Bryan Smith

In response to the slander of Mr. Coker:

I proudly race in the Clydesdale division. I raced it last year and finished 4th in the series. I loved it (much more in hindsight than during the races). I sure as heck am not going to finish as well this year. The competition is better and I am in worse shape.

I didn't enjoy it when Mr. Coker smoked us all at the OBRA CX Championships in Salem last year. I didn't like chasing him at the Championship of the Universe race either, although I did catch him once, right before it all went crazy.

I am sure there are racers of every stripe that are dreading the year that the person that can kick their butt turns 35, or 50 and can now race masters and blow everybody away.

The man weighs over 200 lbs. He belongs with the big boys. Physics is not on our side here. Those skinny little short guys with the low center of gravity and even lower tire pressures can have their races later in the day (with an extra run up). He meets the criteria, he gets to race.

I road raced last year. Wow, those climbs are hard. Especially when I am carrying the equivalent of an 80lb. sack of cement on my back (or around my waist) in relation to the little guys that go up the kills like they have wings (or a jet engine). Did I slander my team mate Ricardo who weighs about 95 lbs (soaking wet) when he kicked my butt? Do I complain that I had to race with Alex Wentz at Banana Belt (I think he is like a Cat 2 by now, and appears to be about 19 years old)? No.

There will always be people that are better than you. You can complain (which doesn't help) or you can just race your race and hop you beat some other racers.

Do you really think all 150 C's and 120 B's go out here thinking they are going to win? Do they still race? Did some guy who knows fancy computer tricks figure out how to make them all better with "kill stats?" Heck yes.

I challenge you to enter the Race at PIR, and Astoria (twice) and all the rest and focus on riding.

It's hard to take someone seriously when they admit they watched two races and now think that they have the right to send out an e-mail to the entire organization about how someone is TOO FAST to race in the category that he would prefer to race in.

When you pull up to the line in the next Clyde race, I'll be the #868. The guy who cracks corny jokes the in the start chutt every race. If you don't like 'em, you can tell OBRA about how unfair it is that you had to listen to me crack wise while we waited for a horde of C riders to pedal off ahead of us, just so we could catch up and pass half of them.

I race Clyde's because it's a good group of guys to race with every week. Try it, you'll see.