Read some my writings here. (Updated articles coming soon!)
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2014 Strade Bianche Lowdown on PEZ Cycling News here
2014 Tour of Oman and Tour of Dubai wrap ups here
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crankpunk – CycleSport Magazine – June 2012 I was honored to write about racing in The Tour of Oman 2012 in the venerable CycleSport Magazine – read it here
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RoadBikeAction, chronicling my early 2nd career days in Japan, just when i started writing about cycling too:
THE RISING SUN: WHY I’M RACING BIKES IN JAPAN
I`m 37 years old. I don`t feel old. And it`s not that old! But… am I just too old? Should I put those youthful dreams away, go into the light without a struggle, without one last hurrah? Close the door on that dark cupboard of what ifs?
No. No way. Absolutely, categorically, nay! irrefutably – Not A Chance!
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THE RISING SUN: TOUR DU KUMANO RACE REPORT
Prologue
It rages. A frothing pack of little adrenal junkies go manic at the gates of the Adrenal Gland, ripping past the useless doormen to hijack my nervous system and leave a trail of misery and destruction in their rabid wake. I can hear the roar in my ears, they’re starving me of saliva, forcing my electrolyte-loaded sweat from the very center of my palms like I’m some cycling sham-messiah brought back from the dead to atone for the sins of my lycra-clad brethren.
About to Pay In Pain. He Of The Sweaty Astigma.
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THE RISING SUN: SO, WHAT’S IT LIKE IN JAPAN?
I was fortunate/unfortunate enough to spend a week in Thailand recently, taking part in the Tour Of Friendship stage race. I say fortunate/unfortunate because I can’t decide if I did myself more harm than good, to be honest. 780kms in 5 days, with one stage of 230km, run in temperatures ranging between 37 and 45 degrees, this was more enduro than race, and a great way to lose a kilo or twelve – daily. I’m awaiting the stage results and a report will follow, and hopefully by then my body will have decided either way whether to collapse and begin digesting itself or not, rather than this teetering-on-the-brink situation that I find myself in currently – one minute I feel great, full of beans, the next more like a sloth with a bad case of attitude. Training is suffering, and that is never good.
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THE RISING SUN: DAIGORO YAMADA GAVE ME A KICKING
5 days ago….
`You want to go mountain biking with me some time? `
`Mountain-what-now? `
`Biking. Mountain biking. As in, on a bike, on a mountain, you slick-treaded skinny-wheeled freak. You used to MTB right?`
`Yeah, of course. Been a while but… OK, let’s go, it’ll be fun. I’m going to have to beat you though, of course.`
[large, disconcerting, some would say knowing, smile] `OK, whatever.`
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THE RISING SUN: TOUR OF MIASA
Haven’t had much to report on of late, other than suffering a slow, lingering demise in the Mt. Fuji hill climb (24% in places, 14% average – for 11kms!), getting a slow puncture and left without a spare wheel halfway round the 190km Hiroshima road race, and then running into `mechanicaru` on the first lap of the Gunma race just two weeks ago. `Mechanicaru` is the Japanese term used to describe anything that screws up on your bike other than a flat. The `mechanicaru` that laid my reasonable chances of a top 5 finish to waste in this case was a single loose bolt on my front derailleur, improperly tightened – or properly untightened, if you wish to be perverse – by the team mechanic. I learnt a valuable lesson that day, to always give your bike a quick once over before you race, no matter who worked on it, though I think it’s reasonable to expect a pro mechanic to tighten the bolts!
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THE RISING SUN: SELF-LOATHING
his is what I am experiencing, on this miserable Monday morning. Yet I look in two online dictionaries, one being Webster’s no less, to be told that “the word you are looking for does not exist.”
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THE RISING SUN: OKINAWA
“Whatever you do,” I said to myself as I stood there on the start line, “Don’t try a long breakaway…”
The morning was perfect. Not too much wind. Nice temperature, not too hot. No rain. Ideal weather for a long bike race. I didn’t sleep too well, but still, after a good breakfast and a cold shower, I felt OK.
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THE RISING SUN: END OF THE SEASON
Well, it`s that time of year again. The break is over and December 28th has been earmarked as the official Start Training Again Day. I’ve had three weeks off, somehow put on 4 kilograms, and can feel the once honed and toned muscle fibers beginning to get soft. I had intended to stay on the bike throughout, but I’ve been at it non-stop since last January, I figured I needed a good break.
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VeloNews, reports on my adventures at the 2012 Tour of Oman:
Lee Rodgersʼ Oman Diary: Shades of beige
Is Oman the most interesting, scenic and just plain wonderful place I’ve ever been to on earth? Iʼm not sure yet. What I am sure of is that itʼs not exactly the land of lush, verdant forests, cascading waterfalls or humming, vibrant valleys of emerald green. However, it isnʼt Qatar, which is probably the reason this place looks so lovely.
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Lee Rodgers’ Oman diary: Off the back’
I’m looking for a interesting way to open this entry but it just isn’t flowing tonight. My brain this evening is a beloved chihuahua squashed in the driveway under the Dodge. An exploded gnat streaked up on a windscreen. A struggling bluebottle flickering in and out of life glued to a strip of paper dangling from some gas station ceiling in the desert.
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Lee Rodgers’ Oman diary: The end of desert nights…
It’s almost over. The Arabian Odyssey is to come to an end. One of the single most intense experiences of my life is about to be abruptly interrupted by a 3am wake up call and a drive to Muscat airport for a 5.55am flight to Doha. Then onto Sri Lanka for a stopover, on the way to Malaysia for the ten-day Tour de Langkawi.
It’s non-stop, this pro cycling thingy…
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the 2012 Tour de Taiwan on VN:
Lee Rodgers’ Tour de Taiwan Diary: Anyone got a GPS?
Where am I?
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Lee Rodgers’ Tour de Taiwan Diary: Itʼs showtime
Serenity.
Thatʼs not a word you would normally associate with the fierce and furious world of bike racing, not with all the hustling and bustling, the jostling and the bombasting, the razor-sharp attacks and (sometimes) even sharper egos. Calm is not, if itʼs not obvious enough, a state that lingers long over any peloton. Nerves get shredded. Tempers get frayed. Dreams get slain. Souls get crushed.
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Lee Rodgers’ Taiwan diary: Green with pride
Most of these entries just kind of write themselves, they take on a life of their own and I can get them done in about 30 minutes without too much of a fuss. Not this one though. Fifth time I’ve started. It’s 10:45pm and we have one day of the Tour de Taiwan left and I’m gonna need all the energy I can muster for tomorrow.
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the 2012 Tour de Korea
Lee Rodgers Tour of Korea 2012 Diary: Opening days
Ah, it’s nice to be back, in every sense of the word: back racing again after four weeks off and a Belgian beer or two too many here and there (how dare they be not only such phenomenal bike riders but also brew the greatest libations known to man? Thanks Eddy for the Belgians, I say), back shoveling 6000 calories a day into my gut and back, of course, here on VeloNews.
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Lee Rodgers Tour of Korea diary: Strike!
“Chief Comrade… sorry I meant Commissaire. The workers… dammit I mean the riders — they are refusing to work… sorry, to ride.”
“My dear Head of Police, what do you mean, ‘refusing?’
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Lee Rodgers Diary: Tour of Korea stage 5 marred by multiple crashes, sketchy support
It was a dramatic day, Stage 5: one that left me and just about everyone else here feeling sick to the stomach, and, I have to admit, wondering for more than just a moment just why I am in this mad sport.
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Lee Rodgers Diary: Conflicted airborne memories of Korea
I’m sat on an airplane on my way with my RTS team to Kuala Lumpur, the steamy capital of Malaysia, for a five-day break before we compete in the exotic-sounding Tour of Jelajah.
Are airplanes colder than they used to be or what? I’m freezing my ass off here…
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the Dauphine 2013 on PEZ Cycling…
Lee’s Lowdown, Criterium du Dauphine 2013 #1
another one in the bag for Voeckler, a fine victory yesterday and a lesson for all aspiring winners.
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Lee’s Lowdown, Criterium du Dauphine 2013 #2
ever close we edge to the Tour.
and with every step it feels like Sky are going to smother the thing like a mafia killing on an sick informer.
‘don’t struggle Alberto. it’ll all be over soon…’
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