Comments on: Brilliant Moments in Cycling: The Surge

By: Sondra

Sondra — Sun, 16 Oct 2005 03:15:14 +0000

Oddly when you search Google for "assos" your article only comes up #15. Gotta wonder how those algorithems work…

By: Unknown

Unknown — Thu, 13 Oct 2005 19:40:44 +0000

Al–yup, those skinny tires might cut a human in half. I once hit a rabbit on the road and severed its spine. There was no blood because the tire never broke its skin. It was like one of those stuffed animals with its stuffing bunched up in both ends but nothing in the middle. Poor critter. It was a little unnerving, no pun intended.

By: Unknown

Unknown — Thu, 13 Oct 2005 17:31:33 +0000

It seems you mountain bikers are bred nasty. We never used a skinny tyred bike to run over anyone intentionally, even gently.Two points Mike. First, I was a dickhead roadie, who was just a dickhead for a while, but who then converted briefly to being a dickhead mountain biker. And most of my friends were just drunks, and not mean per se. So I’m not sure it’s fair tarring all mountain bikers – many of whom are basically stoned to the bejus peaceful hippie types (God, I hate hippies) – with that slur. Second, of course roadies never run over anybody intentionally. With most roadies, the light weight and fragility of their rig simply wouldn’t withstand the shock, and if their tires are narrow enough, they might actually cut the downed rider clean in half, splattering hard to clean viscera all over the Serotta. The risk to the equipment is the real fear, though. Given the choice between riding up and over a downed rider and risking the Ksyriums, or swerving in front of an oncoming semi (but avoiding the crasher), almost any real roadie would prefer to risk death with the truck, so long as there was a fair-to-middling chance to avoid rim damage in the ensuing vehicular manslaughter. I’ve been very nearly crashed out by idiots trying to avoid a single piece of gravel on a fast descent. I can’t imagine what some superroadie on a 16 spoke rim would do to me, if some "surged out" rider was downed in front of us, and I happened to be blocking the superroadie’s escape path. Of course for that matter, I can’t imagine what I’d be doing riding next to the superroadie, unless I was being lapped… BTW Dug, I think that shorts thing is what they refer to as a Great Hack. ROTFLMFAO. I’m going to try that on a group ride sometime, probably on somebody other than myself.

By: Fat Cyclist

Fat Cyclist — Thu, 13 Oct 2005 17:29:46 +0000

craig – yep, you’ve spied my pattern: lose a lot at the beginning of the week, gain most of it back over the weekend. i no longer fight it, as long as the week-over-week trend is down.cam – yeah, the confident "surge" boast does seem to ice the cake of humiliation, doesn’t it?dug – you would look totally hot in bibshorts.big mike – oh, my menace-to-society-ness goes way beyond this one event, i assure you. i expect to do more "brilliant moments in cycling" installments, after which you will never want to ride with me. of course, after reading your second comment, i’m not so sure i want to ride with you, either.caloi-rider – you describe the best cake in the world as "rich." would you also describe it as mind-bogglingly delicious? because you should. and thanks for the empathy. i’m guessing you’ve had your moments of white-hot humiliation too, then?rocky – you know, under that mean, callous, sweaty exterior of yours is a guy who would do just about anything for anyone. which brings me to my question: can i have your other kidney?botchedexperiment – the difference between you and me is that you injure people on purpose. which makes you much much cooller than i.al – i wish i had a cool domain name like "coldfury.com." by the way, i’m reading and enjoying your blog like nobody’s business. that said, do you seriously ride over people? you run with a tough crowd, man.sue – if he hadn’t been ok, i doubt i would have yet recovered from the embarassment to such a degree that i could write about it. also, we don’t hug on this blog. we punch each other on the shoulder.a.toad – i like to think that if someone pulled a "surge" on you, you’d whip out some of your wicked street fighting moves and show that person who is boss.michael – i get the sense there’s more to this story. don’t hold back, man.lilmarysun – i apologize for any damage your monitor may have suffered, and for any damage done to your nostrils when the aforementioned RC blew out your nose. however, if you can recreate the incident on camera, i’d love to see it.

By: Unknown

Unknown — Thu, 13 Oct 2005 17:19:15 +0000

A more subtle trick shown to me by a Tour de France rider is that you can easily hook a rider’s hip bone with your 4 fingers to send them back -usually in punishment for going too fast while the peleton is trying to digest breakfast. Of course this won’t work if the recipient is fat so you don’t have to worry (yet).I can’t wait for your response to the WADA dope quiz!

By: Susan

Susan — Thu, 13 Oct 2005 15:32:33 +0000

Thank you for the comment. I still don’t know how much detail to write. I want to keep my entries short so that people want to read it. At the same time I would like to add more detail too. Problem is the first trip alleviates my brain so I don’t remember much. To me the first trip was hell. Sore butts, numb hands and arms, angry, scared, tired and sweaty are just a few descriptive words. Maybe I should just give up now before I fall, eh. Instead of waiting for someone to do a ’surge’ on me! D’oh!!!

By: Angel

Angel — Thu, 13 Oct 2005 14:56:04 +0000

Congrats! You have the dubious honor of being one of the two blogs I have read that have made RC squirt out my nose…a mean feat, I assure you. I shall return to read this blog again and I will take the procaution of not having anything close by to drink when I do so. GREAT site;)

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 13 Oct 2005 07:55:36 +0000

A friend of mine used to enjoy changing my gears as he rode past when I was new to mountain biking. I tried it once on a friend a few years ago and it didn’t work so well so I vanished that trick back to the cupborad.

By: Ariane

Ariane — Thu, 13 Oct 2005 06:09:17 +0000

You know, I don’t know what I would do if somebody did a "Surge" on me. I guess I’d probably fall over, but I wouldn’t know if I should laugh or cry. Dug… dude… the shorts thing; that’s amazing.

By: BIg Mike In Oz

BIg Mike In Oz — Thu, 13 Oct 2005 04:07:58 +0000

Al – we only bumped them, they fell down on their own, but they were uncaring enough to take down one of our guys with them. It seems you mountain bikers are bred nasty. We never used a skinny tyred bike to run over anyone intentionally, even gently.