Touch down in 'Murica
Snapped handlebars, Walmart, and a friendly bike shop dog
I’m writing this from a small coffee shop in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
There’s a “medium” sized flat white to my left. I put that in quotations because it’s the biggest fucking flat white I’ve ever seen in my life. It’s always disappointing when a coffee store has a fancy La Marzocco machine and the brew is sub-par, anyway, I digress.
I flew out here yesterday, it ended up being just shy of 24 hours door-to-door. It also ended up being a bloody expensive day. I was some 475e down by 7am thanks to an airport taxi and an overly strict check-in assistant An hour later, I was another 850e down as my international health insurance was due for the year. This day can only get better, right?
My flight path took me from Barcelona to Atlanta, and then a five-hour layover before touching down in Oklahoma City. It was happily uneventful. I had a surprisingly productive first half as I got all of my accounting admin out of the way, and wrote a Substack piece about the BTS of Ribble Rebellion launch - that’ll release next week. Then I watched three movies: Oppenheimer, Barbie and a rom-com about two people who meet because of their dogs. I have a varied taste.
I walked off the plane into the calmest US Customs line in the world. The Border Officer told me to play Guess the Song and jokingly offered me $500 if I got it correct. I, unfortunately, did not recognise the song - it was Phil Collins for those wondering - but I got into the US with a smile and a joke, something that rarely happens.
The connection was uneventful. A few calls home, a few laps of the airport and a few bits of admin for Ribble Rebellion. Touching down in Oklahoma just before 10pm I was smiling with the smoothest travel day in history. It had been a long day, but nothing had gone wrong - too perfect, right?
My buddy, and fellow gravel racer, Chris Mehlman met me at the airport. He’d driven down from Colorado Springs and we’re going to be spending the next few weeks together. To make room in the car, we had to quickly build my gravel bike. Just a quick side note to say that from collecting my bike to having a fully built bike on the back of Chris’ car took me all of 14 minutes.
The only issue was, that my right shifter was bent. Seriously bent.
I travel with an Elite Borsun bike bag, it’s one of those which allow you to keep the handlebars on. It makes life a million times easier, but it does make a weak point in the handlebars. I do everything I can to protect the bars, but it seems TSA took all of my protection away in their search. It’s a fine line
Looking at it with a torch, my handlebar was snapped.
Now, normally a snapped handlebar isn’t the end of the world. It’s a faff, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not a massive issue. I say normally because I’m running Ribble’s one-piece carbon bar and stem. It’s a proprietary bit of kit. It’s impossible to find another.
I type this, looking out the window at District Bicycles. District is a store owned by Bobby Wintle, the race director of the Mid South that I’m doing this weekend. At 10pm or so last night, I dropped Bobby an Instagram DM - I met him once at Unbound so thought it was worth a chance.
Within minutes I’d received a reply: “Bring it to District at 10am, we’ll sort you out. Thanks so much for coming to the race.” Now, as I write this, the bike isn’t quite fixed so I’m slightly nervous. Whatever the outcome, and I’m pretty confident they’ll sort me out - it’s local bike shops and people like Bobby that make me love the bike racing community.
Ed: I’m writing this on the couch in District Bicycle as I do a final edit, and wait for my bike to be finished. I’ve just got to say again how thankful I am and how good the guys here are. Not only is it one of the coolest shops I’ve been into, it’s friendly too. A true 12/10. Everyone wants a local bike shop like these guys. It’s people and shops like this that I meet on the road that makes me smile. They have a cute shop dog too, and I’ve been given a non-alcoholic beer to see me through. Living the dream.
Quick pause. I’ve just ordered a double espresso. You’ll be happy to read that it’s the normal double espresso size. It’s not *that* bad either. It’s not Girona though.
So, my bike is in the store ready to be fixed. Let’s head to our AirBnB. I’m going to precede this next part of the article to say that everything I’m trying to do is on a budget. Privateering gets expensive, and my budget isn’t big at all. As much as possible I aim to stay with friends or in host-housing. When we have to splurge on an AirBnB it’s never too expensive.
Calling it an Airbnb, while technically true, is a bit of a stretch. It’s a room and a half, and there are three of us who are going to be staying there. The pros: it’s cheap, it’s a five-minute walk to the start line. The cons: there’s no space, and it’s not got a kitchen.
I digress. I’m sleeping in a double bed, it’s cosy enough. Happy days. While we’ve time to kill. Let’s head to the food shop. It’s Walmart time.
For the Northern Americans reading this, Walmart may not be that big of a deal. For us Brits, it’s outrageous. I cannot begin to describe how big this store is. It has everything you need, and everything you don’t need. It’s also heinously expensive. The cost of living in the US is very different to the cost of living in Girona. My poor, poor budget.
That brings us to this point, 14:25 on Wednesday in a small cafe in the middle of the States.
It’s only day one, but after a long winter, I completely forgot what it’s like to be on the road. The little things like being in a different time zone, to the bigger things like dealing with a completely different culture.
Being on the road is my life, I’ll be spending three months (maybe more) in Northern America this year. It’s something I’ll have to get used to again, and it’s something I will get used to quickly.
There’s a lot of thoughts going on. There’s the excitement, the fear, the butterflies and the I don’t know quite what feeling in my stomach. It’s weeks like this and races like these which I’ve spent the last few months prepping for. Whether that prep be the hundreds of hours in the saddle, or the tens of hours tip-tapping away at the spreadsheet.
After merely 24hrs, it made me realise that my budget is something I’ll have to keep a slightly closer eye on. It’s the hidden expenses like the random snapped handlebars or the crazy expensive grocery shops that you don’t account for.
With all that said, this is where my future is. The racing side, and the business side of privateering is what I want to do, and the States is where they do it best. My goal is to be the first Brit to nail the privateer model. I mean that holistically: nail it as an athlete and get the results I know I can, but nail it financially too.
Life would be so much easier with a bigger budget. I’d love to do it like some of the top guys, be able to travel with a mechanic. Hell, I’d love to be able to do ‘van life’ or RV life. We’ll see what happens. It’s worth a plug to say that I’m always on the lookout for new partners. Whether that be in cycling, outside of cycling, privately or publicly.
The Mid South Gravel takes place this Saturday, March 16th.
Project TAG, proudly partnering (both for my athletic and influencing ability) with…
While you’re here…
I’ve added both a paid subscription and a ‘Buy Me A Coffee’ link to this post. As the year progresses, I’m planning on building this blog and putting out articles which I’ve always wanted to write but for whatever reason, haven’t wanted to pitch.
Any money that I make from either my Substack or BMaC link will go straight back into supporting my 2024 racing project. I am planning on keeping all content on here free to view though.
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/joelaverick
Good luck at the race! For what it’s worth, Walmart is considered pretty cheap here in the states!