Comments on: Dear John

By: Tom Gilmartin

Tom Gilmartin — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 04:20:14 +0000

I contend that when riding in sub-freezing temps style can be ignored. I once rode 25 miles at 4AM wearing 2 t-shirts, 2 sweatshirts, a full-on parka, diaper shorts, long-johns, sweatpants, actual ski pants, 2 pairs socks (one short, one tall with breadbags between), a winter hat stuffed under my helmet, ski face mask, and ski gloves. I’m sure that’s a run-on sentence. My water bottle didn’t freeze completely, but close. The only person I saw was a cop who looked at me like I was nuts as he went by. Style? We don’t need no stinking style!!! Extra exclamation points added on purpose. ! = Yelling. !! = Louder yelling. !!! = Veins popping out screaming.

By: Ed

Ed — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 01:54:50 +0000

Jose Manuel Fuente wore pretty high (tall) socks in the 1974 Giro.

By: Rod

Rod — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 22:55:46 +0000

Personally, my grammatic/punctuation pet peeve is when people use “,,,” instead of “…”. Drives me nuts.

By: charley

charley — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 17:54:51 +0000

Ted,

I applaud your interest in grammar. Does your appreciation extend to diction? If so, I request you reconsider your use of the word “very”. I find it a useless intensifier. Try “dreadful” or “fantastically”, and determine if this meets your needs. Best wishes next season.

By: Robert

Robert — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 22:47:52 +0000

Thanks for correcting short socks style errors which I can say are now in the past. Long live the KoS.

By: firwave

firwave — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:41:43 +0000

LOL…John Andrews, I was thinking the same thing re: Lance’s dig on NH. I’m up here in Maine and we know it’s not called “The Great State of” for nothing.

By: Jacob

Jacob — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:04:04 +0000

Senor King,

I apologize, first off, for the missing “enyay” above the n, but I feel most comfortable addressing you as such and do not know how to add it on this apple computer. I thought that I would preface this so that you could not nitpick my writing… although I’m sure you may find a mistake.

Onto the good stuff. I understand you are an accomplished pro cyclist, but rules were around long before you wrote your KOS post, and I would like to bring those up here.

In 2007, two authors, Dominic ‘the balls’ Guiver and Michael ‘polish pole smoker’ Flavell, two men whose names represented only the most professional of people, dedicated much time and deliberation to such a list of appropriate euro style rules that the Europeans themselves have been adopting. Within this holy text can be found an entry on the appropriate… sockage,

“6. The socks of the Euro Cyclist shall extend to within two (2) cm. of the main bulge of the calf muscle, and shall never extend further than one (1) cm. past said primary calf muscle bulge. All socks SHALL BE WHITE in colour with prominent logo placement.”

Shazaam. With a little research, I have effectively solved the debate. I recommend that you visit their page here, http://tiny.cc/uDAMY.

As a matter of fact, I recommend passing this on to your teammates and whoever designs those fancy white kits of yours.

-Jacob

P.S. On an off note, we can agree on one thing… collegiate cycling is quite a bit o’ fun.

By: scott

scott — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:16:10 +0000

!!!!!Teddy
???????Whats up,
?????????how is ur weather out there with GP

By: John Andrews

John Andrews — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 06:51:02 +0000

Whew, that was exciting, a personal rebuttal. Fair enough Ted, you are right about style, subjectiveness and bad punctuation.
While I have your attention(maybe), I was thrilled to see you in the back of the Astana bus in the Giro for a Lance video. And as a New Englander I so wanted you to zing Lance back when he slighted N.H. for being small. Grrrrrr. “At least N.H. has things in it, forests, rivers. Texas is 99% dirt and dead bloated cattle.” Booooyah! He needed it.
OK, I’m done. Keep racing and writing. You rule.

By: Susan

Susan — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 02:47:46 +0000

Dear KOS,

Does your advice extend to the female cyclist?

2009 was the year of does it fit and getting my butt back out on the road and trails. There are rides where I looked like a clown, but not as bad as some of those pics in the original entry,

2010 is the year of gear upgrade and I want to make sure I’m in KOS compliance, or at least look like less of a clown.

If you know of a place where I can get women’s socks of correct height in size 5.5 (Euro 35), not 6 (Euro 36) that would be great. Shoes in Euro 35 would be cool too. I’ve been faking size 6 (36) by wearing winter weight wool socks even in high summer to make the shoes fit, mostly.

Oh, and the socks I’m currently wearing are military grade that go up to the knee. I’m hiding them under tights but slouching them in summer didn’t work as on long rides they get sweat soaked and then start sliding around and abrading skin. That latter is 17 flavors of “no fun.”

Suggestions? Shall I continue to go with “does it fit and damn the style consequences?”