Tuesday, November 08, 2016

Durango Kid

Here he comes.



Rob Waldman is an outdoorsman essentially. He has
a kind hearted mountainman's sensibility.

Strong out of the saddle.



Well trained on the bike, gentleman Rob is a smooth pedaler with good form.


Years in the saddle around a social cycling setting have made him comfortable in the pack. He shops dilligently for the conservative position within the pack.


Tucked in smart.


But when road turns up, Rob betrays his humility and goes public with his inner greatness.
The Durango Kid

Transplanted to Oregon from Colorado, Rob spent years riding with the Durango Wheelmen. there he rode with some of America's finest cyclists on some of America's most challenging roads.

Troutdale City Limits

Randy Word leads "Word-RCB, by Cyclisme"


Signs at the edge of civilization.

Three decades in our revolutionary Cyclisme, City Limits Signs (County Limits, Entering, Leaving, etc)  lived to be exuberantly sprinted past. Tim Bergmann of the 1980s was a ravenous monster devouring sprint signs from Mount Hood to the Pacific Ocean.

Sprint signs are elusive. Not only requiring all the machinations of "the politics of legs" and the precepts of aerodynamic draft placement, but simply, one needs to keep track of where the signs are located.

Common in the post sprint conversation is the voice saying "I didn't see it!" or "Where was it" "Was that it?"

Two columns of talent.


Of course, these are the same voices that ask, " are we rotating a paceline?"
Some just don't worry about intermediate sprint Prime victory, but elect instead to follow up the sprint victors then keep going full speed to attack to an imaginary point in a breakaway posture.
Lonely perhaps, but still practicing the way of the break away artist - a most valuable technique for victory in itself.

Sarah Miller is a very strong prospect.
Truth is, any savvy dillettante of the European Pro peloton can win a City Limits Sign by simply minding the animators.  Just look for the players sprinting up every rolling hill if you want to enjoy a free ride to victory.

Victory's price requires tending to the key players' drafts, and watching their eyes. Use their energy and your talent will be gifted with a docent lodestar. Their excitement to sprint will guide the path to every relevant sprint sign our local government has posted for visibility and secured to a 4x4 post sunk in concrete at the right hand side of the road.
 (coming back north to Troutdale, the City Limits sign is actually a grand architectural wonder)
High class Mr. Hayward.


Of course all this is easier said than done, and as an amateur cycling Directeur Sportif, I instruct all of my sprint-centric Captains to promptly announce verbally, well in advance, the upcoming contest, but unfortunately I do not enjoy the same traction in the action outcomes that Pro Team Directors seem to enjoy.