Day 1, ride 1 is in the books. I had to lube the chain before I could clip in. It had some surface rust on it, not terrible, but that is the kind of chain that leaves you stranded when…

I used to watch every mile. Paris-Nice, the Hell of the North, Flanders and The Grand Tours. I subscribed to NBCSN specifically for it and I would sit there for hours. Every breakaway. Every descent. Every moment where everything could…

I sold the cyclocross bike to a kid going to Phoenix and went back to riding the crit frame. It’s a fun bike, quick, responsive, the kind of bike that reminds you why you started racing in the first place.…

The Pumpkinvine Trail was expanding. For those who don’t know it, and I’ll write a proper love letter to the Pumpkinvine another time because it deserves one, it’s a rails-to-trails project that follows an old train route from Goshen to…

I found it on eBay. A used Cannondale crit frame, red, 105 components. The seller was in Atlanta. We went back and forth on the details the way you do with a stranger on the internet who has something you…

There is a certain kind of decision that makes complete sense in the moment and reveals itself as deeply misguided almost immediately. Buying the China Bike was that kind of decision. It was 2012 or so. I had been married…

I saved all summer for it. I was 16, landscaping in the Indiana heat, and every dollar went toward one thing: a 1987 Schwinn in Winter Mint. When I finally brought it home I stood in the driveway and just…

I haven’t ridden yet. But I went down to the basement today and looked at the bike. That counts for something. It’s a Trek Domane SL, Ultegra components, which I upgraded to from 105 and still wish I hadn’t. There…