Having asthma is kind of like winning the lottery, except it happens to more people and instead of money you win a chronic difficulty in breathing. I wouldn’t say I’m proud to be an asthmatic, but it’s not information I’m ashamed to share. In doing so, I often discover others who are similarly afflicted, and upon doing so we instantly go from being perfect strangers to perfect strangers who know something insignificant about each other.
My asthma attacks are experienced in a variety of forms, ranging in severity from a shortness of breath to “holy shit, I’m dying”. You can liken an attack to breathing through a straw with your nose plugged; depending on how bad the attack is, the straw keeps getting smaller, going from the wide one you get with a Big Gulp all the way down to those little ones you get with a coffee at a crappy diner. Cycling with asthma is like breathing through those straws while doing wind-sprints up a flight of stairs.
This straw-breathing effect is caused by the contraction of the airways leading to the lungs. The traditional treatment is to use an inhaler to suck in medication which dilates the passages and restores them to a size that allows for comfortable – if still sub-normal – breathing. There are newer, more effective treatments but many of them scare me because they cite side-effects like spontaneous death.
After 38 years, I’ve come to understand a bit about what causes my attacks. There is the cold-induced sort – which can be quite severe – but in my case will usually resolve itself throughout the first hour of riding to where it becomes a nuisance rather than an impediment. I also have acute attacks, which for about 32 years I believed were caused by an allergy to sawdust. These don’t resolve themselves and the condition gets worse until I intervene with an inhaler or a visit to the Emergency Room.
It wasn’t until I moved to Seattle and started having more frequent severe attacks that my doctor here pointed out that it was “crazy” to suggest I’m allergic to sawdust and inquired as to what kind of quack I had been visiting in Minneapolis who would tell me such a thing. He pointed out, quite logically, that I was simply allergic to something that was aerosolized in sawdust. As it turns out, this same element is present in whatever pine trees give off from October to May. Thanks to the Pacific-Northwest’s monopoly on pine trees, I now carry a rescue inhaler with me whenever I go training during these months.
The thing about being a Cyclist with asthma is that Cycling, as an endurance sport, is quite dependent on the rider’s ability to breathe well. In fact, I’ve found that the single most important factor to how well I’m riding on any particular day, regardless of how fat or out of shape I am, is how well I’m able to manage my breathing. The exciting bit is that training with asthma is a lot like resistance training; you get used to a reduced ability to draw oxygen into your lungs, thereby restricting the supply that gets to your muscles. Its like reverse blood-doping. You get used to it and your body adjusts to the reduced supply of gun fuel. Then, on days when the air is clear and warm, you ride like you’re on EPO. I call this the “EPO-Effect”.
I read some time ago that 80% of Pro Cyclists are diagnosed asthmatics who hold a prescription for an inhaler. This makes for a remarkable attraction of gifted endurance athletes to the most breathing-dependent sport on the planet. Surely this is because the EPO-Effect makes asthmatics strong like bull, not for the dilating effect the medication has on the air passageways.
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@JohnB I cant get over the timing of this piece ! Were we not heading up hill towards a brutal hail storm just yesterday discussing this very subject ?? Uncanny.
@unversio Thanks! I will be sure to do so. That Gazelle is a sweet piece!
On further analysis of the lead photo, I have to comment on some other characters besides Richard Simmons' balding half-brother in the red shorts.
In the lower-right, I never imagined a cast member of "Jersey Shore" would be interested in the Tour, let alone make the journey to watch in-person.
Toward the back-left, the man wearing what seems to be a scoutmaster's hat: although disturbing, he's clearly staring at Jan's arse.
But most intriguing is the girl in front of the RV. I can't tell if her detached expression is due to a general disinterest in cycling (unlikely considering the context, unless she's a VMW), or if she is simply resigned to the fact she has to wear loaves of bread for shoes.
@Dave
I knew these asthmatics were dopers with their fun little inhalers. Us non-asthmatics were jealous of such a slick little delivery device.
Frank, I'd trade your heart and lungs and asthma for what my parents gave me, FFS. It doesn't slow you down that I've seen.
@unversio
You won't find it, sorry.
Team Bianchi rode an unbelievable Bianchi EV4 alu-alloy frame that weighed next to nothing; it was even anodized instead of painted to save weight; it was as light as the carbone frames we ride today.
The VMH has one; it has since become her rain bike (and she commandeered my golden tickets for winter riding not least for the matching sidewalls). This thing is a 16lb featherweight; her R3SL is only a little bit lighter.
I rode an EV2 which was heavier but stiffer; Ullrich is a little shorter than me and a bit lighter, but way mo stronga. They built him what became the EV3, which was a stiff-and-weight compromise of the two frames. The one he rode that year at the Tour was an EV3 prototype that was anodized to look like an EV4, but if you look carefully at the bikes he rode, they had a rounded down tube near the head tube, not the elongated shape that the VMH's frame above has.
Here's a shot we took on the Col de Mente:
The shot is not as clear as maybe it should be, but you can see the tubes are rounder. There is more evidence on the webs, but if you want the official bike, it is an XLEV4 from 2003. If you want what he really rode, it was an anodized EV3.
I loved that generation of Bianchis. They had lost their place in the market and rediscovered it in that time. They are lost again now, I feel, but I'm sure they will come back. I think they are struggling with how to preserve an Italian brand while outsourcing to stay competitive, like everyone else.
@DCR
The VMH's is a 53. It is not for sale. (At least I don't think so!) Bianchi's have short top tubes if you're a monkey like I am.
I'm just gonna go ahead and suggest, based 100% on your avatar being a pair of shoes, that not just for the Asthma am I more compliant than you are. Just sayin'.
@Trull
This proves the unproven fact that all footballers are ballers.
That would have been great if he's made that public, but I wonder if it might have opened a can of worms? Nothing specific about Beckham - his wife is adorable and that obviously means he has a good character - but we all know a load of the Puerto clients are footballers. Just saying there's a similar issue with abuse there as with Cycling.
@VeloSix
If you haven't experienced this in the saddle - even without being asthmatic, you're not trying hard enough!
This paints a glorious picture. I can almost see the Pellos drawing to accompany it.
I have allergy enduced asthma and I was/am a on off smoker. I used to smoke a pack of lucky strike non filtered a day, this was maybe 7 years ago. boy did I fuck myself.
@frank Thanx greatly for insight on the Bianchi. I will try to continue to dream of it. Our company is budgeting to go attend the Giro d'Italia 97Ëš -- I'll be watchful for hard to find items.