Shadow riders
November 26, 2013 § 11 Comments
Whenever I get bummed out about all the douchebaggery in Old Foks Racing a/k/a “masters,” I think about the shadow riders. The shadow riders, you know, they perk me up.
They are the men and women who ride in the shadows of the d-bags. They often don’t race, or if they do, it’s occasional, and whenever they show up on a ride — if they show up on a ride — they remind you what legs, lungs, and unfettered ferocity mean on a bike. The shadow riders didn’t get the “fast riders are assholes” memo. They smile and go hard and beat you up the hill because they’re just plain old faster.
Craig Hummer is one of my favorite shadow riders. He doesn’t race at all. In between his crazy-busy schedule as a national TV sports commentator, he throws on a light, rolls out at 5:00 AM, and charges around the PV Peninsula.
The first time I met Craig, I didn’t even meet him. We were going up to the Domes and he was going down. “That’s Craig Hummer,” someone said.
“Who?”
“Craig Hummer. The TdF announcer.”
“Whatever.” I didn’t have a TV and wasn’t interested in people who talked about the Tour de France.
“He’ll rip your fucking legs off.”
Now … I was interested. I looked him up on Strava, and he had some mythical times on some mythical segments. “Ah, so what. Anyone can chalk up times on Strava.” So I thought.
A few years later I did my first ride with Craig. He ripped my legs off, which was bad, but he crushed my fragile ego, which was worse. All the way up VdM he was chatting. All the way to the Domes he was gabbing. I never got a word in edgewise, not because he talked too much, but because I was coughing up a kidney.
Wanting to make sure it wasn’t a mistake, I rode with him again, this time with Tri-Dork and Ol’ Scabies, who is 70 going on 95. Ol’ Scabies rode better at 70 than I ride at 49, and it was only through the combined half-wheeling of Tri-Dork and Craig that we shed him. If I can ride 1/10 as well as Ol’ Scabies when I’m his age, I’ll surrender my AARP card and take up Elite road racing.
Craig dusted my broom again, hairy legs and all, chatting the whole way like we were at a quilting bee. Then he honored me by saying he looked forward to our next ride. The sun was up by then, but it was only 7:30 AM. The next time we talked, by message, he was jetting his way to NYC, out of the shadows and into the limelight.
Damn ugly jersey dude
The first time I got ground up into gristle and pooped out the back by Tony Manzella, he was wearing a terribly ugly jersey emblazoned with the names of famous bike racers. He had come down to the South Bay to sample the Donut Ride, and the bite he took was big enough to eat the whole damn thing.
Tony was obviously too big to climb well, so when he dropped the whole fuggin’ wankoton and soloed to the college, the problem was simply that he didn’t know he wasn’t supposed to be able to do what he did. Fucker.
The handful of times we rode Mandeville together on the Holiday Ride, my goal was simple: Stay with Tony until I gave birth to a small vomitus. Then quit. Each time I achieved this goal.
Tony’s the guy who decides to race ‘cross, shows up, does the most competitive races and places in the top four his first race. Then the top two. Etcetera. He’s the guy you fucking hate, except, you can’t possibly hate someone that good, that honest, that friendly, that fair, and that willing to take a pull. Then, to really make you feel like a POS, he’s the guy who can chat you with you before the ride about … art.
Tony’s a shadow rider par excellence. He loves to ride, but his integrity and decency and perspective show you, by example, that the master’s racing scene doesn’t have to be what it is. There are people out there who have that rarest thing of all, common sense, common decency, perspective.
So what if he ground me up and spit me out on Seven Minute Canyon? So what?
Cycling in the South Bay 
Nice. Pointing the spotlight on two shadow-ees. Now the USAC masters collective knows who to assimilate.
Or who to avoid like the plague!
There are so many great Tony Manzella Stories… being told after every ride. Love that guy. One of the most talented athletes and deepest sufferers I’ve ever met. His dad is no joke on the thing too.
If only he would be a jerk, just once in a while. I’d feel better about myself. A little.
Plus…their jockstraps aren’t smelly
Nom nom nom.
Wait a minnit… if the sense and decency of the ‘bags is so rare… why are these things “common?”
You know how it is with common decency and common sense, rarer than a roll of TP in a bike race port-o-potty.
Hence was formed Bike Effect/Be Like Tony jerseys.
I called ‘Ol scabies wife today and asked if it was him. She said yes and I busted up laughing. Funny how I knew. If you ever visit him, ask why he has multiple titanium frames stacked around his house. Wait…I’ll tell you. He rides and mashes and stomps so hard he cracks the frames. Ever since I’ve known him, he breaks his bike!
I asked him to ride mine so I could warranty it but he’d have looked like a circus clown! The guy kills it out there!
He’s a crusher, all right!