Work to Bike Day

Way back last December I renewed my racing and official's licenses. Yesterday I got my hard copy of the official rulebook. I think USAC was thinking about not sending any of them out unless they were specifically requested, but finally relented and sent them to all of the officials. Riders, by the way, can request the printed versions if they want. I suppose that if I hunted around I could probably come up with twenty-five years of them, more or less. The real treasure, though, is that one at the bottom, printed in 1969 back when the organization was called the Amateur Bicycle League of America. I don't even remember how I got it, but it must have been around when I first started helping organize the Tour de La. It looks like the pages were hand-cut, punched, assembled in Ernie Seubert's basement. For all practical purposes, it contains no road racing rules and only a smattering of track racing rules. The one rule that always floored me was the track racing rule that said that if someone attacked the rider who was on the front was obligated to chase for at least a certain distance, and then each rider behind him was likewise obligated to do so in turn. Things have changed a little, eh? Anyway, we (aka LAMBRA) need to organize an official's clinic around here some time this summer. I'd also like to have an end-of-year LAMBRA event and get some discussion going about funding an incentive program for Juniors. Plus, we need to see if it's feasible for LAMBRA to help subsidize the cost of photofinish expenses or officiating for LCCS races. First, however, we'll need to put together an actual budget!

So today is National Bike to Work Day. I know because Mark D. mentioned it to me this morning. Locally I have heard absolutely nothing else about it, of course, nor did I encounter a single other soul riding to work this morning. Considering this morning's strong north wind, though, it felt more like Work to Bike Day to me. For most of the morning's ride it was just Mark and me, and we were going to great lengths to take it easy. It was hard to do on the way back with the wind in our faces, though. I was just happy to have made it over the Broad St. overpass on my commute to work without having to get off and walk! That's a tough little climb on the single-speed commuter with a bag over your shoulder and a strong wind in your face. I could feel the pedal cage right through the leather soles of my Bass Weejuns!

There's a little 20 mi. time trial over around Lafayette this Sunday, but I'll be playing it by ear this weekend because my father is supposed to be released from hospital on Saturday and that always seems to be a very long and involved process. Then, of course, I expect there will be some issues getting him home and getting the house set so he can get stuff done with minimal use of his right hand. So I guess I'll just have to wait and see how that goes. I'm not likely to make the drive over to Lafayette alone just so I can get clobbered in a time trial, but if somebody else is going and things on the home front are cool, well, it might be good to try out those new clip-ons I got recently.