FLCC> Pink Slipper/Brown Birkenstock

[Wayne Gottlieb]

I know that all those B riders who have fared so well
this season (Mike, Rob, Alex) will want to take a stab
at the pink slipper and let the rest of us duke it out
for brown.  And, speaking of brown, I haven't seen
much of Mount Pleasant lately, so I'm petitioning for
an observatory finish.  I don't know, I just like the
view from up there.  Wayne

--- Glenn Swan <gs37 at cornell.edu> wrote:

> 	Most of you know the story...but for those who are
> new to Ithaca and the 
> Tuesday night experience, here's a little background
> on the Pink Slipper.
> Back in the early 80's there was a young man who was
> commonly known as 
> "Bopper" who regularly did the Tuesday night races.
> He had a thing about 
> pink, with a pink jersey, pink handlebar tape, and
> often some socks with 
> pink. We gave him good-natured grief about his
> color. Late in the summer he 
> arrived at the race with a woman's pink, high heeled
> sandal hanging from 
> his handlebar. He had found it on the roadside on
> the way to the event. We 
> decided that whoever won that night's race would
> receive the sandal. For 
> fun we decided that whoever won the final race of
> the summer would get to 
> keep the sandal over the winter. The winner's name
> was put on the heel of 
> the footwear and the next year we dug it out and put
> that year's winner's 
> name on the heel too. The tradition has continued
> for over 20 years now 
> !  There are some famous names that appear once or
> many times, including 
> riders who have won national and world titles and
> riders who have gone pro.
> 	The Tour de France has its yellow jersey. The Giro
> d'Italia has its Maglia 
> Rosa. We have our Pink Slipper. As a measure of its
> prestige, you may note 
> that although such greats as Armstrong and Hinault
> and Merckx have won 
> multiple Tours de France, they have never succeeded
> at conquering the Pink 
> Slipper. I kid you not, the Pink Slipper has
> appeared on the race resumes 
> of riders trying to land positions on notable teams
> ! Riders will go to 
> great lengths to try to win the race. Brian Doyon
> succeeded one year on the 
> B-Dale course by sprinting head-on into oncoming
> traffic while others dove 
> for safety. It is rumored that some riders may have
> sacrificed years of 
> their useful life ingesting performance enhancing
> drugs just too have a 
> chance at acquiring the coveted footwear. In
> accordance with the current 
> UCI stand on keeping the integrity of the sport
> intact, the winner of this 
> year's event will have to pee into a cup after the
> race. Everyone else will 
> act as witnesses. The cup will then be divided into
> "A" and "B" samples and 
> thrown away.
> 	The spirit of Tuesday Night races is that while we
> race, we consider it to 
> be the most important race in the world, and we race
> hard and fair. What we 
> earn that is of value is our honor and the respect
> of our peers. As soon as 
> the race is complete, the results are irrelevant,
> and we realize that in 
> the view of the rest of the world, the race is truly
> of no significance. 
> The respect we share with our peers is the only
> outcome of value. The Pink 
> Slipper (and Brown Birk) represent this
> contradiction, as we covet those 
> prizes and we race hard and suffer dearly for them,
> but even as we receive 
> them we laugh at the utter worthlessness of the
> prize and know that without 
> what we give to each other, there is no reason to
> come out and race each 
> week and each year.
> 	Don't think that you can drink beer tonight and
> ingest huge doses of 
> testosterone in order to win the slipper.......I
> have already cornered the 
> market on the testosterone, so you'll have to find
> another drug.....Rumor 
> has it that Steve Edgar has tried to disguise his
> Suzuki 650 to look like a 
> simple road bike.  He has offered a lead-out to the
> highest bidder. 
> ..Meanwhile it has leaked out Mark Rishniw's absence
> from the racing scene 
> most of the summer has been the result of a secret
> training program that 
> has been directed by a doctor at the Vet School.
> Judging by the hair on his 
> legs I'm worried that there are "veterinary"
> treatments involved in this 
> program. Ryan Morris was across the border over the
> weekend putting 
> together a select team (Team Canada) but it is
> expected that the new Bush 
> administration border policies will prevent most of
> them from gaining 
> access to the US. Elsewhere the Cornell team is
> known to be preparing a 
> team entry, but few give captain Steve Frattini's
> squad much of a chance, 
> as they are planning to all use single speed track
> bikes with no 
> brakes.  If they show up, the race committee is
> expected to choose a course 
> featuring a descent of Hunt Hill and a finish atop
> Mt. (un) Pleasant, just 
> to reduce the likelihood of Cornell students
> stealing the locals' 
> thunder....The silver fox, Ernie Bayles has been
> staying out of the 
> limelight since his victory at the Thater races in
> Binghamton, hoping that 
> others will be so busy attacking each other that he
> will quietly be able to 
> steal the race. He has been heard quoting Mark
> Twain, who said something to 
> the effect of, "Youth and enthusiasm are no match
> for old age and treachery !"
> 
> Stay tuned !
> 
> 
> Glenn
> 
> 
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