now I loved my old bike. It was a beautiful steel Zank hardtail. I love that man like a brother. But I am not ashamed to admit I am too old for a hardtail. I just get so beat up by it. I still love how it rides but my body can't take the beating. I went to KT a few summers back and rented a bike and that really was the beginning of this mud-life crisis. I saw what a huge difference a modern FS bike makes. And I demo'd a bunch of bikes. OK that is kind of a lie. My friend Matt Myette did all the demoing. It was kind of a hobby of his. I did test ride a Santa Cruz Blur and loved it. And my friends SWEAR by the Ibis Ripley. So it was really down to about three bikes. My friend Matt is a huge Niner fan. And one of my favorite CX/Gravel brothers from another mother is a Niner evangelist. So when it came time to finally make the call it was easy. Plus this one came in orange. I LOVE orange bikes. They are the best ones. Don't let anyone tell you any different.


The trip up to Chainline Cycles in Laconia was worth it. Seeing Eric's process on how he builds a bike and how he sets it up was impressive. And I have been around PRO level bike mechanics and builders for the better part of two decades. I highly recommend talking with Eric. He also is one of the funniest guys I know. We spent 2 hours going over the set up and talking about gravel rides. I know, I know even when I am having a mud-life crisis and getting my first FS bike I can't help talk about gravel. Gravel and mountain biking are where so much energy are coming from right now though. They just have breathed new life into the sport that honestly felt like it was dying a bit. The energy just feels a bit like it did back in the '90s. I just want to ride. Racing is cool and all but really all I want is to go into the woods with some rad friends and have fun.


About the bike. I have only ridden it once. Once was enough to realize just how sick this bike is though. Wow. I got the trail version so it is 120/100. Perfect for how I ride. And more importantly the PERFECT 24 Hours of Great Glen bike. I was nervous riding it at first. I had no idea what to expect. But it seriously just carves. The thing I noticed first about FS compared to my hardtail was how much better it climbs. I know that doesn't make sense but in New England the trails are just bombed out rock and root covered "trails" It is often hard to tell what is a trail and what is not. Often the rocks are the trail. New England is more rock biking than mountain biking. It has taken me years to accept this. And I am ok with it now. Although I will not lie I prefer a loamy, bermy serpentine Singletrack over some rock drop huck fest. But that is just me. Even in the midst of a mud-life crisis that won't change.
For now (in the grayness of mid-winter in the NE) I am dreaming of summer and VT, hitting Big River with the Big Man and just finding every chance to get out and get rad.