So I hit the grog shop this afternoon as part of a grocery run (yes, French rosé is a food group) and as I’m headed to the door with a double armful of Gallic brain eraser some other customer inquires thusly:
“O’Grady?”
Regrettably, I am unarmed, not even a Buck knife, and thus am disinclined to lay claim to that tarnished crown until I’ve gotten a good close look at the speaker and some idea of his intentions. Especially since both of my hands are full of wine for which I have already paid.
Turns out it’s Felix Magowan, who with John Wilcockson and David Walls constituted the original Trio that owned VeloNews when I started drawing cartoons for the magazine beginning with the March 10, 1989, edition. The Trio had declined to hire me as managing editor, which worked out well for both parties; I wouldn’t have lasted six months as ME but I’ve cashed 20 years’ worth of VeloNews checks as a cartoonist, reporter, editor and occasional columnist. Sometimes they even arrived more or less on time.
When Competitor Group Inc. of San Diego bought Inside Communications in March 2008, Felix stuck around as a consultant, a gig that recently came to an end. Like Walls and a whole mess of other folks over the years, he is now formerly of VeloNews. Indeed, of the original cast of characters listed in the masthead of that March 1989 edition, when VN was first setting up shop in Boulder, only Wilcockson, Lennard Zinn and I remain. A Limey, a conehead and a pain in the ass. Throw some tits and a car chase in there and we’re talking boffo box office, if only in summertime.
“You’re officially a member of the Old Fart League,” quipped senior online editor Charles Pelkey, who has logged fewer years but more hours and actually quit once for a few months. Happily, he got bored with the quiet life as editor of a quarterly alumni magazine and leaped right back into the frying pan of UCI regulations, doping inquiries, live updates from grand tours, classics and other monuments of the sport, and weekly bouts of explaining the inexplicable in his “The Explainer” column.
Here’s to our noble selves. There are damn’ few of us left.
Mad Blog Media 
Ah criminey! Now I know one or two of the dudes from Competitor, and they look like they’ve tried hard at this VeloSchnooze thing, but Felix was much better at it. I won’t subscribe now for two reasons: one, all I’d get would be old ‘news’ and a few feature articles on things I don’t need, and two, I can buy it at Safeway.
Which, if you think about it is truly ironic…..R.I.P. VeloNews print edition.
Back when I actually made an attempt to race (circa 1989), and before Al Gore invented the Internet, I subscribed to the print version. But the electrons arrive a lot faster these days than the mailman and furthermore save on trees. Somehow, though, when you can click on the VN icon and have it flare across the screen, its not as exciting as back in those old days, waiting for the mailman to deliver the real thing.
I remember bugging Patrick a long time ago “hey, when are you going to make a jersey out of that Old Guys cartoon?”. Was glad when O’G and VN obliged. I did my last time trial in Honolulu prior to moving back across the Big Puddle(Castle to Hanauma Bay TT) riding the Cannonball with stupid-light tires and the Old Guys team edition jersey, and sure enough flatted three times on Waimanalo Stale Ale glassware, thereby coming in dead last in my age group.
Some things never change.
I subscribed for years in the 80’s through early 90’s. Then I quit racing. I missed the entire post Lemond era. Then my wife gave me a VN subscription when she noticed I was riding my bike semi-monthly (and sporting a Mad Dog Media jersey). I like the hardcopy for the pictures. Frankly, VN could take away most of the text, increase the number of photos, and I’d be good with it. I get excellent text from the website anyway. And the online editor (what’s his name again?) is truly godlike.
Its gotta be tough on national morale when a Froggie can’t even win the stage on Bastille Day.
Jeff,
Yeah I was so impressed with the online presence, especially the editing, that I added a copy to the library’s periodicals collection. I think it replaced Young Republicans or something. Anyway I’m apparently the only one here that reads it, but I feel less guilty for having read it for years at the LBS for free.
Did see a Mad Dog jersey in the wild this Sunday. The wearer was clearly just beginning his training. Our little paceline moved over a bit to make room as he went by the other way. It nice to see people fully caught up in the theme of their clothing.
So the $100,000 question for those of us who have not seen him lately, or ever, is whether Patrick really looks like his cartoonish self-portrait. Patrick???
I have to admit, my FatGuy jersey is a bit tight in the tummy……..
I hear they shrink with age.
O’G may not speak up himself, so I’ll rat him out. Don’t let the old cantankerous guy fool you. He may talk like he’s carrying around a spare tire (or three), but to the casual observer he looks lean, mean, and almost scary sometimes. I bet he’s plotting a “comeback” of his own.
Now, about that $100,000…
I am presently enjoying something of a renaissance, girthwise, as is traditional during the Tour, when exercise consists mainly of pounding keyboards, grinding teeth and pulling corks.
Editing is the least enjoyable and the most profitable of the various things I do to earn my meager living, and there’s a bottomless, steaming bowlful of it served up daily during these three weeks in July. Just kneel, lift the lid and dig in.
Happily, I don’t have to log as many days as I once did. But those days are still long ones. They start early, with me following the race via Intertube TV and writing the stage report in “real” time; this is a compilation of what I see on TV, what Charles Pelkey mentions in his live updates, plus quotes, factoids, observations and photos from VeloNews staffers and contractors in France and elsewhere, with an assist from Agence France Presse, our lone wire service. And I feel compelled to check in now and then past quitting time to see whether the gendarmes have set dope fiends to jumping out of hotel windows in their skivvies. It is bike racing, after all.
So, yeah, right now I’m challenging the design limitations of my Mad Dog jersey. But I can still get it on, with a little chain lube and a couple of tire irons. You should hear the bike creak, though.
Joey,
Yeah, O’G makes far too many references about riding his bike to be as big as his cartoon character. I’ll bet he’s ridden more miles this week than I have this year. One day, I will plan to plot to comeback–really, one day.
In the meantime, I’ll do some more work. Or maybe I’ll just open that red label Chimay in the fridge and order a pizza and read VN Online…
There’s the Mad Dog jersey and then there’s the Fat Guys jersey. And I can testify that the Mad Dog jersey’s graphics make me look like my bike doesn’t have any panniers, but I’m bringing home a 6-pack anyway. Quite the optical illusion.
And oh, I don’t like watered whiskey, either. ‘Tis an abomination, to be sure.