Cyclepaths/Wild Cherries Racing

I raced this weekend at the Folsom Cyclebration, but both races were pretty unevenful. I do have a great/sad story from after the circuit race, which was on the second day. After the sprint finish of the race, I did a cooldown lap by myself, and rolled back toward the finish. I noticed a guy sitting on the curb all by himself under the shade of a tree. He had an old beat up bike sitting on the ground next to him. He was very tan, and looked to be about my age or a little bit older. I just passed by the guy, and he looks up at me and says out of nowhere, "Hey buddy, I hate to break it to you, but you're a fuckin loser." I just looked back at him and said "Yeah well you're a fuckin drunk". Then I went to meet up with Matt, Katie, Ramsey, and Alanna who had stuck around to support me and watch my race. I talked to them for a minute about the race, and told them the story about this crazy guy who was still sitting under the tree about 100 yards away. We said goodbye, and for some reason, I decided to ride back by the guy again on the way to my car. I wasn't trying to start a fight or anything, I was just curious to see if he would say something again. He looks up at me this time and says something to the effect of: "You would make a great sandwich in loserville." At this point I realized that he was either nuts or on a lot of drugs, so I kinda just rode past him. At the same time, he gets on his old beat up crappy bike and rides next to me. He just looks at me, and I look back at him. Then I recognize him! He was on an episode of the A&E; show "Intervention".... so I say to him, "Hey, I know you." He says, "I doubt it." And I say, "I know you from TV." Then he instantly takes off down an alley and I just let him go.

When I got home from the race tonight, I did a little bit of research on this guy. At first I forgot his name, but I do know that he was a pro bike racer for US Postal at one point. He had a troubled childhood, and was sortof a loner as a bike racer. He got kicked out of the Olympic trials because he poked Lance Armstrong in the stomach, and called him a "doughboy". After that, his career seemed to spiral downwards. Then he started smoking crack..... In the episode of "Intervention", he did accept treatment at the end, but obviously he relapsed. What I have taken out of this is that, as bike racers(or athletes in general), we almost have an "addiction" to the awesome feeling we get when racing our bikes. We finish one weekend, and look forward to the next. We are lucky that we are addicted to something so positive and productive and healthy... and it is now apparent to me that it could very easily go the other way.

His name is Chad Gerlach. You can read more information on his pro cycling career and the aftermath here:

http://www.aetv.com/intervention/int_episode_guide.jsp (find Chad from season 5)
http://chicocyclist.blogspot.com/2008/06/chad-gerlach.html
http://www.beersteak.com/sports/chad-gerlach-promising-american-pro-racer-addicted-to-drugs/
http://www.byjamesraia.com/articles/124/1/Chad-Gerlach-Former-Pro-Cyclist-Lance-Armstrong-Teammate-Subject-Of-Pending-AampE-Network-Program-Intervention/Page1.html
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=13791390&postID;=4403400084802965497&page;=1

Good luck Chad.

Last minute surprise: 2008 Chickadee #2, The Asphalt Outlaw is this Saturday, TOMORROW!

• Road Bike: 72 road miles (70m pavement, 2m good dirt road)
• Saturday September 13th, 9am
• Start: Sattley, Road A-23, 0.5 miles Northeast of Hwy 89 (same as the NCNCA regional TT staging area)
• 3x KOM and finish points awarded (though like always they have no value " except for smack-talkin)

Hope to see you there!

I entered the Dunnigan Road Race aiming for some upgrade points. Here I am again focusing on the pot-of-gold instead of journey. Well, do to that, I was handed an interesting course. Right off the bat I realized that I entered the wrong race. Looking around me I notice a ton of big guys. Not tall, I mean big guys. The kind that eat up head winds and flat courses and then disappear on ascents. There would be no ascents today - so I found the best draft I could behind a Webcore guy and made myself at home. The funny thing is that I cut into the draft of this said Webcore fellow and broke up his team paceline consisting of four guys. I sat in behind three of them, the third being largest, and the fourth guy who apparently was hoping to get pulled to a win by his teamates, stuck his bar into my quad and pulled out of the draft cursing the spando plaid. This changed nothing for me except the fate of my top 5 finish which you find out about below. At this point in the race the Davis team was putting on a big 32 mile an hour effort into a massive headwind. Honestly, I got popped but managed to bridge latching onto a breakaway at mile thirty or so of the race. The break was big and consisted mainly of Metro dudes, Webcore riders, and Davis riders, as well as a couple of Vintage pedalers who transition into Jordache denim after the races (forced style from my perspective = contrived). The sweet irony of it all is that seven brutal miles later we realize that we made a wrong turn and that everyone we gapped would go on to win the top 9 or so places in the race. Our lead pack dwindled as we chaced or survived depending on you look at it. Many riders descided to make the beer-thirty call at the finish of lap one and 10 or so guys including me forged on to finish our feat making up for our indiotic off course attack. To give the group credit, the attack was feirce and the course markings were lacking. There too was one motocyclist for all race categories leaving a large margin of error. So, we missed the only course turn. Awesome, so I held in, focused on my nirtition plan and won the sprint in my group hopefully landing me in a top hat finish. I'll repost results asap. Also, I set my watch to alarm me every :45 minutes at which I would take an endurolyte caplet, drink something, and munch a little cliff bite from all the cut-up bite size bars that collectied lint from my jersey pocket. This seemed manageable and allowed me to excell in the sprint putting the smack down salvadging a race and putting a smile on my face. Thanks for reading - Matt Chappell. Dunnigan, the most boring road race ever.