Person of the Year

Most of us ride for ourselves. After all, the bike is designed for individual pursuits. It played a role in women achieving independence, and it has born many heroes of massive individual efforts, including nearly 100 years of Tour de France champions, and those competing in 24-hour solo races and Race Across America at break neck speeds. We depend on it for stress relief, exercise, adventure, competition. All fine, but I try not to get any grand ideas that other people are benefiting from my riding since it’s all essentially a personal high.


So when a cyclist comes along and makes much of his bike riding about those outside of himself, it is something to notice. Wes Cheney is awarded Time/ bikevoice's Person of the Year for his bike service to others. It seems that every move he makes on the bike is one of social consciousness and effort to make the world a better place. For example, he—

• Hauled camera equipment, shot, edited and submited to film festival a documentary film "Epic" of our Superbowl Sunday weekend. As Kevin said, you sacrifice a lot on rides when you concentrate on documenting others and not on the workout.


• Ran a C-pace ride for families from East Coast Bikes during summer months.


• Designed a Norfolk bike map to educate the public about safe passages. City officials contacted Wes about using his map to also help educate.
• Continued to work his bike ministry by building bikes for the poor and helping repair bikes at the Catholic Worker. (By the way, email Wes if you have a bike you want to donate.)


• Organized South Hampton Roads' first ever Critical Mass rides. These are rides that raise awareness about the number of people who ride bikes. (last Friday of each month).


• Organized several Alley Cat races this year including this one for charity.


• During races, focused on entertaining spectators and having fun rather than worrying about performance or placings.


• Wes commutes to work at Norfolk Southern daily, and he can be seen around town riding tandem with his wife Jenn and daughter Abby.

See 2007 Person of the Year

See 2006 Person of the Year

Did ya'll know. . .

that Dr. Mike Park is a BEAST!

Field Trip

I don't understand why mountain bikers in this town even entertain the idea of riding loops at New Quarter Park when Freedom Park is just down the street. The boys all went to New Quarter Sunday (explain it to me please) and I dragged Carol to my clear favorite, Freedom Park. It is the only park east of Richmond that has a full 10-mile loop, it has that deep woods feel, and a superb new section (complete with "bubbles" as Carol would say). New Quarter is touch and go with the outskirts of the woods, giving it that "yeah, I am in a little bitty park" feel. Plus there are no inclines and nothing as interesting as the bubbles at Freedom.

Something else that's been bugging me is the lack of intellectual stimulation during travel to rides and races. It's always about food, sleep and riding. The brain has too much free time, so I have a goal to do one "field trip" per out of town ride/ race. It started Sunday after the ride with exploring the botanical garden that is situated in the center of Freedom Park. I bet there are many-a-mt biker who have passed this treasure without ever entering the gates and smelling the rosemary. The field trip ended at the Williamsburg outlets where there are some mad sales happening.

Around town

Just married. . .

Mike and Brenna

How did he get that cap?

MTB RACN= Beneline Williams

DRTGRL= ? Someone parked at Tidewater Mtb Challenge

Tale of 2 wheels

When Sean has an extra wheel, he puts it in the pit. Like pictured here for this weekend's muddy VA state cyclocross championships at Mt. Trashmore in VA Beach.

Everybody knows that extra wheels never go uncycled as long as there is "pit shit" as Walt calls it. Sean with his pit wheel satisfies our sense of industry, of utility, of the rugged individualism embodied in cyclocross. Sean against the backdrop of mud stands strong behind his clean pit wheel, both ready to roll.

(Photo by BJ Samuel. See more race photos in Bob and BJ's gallery.)














While you guys were racing, I was browsing some new displays at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. I saw the pit wheel wholly out of its element there. Artist Marcel Ducamp built his first version of "Bicycle Wheel" in 1913, but it was lost, likely because someone needed a pit wheel or a stool, one.

This 1951 version combines two "mass produced parts. . . creating a sort of nonfunctional machine. . . . He subverted established notions of the artist's craft and the viewer's aesthetic experience." That means he was tired of the pit shit but didn't want to sit around either, so he bonded the objects in a mutually dysfunctional retirement for us to sort of perversely enjoy. It purposely turns around our pit wheel sense of industry, utility and individualism, and if we want to sit to ponder it, too bad, no stool.

(Read the entire placard of "Bicycle Wheel.")