Spring in Contemporary Times

Hello my friends,

Let’s play a brainstorming game. The rules are simple, you just have to think of words that describe the times in which we live. There are no right or wrong answers in this age of coronavirus, so just toss them out there. Ready…? Go!

Quiet, isolating, sad, happy, slow, calm, bizarre, anxious, strange.

Everyone is experiencing different things right now. Everyone has their right to be devastatingly sad or shockingly isolated. I threw happy into the mix because there do exist spots of positivity. Heck, yesterday was Easter afterall, a day of inspiring hope. Laura and I feel incredibly lucky to be home with Hazel, now just over one month old, and live as a uninterrupted family amid the mandatory lock-down. It’s definitely something we wouldn’t have otherwise amid our frenetic work/travel schedule. I do think strange is as good as it gets, though. These are abnormal times under any circumstance and any perspective. It’s also a time to have your mind wander.

In addition to Easter, yesterday also would have marked the 2020 Paris-Roubaix. I find these days that I’m rehashing memories more than ever. Whether that’s in the form of a conversation with friends or family or reading something or watching something, I’m tickling my nostalgic bone these days. In particular, I thought you might get a kick out of a race recap I wrote covering my second go at the Hell of the North. Ahh, the flood of memories there! Hitting Arenburg for the first time, riding around Kortrijk in search of hot chocolate as a team between the Classics, the sight of a rider launching off his bike in what guarantee will break something, or best yet hitch-hiking back to the finish line when an untimely puncture has left me stranded. What a wild ride.

Luck wasn’t often on on my side in PR. I think I averaged a puncture-and-a-half in each of my four attempts, I don’t remember any crashes, thankfully, unless I just put them all out of mind. Or maybe it was on my side — no broken bones, no lost skin, nothing too out of the ordinary. I only made it to the velodrome once. Boy oh boy, what a wild race.

Switching gears to a much less wild race, or much less dangerous anyway, my friend Kevin Bouchard-Hall came to my house about a month before Hazel was born to help shoot this video. Kevin is the father of two terrific boys, he’s a watt monster, he’s a former collegiate bike racing frenemy of mine, and now he balances it all on Zwift. There’s a gaming to Zwift as much as anything so he came over to help illustrate some of his knowledge in improving anyone’s Zwift experience.

I encourage you to check it out to help kill a half-hour of your quarantine.

Let’s see, what else has been going on.

I spearheaded a new video/podcast in this age of social distancing with 19 fun questions for my guests
I planted a garden
I hosted a presentation on the state of gravel through this global bike conference
I juggle social engagements with sponsors, next up is a Zipp IG takeover on April 18
I continue to chase geese around my pond to scare them away. (It’s funny to see the breakdown of people who response to my war with geese. People either know how awful geese are and cheer on my right or are curious why I hate geese. Geese are territorial, they attack humans — especially, small humans(!), they’re loud, they poop everywhere, and their poop is rife with parasites. Shoo geese!)
I read very little, although am in a book club
We launched this campaign with UnTapped to help spur the support of local shops which has so far been quite spectacular to see the support.
And I’m thinking of a local scavenger hunt race. Details to follow.

So that’s all the news fit to print from here. I wish you happiness or peace or whatever positivity you can find amid these very strange times.