Chapter 16

The wonders of the modern world never cease to amaze me, even now. I mean, how easy is it to open an e-mail program, type out a few choice words and click on a few addresses before, as wise guys the world over know, ‘badda bing, badda boom!’ you have yourself a cycling team?

I had only just sent mail to a handful of guys I had ridden with as a pro, and I had barely settled back to sip a cold one when my mailbox started to ping. And ping it did for about two days! By the time the smoke cleared I had enough volunteer riders, all willing to fly way the hell out to Seattle for the opportunity to prove a simple point: Cycling is ALL about manners and following the code. You remember that shampoo ad, where the screen keeps splitting to show more people and the voice-over says, “ ... and they told five friends, and so on and so on...”? Apparently, several of my friends had forwarded my original message to some of their friends as well.

At the end of two days I had offers from riders as far away as Australia who were willing to find a way to get over here, pay to have their bikes shipped even, just to take care of this little matter. God, I love having friends with integrity! In short, I had enough riders willing and ready to go to mount about twenty teams of four riders each. Culling this list down to three guys who didn’t have to travel half-way around the world and could spend a few days training took all of another day, as did making the travel arrangements and such to get them here and a place to stay while they worked out as a team. By Friday, I had my team all gathered and ready to start work.

The Road Queens, as they had started referring to themselves as, were swinging into action as well. Anne and Lizzie had space to take all three riders, so we made their place our base of operations. The ladies threw out the red carpet on this one. Anne had arranged to have two rental vans available to transport gear and riders, and one of my old coaches, who had gone into business on his own as a local coach for the collegiate and semi-pro teams, had even agreed to work out the kinks in the team. Melody and Jane rode with our coach and handled all the duties that a normal Soigneur would deal with, such as having replacement bottles ready, and musette bags with road food and such. Beth also rode along from time to time as she, we had found out, was also racing in the amateur races in town. It turns out that Jane and Beth were going to be on the same semi-pro team next year. The week of training leading up to the Seward Park Omnium flew by as we worked to make sure we had all the tools in good working order.

For my part, besides riding with the team, I had gotten a hold of an old friend who was the local USCF official who would be responsible for the Omnium officials. I called in so many favors leading up to this that I was pretty sure I would owe a lot of people by the time this was over, but as I said, this was now a matter of honor and no one was going to get in the way of setting this straight! Alan, my friend with USCF, once I told him the score, agreed that he could keep the identity of my riders a secret for as long as it would hold. He did point out that it was likely that one or two of them just ‘might’ be recognized. As he pointed out, how many local Omniums really got international caliber racers on a regular basis? Especially, how many got riders that had raced on teams that got daily coverage on OLN?

“Okay, I have to admit that the chances of keeping this team a secret was pretty much out the window once we lined up to start, but could he at least hold onto it for as long as he could?” I asked.

“Well, sure, I can try ... as long as I can get a few autographs at the end?” Alan said with just a bit too much anticipation in his voice.

“Tell you what, Alan,” I said, “We have our last ride before the Omnium on Friday afternoon, at about noon. We’ll be pre-riding the TTT course along the lake. How about you bring your wheels and ride along with the ‘Road Queens’ at our rear?”

“Nate, old friend, it is a deal!” said Alan with a smile I could feel over the phone.

“I’ll even do you one better,” I said, “I’ll get them to sign one of our new team jerseys for you. That work for you?”

“Oh hey, that reminds me,” Alan said, “What team kit are you guys going to ride? Postal is no more, and not all these guys rode for Postal anyway. Do you have a team kit?”

“Oh yeah, we’ve got a kit, and you’re going to love it!” I said.

“Okay,” Alan said with an even bigger smile, “I can hardly wait!”

The Friday afternoon final tune up went without a hitch and the party before the event was a blow out! Most of my guys controlled themselves, and the ladies were on their best behavior, but I was pretty sure I saw a lot of mutual interest pass between members of my team and some of the ladies. Melody, Jane and now Beth were close to me all night, but the other ‘Road Queens’ seemed to have chosen other riders to share time with. I had a feeling that Sunday evening, after the Omnium was over, was going to be interesting.