How did it happened..??

Eventually, I started to pay attention. And then more attention when we discovered TdF-centered fantasy cycling games, and started to put teams together in an effort to beat each other. Friendly rivalry is good for a marriage.

Putting together fantasy teams meant we had to learn a little more about the cyclists. But there just wasn’t much on TV. We sat down one year to watch Lombardia on Versus, and I only recognized a few faces from the Tour. Who the heck were these other guys?

Then, in 2008, two important things happened: First, we got high-speed internet at last. Second, I stumbled into the Cafe during the Tour. Here, it was revealed to me that I could watch the whole cycling season online, and with company, too!

So, here I am. Next round’s on me.

Floyd Landis caught my attention. It was the first Tour I followed.

but Rasmussen vs Contador made me stay. Definitely a sketchy introduction to cycling but there was never an absence of drama.

And the fact Versus TV had late night/early morning reruns that I could come home to after fun summer nights. I’d be in a somewhat altered state of mind and could watch cycling until I passed out. And then the best was when the live stages started at 3:30 in the morning – I wouldn’t even have to wake up for that. Watching the Tour still reminds me of those more carefree times.

Oh yes and the Podium Cafe introduced to me to all things pro cycling beyond just the Tour. I’m forever grateful.

after 25 years without biking …. rode once and was hooked. At first scared to descend the “now tiny” hill down the road. Then the Tour passed nearby — started to read about it — tried a climb. And became a slow old guy that loves going up.

got thrown in the deep-end quick, went from riding 30 miles to a century ride in about 1.5 months. Next year, I worked at a bike shop and rode about the same amount…then I really got into it, I lost about 40 pounds and was flying around 150-55 pounds (really light for me) until I got into a wreck with a car (bike destroyed, I just wore a little ankle brace for a day or two with some scraps). My senior year of high school I was riding a ton, started to race, went to Europe to watch de Ronde and it went off from there in college but I’ve tailed off as of late with school being so busy…I’ll get back into it soon enough

On the pro cycling side of things, I took to it pretty quick. Working at a bike shop, I was hearing stories about racers and races I didn’t know. An older racer was giving me old Velonews/Pro Cycling mags and I was reading them as fast as I would get them. If I didn’t know something or couldn’t answer someone, I would go home and look it up. That was just the tip of the iceberg…

but eventually it appealed to me and bought my first real road bike in 1987. I have always been a tech-geek so the equipment had more of an attraction to me than the actual sport. But it was the Lemond era so we got to see it more on TV in the States, and quickly grew to appreciate it. My favorite rider then was Sean Kelly. I always liked the one-day racer sprinty guys over the GC types. Kelly was pretty freaking good too.

Before that I was just a dirt bike kid…but that road trip hooked me on riding on the road. Lance started off my following of the sport itself…and I saw the Tour DuPont live (passed through my hometown a few times – Richmond, VA). I prefer the classics now and online streaming has been a godsend – or shall I say, “Oh, lalalalala”.

returning early with mum to our tiny holiday home, to watch the Tour de France stage on a small B/W TV.

How did it happened? Easy answer just as a game… My co-worker/boss insisted on me creating a VDS team and I bet now he is sorry that he did… (Say thanks to holm’s for insisting??) So created my VDS team with no knowledge of cycling whatsoever… Just whatever names sounded familiar for listening to him yelling them or him telling me… The format of the VDS helped, you know if it is expensive in general means is good. Pampero Riders was born… so I started following the classics till them I didn’t know what a cobble was… Started cheering first for my country guys (JJ/Seba/Fabricio Ferrari) and then for the other guys in my team since the first 3 kind of stink…! Without knowing I was explaining others that it was more then the Tour of France in cycling…
Soon after I decide to quit smoking…. Gained like 25 kilos (was like 110) and then I said I had to do something… Hey I know about cycling why not? A guy showed up at work with a road bike for 80 bucks… Looks nice I said to my self… I got it..!!
Cycling helped me to become a better person and to meet people like you guys…!
Thanks Holm’s for introducing me to cycling and Podium cafe..!

Rode everywhere I could until I got a driver’s license. Stopped riding until mid-way through college. Room-mate had a bike, and we did a long trip, 3 guys, one car, one bike. Even though it didn’t fit and I was totally out of shape, after that weekend trip from College Station to Austin, I knew I was hooked again.

Saved up, bought entry-level decent bike (Schwinn SuperSport, 1984). Commenced, almost immediately, upgrading stuff and pestering shop guys.

After just riding a lot, chased down, while riding in Converse Chuck Taylor’s, a cat2 (who went on to be a big-wig with SRAM, and was just toodling along on a recovery ride). He invited me to show up for some team rides.

About the same time, wound up doing a 70 mile hell-fest ride with a guy who never raced, but had done solo tours of both coasts, and was an absolute beast.

And . . . the old Graham Watson photos in Winning. The play of the flash on Eric Vanderaerden’s embro’d legs in Het Volk, Sean Kelly’s impossible position, Hinault drilling it up a climb at the head of the field in Lombardy.

And . . . much as I hate to admit it, the John Tesh Roubaix programs.

And old Winning magazines, and the odd French or Italian pub from the international newsstand in Harvard Square. Basically I’m R Mc with curly hair and better taste in music.

So they did, to sign me for football ( soccer ), of course! But we wore a few days late, and all 200 available places for this sport were already taken. Next door, was the cycling section, were signing was still going on. Of course my Mom said " No way! Too dangerous!" But what could be more desirable than forbidden fruit? So next 17 years of my life I spent, practically living on my bike. Riding for several College, Semi Pro and Pro teams.
I love soccer, hockey, football and many other sports, but Cycling it is just part of me.

I was seriously into distance running at that point (though only 14). My father, who in his hey day rode bikes somewhat seriously, took us out to the side of the road to watch the Road Race from the Commonwealth Games (which were in Brisbane that year).

Wow! The sounds of the group as they roared past! The blur of speed! The gradual, but assured thinning of the leading group on each lap. It helped that he explained the tactics, but man I was hooked on the sport!

I had ridden bikes since I was a kid, but now I saw it in a different light.

I started following the racing from Europe, as best as you could from the Land Down Under back then.

I got “serious” about riding in 1987. Bought a cheap bike. Rode it into the ground in about a month. I was running marathons at that point so was quite fit :-) Stepped up and bought a decent bike, quickly moved to clipless pedals and haven’t stopped riding and spending money on bikes since…

I plan to keep riding until I lack either the ability to turn a pedal or the balance to keep a bike upright. Like Holmovka, cycling is part of me. My entire family can tell when I have been too long without a ride; even my precocious, but highly observant 4 yr old has been known to comment that Daddy needs to go ride his bike :-)

Some combination of: trying out for my college basketball team, getting cut, and needing a new sport . . . watching the Tour on TV (the :08 victory margin Tour) and thinking it was cool . . . and going to watch a now-defunct bike race in my city where the 7-11 guys came and killed it every year. Plus I was already riding everywhere anyways (on my crappy dept store mtb), buying a slick bike and then racing that bike just seemed like the logical next step.

Bought the bike on an installment plan, picked it out in fall and would go in every few weeks and put $50 or $100 down. Picked it up in early spring, did my first race later that summer.

Now I hear installment plans are coming back! Plus ça change.

“Well, I watched Dad race a lot and thought that looks like fun. Then I tried a race and that’s how I got in. I also like watching pro racing because it’s really cool. You never know when they’re gonna go around the bend, or up or something.”

I should add that I bought him his first Quick Step cap at age 4.

We took our first long trip to Europe in many years and when we got home, the Tour was still on. So we watched, just to keep the trip alive. Didn’t understand anything, but loved the scenery and the oddness of the sport compared to American team sports. By the end of the 2008 season we were hooked and watching whatever was on TV. By the next season a friend had introduced us to the Cafe. I’m not sure we’d have learned to love the sport—and certainly not learned to understand it—without this wonderful collective.

A long stretch between jobs (for me) meant many mornings watching Eurosport and Sporza. Then in 09 we bought hybrids and realized they couldn’t get us up the hills around here. A year later we bought road bikes. And a lot of kit. Since neither of us had been on a bike in 20+ years, we’ve got a lot of riding to do to make up for lost time.

McEwen was winning, a guy with my last name repeatedly claimed the maillot jaune, and then there was France itself… a central character in the early acts. The Classics started only a little later, but the fact that winning on the day meant winning the race was less confusing. I swear that the first time McEwen won on the Champs, I thought he’d won the whole thing.

when I decided it was about time I learned to ride the old red bike that I’d discovered propped behind a pile of stuff in one of my parent’s sheds, and discovered that riding a bike is an extremely fine thing to do.

I first discovered racing at about the same time. We used to get up early to watch cartoons on Sunday mornings, and one day as we waited for the Mr. Men to come on I happened to see a programme showing some bike race in France in which a man named Bernard Hinault impressed me greatly as he rode into Pau. I’ve loved it ever since.

for my 8th birthday (a 24" Orange Huffy similiar to this one) to replace my flogged, yellow CCM Cheetah (from another thread). Bombed around the neighborhood with my friends and even kept up with them on their new style BMX bikes “in the woods” of suburban Columbus, OH (all American kids normally grow up with “the woods” somewhere nearby). When I moved to the po-dunk cotton fields of S. Texas, I received an awesome, blue Sears Free Spirit 10-spd for Christmas one year and flashed around on that thing…until I got my first car.
FFwd a few years = I wrecked my brand new car in ‘89 and while I waited for repairs, a bike-racing buddy talked me into getting a road bike, which I did. Along with that, I started reading all the associated magazines and what-not, getting beefed up on my new “adult hobby”. Wouldn’t ya know it? The first TdF I followed closely was the ‘89 LeMond comeback! How awesome is that?
I continued to ride & read & upgrade and in ’91, even started to race. My biggest thrill was the very first Pro race I saw in person – ’93 USPro Champs in Philly! (Lance won $1M for the Thrift Drug Triple Crown of Cycling). I mean, I was standing right there on the Manayunk wall when LA attacked. It was pretty awesome.
Regrets? = I sure wish I would’ve started racing sooner in life.

was channel hopping one day in summer 2001 and ran across the oln coverage of tour de suisse and zabel winning a stage. thus, i started watching what oln aired at the time. the tdf daily overload was kinda cool. lurked around the oln bulletin board, and posted a little in 2003. then became a charter member of another cycling site shortly thereafter.

was also able to pick up a lot of spanish cycling from tve-international in 2004-2005, before it stopped showing it.

started watching online streaming with ctv in 2004 (and, no, i never had any issues with ctv), and then further online links (hello 2005 giro). a lot of “conference” yahoo im sessions over the years that further assisted in understanding professional men’s road cycling. a fellow member of the bgcposse (and you know who you are) directed me to the pdc in may 2008, and, i’ve been plaguing sui juris with my presence ever since.

how long to road racing again?

Does anyone else feels like Rec’ing everyone of the stories or is just me???

Long, long ago … there were French comic books under the “Tintin” brand; they came out weekly, and included a number of comic strips (Tintin and Asterix, obviously, but I remember that “Ric Hochet” was one private eye type). They also had features (long comic strips as well as articles) on the riders of the day (Anquetil, Merckx, and yes, I’m that old!).

Sadly, I lost my many-year stash of comic books when my family was given a very small weight allowance in a move from Bolivia to Laos.

But started riding a lot in high school. I especially remember the first time I got maybe ten miles from home, just me and a couple friends, and how cool it felt to have that independence.

There was an older guy who lived across the street and was into racing, he always encouraged us. When he saw us out riding he’d give us the pistolero salute (long before Contador). Sadly, he died from a heart attack while climbing one of the steepest local hills, but I was hooked by then. I rode in some local high school races and didn’t do too bad. But I started having tendonitis issues which have plagued me ever since, can never really ride as much as I’d like.

This was all back in Marin County in the 1970s, so I occasionally rode with some of the guys who were starting up the mountain bike thing. For some reason it didn’t appeal to me and I figured it was just a fad. Ha! I finally got a mountain bike in the 1990s and used to do a double traverse of Mt. Tam every year on my birthday… but I guess I’m a roadie at heart.

As for pro racing… I saw a stage of the Coors Classic in SF one year, and I’ll never forget how cool it was to see the peloton snaking up from Crissy Field and through the Presidio. One of the riders from the Colombian national team threw away a 7-Eleven water bottle on the climb and I pounced on it.

I was a big Davis Phinney fan, then Lemond (must have watched his WC win a zillion times), Armstrong, CVV, Evans, J-Rod… never knew too much about the classics until I discovered PdC, but now I get up at 6 am to watch them (still prefer the hilly ones to the cobbles though… I guess my indoctrination is not yet complete.)

Like everyone else, bike as a kid, fell away in teen years.

From the sport perspective, my very first introduction/interest came from the Saturday morning Dutch CX races we got on TV (West Germany, 1985-onwards). Didn’t (and still don’t) get the language, but got what they were doing. Enjoyed it.

Verrrry long fast forward.

Turns out one of the best crits in the US takes place a few blocks from my house. Stumbled on the Clarendon Cup in June of 1998, and have only missed a couple since then. Saw the stars of Postal, T-Mob, CSC, Mercury, etc. come through here. Paid more, but not close, attn to pro cycling. Some domestic racing, and then the Tour.

Turning point was 2003. Being the selfish fellow that I am, it was personal. Had a nasty skiing accident in Killington. Short version: broken leg, torn spine, fucked knee. Several surgeries and many months sorting it out. Once I got back on my feet, it made me appreciate motion in a big way, and it really made me want to move. This made me better appreciate the abilities of others to move, and I started looking a little wider. Paid closer attention to racing and coverage.

Fast forward a little more, to 2005. Saw some chuckleheads pontificating at this “Digital Peloton” place. Not long after, ended up at PodiumCafe.

Huh. Sounds like someone should have been planning a 5 year anniversary party, no?

Started racing, myself, in 2006. My first profile description – Walter Mitty Racer – remains apt.

Tried something new by covering the 2007 Tour de Georgia, and several stage and big one day races since then. That’s probably run its course, but it’s certainly given me a better appreciation for all that goes into racing. I look forward to remaining a fan for decades to come.

At the age of 15, I bought myself a road bike, the Soviet-made хвз спорт. Hardcore stuff, mine had no bar tape, the hands would turn black from the aluminium handlebar after each ride. Equipped it with a fully manual speedo (rotating cable).

Then I moved to Cambridge where you live your life on the bike. But mostly had no TV, so I usually watched the Tour on TV during summer holidays in Italy and such places. It was not too exciting, but I also like pastimes like gardening or watching paint dry. With the advent of more modern technology, I always had the Tour ticker in the corner of my work PC. Interest in the other races only came after I met you guys (or at least some of you, on a different board).

or bemoan Mike Tomalaris’ hosting, because without SBS coverage of the Tour I wouldn’t have the cycling. I just started watching randomly, I was channel-surfing one night and there was this hypnotic group of guys riding bikes up a mountain. People were screaming, it seemed interesting. There was a guy who I later learned was named Pantani who made riding a bike look beautiful.

I watched every year.

Sometime in 2007 a very good friend mentioned PdC to me and the world grew a little more full. In late 2007 I was on holiday in New Zealand when I started riding again. I fell in love, hard. It was like being a kid again. That feeling of freedom and openness in the world. The feeling of your own motive power. I knew I sucked. I still know I suck. That doesn’t matter. Riding bikes is the single best thing that I do. I’ve had the joy of riding bikes in many countries with many friends and I hope I get to do much more of it. Even better has been meeting so many great PdC folks. I hope I get to do more of that too.

but once I did, I was on the bike daily with the rest of the neighborhood and also alone (This was the era of westerns on TV, and I was in love with horses so my bike was my fantasy steed!) Rarely rode during high school, but started using the bike for errand and riding to work in my 20s. Not many people in my area walked or rode anywhere back then (mid to late 70s) and it was partly to be different that I did so. But, I did enjoy riding for fitness too; went to the Netherlands in 1982 and spent a week on a bike tour, met my husband just after that who introduced me to bike camping and gave me my first road bike (my beloved Nishiki). However, running became my sport through some upheavals and changes— I was too time crunched for any but the rare ride until the last 10 years or so; now riding is a regular change-up from running.

Through all that time I was really only remotely aware of pro racing—triathlons were coming to the fore, and I heard about the 7-11 team and Greg Lemond but didn’t really follow any of it. After Lemond, I was completely oblivious to pro racing — and never knew about anything beside the TdF.

Fast forward to the LA era—hearing about his string of victories piqued my interest, but didn’t have access to broadcasts or fast internet at first. The year that our cable company added Versus(2004) I saw the Tour for the first time and was instantly hooked (and to this day can’t quite explain it). LA got me to watch the first time, but it was Team CSC, Bobby Julich, DZ among others, and the chatter of P&P, that deepened my interest. I started visiting forums, learned that there were other races and other grand tours, after a year or three eventually learned that they could be seen over the internet and stumbled into the cafe around 2008 It’s been a regular part of my life since. I never would have guessed that I would spend so much time watching a sport!

I just wanted to say thanks to all of you that decided to share your story with us…! I sure felt like rec’ing each one of them..! All the stories have something special in it that make them unique..!
And to those that “forgot” to share their story is ok… Don’t worry I will come up with another post Monday and you can share something there…
I already have the subject in my head…. I hope that it will have the same response as this one.
Thanks again to everyone..!

Cool story, bro.

~

No, seriously, these were great. Thanks, all.

Cricket, rugby, athletics, swimming…everything really (pelota came after cycling). I’d always watched a little cycling just as I’d watched every other sport. When the Tour was coming to Britain in 2007 I planned to go. It was an event and I was excited about the occasion, even though I wasn’t massively knowledgeable. But then I got flu (like, real flu) and had to stay on the sofa. Sadface. Anyhow, I started watching it on TV and through the 3 weeks got absolutely and utterly hooked. And fell in love with Tom Boonen. When I get into something and it captures my imagination I tend to go all in, hook, line and sinker and was quickly utterly obsessed. I was bereft when it was over so started looking into all the other races in the calendar and watching those, and reading everything on the internet I could absorb. Early in 2008 I became aware of Podium Cafe but didn’t start commenting until the Giro that year, when I stumbled upon some Bennati hottitude and felt an urge to join some like minded people ;) I got a road bike around that time with the aim of doing a little bit of pottering about. This bike was replaced with a better one and then a better one. And that was that really! Hooked for life :-)

Grew up with parents who made us play outside when the weather was nice, or we’d watched half an hour of TV that day, so the bike was always used a lot. Especially since we lived in a rural neighborhood where you could ride around the neighborhood no problem or go “mountain biking” down the powerline cut behind the house.

But, I really got into riding after my parents did. They started riding to get into shape, starting with 5 mile rides to town and back for breakfast, then buying road bikes (and then better road bikes) and doing longer rides on the weekends. I started riding with them and decided I was tired of trying to keep up on my mountain bike, so I worked cutting yards for a summer in high school to buy my first road bike.

I started racing a year later. First year was just a local training race and a crit, but I was hooked on the speed at 16 years old. Became the guy in HS who had shaved legs my junior year and the rest is history.

Now… I simply can’t not ride. It calms me down, makes me feel better, and I’m addicted to racing. I shudder to think of how empty life would be without riding. I’d probably be running marathons or something – I think I’m the type that just has to be outside doing something physical.

My husband deployed to Iraq for six months and I had three small children. I stayed up late nights to get some peace and quiet and the only thing worth watching on TV was the SBS coverage of the Tour. Beautiful, calming scenery and an Australian in the mix. Being a lover of test cricket I was fascinated by the multi day drama and the complex tactics (still had bonifications then). I watched the Tour every year after that and agonised over the stuff ups that saw Cadel keep missing out.

When we moved to the US I found myself able to watch the Tour during the day and we had big pipe broadband so I could wander around the internet. Stumbled on the PdC and VDS. Then being a very competitive type I had to do lots of research to try and win! Have really enjoyed learning about the whole cycling calendar and especially the Giro.

The cafesters really round out the whole cycling experience and the virtual company helped me out during some lonely times while still settling in. Its great to have other nuts to chat cycling with! I also like beer and frites and lived briefly in Belgium so PdC is clearly my destiny.

I also rode a bike as a kid and then at university. Bikes are much cheaper in the US so a couple of years ago I splurged on a nice hybrid and have clocked up lots of miles on the lovely bike paths around Arlington. I’m hoping to really get to know the Canberra bike paths when we get back to Aus and keep cycling in my life. Thanks to Willj and others, my dream is to take a cycling holiday in Switzerland with my husband (i’ll ride an electric – he can suffer.)

I used to love watching the TdF on Channel 4 with Phil and Paul. Roche, Millar, Charly Mottet (never just Mottet, they always said his first name too), “the Colombians” who were impossibly exotic… they were my favourite riders. Never liked sprinters then except, later on, Abdoujaparov.

I was only very dimly aware of other races. I remember P&P would refer to “The Tour of Flanders” or “The Tour of Lombardy” and I’d boggle that they could have a whole three-week tour in somewhere as small as Flanders – either that or Flanders must be huge!

Then I guess after Indurain’s third or fourth win I lost interest a bit. Also I gave up riding a bike myself when I went to university in ’95. I never liked LA much and only kept in touch with cycling (i.e. the TdF) vaguely.

Not sure why I got into watching it again four or five years ago but anyway I did. I lurked here on PdC from about 2007 I think, and took up cycling again in 2009. Now I do about 5,000 miles a year of which two thirds is probably commuting.

It’s thanks to PdC and its amusing, intelligent contributors – hell, all of its contributors – that I call myself a (road) cycling fan now and am as interested in the outcome of the Hel van het Mergelland as that French race in July.