Rubbing Elbows With Greatness

   A couple weekends ago Sue and I took our younger son with us to the Endurance Sports Expo in Oaks. Carrick had attended the 2011 event with me and enjoyed all the free samples (in his case candy and a large collection of water bottles with colorful cycling logos), but not as much as he enjoyed this year’s Expo, where he could constantly rib his mother about “how much faster it was when it was just Dad and me”. Yes, she was stopping to talk to nearly every representative there, but I appreciated her enthusiasm for her new triathlon hobby. She is trying to learn as much as she can about sports nutrition and equipment, still swearing that this isn’t a “competitive” thing for her, but I know better.

   Sue was also looking to try on some wet suits, since she is not someone who enjoys cold water swimming. I had provided the funds for the suit as a Christmas gift, wrapping an eBay-bought G.I. Joe scuba diving figure in a box as a stand-in, since there was no way I could purchase the tight-fitting garment myself before she had a chance to check its fit. I also wanted her to have a brand/design she liked, and she did plenty of research on the subject before we attended the Expo.

   We started the morning braving the cold, windy wait in line that included a brief snow squall, in order to receive a special goody bag for the first 750 entrants. Needless to say, you get what you pay for, and the offering was more of a not-so-great bag, but no big deal. As expected, inside the Expo we found a ton of free samples, like energy bars, drinks, and candy for…uh…well, mostly Carrick. Of course there were the latest technical gadgets and many sparkling, high-end bicycles - not that I needed one!

   The highlight of the day for me was being able to talk with cycling great Marty Nothstein (pictured right), who has won multiple national and world championships on the track and was the 2000 Olympic sprint champion! I struck up a conversation with him after I saw some tandem bikes on display and could only remember that the person pedaling from behind is called the stoker. I knew Marty would be the one to ask what the “steerer” is called (he informed me that position is the pilot), since I have a poster of him and partner Paul Swift tandem racing. Years ago Marty was kind enough to autograph it for my son Colin, shortly after his Olympic victory. He is now the Executive Director of the Lehigh County Velodrome (officially called the Valley Preferred Cycling Center, but that doesn’t do it for me) and was talking up the venue’s coming summer schedule at their booth.

   Marty is an extremely personable guy, and I already felt somewhat like a friend, having seen him race so many times in the close confines of the velodrome, but he took a good amount of time to talk to me. He got a good laugh out of a story I told him about Sue and I riding on the track about a week before our wedding and narrowly avoiding a trip to the emergency room when she clipped a pedal on the banked surface and almost went down on the cement. “That wouldn’t have made you very popular with your mother-in-law!” was his understatement. I almost took for granted how rare it is to get a chance to hang out with an Olympic gold medalist!

   Later I attended a Q&A session with some pro cyclists, including Marty and Brian Walton (pictured left, on his way to a bronze medal at the 1988 Candian Cyclocross Championships), who was an accomplished track cyclist as well, but is more known as a road racer with the 7-Eleven, Motorola, and Saturn teams. Being a spokehead, I was familiar with Brian’s career, but he may be more known for the people he rode with as a teammate – guys like sprinting great Davis Phinney, 1984 Olympic Road Champ Alexei Grewal, multi-Olympic gold winner Eric Heiden, VERSUS channel commentator Bob Roll and Chris Carmichael, who coached someone named Lance Armstrong.

   Brian, now a highly-respected coach himself, had a solid career, winning the prestigious Milk Race (now the Tour of Britain) in 1989, riding several Tours de France and participating on three Canadian Olympic teams. In fact, after the announcer went through Marty and Brian’s palmarès, I felt a bit embarrassed for the other three panelists, although they’ve had far more success in their respective cycling careers than I could dream of!

   I was interested in hearing how Marty had to drop about 30 pounds of muscle mass from his track cycling days in order to transition to road racing later in his career. Sprints, and particularly keirin racing, which involves strength to fight for position behind a pace bike (see link below for footage), require powerful quick-twitch muscles that had him competing with about 210 pounds on his, now lanky, 6’3” frame! Brian, who is about my height (5’10”), shocked the audience with his “comfortable cycling weight” of 145 pounds, but I may have been more stunned to hear how a Canadian athlete didn’t have hockey as his second choice sport. I would not want to tell you it was badminton, but he offered the information willingly, so I can’t be held responsible.

I was amazed that I couldn’t find his 2000 Olympic win, but here are links to a couple cool Marty Nothstein videos: his 1994 Sprint World Championship and 1996 Keirin World Championship races.