by Scott Martin
At a recent race, I spied a guy warming up on his trainer while his girlfriend (wife?) pinned on his number.
“That won’t last long,” said one of my teammates.
“Whaddya mean?” I said.
“My wife used to come to races. Now when I invite her, she just laughs.”
Added another teammate, “I wish all my wife did was laugh.”
People, please. It’s not inevitable that your significant other will grow to hate cycling. You simply need to educate him or her using this guide to road-race spectating:
Because of traffic issues, these events always take place early in the morning in remote locales. That gives you and your life partner 3 hours of quality alone time while driving to the race at 4 a.m. This is a great chance to talk, unless your beloved is nervous, in which case he or she will babble nonstop or not say one word.
Once at the venue, find a good vantage point near the starting line and wait for the gun to sound, which will happen roughly 45 minutes after the scheduled start time. Then, return to your car because it is too cold, wet, hot or dusty to stand around for 90 minutes while the riders complete lap 1. You brought a good book, right?
If you’ve been asked to “feed” your life partner, stand in the feed zone with a waterbottle in hand and sprint when the pack flies by at 25 mph. If you accidentally miss the feed, look forward to some hilarious post-race banter about how you “ruined my @#$% race.”
If your snookums gets dropped, don’t say, “It’s just a bike race.” In fact, it’s best not to say anything.
If he or she does well, relax. You only have to wait 2 more hours for your champion to collect the prize: a T-shirt.
Scott Martin has been writing about cycling for more than 15 years. He worked as an editor for Bicycling magazine for 10 of them and wrote the “Scott’s Spin” column for RBR from which this is republished. He has also covered cycling for several national magazines.
Race Mates – I think we might be lucky that our partners who came to our races years ago will now still wash our sweaty clothes after we do one more event or workout.
I recently did a gravel event called D2R2 and they were looking for volunteers to help with registration and working at all the water stops. The organizers offered free entrance to the event for anyone volunteering either for themselves or a friend. I was able able to get my friend to help out with registration and got to ride free. She had a great day not only helping at the registration but also lent a hand unpacking all the beer glasses and tee shirts. She got lunch a free tee shirt for herself and said she met some very nice people. She told me on the ride home she’d be happy to do it again. I think she had as much fun as I did but that’s the kind of person she is.
Won’t last long? Darn how much longer do you think I have got? She has been SAGing me for 55 years so I guess the end is near. Oh well fun while it lasted.