CX 2013 Race #2 Ego Cross – Differences

Malcolm Gladwell’s latest piece for the New Yorker, Man and Superman, re-approaches the Lance story. He makes the obvious point that each of us, given a particular physical activity, and given our genetic situation, are given particular advantages and disadvantages. Some of us compete and rise above disadvantages, some of us compete and make the best of advantages, and some of us compete when we don’t even have a chance. From all of this Gladwell poses the question, how much may an athlete do to offset his/her built-in disadvantages, or how much of her/his natural advantage is within the bounds of fairplay in the first place. As if, he implies, we could make things fair for everyone, and then … we’d all race the race and … what? cross the line at the same time and join hands to sing a song in Who-ville?

I don’t know how much of this matters for the results of Sunday’s race, but some differences became obvious during the day. For instance, it became clear that some of us like racing on grass better than on hard-packed dirt track. I, standing at just under 5’ 7” and weighing around 150 lbs, don’t really mind the grass that much at all. My driving to the race friend, L, standing at around 6’ 8” and weighing more than 200 lbs minds the softness of grass and sand a lot. He loves the hard-pack though. Still, we raced in the same race, along with everyone else racing in B, and thus the results were somewhat different. At Dark Cross L beat me by nearly a minute. At Ego Cross I beat L by nearly a minute. Sure there are variables other than grass vs hard dirt, but the illustration stands: one element favours one rider, and another element favours the other. That's just the way this shit falls out.

5'7" me (photo courtesy of Rod Colwell)

6'8" L (photo courtesy of Rod Colwell)

For further consideration: L (left), me (right) (photo courtesy of FJR) 

Michael van den Hamm (photo courtesy of Rod Colwell)

Further to said differences, Michael van den Ham (above), a 20-something Brandon-area farm kid who rode at last year’s CX worlds and placed 31^st in the U23 race, was out to run a cross-clinic in the city on Saturday, and then race with us (well, some of us, the A-race some of us - which isn't me) on Sunday. Which he did, winning and finishing about a minute ahead of the second-place rider. Which also makes plain the difference between us out here, and the pros out there. Did I mention that van den Ham placed 31^st in the U23 race, and in this interview said that he was happy to have been able to stay on the lead lap?

With differences like these, a schmuck like me might well be tempted to pick-up a cruiser bike and relegate himself to commuting in comfort and style. But that’s not what I do. I do keep on riding, and accepting the differences in elements, terrain, energy-level from one day to the next. Why? Because the one thing that Gladwell doesn’t address is that these differences are actually what fair competition is about, and mature people confront and accept differences with both eyes open. I want to race L, and beat him, because he’s 6’ 8” and I’m not. When I start thinking (pitying myself most likely) that he was faster than me because he had some sort of immutable, unassailable, advantage on one course or another, I’m being an ungrateful, weak-kneed, little douche-bag about it. Because the best truth of all this is, that L and me, we buy/build our own bikes for whatever we can afford, we make sure they fit and work, and then we line-up on them at the start line and compete, “fair and square.” Our own differences are not the issue on any race course because on this day, this course is the same for both of us. We talk about it. We accept it. We take it. We leave it. We register for the next race.