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@jonny
Essential racing advice inspired by Nietzsche
I recently gave this advice in response to a letter I received at Team Etchingham HQ.
It is is little long for a post but contains some essential racing advice should you ever find yourself in this position on a hill top finish.
Cheers...
Dear Jonny,
You're racing with your father. It's a brutally hot and humid afternoon. The road is almost empty, most of the other riders have retired, apparently unwilling to continue in this stifling heat. You and your father are the only two riders left with any real chance of winning the race, as the others have dropped off on the final gruelling climb.
Your father's face is flushed, his breathing is laboured. You sense with 1k to go to the summit it is time to make him hurt even more. You flick the gear lever and start pressing the hammer. He grunts as he lurches forward from his seat and stretches himself to keep your wheel. The noises he is making are awful and you can tell he is weakening fast. Sensing a diminution in his power and in his spirit you don't let up.
You pass the 500m sign and though the gradient eases a little you only use this to drop a tooth and raise the speed. Your father reaches desperately at his gears, trying to find one that will ease his pain, you look back and notice he is still on your wheel but clutching his chest with one hand, he notices your glance and gets of the saddle once more, a man on the very edge.
You are at 300m to go and the road ramps up suddenly to an unbearable gradient. This is your chance to finish him for surely he has nothing left. You heave yourself up and push on with all your power. To your surprise you sense your father has somehow fought to stay with you.
In the still sultry air, you can hear him wheeze as he struggles to push, push, push, managing an absolutely last-ditch survival-spurt of power to keep with you.
At 150m the line is in sight. You drop it back on to the big ring and force everything you have left through the cranks, when you hear, just a little behind you, that your father has collapsed on his bike.
Do you forgo the winning sprint, jump off your bike, and rush to your father's assistance? Or do you shoot for the line, winning the hard-fought race, then rush to your father's aid? Jonny, you make the call.
Greg Hayes
Evansville, IN
Dear Greg,
Nietzche wrote: What is good? - All that enhances the feeling of power, the Will to Power, and power itself in man. What is bad? - All that proceeds from weakness. What is happiness? - The feeling that power is increasing.
Ace the finish, win the race, and then rush to your stricken father's aid. Your father, from the symptoms you've described - flushed face, laboured breathing, severe chest pains - has apparently suffered a massive coronary. It's doubtful that the time it takes to take the win will cost your father much in terms of survivability.
Don't let the last thing your father see you do be an act of abject sentiment and weakness. Nail the sprint with joyful ferocity. You win, your father loses. Victory is good. Be happy.
(with big props to Mark Leyner)