Thursday, July 30, 2009

A Tip of the Cap and A Wag of My Finger

I’m stealing a page out of Colbert’s book for this one, but I must give a big tip of my cap to the one and only Heather Holmes. On Monday I learned that Holmes had been selected to represent the USofA at Marathon World Championships over in Austria. Harlan Price, Jeremiah Bishop, and Pua Sawicki also got the nod. This makes Holmes the first mountain biker to represent the US at World Championships who has also let me sleep on their floor. Not only is she a rippin mountain biker, but Holmes is one of the coolest folk around, and its good to see her finally get a proper nod from USA Cycling. This years Firecracker was her first attempt at a marathon style race, Holmes went out and killed it, taking fifth place. Harlan is also a quality guy who like so many racers has to balance a real job and riding. I remember last year back at Mount Snow when Dejay had taped up his recently broken thumb, right before he got ready to race Super D, that’s just badass.


The one aspect of the article, which I though sucked, was that Holmes, and the rest of the gang, had to pay their way to get to Worlds. This is probably because the powers that be over at USA Cycling have their heads shoved far up their collective asses. So I will now wag my finger at USA Cycling because they can’t seem to come up with some coin to send THEIR representatives to World Championships. Here’s an idea to come up with that money, stopping with all the age groups at Mountain Bike National Championships. In Granby on top of the standard Cat 1, 2, and 3, there were more age groups than I have fingers, toes, eyes, and elbows. Is there really a need to make the age groups in 5 year increments? Why not take a page out of the roadie book, and cut back on the age groups. Dejay and I determined there should be three age groups: hands off (under 18), legal (18 to 40), and old (over 40). If the proper criteria could be met I would also be in favor of a cougar class. With less age groups, USA Cycling doesn’t have to go buy so many jerseys and medals, and the awards ceremony won’t require three separate trips to the bathroom.





Holmes, racing it up back in May



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