Le Graveur: Pain-o-nomics 101
I’ve taken exactly one economics course in my life. If the fog of time isn’t too thick, I recall two theories that account for value. These theories posit value as being either (A) intrinsic or (B) subjective. That is to say that commodities are valuable in and of themselves and that value can be established objectively by the market. Or things hold value because we as individuals say they do, markets be damned. Now for this premise to work for we the Velominati, I’m going to ask you to accept that pain is a commodity. I don’t think it will be too hard for us to get there. We budget the time in our weeks so that we can get more of it, we bank it in our guns to be spent at a later date, when we’ve got enough saved up we happily share it with other riders (Trickle-down Pain-o-nomics if you will), and when we’re running short on it we feel poor. For all intents and purposes, we seek pain out like a Wall Street broker looking for the next Microsoft IPO.
When I consider pain from position A – pain is intrinsically valuable and that value can be set by market forces – I think of myself riding the first half of The Heck of The North. You see, for the first half of the day I was riding with the front group. This group of twenty or so riders was dipping into the pain stores not as individuals, but as a collective. The demand for pain was being driven up by the entire group on the snowmobile trail sections of the race.* Analogous to its namesake, The Hell of the North, selections are made at The Heck not on the road (in this case, gravel roads) but on several difficult sections of sno-go trail which require the rider to be practiced, skilled, familiar, and in possession of The V. The riders that do well in this race are really fast at riding technically on a course that they’ve ridden before. They have a pretty good idea of who’s going to go, certainly know exactly where, and can react accordingly. I had prepared adequately for all of these factors, I thought.
It was on the third section of trail when the value of the pain I was “buying” shifted from being market-driven to the subjective side of the equation I called position B above. To put it in simple terms – I was dropped like The Rainbow Turd. Until then I was riding comfortably in the tete de la course (as was the case after the first sections of trail) or working hard to get back to the front after realizing that my trail riding skills weren’t as honed as other in the group. We hit a section fast and I was positioned perfectly in the top 4 when my front wheel slid out in soft gravel. Then, 100 meters up the trail, I was forced to dismount on steep, boulder strewn double track after falling off my line. After the disappointment of seeing the lead group ride up the trail wore of, I was left with a choice – to keep riding hard (albeit out of contention) and see how the day turned out or not.** So I took a long-needed piss and started riding hard. I figured sooner or later I’d reel some other dropees back in, which turned out to be the case.
I felt pain but it was the good kind of pain, familiar and sweet. Pain that I knew would pay dividends, pain that, once deposited in the First National Bank of The Guns, could be withdrawn, with interest, at a later date. And even though I was shopping alone now as opposed to with twenty other dudes, I knew I had no choice but to keep buying because walking out of the Pain-Mart would have left my cupboards empty at the end of the day. I wanted a full pantry. This pain still had value but only to me. I was shopping for myself after the mid-way point of the race.
At the end of the race I could say I learned a lot and felt good about how the day went. On the one hand, I contributed, at least for a while, to the market and even though the dividends weren’t as high for me as they were for others, I came away ahead of where I feared. On the other hand, during the second half of the race, I was able to set my own terms and finish with even more pain in the First National Bank of The Guns than when I started the day. Which leads me to conclude that ultimately, pain’s value lies both in its intrinsic and subjective nature and the beauty of pain is that it is free to any of us who are willing to take it. By placing value on pain we recognize that there is plenty of it laying around for the taking because so many other people do what they can to avoid it. In this sense, it is our demand for it, not the abundant supply, that gives it value. In accepting pain as a commodity we see hardship, fear, doubt, and discomfort as resources to be accepted, conquered, oppressed and embraced respectively all the while knowing that the more we buy the wealthier we’ll be in the long run. The Heck of the North (as well as other gravel races like The Almanzo) create the ideal circumstances for harvesting the commodity of pain.*** These gravel races provide opportunities to both enter the market and set the value yourself. In either case, the organizers, riders, and routes provide ample amounts a valuable pain. Go shopping.
Here are some cool videos making their way around about these two races.
Almanzo Video. Look for the ALAN.
HOTN Video. Look for the guy drinking.
*For those of you who may not know what snowmobiles trails are (let alone snowmobiles), the state of Minnesota maintains a vast network of groomed trails for snowmobile enthusiasts in the winter. During the non-winter months these trails are a mix of grasses (both short and tall), bouldery gravel, swamp and muskeg, double track, and Precambrian granite. They are unmaintained in the summer except for clearing the occasional downed tree.
** The truth is, I was really only left with one option, ‘not’ was not a viable option. A day or two previously I had received the single-most awesome pep-talk ever from Frank over voxer. Had I not had his loud Dutch, two-beer buzz voice screaming at me from within to “KILL IT” I may have actually considered the ‘not’ option. BTW, if anyone can tell me how to save and upload voxer messages I’d be happy to share this inspirational rant with you good people.
***It has been suggested in some quarters that riding gravel is up to 20% harder (rolling resistance) than riding tarmac. If this is indeed the case, we reap much more value given the same distance and time on the road.
Nice article…although some elements confused me a little…the use of the word option when talking about pain in the context of economics and trading is probably more confusing than helpful to those who are familiar with Options…i.e. call or put options or optionality in trading.
I think I would think of pain more as “going short” i.e. you have a finite amount of pain which you are prepared to “trade with your body”. The amount of pain you have to trade is directly proportional or corresponds to your V. You can buy a “call” option against your guns i.e. at some time over the next x km I want to trade pain for performance for y duration. The strike price is the amount or level of pain you are prepared to suffer for a duration of time. Eventually the “option” must be excercised…either cashed in, = suffer the pain but your brain is prepared to suffer the consequences for greater glory…or…you can allow it to lapse i.e. the trade off of pain vs position does not warrant the pain. It can however carry over for another day or ride…in technical terms this would be an American Call Option…European Options can only be excercised at the specified maturity date (although the premiums tend to be lower and therefore the results greater)
The question is, what effect the anti-V has, if allowed to be present, this might be like buying an extreme “in the money” option which would result in a “premium” too high to tempt you to exercise it….
I may have just confused myself although I am meant to know about this stuff (Options….not cycling!)..c’est la vie velominatus!
I learned to ride a bike on dirt and gravel, and it’s still my favorite surface to ride on.
A friend is trying to organize a gravel race series in Washington state. I really hope it happens.
paid in full. good job!
Nice article and vids. Now I want a cx bike. Thanks a bunch.
Nice! Whenever I ride on gravel it makes me appreciate the tarmac even more. By the way, is that a camelback strapped to your torso? I make no rule judgment here; just curious.
marko, are you riding this event next year? if so save me a spot on the start line. on phone now but will be there one way or another. looks bad fucking ass. hat! to you
Nice Marko! And speaking of riding the dirt ’tis ‘Cross season here in the PNW and the Cross Crusade series has begun. The only series that matters. Seattle thinks they ride cross, but really they’re just trying (poorly) to do what we do.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=fJm9yvgS2AI
@scaler911
Next year Seattle will be starting a “Portland-style” cyclocross race. It will feature:
Awesome. The Quants want some data to cruch — did you put this up on Strava?
I would disagree that a commodity has a value because we say it does. But that maybe the Marxist in me. Commodities have value because they have a use (value) or an exchange (value). The value is determined by the amount of human labour that transforms raw material (commodities) to umm… commodities.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxian_economics
@scaler911 For comparison, slightly north of Seattle is an event I like to call a cyclocross race. It goes down like this.
On sunny days when there is no mud, we know we can count on the course designer to step up his game. On this occasion, he chopped down a bunch of trees with his multitool, threw them in a pile, and wrapped a rusty chain around them for an aesthetic touch.
I was talking to the organizer before the race. A 2ft tall woman walked up to him and asked him if there was any way around the 6ft tall log pile. He said no.
Elsewhere on the course was a wood chip mountain. Pretty self explanatory.
Note that even though this racer has an inexpensive unmarked bike frame, she took the time to match her helmet to the red outlines on her jersey, and the bike to the helmet. Note also the fine form with arm slightly bent, legs sprinting uphill.
Later in this same race, I was fortunate enough to be standing on a hill as she powered up it so severely that her chain gave up and fell onto the dirt in agony.
It’s not a race unless the course organizer races, too. Right after I took this photo, he swallowed the loudspeaker, yelled “GO” with it still in his throat, mounted his steed, and won the holeshot.
This woman is at least 80 years old but doesn’t let that stop her from destroying the Women’s A race. First place.
Here’s Cosmic Miller riding up a 35% grade. I don’t know if he’s smiling because he enjoys riding a bike or because he just ate a lapped rider.
So, again, what exactly happens in these “cyclocross” races in Portland?
That article confused the fuck out of me until the last paragraph. That said, I like it – especially the ‘all the while knowing that the more we buy the wealthier we’ll be in the long run’ part. Nice work, Marko!
@G’rilla
That CX race photo description made my day!
Beautiful work Marko. Way to represent the Keepers out there in the wilderness. We will know you by your white Fizik R3s. You stand out in a race like that with the aristocrats on.
So were you on the Alan for this or the no name bike? Thoughts. Any tyre flats? And what size tires and pressures do people use. It must be tempting to go Boonen on this, 28mm tyres and 70 psi. Maybe the gravel and sand don’t allow for such thoughts.
@G’rilla
That’s all well and good, but where’s the sand? Belgian’s do it in the sand and we got plenty of that:
It’s not a race unless you get one of these: (apologies for the repost)
Didn’t see any really good run ups there. You know that’s part of the sport too: (these are our Clydesdales gettin’ it done)
This is Karen. She’s 50 and will tear the legs off most guys I know (for our ladies):
For those of you that live outside our little corner of the world, the rivalry between Seattle and Portland is like that between NZ and Australia. The only really good reason to go to Seattle is to visit Frank and G’rilla. They even import our good beer and coffee and try and pass it off as their own.
@G’rilla Awesome and awesome!
Sorry, @Marko. You just got completely upstaged by @G’rilla.
I’m doing my first Cross race Saturday. Anybody know where I can get some “juice”?
@co-mo
I agonized over whether or not to use the CB. As you can see, it ruins and otherwise good photo and the thing invariably slid to the side on trail sections. But one thing I learned from the Almanzo is that stopping at drop points and feed zones is very costly. The front group doesn’t stop, ever. Furthermore, the route is remote and there are zero places along the way to refill bidon. That and there’s only one bidon cage on that bike. So I had one bidon on the bike, one in by jersey, and the CB which just got me by.
@G’rilla
Wish you could have made it.
@Gianni
No name Ridley X-night branded as Velominati Le Graveur. I’ve been riding some Kenda Happy Mediums (32’s and 6 bar) which are a dry CX tire and work very well for gravel. Tyres like these are the most common in the gravel scene. The Aristocrats are great for just straight up graveling but dismounting, walking through muck, getting shit in the cleats is the trade off. In the future, road pedals and shoes for Almanzo, MTB for Heck.
@frank Funny thing is he doesn’t seem to understand the difference between cyclocross and gravel road racing.
@Marko My comments were provoked by @scaler911. Let’s resume our usual practice of commenting only on the original article, people.
Velominati, please, help me! I keep thinking about the off-season which has actually began in my part of the World. It is my first off-season so I’m looking for answers on how to improve my V-live. I’m conversant with rules #5 and #9 and I know I should simply go out there and fight the big monster called Nature. I also own an indoor trainer for the really bad, bad days. My question is, however, if I am allowed to run as a cross training activity. The Rules do not settle my question.
sweet one Marko:
tis the season! La Graveur is a new one added to my vocabulary, which tends to be limited to about 3 words and concepts, now 4
I look forward to gravel roading it in the winter, and will be likc cyclops, riding my first cx race soon, on my hunk-a-junk as i am cycling poor and can only afford one nice lady at a time, the rest are tramps. But she echo’s from the canadian parts, a rocky mtn, and she is bred to run, so will see
thanks for the inspiration, may do those other longer endurance rides later
@czmiel
Nope. No running unless being chased. And then only fast enough not to get caught. The only cross training allowed is actual ‘cross. But I don’t do that (cross). I just like to poke fun at @G’rilla.
@G’rilla
@scaler911
@Marko
Someone give one of these magnificent bastards a badge of some description. Nice work, makes Cross look fun (but where’s the rain?)
@Cyclops
There is some old stock on sale at US Postal/Discovery/Retirement Shack/Retirement Shack-Nissan. They know a doctor or two as well…
Marko, have to say – nice guns!
@Marko
Amazing looking bike. I remember seeing your Alan on ebay and I have been wondering what it was replaced with since.
Thanks for the article about the v bank, my only contribution to this website of any value, other than my Rule #9 article. Well done.
I’m considering taking my rain bike and converting to cross to ride some fire roads here, and hopefully try a cross race or two next year. I know I can replace the front four and get some cantilever brakes, however I’m pretty sure the 50 cm caad will not clear in the back. Is that correct?
@King Clydesdale
I’d be surprised if you can get something bigger than 25-27 mm in the rear, and you’d only be able to run brakes that mount on the brake bridge. Also consider if you put in a cross fork, it will have a higher crown, which will alter the front end geometry and handling of the bike, likely detrimentally. And it’s not as though canti brakes are good for stopping; the main advantage is mud clearance. Depending on gravel road conditions and the spacing of your frame, you might just be better off squeezing in the biggest road tires that will fit in the frame/fork.
@meursault
@Marko
Once again my fantasy world comes crashing down. I had assumed the CB was a V-chute to be deployed upon crossing the finish line.
What CX can do for road racing….
http://vimeo.com/49997914
In this clip from last week’s junior road race at the world championships, youngster Quentin Jauregui is forced to change his bike. He does so while sprinting in cleats and does not break stride while the peloton hurtles by. It’s essentially Superman getting changed in a phone booth, except where Superman has cyclocross experience and the phone booth is a pair of middle aged French bike mechanics.
From SBS Cycling
Jaysus, I can’t get beyond the first paragraph Marko! I too have taken one economics course in my life. Freshman fall. After getting up at 6:30 for high school 8:30 seemed late. Too bad it was also my introduction to an expensive college’s dining hall. I’d eat everything in sight for 45 minutes, then summarily fall asleep for the entire class via food coma.
Ha, banking pain in the guns! That’s awesome.
Trickle-down-pain-o-nomics. Maybe the first reference to that arsehole Reagan I’ve seen on the site. I’ll try to avoid divulging too much of my hatred for that bastard, but what a fucking awful economic plan. The wealthy don’t get that way by fucking sharing. I’ve always really appreciated our focus on bikes and the stuff that matters, so sorry for slipping into politics, but I simply can’t get over how a failed actor managed to convince so many folks he was so wonderful. And also paved the way for a doped up bodybuilder to run a state with such an enormous economy. And population. /Over./
And the new bike. HOT! In the photo it looks like that hose and nozzle are going to the ST, as if the bike is parked to receive a power boost!
@sthilzy
Wait, what the fuck?! I had to watch that three times before I even saw him or the swap. That’s outrageous.
If you are going to give a bike only one bidon mount, why on the DT? It seems like this makes shouldering harder/impossible. Doesn’t the DT make more sense?
I have two mounts on my Van Dessel and take both cages off for racing. For training/off-season I leave on the ST one since I can still practice shoulder. Not as easily/smoothly as with zero on there, but still do-able.
@King Clydesdale
I have a few things to say here. If the bike is really a rain ride and you don’t care too much about losing it for that use, go for it. But, converting things always seems to get expensive quickly. Probably because I can never settle for so-so stuff. Many cx racers dump frames and parts after every season. I’d say check out the local races. Some folks bring old bikes to sell. Or get onto the local cx boards and check. And finally, some of the big box national dealers have very nice deals on some decent cx bikes, if you are just looking to get into it. Pardon my rudeness for bringing them up, but check performance, nashbar, excel, etc. They sometimes have full cx bikes or at least frames for very cheap.
Good luck!
@Dan_R
HA! Yes, NOS epo, plastic blood bags, et al are currently on sale by a number of American racers. Steep discounts. One guy isn’t selling his though; they magically disappeared because he doesn’t live in or acknowledge the past, thus, all his gear vanished into the ether.
@Ron
It gets better than that, the American national road team is so depleted that anyone turning up with their own blood and a bike will automatically get a ride.
It’s a shame something like HOTN must be reduced to an economics metaphor and a celebration of pain. Lets forget about the fact that this is one of the most beautiful parts of the country and the event is held at a time of the year when that beauty is at its peak. Lets not think about the fact that it was a perfect day for a ride. We can ignore a lot of good people that were involved, especially the organizer and his cadre of volunteers. There were no trophies and no points. Times were established a few prizes handed out but the most any could take away from something like HOTN is the satisfaction of having finished and some bragging rights over beer at the apres event soiree.
@RonFor the same reason you just use the DT cage when riding with one bidon on a bike with two cages. It just looks better. Aesthetics aside, it has practical implication as well I believe. The ST cage on my old bike would hit me in the back but I ride large enough frames to have clearance to the DT cage. That may be different thought for smaller frames.
@itburns
Again, a case of balancing out Rule compliance for the type of riding and course. The camelback was the result of Rule #83 and Rule #32 compromise.
@theChaz Indeed, I think I’m picking up what you’re putting down and if so, it’s all true. But it’s veiled in passive aggression. You must be a Minnesotan as well.
The HOTN site itself (linked to) and the video trailer for the race (linked too) are doing a fantastic job of spreading the good karma, stoke, beauty and community of this event. More power to Jeremy et al for all the work they do.
But HOTN is, after all, a race over a course that’s designed to be a challenge. Races on challenging courses hurt and that hurt is as beautiful as the turning leaves on a warm autumn day in Minnesota. Better?
@marko I’ve no idea about economics but I like the idea that pain is something that can have a value attached to it. Great looking race and I love that bike. Will we be seeing V branded bikes for sale in the gear or bikes sections?
@marko
Thanks for the clarification. Well said.
And some nice guns, too, BTW ;-)
Yes, I’m from MN. In fact I was born and raised in Proctor (just outside Duluth). If you drove up from the cities, you went within 1 mile of the house I grew up in.
My take on the HOTN is that it’s a race AND a ride. You made it in just over 6 hours, right? There people on-course for 10. They were not “racing”.
I’ve considered doing HOTN next year. I’d ride it as hard/fast as I can, but go for 6hrs? Forget it. I couldn’t ride a paved century in that kinda time, no way on dirt. I’d probably shoot for 7.5 – 8.0 ;-). The thing is, I still love that country enough to not give it up for some pain-fest. If I want pain, I can climb Mt. Evans and save the plane fare.
@Ron
I’m with Ron here – converting a road bike for CX is far from worth the effort because 1. 99.9% of the time it won’t work and 2. if somehow it did work it wouldn’t be cost effective. If you can live with breaking Rule #58, Ron’s suggestion of picking up a cheap CX bike from one of the mail order companies is going to be your least expensive way of getting into racing with a dedicated bike. The absolute cheapest way, however, is to pick up a old mountain bike (most local race series allow mountain bikes as long as you don’t run bar ends). Find one on Craigslist in your area that fits you, throw on some mountain pedals/shoes and go race.
@theChaz cheers. You should totally set it as a goal. The training alone is worth it. I actually had to drive south to get to the race which is maybe why the beauty piece wasn’t included-I may take it for granted.
Alright, I have calmed down enough to get through the entire article. Nice one, Marko! Really great stuff, especially all the awesome analogies. I’ve only been riding/racing off-road for a bit but it’s amazing to me how something so minor can make or break your deposits/withdrawals for the term. One misjudged line, take a corner too wide and hitting soft dirt or gravel, etc. And there goes the lead group. (I suppose this can happen in road riding too, when you don’t close a gap and suddenly you realize you should have closed it and your only option is to dip into your final reserves.) You can train and prep for weeks and then, poof, you bugger one thing and thar she goes. I guess it’s better than false starting in the Olympics on too many times and being DQed for four years.
On another note, picked up an old New Yorker the other day to read at lunch . Happened to be an article on Alberto Salazar. Yes, one of them runners, but that guy has nearly killed himself a few times by running so deep into the pain cave. Had his temperature hit 107*F at the Falmouth road race. Also went unconscious for 14 minutes a few years back after a heart attack.
Anyway, the article was about Pain-o-nomics and why/how some people go that deep. The author decided at the age of 13, when going too deep in a cross country race, that pushing that hard wasn’t for him.
Which brings us to an interesting point: why do some folks choose to push the V-meter that far? It’s never fun, but why do some folks go for it and endure while others say No Fucking Way? Since we’re talking economics, I always wonder about how family background relates to athletic accomplishments. Seems that the best athletes tend to come from the more trying situations. Could be they have fewer options to get out and thus try harder, whereas the child from means can say Oh well, I’m going off to college and a job. Or, could be they’ve learned what it takes to make it from an early age.
Nothing scientific at all here, just ruminating and seeing what others think.
@Marko
Riding the snow mobile trails on road shoes, that’s a man. Strong work. I bet running with the bike shouldered was less than awesome, but whenever you were on the bike, I bet it ruled.
Did the Thursday pre-work CX ride with a few locals. Fuck my tits that’s fun. I really need to work on my remount. I go all Air Jordan every time, only Jordan doesn’t do a little half-skip. My remount is a combination of basketball, hopscotch, and ping-pong. Not a good combination.
Jeff and Nick have these beautiful remounts that (a) leave me behind and (b) don’t raise their voice by an octave every time they do it. Interesting.
I would comment on G’rilla’s remount, but he’s never been in front of me, so I’ve never seen it! BOOM!
@frank
I thought I would offer a free translation service for any non-Canadian listening to those videos. I picked this up while out in Canada last week:
The “OO” sound is analogous to the “ou” you might hear in real English. And when they say, “stay safe” or “be careful oooot there” I kind of blank out because that doesn’t make sense. Nothing I’ve observed in Cyclocross seem to hold those concepts in any regard.