TOWN LINE

Why "Town Line" you may ask.  I do not exactly know.  Half-serious cyclists know what I am talking about.  It is what you go for when you see it in all out effort and then, whether you win or not, you can share a laugh about that after the ride.  Or be laughed at.  It is kind of not too serious, but achievement, especially when you have no others in this tough sport.  This is me, not too serious, but...

In my bike racing years I spent a lot of time attending (no better word) road races.  In a road race you have a chance of placing if you are good climber or/and good time trialist.  Took me many years to realize that I am neither.  However I noticed that during sprint workouts with really strong guys I had no problem staying on their wheels during the all out sprint for the line.

So I started racing criteriums and flat circuit races.  Now I was in the game. Now it was a race, not just survival.  Even finished on the money a few times, including a podium place once.  Sprints are very good overall training. LeMond once said that if you have only one day a week to train it has to be sprint workout. Sprints provide quick workout in all aspects of bike fitness, except endurance. However to practice sprinting I needed competition and the finish line.   I started going for town lines on the club rides where there was always plenty of competitive guys who wanted to be first.  Even if nobody was going for it except me, I had my all out effort and recovery. It may look pretty silly, but adds some fun since in many cases people do not remember where town lines are and I end up winning them.

I guess town lines became many things for me: real all out effort on the bike that is otherwise hard to produce,  some fun during  club rides and laughs at the end.

My most hilarious town line win was many years ago when I rode with Tyler Hamilton, just the two of us. I jumped for the obscure town line from about 17 mph with 50 feet to go and got it.  When Tyler asked me what exactly was I doing I explained to him that now I can brag for the rest of my life that I beat Tyler Hamilton in the town line sprint.  He laughed and we kept riding. Later in his e-mail to the club from the Tour de France Tyler mentioned that he is way ahead of me in the town line competition, French town lines that is.

Tyler rode with our club for many years in his off season training.  I never missed a chance to do a few extra miles with him, one of the top professionals in the world at the time and just a very nice simple guy.