David Wilcox and the T Shirt Project

I have known David Wilcox for 6-7 years. When I first met him, he was the kindly shop manager of the pre-move/renovation Bikes Not Bombs who helped me remove a seized lockring from my fixed gear commuter, free of charge (it required inhuman strength and special tools). While I was volunteering with the BNB youth program, David was always around, patient, interested and helpful.

A couple of years later, David resumed his bicycle racing career and joined my team, Cambridge Bicycles. I had the privilege of racing with David, as teammates, for 2 seasons. I took every opportunity to pre-ride mountain bike and cyclocross courses with David, discussing lines, tire selection, equipment and tactics. While my growth as a racer has been slow (I am not getting faster), David has made amazing progress every season. He has become noticeably faster on the bike and more tactically savvy every year. His bike handling has always been excellent.

Though David has moved on from my team (without any hard feelings, only disappointment), I still consider him a teammate, a confidant, a moral bellweather, a friend and an all around stand up guy.

I happen to live 4 doors down from Broadway Bicycle School, where David works. The presence of BBC and all of David's help factored into my decision to buy my condo. Whenever me or one of my friends (1, 2, 3) has a vexing mechanical issue that we can't work out at my workspace, we haul the broken pieces of the bike 4 doors down for David to deal with. He has never failed me.

I am not alone in my unabashed love for David. I have never, and I mean never, met anyone who had a single bad thing to say about him. David's kindness can be disarming. The fact that a decent, softspoken gentleman like David gets so much respect in the competitive cycling community speaks volumes about us. Applause.

Oh, did I mention that David is fast? God Damned fast. Like he sold his soul to the devil fast. And nice. He'll shout genuine words of encouragement even as he is breaking you on twisty section of single track. He'll compliment you on a great race after he put minutes into you. He'll cheer for you when you launch a foolhardy attack against him.

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I love David. I am sure that you do too. As an homage, I got a photo, wrote "I Heart Wilcox" under it:

I then had the graphic printed on American Apparel T shirts (men's and women's). The shirts are for sale for $18. $2 from every shirt purchased through me goes directly to Bikes Not Bombs Youth Programs.

I will be at most of the upcoming races (Lowell, BayState, NBX, Ice Weasels).

You can also contact me via email to arrange mail order (rmckittr at g mail dot com).

I printed a limited run and there are a variety of color options, so getting to me sooner rather than later is advised.

Also there is a very limited number of American Apparel TriBlend shirts (50% cotton, 25% rayon, 25% poly). They are softer and awesomer. Also more expensive, $22. Also these are almost gone.

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I feel great about the project. Even if you don't buy a shirt, I hope that the shirts bring a smile to your face. I smile every time that I see them.

Very special thanks to Wei Wei Lin of Superb for offering her design services to this project. She is looking for design work, so if you need an able designer I can put you in touch.

Geekhouse is Having a Party this Monday Night and RMM is Crashing It.

It has been a big week for parties for me to ruin with my sullen moods and my judgmental, negative comments. But the best party for me to bring down is happening at the Middlesex Lounge this Monday night.

Last year the Geekhouse party had the most interesting culture clash in cycling. Hipsters mingled and drank, while stunned, uptight roadies silently held up the walls, while sipping water and gawking. Personally, I was surprised that the roadies made it past the wall of cigarette smokers in front of the building, but roadies will walk many miles in order to suffer.

No matter your cycling stripe, the Geekhouse Annual CX party is a highlight of the cycling party circuit, so put on your best skinsuit or your too-skinny jeans and join us as we celebrate a great cyclocross season with the worst dressed team in cyclocross.

Whether you attend or not, please congratulate Marty Walsh (the chief Geek) on his first season of cyclocross. He'll be the dude with the bushy mustache surrounded by pretty young women. Marty overcame longstanding injury to have a successful first season of cyclocross racing.

Superb Presents Bella Bicicletta and RMM Ruins the Event by “Promoting” It

I like fancy bikes and beautiful people. Superb’s event promises to have both in abundance. It was fun last year; I was the most unhip person there, so don’t allow this communication medium fool you, this is an event for the young, hip cyclists. Expect DJ’s, booze, socializing and geeking out over bicycles.

Here’s the official press release:

Superb Bicycle is proud to present Bella Biciclette, an exhibition of beautiful vintage bicycles from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. Expect to see bicycles from Colnago, De Rosa, Rossin, Takhion, Eddy Merckx and even a Cinelli Laser. All bicycles and frames at the show will be available for purchase. Please RSVP by emailing RSVP@SuperbBicycle.com with your name in the subject line. Beverage and light appetizers will be provided and formal dress is suggested. RSVP will be required for entry and remember we have limited space inside our shop so there might be a line to get in, *hint* arrive early!

If you are a collector, or very interested in purchasing one of these unique bicycles please let us know in your RSVP as we will be having a special early showing for seriously interested buyers.

Last years “Hot Bike” contest was such a success that we will be throwing another one this year. We will have categories such as: Best Paint Job, Most Aero, Most Original, and Best Vintage Style. Bring your hottest bike as long as you didn’t place in last years competition. This years judging will be by attendees of the show so everyone can vote! The winners will get prizes from some of our favorite brands and entry into the contest is only $5.

Please be respectful of our neighbors and no outside drinks will be permitted in the shop.

Throw the Bums Out! Why Do New England Racers Need the UCI Anyways?

The UCI may do some great things for international cyclocross, but here in New England they are an unnecessary pain in the ass. There are a few arguments about why making an event a UCI event is good for the sport; they all add up to a steaming pile of…

First allow me to enumerate the ways in which the UCI designation makes races less logical and less fun:

1. Staging order: Once upon a time, we had a number of logical staging strategies. These archaic methods are still in use in primitive races,, but not in UCI events. Among these outdated strategies:
a. Series results- Verge stages racers in the Verge Series according to the results that they got in past races in the Verge series. It made prefect sense to use this data to stage future races. It made for logical starting positions, allowing leaders of the series to start in front, which allowed them a great opportunity to defend their standings.
b. Crossresults.com “points”—this website has an algorithm that assigns each rider a point value based on the rider’s results. The algorithm factors in the category that the riders raced in, depth of field, rankings of competitors, overall result in the race. Basically, if I win the cat race, I am not likely to get more points than a top ten finisher in the elite race. While one could argue that the algorithm is not perfect, it works well enough to have gain nationwide respect and is used a yardstick by many cyclocross racers.
c. Registration Order—Those who register earlier get a better start position. This was usually used in conjunction with other staging strategies. A typical start order would be: UCI points, series point, then registration order.

Instead of using a logical staging order, the UCI has instituted “random draw.” Random draw is exactly what it sounds like. Riders with UCI points are staged in order of accumulated points, while everyone else draws numbers for position. For instance, I am a racing very poorly this season, yet I drew a 2nd row start at New Gloucester day one. There were lots of fast riders behind me and every one of them had to pass me at some point. New Gloucester was a smaller race, so this didn’t present a problem, but at a well attended race such as CycleSmart in Northampton, having 50-70 faster riders staged behind me and the other scrubs will be problematic and potentially dangerous.

2. Tire Width—Wide tires are an advantage when courses are very rough. There is a limit to how wide you can increase tire width before it will start to slow you down. Sometimes people use mountain bikes in lower category cyclocross races, yet racers on mountain bikes almost never win even these lower category events.

Courses that are excessively rough would not conform to UCI course standards. Wider tires are only an advantage on these excessively rough courses. Banning tires that are 34mm just seems stupid. It would make more sense for the UCI to concentrate on course design requirements and allow riders to make logical tire selection choices based on the conditions that the riders find when they show up to race.

By the way, I have a set of white Dugast Pipistrello 34mm’s for sale.

3. UCI payout/increased costs leading to higher race fees: No matter what category you race in, part of your race fee is funding the UCI designation. Most racers are never going to see a UCI payout, yet we pay $10-20 extra for any race that carries a UCI designation. Racing is expensive enough.

4. 80/20 rule—Riders who are 80 percent lapped are pulled from races, regardless of how close to the end of the race it is and regardless if they pose a threat to safety or not.

While I am somewhat in support of this rule’s usage in elite races where it makes some logical sense, its application in lower category events infuriates me. There is no better way to alienate a new racer than to pull them off course in the middle of their first race. The application of this rule to category 4 events kills all of the goodwill and fun that our discipline is supposed to bring to cycling. UCI and USAC officials who applied this rule in women’s 3 / 4 events at Gloucester and Providence showed a callousness and lack of consideration that I find disturbing. This is no way to grow the sport.



Back in the dark days, US cyclocross racers who had international aspirations had to go to Europe to race so that they could gather UCI points. A number of promoters and racers in the US wanted to provide these racers with opportunities to race domestically. They worked hard to promote UCI events. They have succeeded.

Now the truly fast can race domestically, gather points and then race in World Cups. This begs the question: How many racers are taking advantage of this opportunity? In other words, who are WE helping with our hard-earned money? And what are we getting for our money?

By my calculations, there are less than 10 New England racers actively racing in Europe. Perhaps someone more informed can give me an exact count in my comments section. Even if there were a few more, these 10+/- racers are the only beneficiaries of UCI races in the US. While a few of us might enjoy the bauble that a UCI point represents, the rest of us (lower category riders included) are paying huge amounts of money so that a select few riders can earn UCI points. While I don’t begrudge these riders the opportunity to race in Europe, it seems that we have far more UCI races than we need.

Someone recently told me that UCI events in the US help grow the sport. How? There are virtually no spectators at US UCI events other than lower category racers. There is almost no evidence that non-racers follow our domestic racers’ exploits in Europe.

The only argument that I can find in favor of UCI events is the quality of the races. Correlation is not causation. There is nothing to stop non-UCI promoters from putting on as high a quality event or even a higher quality event than the best UCI race. At The Night Weasels Cometh, Colin Reuter and crossresults.com demonstrated that you don’t need a UCI designation in order to post a huge payout.

In 2010, almost every other race in New England is a UCI event, with the attendant costs and hassles. The UCI framework constricts promoters and saddles lower category racers with extra costs and arbitrary, onerous regulations. Did I leave anything out? Can you think of a benefit to the UCI that I am failing to consider?