Why I Quit Racing
In the context of a discussion about a driver who killed a cyclist I had an email exchange with Scott Thompson, and he asked my why I quit racing, after I had had such an amazing year racing in 2006. Here are my thoughts.Yeah I guess I achieved what I wanted, I proved I could come back from all my injuries and make it to cat 2. Problem was I didn't really find cat 3 to be all that challenging, I was top five in every race that I had a right to be top five in, I don't really want to do masters and race with cat fours, and if I race pro,1,2 I'm racing people with no life but the bike. It just didn't feel like there was a place for me anymore. And honestly, racing is very repetitive. There are only so many courses and the people and tactics are basically the same. It is dangerous, expensive, time-consuming, and exhausting. I guess I just didn't feel like I was getting much out of it.
The fire to race just went out of me and you can't be lukewarm about racing, you have to be crazy for the bike and for the win or there is just no point. So I just took my upgrade and my cat 2 license is on my fridge. Also factoring heavily into all this is the fact that I have broken my left ankle twice, my left thigh in two places (still has a femur-length plate) my right foot also was broken, and my right tibia (very bad break just below the knee). All the racing and training was putting a lot of strain on my body and my past injuries and I was just tired of being in pain all the time. I'm going to start physical therapy for some of that stuff after my vacation next week.
Craig Clark's accident has underlined the danger part as well, although we all know that you can get hit by a bus just as easily as die in a bike race.
We have another child due in 2-3 months and I'm looking forward to that.
The thing I love best about cycling is the gamesmanship. The physical aspect is secondary to me. I love the tactics. Watching the Tour this year trying to figure out CSC's tactic on the Alpe, that was so awesome. Seeing the two up sprint the next day, amazing fun. I felt like I had figured out just about everything I could about the tactics, and I was just done. Lately I've been playing a lot of Warcraft, I'm learning a lot about gamesmanship there. I might write a book on it someday, game theory, that sort of thing. It's a subject that has always fascinated me.
If you look at how I raced you can see that. For example my win in Bunny Hop taking it all the way from the second to the last corner to the line. That win was equal part daring tactics, cornering skill, and speed.
posted by Mark @ 12:56 PM
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