Going the Distance
What is with these guys? This time it's Richard Cunningham of Mountain Bike Distraction. Normally I don't mind Richard too much, just because he's not Zap. In his latest column he gets a little out of control. He bemoans the fact that XC racing isn't an exciting spectator sport and has some brilliant suggestions for spicing it up a little. For instance, he suggests making the races an hour long for amateurs, 90 minutes for pros.
Richard, you ignorant slut. MTB racing is not supposed to be a spectator sport. It's for participants. Get a freakin' clue already. Most races are already too short (i.e. under 2 hrs). Why do you think there's such a huge following for long, hard, epic races like the Lemurian or the Humbug Hurry-up? I don't care if you like to watch it or not. Joe six-pack won't give a damn about xc racing unless we do it with weapons or motors. Shorter races is probably the worst suggestion of any kind I have ever heard in my life. But then, what do you expect from a magazine that's so freakin' religious right wing that they censor the model name "Diablo" out of Jamis ads.
Ok, lets take a vote. Who wants to see the domestic pro mtb scene disappear into the toilet of obscurity the way the domestic pro road scene has? What? You don't care about domestic pros? You just want to go ride? Good for you. You can skip this part. What about those of you that care about other people racing, even if the races are too long and too boring? Cunningham seems to think it's a good idea to blow off the world cup in favor of the Norba series. This kind of attitude explains why US pros get destroyed at the World Cup Level. Sure, Richard'll point to drug abuse, but it's all rumor at this point. I think it's more likely that Frishy and Cadel just train harder and race against better competition all the time.
According to the evil motorhead (Zap), Steve Larsen had to pay his own way to race in Europe because Schwinn didn't want to send him to the world cup. HELLO! HE'S THE NATIONAL FREAKIN' CHAMPION FOR GOD'S SAKE (shouting for emphasis). Are those schwinn people stupid? I mean obviously their suspension bikes are pretty jacked up, maybe everyone at Schwinn is just a complete moron. I guess I get pretty worked up about the whole thing. I don't see the point in racing if you're only gonna do it half-assed. I think our national champion should be flying the colors at the highest level of international competition. Kudos to Steve for taking it upon himself to fly to race with the big boys (with a top 20 finish, no less).
In Cunningham's defense, he did come up with one good idea. He suggested making DH competition a multi-rider affair, like boarder-cross (or motocross). I wanna see 10 guys at a time duking it out on a technically demanding DH course. It might mean carnage, but so what? DH racing is a circus freak show anyway, not a real sport. If we make it look more like WWF wrestling no one should get too offended.
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