Everyone rides the Tour
July 16, 2017 § 11 Comments
It’s Turdy France time and everyone rides the Tour, as each group ride, for three short weeks, assumes the position of fake Turdy France stage. The Donut Ride was no exception, and it had been crowned the Fake Queen Donut Stage of the Fake South Bay Turdy France.
As with any fake Tour contender, I thought it meet to plan my strategy by picking the brain of ex-pro Phil Gaimon who, though he never actually rode the Tour, has read a lot of cool magazine articles about it. I’d heard that he was holding a book signing for his book “Ask a Pro,” and was also doing a sign-up for his yuge October Phil’s Fondue ride, so I sneaked into the book signing without an invitation.
“Hey, Phil!” I said as he was hunched over his stack of books, dutifully ginning out signatures like a pre-cryonics Ted Williams, while his manager hungrily eyed the sales receipts and swiped credit cards for the fondue registration.
“Yes?” he said.
“It’s me, Wanky! Yer ol’ pal. I had some questions I wanted to ask a pro.”
He pretended not to know who I was, which is what slightly famous people often do to cover up the fact that I’m actually more famous than they are. “Would you like to buy a book?” he asked.
“Nah,” I said.
“A grand fondue registration, perhaps?”
“Nope.”
He sighed. “How can I help you?”
“So you’re a pro, right? And you wrote a book called ‘Ask A Pro,’ right? Well, then. The Fake Queen Donut Stage of the South Bay Turdy France is tomorrow and I need some pro tips on how to ride it. So I thought I would ask a pro.”
Suddenly he got very busy but another guy who wasn’t a pro, and who didn’t really look like a pro, but who seemed more interested in me than the pro, chimed in. “Winning a fake queen stage? That’s easy,” he said.
“Really?”
“Sure. Don’t lose too much time. That’s the secret to stage racing.”
“That’s it?”
“Yes, and one other thing.”
“What’s that?”
“You know the guy in your group who always wins? Every group has one.”
“Sure. That’s Alx Bns.”
“Well, he’ll win the fake queen stage, too.”
I thought about this depressing little gem for a few seconds and how I’d been ripped off paying for it until I realized I hadn’t actually paid for it. I tapped on Phil’s shoulder. “Say, can you write up a quick training and diet plan for me while I’m here? I brought a few terabytes of power data I’d like you to analyze if you don’t mind. Since you’re already here, I mean.”
A few moments later Phil introduced me to a gentleman named Bouncer, kind of a weird name, who insisted on talking to me outside the event venue, onto the sidewalk, with my neck in a headlock. He didn’t know anything about winning queen stages, so I went home.
The next morning I got up to prepare for the queen stage. Preparation is key and I now had my mantra, courtesy of a guy standing next to pro Phil Gaimon. My mantra? DON’T LOSE TOO MUCH TIME.
I carefully went over each item of my Wanky Donut Gear. It is a high-tech bunch of stuff, loaded with lots of carbon that is 100% carbon plus everything is cutting edge and carbon. Speaking of cutting edge and carbon, Ms. WM and I got into it before I left because she was using my $500 carbon steel Japanese paring knife to scrape rust off the tea kettle.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I screamed.
“Itsa nasty gunkin’ so I’m cleanin it.”
“That’s my five hundred dollar paring knife!”
“Itsa cuttin good but not so good onna scrapin.”
“Of course it isn’t! It’s not a fucking scraper! You just ruined the blade!”
She was unimpressed and continued to scrape. In a sad panic I assembled the legendary Wanky Donut Gear. Below is an awesome fake Tour tech gallery that you can drool over. It is full carbon, all of it.
I rolled out of Chez Wanky, blood pressure still a tad high due to the ruined paring knife, and got to the sign-in area for the queen stage, which is the remodeled Riviera Village Sckubrats. A long time ago they named this part of Redondo Beach the “Riviera” because of the famed beaches and culture and high class of the French Riviera. I’m pretty sure they never actually saw the real Riviera before they bestowed the name, or they would never have called this run-down rat’s nest of beach huts and fake surfers the “Riviera,” but that’s another story.
This story is about not losing too much time and so one by one I quizzed my competitors about how they intended to strategify the stage. Each rider had a unique approach that centered on “don’t get dropped,” so I adopted that as my strategy, too. Only one rider, Englishman Alx Bns, had a different strategy, which was “drop everyone.” This bothered me a bit, but not nearly as much at the start as it did at the bottom of the Switchbacks, where he executed the strategy with the efficiency of Brexit. Okay, it was way more efficient than that, but equally ruthless.
Standouts included wet-behind-the-ears but stupid-strong-behind-the-legs Matthieu Brousseau, who despite his French-sounding name kicked almost everyone’s ass except Dan Cobley’s. My strategy of not losing too much time by not getting dropped (or gapped out as I prefer to call it), didn’t succeed too well. Towards the end I was passed by a fellow in a t-shirt and flip-flops who wasn’t even breathing hard. Thank dog it was my rest week.
But the really sad news is this. You remember Phil telling me about how the guy who was going to win was the guy who always wins? Dang it, that’s the guy who won.
PRE-RACE INTERVIEWS AT THE SIGN-IN FOR THE FAKE QUEEN DONUT STAGE
POST-RACE INTERVIEWS ATOP MT. SWITCHBACKS
END
———————–
For $2.99 per month you can subscribe to this blog and get none of the news that’s fit to print but all the news that’s fun to read. Click here and select the “subscribe” link in the upper right-hand corner. Thank you!
Cycling in the South Bay 
Ha ha ha.
No one used “I’m just hoping I make the time cut, to protect my fake green jersey”
Awesome!!
Damn Wanker. Never thought I’d see mention of Ted Williams here. Greatest hitter that ever lived and an American hero – the real life John Wayne with a bit Hemingway thrown in for good measure (minus the boozing). Instead of sitting on his .400 the last day of the year, he suits up and goes 6-8 in the double header. Homers in his last at bat and a San Diego guy to boot…
And had his head frozen!!
I recognize the Texas flag on your bike; is the other one the Palestinian flag? If so, what’s the story? I haven’t been reading the blog long enough to know. Thanks!
I’m a Texastinian.
love the vids! Wanky, “what’s your strategy?” Rider, “Hi.”
The “Greeting” strategy! Works for me!
Cool history about Hollywood Riviera….the clubhouse sat at the site of present day Mirmar Park..launching point of the FDR.http://blogs.dailybreeze.com/history/2010/09/22/hollywood-riviera-beach-club/?doing_wp_cron=1499807404.0006248950958251953125
Best craft water ever!
Killin’ it.