The Cycliste Moderne, February 26, 2006

I get to guest blog again as Geoff is busy with “real” work and I made the mistake of calling attention to some omissions in his last blog. Moral: if you don’t want to write a blog, don’t comment on it. – Kristin


Seattle International Bike Expo

As mentioned, Mr. Cycliste Moderne and I spent President’s Day weekend at the Seattle International Bike Expo. What he failed to mention is the fact that two really really cool bike legends touched my Sharpie.

Included as guest presenters this year were Sean Kelly, seven time (consecutively!) winner of Paris-Nice and four time winner of the Tour de France points jersey, and the great Davis Phinney, the US cyclist with the most career wins ever. While Geoff manned the Cyclista booth, I slipped away with cycling memorabilia in hand and went over to the stage area where Kelly and Phinney were musing on their careers. While I only caught the end of the session, I found it very entertaining. First, the combination of Sean Kelly’s Irish accent and his quiet voice (or distance from the microphone) made him hard to understand, but he came off as a very down-to-earth guy. Davis Phinney was very animated. While it took him ten minutes to answer the moderator’s question, you enjoyed listening to every tangent. What struck me most was not the shaking of head and hands brought on by early-onset Parkinson ’s disease, but how he ended every segment with praise to Sean Kelly. Even cycling gods have cycling gods.

After the discussion, they sat down to sign autographs. I managed to be fifth in the line. The guy in front of me had a copy of Graham Watson’s “20 Years of Cycling Photography.” He was going to have Davis Phinney sign his picture on page 71, the picture with Phinney on the ground after going through the windscreen of a team car in 1988’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Phinney had earlier reminisced about this experience when asked about his scariest moment on a bike. In my hands I held a black and white photo of Sean Kelly and Marc Madiot racing Paris-Roubaix in 1986. When it was my turn, I handed Mr. Kelly my Sharpie, explained the background of the picture, and he smirked. “Nice roads, eh?” Chills went down my spine. He signed the mat “Best Wishes – Sean Kelly.” Ooooh.

Mission one was accomplished, but Davis Phinney was nowhere to be found. I just couldn’t leave with having the great legend sign the same Team 7-Eleven musette that Bob Roll signed during last year’s Expo. I scanned the crowd and found him entering the door. Apparently even cycling gods have to use the porta-potty. Rather than wait for him to make it over to the table, I hurried over to him. After waiting for him to sign a picture for a fan who met him at the Tour de France umpteen years ago, I asked him to sign the musette and thanked him for coming to the Expo. Wow.

So, you see, my Sharpie is very cool now. Poor Geoff had to stay behind to sell bike stuff, but I got to shake hands with Sean Kelly and Davis Phinney. I win. I even got to shake Sean Kelly’s hand twice. While wandering through the booths, I saw him standing outside the Celtic Trails tour booth. I asked if I could shake his hand again because he was just too cool. He did and I walked away before he would think I was a stalker.

Clif Bar Moments

Last year’s great Expo moment involved getting an autograph from Marla Streb while chewing on a Clif Bar sample. This year, our booth was located across from the Clif Bar booth and everyone brought their samples into our booth. I can’t count how many Clif Shot cups I threw away or how many MoJo samples made it into our prize drawing box. Ew. We did score a box of MoJo’s by helping set up the Clif Bar canopy on Friday so it all evens out.


Spring Fever

Geoff must like me a lot because he let me sit on a Trek Pilot 5.0 on Saturday afternoon. I proved that I would fit on a 50cm frame (just barely) and that I would not have to share a road bike with my nine-year-old. I’m very excited. My Cannondale hybrid has served me well over the past 11 odd years but I’ll take a new bike, sure. It will probably be a Pilot 1.2 instead of a 5.0, but I’ll still take it.

I do realize that by buying me a new bike, Geoff is simply paving the road for a new bike of his own. I’ll still take a new bike.


Tour of California

I haven’t watched any of the Tour of California coverage because my daytime TV has been relegated to watching Teletubbies or Olympic coverage. However, it’s been nice to follow it online. Poor George Hincapie missed the final sprinters jersey to Olaf Pollack of T-Mobile, but Floyd Landis held on to the GC. Levi Leipheimer (Gerolsteiner) came away as King of the Mountain and Tom Peterson of TIAA-CREF held on to the Best Young Rider jersey by a thread.


Euro News

The Belgian season is underway with Philippe Gilbert (Franciase des Jeux) taking Omloop Het Volk on Saturday and Tom Boonen setting up his teammate Nick Nuyens for victory at Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne on Sunday. Who needs the Olympics now that the real cycling season has begun? Having driven over many of the hills they ride in those races it is exciting that the real racing season has begun.

It has also been announced that a new and improved Arenberg Forest has returned to the Paris-Roubaix route. It’s not too new and improved, of course, but supposedly a little less dangerous. We’ll see about that if it rains on April 9th.