Time to Call it a Season

So in case you couldn’t tell from the sparse posting over the past month and a half, I’m getting pretty burned out over the state of pro cycling. Riders forced out of racing on still-unsubstantiated suspicion, Howard Jacobs exploiting the scientific ignorance of Americans, the inexplicable vitriol of Lance Armstong and associates, the media’s inability to find an attitude between dumbfoundingly impartial (insert link to any cycling site ending in “news” here) and chidlishly suggestive; It’s just an infuriating series of affairs to try and make funny. As W.H. Auden claims, the goal of comedy is acceptance, and in this case, that’s not what I want.

Compounding this issue is the fact that I can’t watch any races. Well, not that I can’t, per se, but that I would probably get fired for spending two hours a day sitting in my cubicle and watching the live Vuelta coverage. I suppose I could read live reports in the AM, and then watch the video and write the report in the evening, but the long gap between my learning of a result and my watching and reporting on it would be extremely detrimental both to the level of my writing and my motivation to produce it.

So that having been said, I think I’m pretty much hanging it up for the rest of the season. If cycling.tv carries Worlds or Lombardy, or if enough entertaining news stories (along the lines of Ale-Jet’s attempt to “punch through” for his first big win since the Giro), pile up I’ll post; other than that, probably not. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t swing by this page every now and then; I’m working on setting up a “best-of” section, I plan on getting in some ‘cross racing (with the obligatory reports) and I’ll put up links to my occasional contributions at Podium Cafe and other sites. Don’t worry – you can bet I’ll be back for the ’07 classics.