Bicycle Racing in Europe

Tony McMillan

1966

Introduction

In 1966 our brother Tony McMillan won seven major bicycle races in California when he was eighteen. Hoping to extend his winning streak into the world championships, he decided to go to Europe for the summer to race and improve his chances. While there, he wrote the ten following letters home, to a group in Berkeley consisting of us, Bob Parsons, and John King, and to our mother and sister. The letters provide a near real-time description of the racing there, which was mostly in Belgium. They may be unique from several points of view.

The letters have had a bicoastal existence. Tony caught up with them upon his return to Berkeley. While in our apartment next to Pete Rich's shop, he recognized the letters sitting in a pile on the mantel, and stuffed them into his pocket. A few years later, Mike, then in Maryland, collected them and the other letters, and typed them up. As the years went by, and cycling became more popular, he put them on a computer, edited them, and made sporadic attempts to find readers. The few he found responded enthusiastically. The potential audience increased markedly after Tom and Tony made a joint appearance at the 2009 Old Farts ride in Berkeley.

Tony was joined at various times by other American cyclists. These were Doug Burnett, Tim Kelly, and Dave Brink. Two other American cyclists, identified here as xxxxx and zzzzz, had their real names omitted from the text because of the roasting they were subjected to.

The letters are somewhat unconventional in that apart from letter VII, there are no dates associated with them. However they can be time ordered by using the information contained in Tony's reports of his attempts to form a four-man team for the 100 km time trial. Since one of the team members was supposed to be xxxxx, most of this information has been omitted. In particular, this applies to about half of letter VIII . The correct time order has been retained, however.

The book Dog in a Hat by Joe Parkin tells a tale similar to that in Tony's letters, the difference being that he wrote the book several years after his time in Belgium, which was about twenty years after Tony's stay. He mentioned that the Belgian races, called kermis, were the wrong preparation for race courses with steep climbs, a piece of information that Tony would have found useful.

Mike and Tom McMillan, August 2010

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I.

Boys, are you all missing something. Where else can you get a cold , a raw crotch (from the rain and millions of cobblestones), and spend all your money at the same time? In Ghent, Belgium, that's where. This goddamn rain is supposed to blow over but I kinda doubt it. After 4 days in Paris (we were really getting reamed on all fronts, training, racing, and finances) we hit on the plan:

Ghent. So we shipped our bags and road racing wheels to Ghent and proceeded to ride there: 350 km in the wind and rain. We left our track bikes and our baggage at the track in Paris. Hopefully they will be ok. We had a lot of fun with all the super-friendly French on the way here.

We're now staying at Cafe den Engel in Ghent (cycling magazine fame). Bob stayed here I think. $3.00/day room and board (usually more food than we can eat). There are about 15 English and Scottish cyclists staying here. Tim Kelly lives 1/2 mile away with his wife and Kathy Long.

They about crapped when they opened the door and saw us. Tim just got back from the Isle of Man where he rode against guys right from the Tour of Britain. Tim got 32nd and is now still tired from his trip but looks fit as hell. We shot the shit till midnite last night.

Doug and I will ride our lst race Saturday. Right now I'd race but my crotch is raw; bleeding painfully raw. Little goodies we've run into are things like at the track in Paris, the chief mechanic not knowing how to remove a cluster. A tube of gutta breaking in my pocket. Flat tires up the ass. Beer costing too much. Me slipping on the stairs and falling, putting my hand and arm through a window, cutting my hand, small but deep as hell, smashing the window. Doug getting some floating junk from a cottonwood tree up his nose and instantaneously being sick for 2 days with about a 102 deg. fever and the works. Customs office in Ghent closed when we got here, soaking wet. Doug crashing in Ghent and fucking up his hand for 2 days. Me getting lost in Ghent for over 40 min. And no less than a million other pieces of shit.

John: sweats cost $14. Freight though too. Altig is winning the tour but the mountains are tomorrow.

Tony McMillan

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c/o Cafe den Engel

124 Dundermondesteenweg

St. Amandsberg, Belgium

II

Dear Mother--

Well I haven't messed up too much yet. Besides putting my arm through a window in Paris and cutting my hand, none of the million things I've done wrong has hurt me. I've had to spend a lot of money for equipment, though. $15 for sweat suit, $5 for new rim, $6.50 for tire, $1.50 for underjersey, $8 for USA team jerseys, 50 cents for glue, $10.50 for shorts, $11 for knickers, $2.50 for towel and soap. Then a lot of small stuff. And that is one hell of a lot of money. Hopefully, I've gotten all my equipment, and barring accident, it should last awhile.

Tim Kelly, it turns out, lives about 1/2 mile from us. He was more glad to see us than we were to see him, and that’s saying something. He looks very tired and discouraged. The racing here is the fastest in the world, and the guys we're racing against are on the list to turn pro next year. One thing that's getting him down is that everyone but everyone uses dope. So far he hasn't and therefore hasn't been able to win. Quite a drag, eh? But we'll stick it out without getting bombed. Like he says, bike racing isn't a sport here, it's all business. All the Belgians that race do it as a living. They have to win or go hungry. Quite an incentive.

This is what we've planned. There is the Tour of Austria starting July 17 and the Tour d’ Amour in Belgium in August that we're going to ride as a US team. The promoters have offered to pay our expenses, so.... We've written xxxxx in No. Calif. to come over and join us. That'll make it a 4-man American team. The promoters in Austria want 6 men, but we don't have that many. Doug is going to take off early and ride his bike the majority of the way there, then take the train the rest of the way. The rest of us will take Tim's VW bus and drive there. Tim has a wife and sister-in-law staying with him, so they'll go too. They'll be our trainers and drive the following car!

Doug and I rode out to watch a race the other day. It rained like hell, and the cobblestones

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and corners were treacherous. Through all that those guys blasted the whole way. It's going to be a tad different. Everyone rides bikes with long wheel bases and low angles, but Doug has a converted track bike, and on the cobbles the shock goes right up the tube to the ass. He may have a problem.

In this one cafe, 5 frames have broken in races in the last 2 months. They just snap from all the bumps. These cobbles are incredibly miserable to ride on.

Last night we went to Tim's apt (it's a basement), and thought we'd get something to drink for there, so we bought 5 liters of this great tasty beer for 80 cents. Too much! That's a total of 80 cents. We're having US team jerseys made for the tours. They'll be powder blue with red and white knit goodies on the edge of the sleeve and neck. They cost $4 each. Kinda cheap. We got back from Tim's at 11:00 kind of high and fell right to sleep. Then at 3:00 our 4 Scottish roommates came in all so plastered it was a riot. They all fell down a bunch of times and one guy passed out. His "mates" (everyone is "me mate") tried to put him to bed and dropped him twice. It was too cold to get up and help them. Then they all sang fantastically filthy songs for 1/2 hr, then went to sleep. As we found out today, they had been thrown out of every cafe bar in Ghent and barfed all over each other, and they're all going out again tonight too. Saturday is one of their birthdays, and we're all going out and getting blasted.

III

Dear Mother,

Here's the Ghent-front news.

Last Saturday I rode my 1st race. 108 km over the wildest course I've ever ridden until Monday (yesterday). We started down an asphalt road on a hill, crossed some RR tracks with about 10 yds of cobbles-- really rough-- then about 1 mile later turned onto a fantastically rough cobble road. But there was a cycle path after about 25 yds so everyone jumped a 4" curb to get onto this path about 2-1/2 feet wide and composed of loose gravel and coal dust. After the race, everyone was black. Can you imagine 60-some odd riders blasting along this little path? I found it hard to believe too. But no one crashed. This was about 2 miles long the 1st day and 2-1/2 the 2nd. Then

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it was onto more cobbles then onto pavement. The 2nd day it finished right on the worst bunch of cobbles on the whole course.

But on the back stretch there was a stretch of cobbles about 1 mile long that I swear jarred my kidneys loose the lst day. There are 2 hills on the course. The deal is there are 3 races on somewhat the same course and there are points given on general classification at the end. More money.

On the lst day I was psyched out. I had myself convinced that the Belgians were faster than hell, so the faster they went, the more I was convinced. So with 6 of 9 laps completed I (mysteriously now) quit at the finish line while still in the field and still in the money (there was a 9- man break). Tim got 17th and Doug quit a lap before I did after he had gotten shook off.

The races are completely different here. There are 100 attempts to get away by everyone in the whole race. Then one break will finally work. It's almost impossible to tell which one will. You just try to pick one with some name riders, go with it, and work like hell.

The 2nd day I was quite a bit calmer and was determined to do well. I felt a lot better than on Sat. too. Tim and I were always together at the front and were on 3 breaks. (This time there were longer laps and only 7 for 100 km.) Then on lap 4 I got in the break that worked. Six of us in an echelon (anyway a totally different way of taking pace and we go twice as fast with less effort). On the last lap with about 3 miles to go, we had to stop for a train to go by. We lost at least 20 sec. there. From there to the line, the chasing group was only 20-30 sec. behind us so we really hauled ass. In the sprint it was a combination of being asleep and not knowing how to sprint on cobblestones. They jumped hard while still on the dirt, so we turned a corner in the dirt, sliding like hell. Then we had to jump off the curb onto the cobbles for the last 100 yds. and that was where I really lost it. I was in too big a gear to sit down and push so I had to stand up. For one second I damn near fell because my rear wheel went into orbit. So I had to sit down and grind to the line. I got 4th. Kelly says it is the best an American has ever done in Belgium. He got his best placing too: 8th. I got $12 and he got $7. The guy that won it was a professional at one time but somehow got back in the amateur ranks, and is making too much money to turn pro again. He's fantastic.

I have quite a bit to learn. I've learned more in these last two races than in the last two years.

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It's like riding your 1st race and being amazed at all the things that happen.

The weather here has cleared up and it's like Chicago now. Hot with high humidity. It gets so humid that it rains a least once a day. When it rains its like someone dropping a bucket of water down. It's devastating if you're out in it.

Tim has about 4 hrs of discussion at two Falcon training camps with Tom Simpson and his doctor the main speakers taped. At present we are listening to them. Then he has about 4 hrs of lectures given by Brian Robinson on specific topics; e.g, food, clothing, training, bike, etc. Simpson is worlds pro road champ and Robinson is an ex-pro, a really good one at one time. They are very informative (to make an understatement). Tim demanded that I hear them and read the notes he took after I washed off with ice cold water after the race yesterday then didn't have any shoes to wear. He was really mad. I've taken a different attitude. I'm going to be serious about racing at least for this summer. No more street dances (I've been to two), or pubs (I've been to countless), and no more drunks. Fantastic, eh? We're (Tim, Carol, Kathy, and I) are leaving for Austria (Vienna) on Monday. The promoters will only pay for 2 riders and Doug isn't in shape yet. Keep sending my mail here because I'll stay here again when I come back.

IV

Dear Mother,

While still here in Ghent, I started getting a headache, and by Sunday, the day of the lst race near Liege, Belgium, I felt like I had a bad hangover. Whenever I tilted my head, a whole herd of elephants came galloping through. But I started the race anyway. It was 162 km (100 miles). There were hills all around us but the promoters insisted that there was no hill in the course this year. After checking out the gears on the other riders, we went to our 23 and 24 tooth gears (from our 18s) wisely enough. There was a 3 mile hill that wasn't supposed to be there this year. Good God. There were six or seven full teams with about 8 riders each, and they had following cars, director sportifs, and the whole works. After the race, every one of the riders had his own masseur, except us. Well, the race went from the gun: 13 laps. The 100 miles took less than 4 hrs even with that hill. Then

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after 20 miles it started to rain and it turned cold as ice. For about 10 min it rained so hard that I couldn't see anything, and no one slowed down. Ever. Up the hill, which is equivalent to Valley Center, I never got out of my 52 x 17. I've never had to climb like that before. Then on the flat I'd be charging along in a 52x15 and there'd be people (or animals) jumping off the front constantly. So from blasting along in a 95" gear, we'd have to jump even faster, then it would slow down to 30 mph again, then jump to 35. I kept thinking how the hell can anyone do this? But the most amazing and discouraging part of the race was that we'd be charging along flat out and suddenly come upon a group of 10-15 riders who had been away. How they got away is beyond me. Then we'd catch 10 more, then 10 more all through the race, and I could never figure out how they got out there. I'd see about 5 riders go off by themselves, but then we'd catch 10-15 riders. Man, was that bewildering. Then after about 110 km I blew up. One minute I was feeling great, then the next I was just hanging onto my bike. I could barely stay with the field, so when I got to the car I packed it. I was having chills and the whole bit. I've never been so completely shattered before. Tim kept going strongly, and said with two laps to go, things really got hopping. I couldn't imagine things getting worse, but apparently they did. Tim got 12th, a very good placing. We had weighed ourselves before the race at the place where we changed, then again after. I had lost about 5 pounds, and Tim had lost 7 pounds. Tim doesn't have 7 pounds to lose. Boy was he looking gaunt.

There was a race the next day nearby, so we went there after the race, and the promoters gave us room and board. That night I had a 102°- 104° temperature, and was totally wiped out. I kept waking up sweating like a pig. The next day it was raining like hell and colder than the 1st day. The deal was that there would be 8 large laps with no hills, then 8 smaller laps with hills. On the 1st lap we went up a hill similar to, but a little less steep than, Pomerado. Man, I wasn't going to stick around to see what the hills were like on the smaller laps. Anyway, when the field went down the hill on the very lst lap I got shook off and quit. I was still sick and my legs felt like wet noodles after the race of the day before. Tim got blown off halfway through and we bugged out.

That night we stayed in Gessin, Germany with zzzzz who is from San Jose and is working for the army over here. I've never seen a guy so full of bullshit in my life. To hear him talk you'd think he was the world's top pro. But Tim, he, and I went on a ride when we were in Vienna and we

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gained about 3 min on him going up a 2 mile hill (We weren't going all that hard), then gained another 3 min in coming back down. He talks of placing in these big international races, but the part he fails to mention is that he rode in the class C event. Anyway he decided he was going with us.

So the 5 of us (Tim, his wife, and his sister-in-law) took off for Vienna, or Wien, as they call it. A11 this time I had that horrible headache and my eyeballs felt like they were square. I must have taken about 30 aspirin. It took 11 hrs to get there and all the hotels were either full or too expensive, and anyway it was 10:30 at night, so we slept in a field. The next day we got our hotel and eating accommodations. I slept a11 day long, then again all night, and was better the next day. We went on a ride in the morning, then the lst race was that night. It was on a running track in the big stadium there. It was part of a big sports festival, and our race served as an intermission for the soccer match. It had been raining quite a bit, so the track had big puddles and was muddy as hell. At the start I got hung up on another rider and was 1/4 lap down by the time I got moving. I could drift through the corners better than the others, so I finally caught the leaders right after the 1st sprint. In the next 2 sprints I somehow got enough points to place 3rd overall. I found out after the race that I was sprinting for the wrong line, and that the actual line was 20 yds earlier. I'd been sitting through the corner, letting the others drift wide, then going on their inside. I should have just have been going from the front. Anyway I didn't think I'd placed, so I went in to change, and was standing there semi-nude when some guy comes running into the changing room, jabbering in German. Apparently they had one of those 3-place stands with flowers and the whole bit, and I was supposed to be out there, and was screwing the whole thing up. Oh well, I got my flowers, medal, and money a little late, that's all. $12 for 6 km. Not bad. Tim had hooked handlebars with someone at the line, and ended up chasing the whole race.

The next day was an 85 km criterium point race. There were Czechoslovakian, Italian, German, Swiss, and about 4-5 Austrian teams there. One guy had won the Peace Race twice, 2 others had won the tour of Austria, and about 15 had ridden tours like the Tour d'Avinir, Tour d'St. Laurent, and the Tour of Austria. In other words they hauled flat ass. The course was about a half mile around with all cobblestone corners. About 1/3 way through, just when I was getting the knack of sprinting against those guys, we were going through a corner, all leaning the same very

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cautiously, when some Swiss rider forgot to turn or something and went straight through us and took about 8 of us down. I wasn't hurt, just scratched up a bit, but my bike was at the bottom of the pile, and by the time I got up I was a half lap down and my handlebars were twisted to beat hell. So after chasing for 6 laps and gaining about 5 sec/lap I said to hell with it. Tim punctured 3/4 way through so we were both out.

The next day was track racing, and I was signed for the match sprints and the team race, and Tim only for the team race. I had to borrow a track bike because mine hadn't arrived from Paris in time. It was a Rickert. What a lousy bike. Anyway, the matches were a joke. I'm just no European match rider. When they started hooking me I said no race is worth that and tried to come around in the straight. I had an 88", the German who got second (beat me in my lst heat) was riding a 91", and the Italian who won had 93". The Italian coach said that's because he was supple and could spin. Oh yeah! The Italian hooked and chopped the German cross-eyed and beat him easily.

In the team race 17 teams started on a 400 meter, 39° banked track. I was scared shitless. One time right during one of our exchanges there was a crash where some Austrian slid up the track right in front of us and then down right behind us, and I was so scared and intent on missing the crash that I zoomed right by Tim forgetting to even touch him. We screwed up quite a few exchanges, but still did OK. About half way through there was a big jam, and an Austrian, German, and our team gained a lap on the field. Then came the biggest disappointment of the race. In the sprint with 30 laps to go, Tim rode it and just kept sprinting. We had about a half lap for 11 laps before we were caught. I about died when I saw him get away, because I had to keep blasting by myself when I got thrown in. Anyway we tied in points for lst, but the Austrian team placed higher in the last sprint, so they won. We got $14 each for 2nd. The promoter was overjoyed because we had finally come through with some results for all the money they had spent on our room and board. The funny thing was zzzzz spent all that time and money coming with us because he was sure he would be able to ride, even though the entries closed 3 wks ago. He didn't get to ride.

Financial Section. I won enough to pay for the trip. With all the free room and board I got, I broke even for the two weeks of traveling. Good scene.

Tell Dave to either ride the Nationals or the Worlds. He is a definite winner in the 4000 at

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the Nationals, and we certainly are not winners here. But it's totally impractical to do both. xxxxx arrived and we rode our lst race yesterday. He really got an introduction: cold, rain,

and each lap had 12 km of cobbles. The cobbles on the hill were so bad that I bounced and couldn't get my gear moving, so I got shook off. Xxxxx crashed on the wet cobbles, but isn't hurt too badly.

V

Boys,

This won't be long but I just had to tell you-- heh heh--I got 2nd in a race yesterday. Yaahoo!! Tim got 4th.

It was a 110 km race with 63 starters. I rode dead last for 2 laps and right at the end of the 2nd lap I went up to the front. By then 2 guys were several minutes away and Tim and another guy were about 45 sec up. So I started sprinting and got within 10 feet of them but couldn't make it. But 4 others had broken away from the field to catch me and with them we caught Tim and the other guy and the 7 of us caught the other two guys. The field got within 15 sec of us at one time but we just kept going, and eventually pulled away. With two laps to go, two guys attacked and got away for 1 lap, but we caught them. As soon as we did, one of them jumped away and although it was windy as all get out, he stayed away. Tell me he wasn't charged out of his mind.

Then came the sprint. The sprint was on a turn and on a wide, cobbled road. With about 400 to go I was towards the front and some guy jumped. They were all on the outside of the turn, so as soon as he jumped, I jumped with all my might to the inside of the turn and went like mad for the line. I won the bunch sprint by about 1 length. All the other guys were using about 95"- 100", and I was in my 88". I got $16 and I found out today that I was supposed to get a silver cup too but the usual Belgian way is to ream the foreigner, and they probably gave it to the 3rd place finisher who was Belgian. The bastards. Tim was 4th because his gears slipped when he jumped.

Thanks for the letters. They're the only ones I get.

VI

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more riders passed me. So I went from being sure I'd get 2nd to 16th. The following car came by me, saw I didn't have another spare, and kept going. I was just a tad bit frustrated and pissed.

Then yesterday we rode a rip-roaring, windy 100 km race where we missed the break. Half way through Tim and I decided to quit, so I got in front and blasted as hard as I could for a lap and split the chasing field all to hell. Then I quit. Boy were they pissed off!! TS you goddamned Belgians!!

Brink better be hauling flat ass because from all signs this is going to be a 3-man TT.

VII

Boys,

We're leaving here about the 18th of Aug. to spend the week before the worlds in Germany. So that is 3 wks.

The day before yesterday we rode a 125 km race near Aalst with many road hazards such as cobblestones, potholes, horseshit on the road, narrow roads, and many turns. Tim got away at the gun with 4 others but dropped his chain on a cobbled corner and couldn't catch again. Those 4 stayed away the whole race. After 3 laps a group of 7 got away, then the next lap, 4 more. I took off and chased that one down and we proceeded to catch the group of 7 then kept going. Then the usual fate happened: I blew up. My feet cramped, my thighs threatened to cramp, the small of my back hurt like hell, and the cobbles jarred my kidneys loose. I was reduced to a quivering mass of shit. With 2 laps to go, a mere 15 miles, and I couldn't make it. By this time the field was reduced to 14 riders out of the original 56 starters. I was in 9th and the guys behind me were a long ways down but I just couldn't go any further. Tim had packed 3 laps earlier.

Yesterday we rode a 108 km race that was one half cobbles. After one lap of 22 km I said to hell with it. Between the hills, cobbles, and still being crapped out from the day before, I just wasn't with it. Tim rode very well but halfway through his brake lever fell off and was dangling around so he jumped on my bike. They went up a hill like one block of Marin but the difference was that

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those were by far the worst cobbles I have ever seen, impossible to ride on. Tim had a 46 x 22 on his bike but I had only a 47 x 20 on mine, so if people hadn't pushed him as he creaked up the hill, he would have fallen over. He finished 15th. When he found out the gears he had been riding on my bike he almost had a relapse. We rest today then ride a 110 km race tomorrow. I ought to be going fairly well again by then.

VIII

Boys,

Things came to a climax here. The truth was apparent after we rode the 100 km team TT in Verviers last Sunday. This was no small race. There were all the European national teams with all the big amateur cheeses from the very top class, and then there was us. For a 4th man we had an Englishman, Keith Horn, who was still tired from racing the day before and went off the 3rd lap after pulling no pace. The course was really something. We started and immediately climbed for 6 miles on cobbles with streetcar tracks all over the place and many, many turns. Then there were all kinds of gravel, wind changes, rolling hills, turns and everything else. I blew up on the last of 3 laps. (I keep telling a little kid here to fuck off so now he's walking around saying fuck off to everyone!) When I blew up I was wiped out but had to keep going. At times when we were going over the hills my vision would start to black out around the edges until I could only see about a 1 ft. circle. After we finished I fell and then sat on a curb staring at my feet. Some Frenchman who "used to race" told me that the reason we didn't do better was because we didn't use the right "vitamins," and made the motion of a hypodermic with his hands.

Thanks for the (Berkeley) Barbs. Everyone at the Cafe got a real charge out of them. Well it's Saturday and time to take my shower and I must go. I just met Barry Hoban who came here to pick up Bob Griese, a pro who’s living here. I've beaten him once. Zoweeee.

New mailing address;

11 Eendrachtstraat, Ghent c/o Tim Kelly

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much difference. I chased, caught on the back of the field, but immediately got shook off. Yep, that's right. On the lst lap, on the lst hill of consequence, 5 of the 6 Americans got shook off. Mike Hiltner was the only one to stay in and he did well till the 7th lap, at which time he came off. I felt like dogshit and just couldn't get going. So after the lst of 8 laps we were already 2 min down and the field was really moving away. I considered myself no longer contending or in the race so I quit. Polk quit the next lap, Tim the next, and Doug the same. By that time they were all 20 min. down. Tim and I just weren't prepared to climb at all. We went to the pits after Tim and Doug quit, and on the way we were watching the field go by and Tim ran into a pole, smashing his front wheel and cutting his knee to hell. Kind of a royal pissoff ending to a disastrous day.

At the track, Doug and I are hardly considered part of the team. Typical, I must admit. The great white nordic god Bill Kund won a knockdown, dragout argument with Simes as to who would ride the 1000 km TT, and then proceeded to do 1:12:6, the 2nd to the slowest time. Trentin (France) won in 1:07:29, 0.02s off the world record. Practically everyone else was in the 1:09's. Then Kund repeated his feat of getting 2nd to last in the 4000 with 5:16:8. Brink got 20th with 5:09. The traveling wiped them out, I guess. Last night Timeon Greon (Dutch) who has won it for the past two years, won it again in the finals and set a new world record, 4:50:?? Rather good. In the match races, Handy (NJ) and Disney both rode good races and got to the 8th finals. Simes got shat upon. Disney really surprised me. He rode very aggressively, and when he did lose, only lost by 1/4 inch, to Jan Jansen, Dutch national champion. Very good races. In the finale, Morelon (F) won with Trentin 2nd and the Russian 3rd and the Italian 4th. Renders of Belgium won the women's R.R., and got 2nd in the 3000 pursuit. Burton won in the 1/4-finals; she caught Audrey. Our 4000 meter team is composed of Jean Washgau, Brink, Burnett, and me. We should ride very well: 52x15. I'm feeling fine for that type of event. One slight problem. Last night we were messing around throwing cold water on Brink while he was in the shower, and while running out, I hit a goodie in the doorway and broke my 4th toe. Or at least it has all the characteristics of a broken toe: swollen, black and blue, crooked, and painful. It doesn't hurt when I ride though, just my legs. So I expect I'll catch hell for quitting the RR but what the hell, I wasn't in shape for that type of course, I guess.

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