My Squad(s) of the Year

I’ve been putting off this post for a while now; not because I don’t want to write it but instead because I want to write it well and actually put some thought into it (hard as that may be for me). I’ll likely still fail but at least I’ll have given it some effort here. The post is one going around the local racing community as requested by Mike over at GamJams.net and asks guys to state their favorite local team aside from their own and to say a few things about them. A sort of “spread the love”, let’s gather around the campfire, sing songs, hold hands and pat each other on the back sort of post.

So far I’ve seen some great (if maybe a bit tail kissing… ;-) posts by some well respected riders. The Unholy Rouleur loves everyone. My teammate Chris gets misty eyed for a few clubs and a couple of other guys spread the love as well. So far it seems Artemis is a fan (competitor) favorite with a shout out from three of the four responses I’ve seen so far. I almost wonder if the guys over at Artemis should view this as a wake up call and need to jump up the training after this; I mean if all their competitors like them they must not be winning enough, right?

I not even going to go into describing my favorite team of all, Racing Union as I believe the originality, popularity and judgmentally damning nature of my communist squad speaks for itself. On the other hand, I like Chris and Jim cannot really single out a single club that I like head and shoulders above the rest. For one thing, I haven’t been riding seriously for even a whole year yet so my knowledge of the local teams is limited. I’ve really only met a handful of racers out there and pretty much all of them have come across as great people.

In my brief racing career one club that has always stood out to me (and I’m not sure if that’s because of the purple team kits or because they’re always there) is the “club of the moment”, Artemis. Some of the first guys apart from my own teammates I spoke with at my early races were guys from Artimis. They’ve always been friendly and approachable and seem to make racing bikes at this level the type of camaraderie building events that they should be. Plus, they’ve got Mike May who runs gamjams and provides my blog with more traffic in a day then I would get in a month. How could I not like Artemis.

Next up is Jim’s squad, Squadra Coppi. Some of the first non-Union riders I met were Coppi riders and after a fixed spin down at hains a group of us including Jim and Eric went out for drinks at Gordon Birsch, getting drenched in a sudden downpour on the way and sporting our classy cycling gear to boot; quite the GB style of clientele I might add. The Coppi riders I have spoken with and ridden with since have always been friendly and gracious riders; one even going so far as to offer a few words of encouragement following my disappointing performance at Giro di Coppi. Plus, how can you not love those powder blue kits; many with the matching powder blue bikes.

I’ll leave my “favorites” at that for now, simply because these two were the two that stood out to me first. As I’ve continued racing throughout the year, I’ve met a number of other great riders and witnessed a few excellent team outings that could lead to new favorites but for now my clubs of the year are Artemis and Squadra Coppi.

Mike, will there be awards for this doled out at the end of the season?