Thanksgiving Day greetings from Twisted Spoke in Northern California where all the turkeys are organic and cost $90.
What are we thankful for? That no matter how many drug investigations, no matter how many banned riders, no matter how many sordid tales and corruption and incompetence, the 100th edition of the Tour de France is cued up for July.
We’re thankful for the Tour of California, the US Pro Cycling Challenge, Paris-Roubaix, Tour of Flanders, the Basque Country, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, Milan San Remo, the Giro and the Helta Skelta Vuelta.
You can bring pro cycling to its knees but it will still crawl back up, get on a bike and pin on a race number. As with so many perfect bike metaphors, life is forward motion and the optimism of the unexplored road ahead.
We’re thankful for guys like USADA CEO Travis Tygart who have the courage and strength to bring one of the most powerful and rich athletes in history to justice. We’re thankful for people like Jonathan Vaughters of Garmin-Sharp and Giro boss Michele Acquarone for their vision of pro cycling.
We’re thankful for brave journalists like David Walsh and Paul Kimmage who insisted on the truth no matter how much pain and suffering and financial hardship it caused them.
We’re thankful for bold and aggressive cycling blogs like Cylismas and Race Radio who kept the pressure on the UCI and started a true fan revolt with their legal defense fund for Kimmage.
We’re thankful for editor and senior writer Ed Pickering at Cycle Sport magazine for giving us the opportunity to cover the biggest stages races in the United States and the Tour de France. Ed is a true pro and a class act.
We’re thankful that at 55 we are still in good enough shape to get a on fast bike and go hard up a mountain road to enjoy the view. Happy that we burn enough calories in on climb to come back and pig out on turkey and killer California pinot noir.
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