Tour duh Tangental Directions

Maybe I mentioned that I think it's hard being part of the Tour duh Charlotte.  Maybe I didn't.

It's just that I don't like being this guy:

photo cred: Nik Fedele

This guy has to stand up and yell at people... or at least in their general direction.  This guy also has to have some sort of plan and a certain amount of confidence in said plan.  Other people's happiness is in your hands and the fact that they have exchanged money in exchange for a good time?  That's some kind of pressure.

There are many on the Faster Mustache team that are good at this.  Take Kürdt for example.

photo cred: Weldon Weaver

Here you see Kürdt impressing on everyone that if we all pitch in on taking the cyclocross course tape down, we can all get back to the Gentle Ginger's house faster and start making great post-race party times.  You also see me trying to dispose of my beer as fast as possible so that I can run to a very far away part of the course in attempt to collect more tape than anyone else. 

Kürdt  = leader type

I'm a helper.

That's a role I take great pleasure in doing.  I also like problem solving... and I'm usually pretty good at identifying said problems.  That's mostly because I'm hypercritical and have a decent eye for details.

On the other hand, big picture stuff... that's where I find my challenge.  If I were in charge of mankind, we'd be living in a cave, perhaps a nice lean-to.  Two story houses?  Multi-floor dwellings of any kind?  Impossibru.

I've often felt that way about this race.  How are we supposed to get 100+ people all over Charlotte, race them on trails that don't yet exist, feed them, get them drunk (if they so choose), award their efforts with prizes, and expect them to pay us for the privilege?  Also impossibru.

But our team is full of dreamers, the chief dreamer probably being Zac.

photo cred: Nik Fedele

 This race is his dream child.  He's always wanted to promote trail inter-connectivity in Charlotte, the concept of actually riding your bike to a place where you ride your bike.  Me being a 40+ year old parent of a now 22 year old man-child, I've had decades of experience when it comes to crushing the dreams of youths.  Alright, not so much "crushing dreams," but at least trying to get them to the point where they can touch the earth and become reality.  For every time I bring one of  Zac's dreams down though, he makes four of them a reality.

Remember, this is the guy who raced PMBAR sick last year and wanted to go for all the checkpoints regardless of the fact that getting the last checkpoint would be to our detriment and actually cost us time and our place in the overall standings... and we did it.  I can't always step on a man's dreams.

And then there's The Gentle Ginger... who has a name, Tim Anderson.

photo cred: Weldon Weaver

 The guy who opens up his domicile (and bathroom) to a hundred or more of his close friends so we can all have fun for the day.  Also the guy who is more often than not the answer when we are having meetings and the question "Who's doing this or that?" comes up.  So many hats this man wears.  I don't know how he gets it all done.

I don't want to seem like I'm giving anyone too much credit, nor taking away any by assigning an actual order of who's most responsible.  The following doesn't cover everything everyone did (and never could) but here's some of the other big stuff.

Lee designs a huge part of the route around town and leads the shit show all day.

photo cred: Nik Fedele

 Paul, Joey, and Nick designed and set up and entire cyclocross course in a public park... knowing that at any moment "The Man" coulda pulled up and said, "What the fuck are you guys doing?"

 photo cred: Nik Fedele

photo cred: Nik Fedele

Sorry, Joey spent so much time being a guy doing things during the race there just aren't many images of him... so you get this:

photo cred: Nik Fedele

Nik and Jess pulled together so much of the stuff I truly don't understand, got a million pizzas delivered to an abandoned go-kart track, and took photos all day long.

 photo cred: Weldon Weaver

photo cred: Nik Fedele

Despite it being her first year on the team, Stephanie collected lots of swag for the racers, somehow managed to snag a complete bar for The Gentle Ginger's garage, and was willing to stand behind the taps all night if need be.

photo cred: Nik Fedele

And Colin with the unenviable position of sagging the chut parade for most of the day.

photo cred: Nik Fedele

Well, this was going to be a post all about me and my shortcomings.  Somehow I got off track... and that's why I'm not in charge.  So to bring this back to a one man full circle jerk, here's me:

photo cred: Nik Fedele