A better title for this post might be: “How to go from Pro to Amateur in 75 minuets” or “How to go from Pro to Amateur in 1 Criterium” or “Cycling for Dummies: Your guide on How to Screw Your Teammates who are High on GC”….there are a million good titles for this one.

So here is my usual disclaimer. I was taught how to race my bike via the “old School”. Now some might look at this and say old school is for losers or old school is for old guys, and you might be correct in that analysis. I like old school and it has always served me and my teams well. So to be more exacting, I was “raised” on Mercury old school and since that team won like 110 races in one season to me that means I can preach old school ways.

To bottom line it, part of that philosophy holds that if you have a guy or some guys riding high, like for argument sake 2nd and 3rd, on GC, then you need to a) protect those guys and b) set those guys up in a fashion that would allow them to win the race…on GC. That is the point. To win the race. Now if you are not one of those GC guys andyou get the lucky break of slipping into a break then you, by rule, get a free ride around which you hope turns into a stage win…if that happens you are pumped and so are your GC guys. Now let say the non-GC guy slips into that break but there is a guy who is a major GC threat in that break also. That is not good for your GC guys and the non-GC guy should do NOTHING to help that other team improve their GC spot most definitely if that means the other team will jump over your GC guys. Now that would be just plain stupid to help the other team. I am guessing they don’t pay your salary. Now as a career non-GC guy I know it is hard to resist the “free” stage win, but in the old days I was more afraid of my GC guys and what they would do to me if I was to help another team gain time. Because at the end of the day, cycling is about team not individuals and about GC not stage wins. Any first year pro should know that, but I know that some pros, and I use that term lightly, don’t because I have seen the GC flick job with my own eyes. These guys should get an express ticket to the amateur ranks.

This is what I know…in the old days, if I had ridden in any break that had a rival GC guy in it, that would be the last race I would see for a long while and I am sure it would be my last season with that team. Plus, if the GC guys go to another team, sometimes they like to bring good teammates with them or sometimes they tell their new team what a DUMBSHIT Mr. non GC guy is and he has no job the next year. Cycling is a small world. A pro is paid to ride his bike for the team and the sponsor that pays his salary not fend for his own results at their expense. Even if you are not the biggest fan of your teammates, who looks like the bigger jerk-off?

Now I know some guys will just say those days are over and winning is about winning, but that was what cycling used to be about and it got the sport in trouble. Good teammates are hard to find, andguys who don’t think they know everything are even harder to find. I spent a lot of years with my mouth shut and listening to guys who are better than me because they generally were better for a reason.

Havoc

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