Esprit de Corps

I bought my first bicycle as an adult a couple summers ago from the High Gear bicycle shop in La Vista. At that time, I joined the Midwest Cycling Community (MCC) and received an extra 15% of the bike's purchase price toward accessories. The membership also came with a complete cycling kit as well as a coupon book for accessories, clothing and maintenance packages. It truly was a great deal. Win-Win.

That was two years ago. Since then, I've entered a few triathlons, but haven't had the opportunity to train with MCC's club rides, much less any group on a regular basis.

This spring, however, I've been a regular at the Trek Store's Wednesday Night club ride. I wear the Midwest Cycling Community gear because the Trek store is the club's sponsor and organizer of the ride. It's also a good looking kit.

I give credit to the MCC for their attempt to be an inclusive club. It's even stated as their motto. And as such, the club ride is open to just about anyone who'd like to join in. So on any given Wednesday night, there are people who wear other team's colors, as well as other store jerseys, professional team jersey replicas and the like.

For example, last night's ride had 22 cyclists. Of that, maybe half were wearing the MCC kit. Of the rest, there was a smattering of jerseys: a few from Omaha Velo club's donning orange and blue tiger stripes, a Bike Masters forest green jersey or two, a blue and lime green Team Liquigas jersey, other random bike shops, a Nigel Tufnel skeleton Jersey (Lucas) and what appeared to be a gray merino wool polo shirt worn by Eric Brunt.

You see? All are welcome in such an inclusive cycling community.

But being too inclusive can have its draw backs. It can muddy the waters about who's really on your team and who's just part of the overall community. But since the team is also part of the overall community, it can become some sort of recursive, inbred mess.

Let's back up a step. First, I didn't even know that I was on the team until Shim recently informed me of my status. Was it when I bought the kit? Or did I become a team member when I wore the jersey the first time? I dunno, but I half expected that at some point to be trotted out in the alley behind the store to be picked for a local team grade-school style. But apparently all it took was buying a cycling kit to distinguish myself apart from the community as a member of the team.

That brings me to my next point: who are my teammates?!?

The kits are a good start. But what happens when a dude shows up wearing the red and black MCC jersey AND clashing orange 'n blue tiger stripe bibs from Omaha Velo team's kit? <== that really happened. Am I to embrace him as my teammate? And if so, am I to embrace his upper half while Omaha Velo takes the lower extremities? And what about the Skeletor and Mr EB Woolie Polo? Do they have MCC kits hanging in their closets too? Or, is there an unknown secret handshake/grip and Greek phrase to be muttered before races that I've yet to learn about? These are things that are still left to learn about my team, my teammates.

Don't get me wrong, I like all of the wholesome goodness that inclusiveness brings, but please help me identify where the line is drawn, 'cause I've been thinking about racing soon and I wanna know who's with me.

Go Team.