Clik here to view.
Last ride
It was dark, raining hard and we were descending through the woods. He pushed the pace, shortening the usefulness of our lights, which were busy illuminating opaque, irregular slivers of fog that...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Thawing Out
I looked over to him—he stood, staring off to an unspecific point with a hollowness that I’d never seen in him. He wasn’t moving, wasn’t shifting his weight and swinging his bag around as he always...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Velodrome
Months after the moment, it was the audible quirk of a squeaking buckle on a woman’s tall leather boots that reminded me of the lone leaf that I’d heard and then watched as it skittered across the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
22 Days on a Mountain
0—At the shuttle service, the case sat outside under the carport, too big to fit in the 5-seat waiting area. A very pregnant woman walked in, looked outside and asked “Who’s racing?” Replied merely...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Heart
Half-way up a roadside phone pole, near the middle of one of the earlier sets of rollers, the handmade heart stood out, the white letters over the red read: “Take Your Time” I pointed it out to Deeter....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Clik here to view.
The Gun
They were there again, standing just around the bend. The day before, the one had raised the gun as I’d passed and we watched each other and I’d nodded and they’d nodded in return and that had been the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Climbs & Burgers
“I get the impression there’s very little input loss.” He’d taken the bike out to the end of the block and back as I’d continued working on the puzzle of bikes in the back of the truck. I laughed and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Blue Angel
“So, she said you ride a lot…” he said. We were at a gathering of sorts, having met only once before. We’d been talking of beer and had had some beers and had done a lightning round of local favorites,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hand Lines
“…and so I was thinking—” mid-sentence and mid-gesticulation, Deeter interrupted me. “Wait. What is that?” He pointed toward my hand. “The string? That’s from Thailand… almost two years now,” I said....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Woodpecker
The bird clung to the post, neatly wedged between the wood and metal of the stop sign. I watched as it hammered away at the metal, a sense of amusement and sadness and pity all in one little...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Binding Chemicals
The room was filled with steam that roared from nozzles every few minutes. It was just the two of us, the man and I. He sat with his arms stretched out along the ledge and his neck craned back. He was...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Garage Door
The day had been spent in the garage. Shifting, arranging, standing back and considering options. In the late afternoon, with the garage door open to add what light could be added, the side door...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Triples
“It’s been… since I lived in the Midwest,” he said “It’s been that long since I’ve suffered triple digit miles in one go.” We’d been talking of a recent ride I’d been on, the length of it demanding...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Suffering and Membership
“…physical suffering is bad…but it isn’t entirely bad if the thing one suffers for is extremely valuable (‘But I’m joining a very elite group of very special people’). … when people are given electric...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Wake of Spandex
I watched the riders blow the stop sign, leaning into the turn and standing to carry momentum into the gradual rise. The guy on the front rocked his hybrid bike from side to side, pushing himself, his...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Grandfathered
There was a time when the story was a story and I told it more liberally. It’s a good story, great if told well. I’ve told it less and less, though, since hearing my mother’s recollections—of the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Neighborhood
The cairns appeared, morphed, shifted anonymously. The individual rocks piled upon each other live as something other than their sum. A small breath of community, a silent wink between neighbors. A...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Montjuïc
They’d been recounting their trip through the Iberian peninsula, Catalunya, the Olympic stadium. Someone asked what year the Olympics had been held there. “’92,” I said. Back then, I’d had a crush on a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
