Quote:
Originally Posted by SteelBlue
I have never seen a black man on a road bike. Ever.
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I had seen very few until the first time that I rode the Death Ride, as well as the other two since. There is a team from Oakland that is well represented by black men, some of them very fast. Of the 10 or 12 that go to the Death Ride, most of them appear to be in the their late 40s or early 50s. A couple that I saw this year looked like they were in their late 20's or early 30s. And these were not stuffy, executive types. The younger guys were talking like they were straight out of the hood. It was kind of fun to sit back and watch at the rest stop as they worked their way toward the food tables among these skinny white guys.
There is also a
school for troubled kids out in Minden Nevada that mans one of the water stops on the second climb. They bring about 20 boys and line the side of the road. They run up to you, take your water bottle, run ahead and fill it up and then run up and catch you without you having to miss a pedal stroke. The whole time these guys are cheering like the Basques cheered for Basso a couple of years ago at the Tour. It is very cool to see. Most of the kids are either black or hispanic. There were 2 of them (both were black) that did the entire Death Ride, finishing 20 or 30 minutes behind me.