I'm "stupid" according to "anonymous" comment

This past February I wrote a blog post stating that I wasn't a big fan of the new Oakleys being sported by George Hincapie and Lance Armstrong (originally debuting on George and Thor at the 2008 Tour de France). I further stated that I had a pair of Oakley Radars and "love" them.

My finishing comment on that post was, "Who knows, maybe they'll grown on me...and I'll have a pair in a few months."

No, a new pair didn't magically show up at my door, something better and much more mature happened. You'll have to wait for it though.

Two days after that post, Velonews released an article on the new Oakley sunglasses, the "Jawbone." I subsequently wrote another blog post on the glasses because Velonews stated this in their article: "Hushovd, Hincapie, Armstrong and the rest of Oakley’s heavy hitters are set to formally release Jawbone to the public on Stage 6 of the Tour of California, February 20, which is the individual time trial." I wrote this post about a week before the Tour of California started.

I immediately thought it was a little odd to debut them at the ITT, since IN MY OPINION "these don't seem like TT sunglasses to me," which is what I posted in that blog entry. Maybe I should have clarified that with: there might not be sunglasses specifically made for TTs, but some obviously lend themselves (functionally) to TTs. Do you want to keep your head in a certain position for aerodynamics, just to look down at your computer and have it obscured by the bottom rim of your Jawbones? I don't think so.

Bottom line is that Oakley can do whatever they want to do and a TT debut probably made more sense because you have people milling around in the same area instead of spread out all over a 100 mile point to point route. That doesn't change my opinion about the functionality of the glasses.

So, this was the "anonymous" comment I got yesterday (April 15th) on my February 8th blog post: "Anonymous said...
there's no such thing as "tt" sunglasses stupid. have you designed something better??"


Wow, that was it, sweet!

So, number one, I'm stupid, and number two, have I designed something better? On number one, I may be stupid sometimes, but not at all on this topic (more to follow). On number two, give me about 7 minutes and I'll sketch something on the back of an envelope that's better.

Why are you angry anonymous? Why so immature? Did you design the Jawbones? I'm humbled that "anonymous" would seek out to comment on my opinion about these sunglasses and in general about the concept of TT sunglasses. Is it that when you "Google" Oakley Jawbone, my blog is about the 4th or 5th website listed? No, most likely it is because I am an absolute titan in the bicycling industry, countless stage wins, multiple national TT championships, million dollar sponsorships...and my opinion matters. I'm sure Lance and George are monitoring the situation and after I commented that I wasn't a huge fan, it was only a matter of time before they stopped wearing them.

Wait, that's not it at all, I'm a 31 year-old CAT 5 with 3 races under my belt. But guess what? Lance and George agree with me, "these don't seem like TT sunglasses." How do I know that?

Just look at the photos of the Tour of California. Both Lance and George chose specifically NOT to wear the Jawbone in the Stage 6 ITT, nor did they wear them in the Prologue. Hmmm...strange, I guess to them they just don't seem like TT sunglasses...EXACTLY what I said. For the TTs, they chose glasses more suited to a TT. In Lance's case, it looks like he wore Radars with the "Range" (the largest) lenses for both Tour of California TTs. He didn't wear those "specific" sunglasses on any other stage. So, those were his "TT specific" sunglasses. Fact. Big George wore the Radars as well for the TTs, I think with the "Path" lenses.

Big George loves the Jawbone, according to Velonews, he said: “the baddest racing glasses Oakley has made.” That is his opinion, a very valid one, but he still didn't wear them in the Tour of California TTs. Who knows, maybe he will in the future, but I can still have an opinion, which for the time is backed up by the 2 biggest names in American cycling.

There are no hard and fast rules for this, just opinions. For instance, a lot of riders use the Oakley Radars and Giro Havics for both road racing and their TT because they feel like they work fine in either discipline. Nothing wrong with that. Others, like most people who aren't sponsored, have one set of sunglasses that they use for ANY type of cycling and it's not a hindrance.

I seem to remember that Lance used to wear the Oakley Zero JUST for TTs. Another set of "TT specific" sunglasses for him. I could be wrong, but I don't think he ever wore them in a race when he wasn't riding a TT. That makes them pretty specific to him, but who is he?


So, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. I had fun looking back at all the photos from the Tour of California to fact check this blog post. There are some links below to the pics.

Lance and George in the TTs, specifically not wearing their Oakley Jawbones (courtesy of Cyclingnews.com and Velonews.com):

Lance during TofC Stage 6 TT

Big George during TofC Stage 6 TT

Lance during the TofC Prologue

Big George during the TofC Prologue


Lance and George on other Stages, wearing the glasses they prefer for road racing, the Jawbone (courtesy of Velonews.com):

Lance Stage 4

Lance Stage 8

George Stage 7

I want to thank anonymous for giving me a topic for my blog, I hope you're doing okay today. I was on the verge of taking more pictures of my food and posting them and I think everyone, but me, can agree that that posting would have been a step in the wrong direction. Don't worry, that won't stop me in the future though...

In closing I want to say that the internet is a place where people feel emboldened to say what they want, get fired up, and insult people, like calling them stupid. In my former life, I was on a small show called "Oprah." My now ex-wife and I were one of 3 final couples that Oprah was going to give a Million Dollar Dream wedding to. During the show they did video clips of all the couples and during ours it mentioned my bilateral testicular cancer and our inability to have children "naturally" (without IVF). After the show people could make comments on the Oprah website for that show and what they said was awful and disturbing.

People were insulting me saying that I was no good because I couldn't impregnate my fiancee, nice. People made discriminatory comments because an African American couple won, like, "of course they won, that's who Oprah wanted to win!" It's weird that the audience, full of mostly white women, chose the winners and Oprah didn't have any say in it... I know, I was there.

So, people feel tough online, their true colors tend to come out, and they are typically wrong and/or misinformed or maybe they're trying to make up for their own multiple shortcomings by attacking others.