KK is a 13 year old girl. A cyclist for Red Zone. I do not know her well, but she seems happy, friendly and really into the cross thing. I know her family a bit better. They are “good peoples.” So far, a pretty common scenario.
All you masters of the obvious, take a look at the 2 pictures below.
This from Saturday’s race…
This from Sunday…
What is different?
Notice the bikes. On Saturday, KK was riding her brother’s really old, tank-like mountain bike. Lugging that think up the green monster and through the mud must have been terrible. This is the problem.
The KK solution:
Remember, the USGP is a professional bike race. The pros all had their respective trailers, team mechanics and spare bikes set up alongside the course.
So what does this very young and quiet appearing 13 year old girl do?
She saunters up to the bright green Cannondale CyclocrossWorld semi-trailer
and says to the chief mechanic something like…”Excuse me sir, I love cross, but I am riding this old mountain bike. Might you have a real cx bike I could borrow?”
Shazam, next thing you know (see Sunday’s pic), KK is on a 4000 dollar high-zuit Cannondale cross bike with SRAM red and carbon this and carbon that. A friend tells me she thinks the bike made a difference. You think?
Amazing! This is impressive stuff. No one can predict the future, but I would say things look good for KK. As I tell Will and Cat, asking good questions is a sure way of getting ahead.
KK’s enterprising adventure gets top billing, but a side story is the brilliance of the Cannondale mechanic. He invests a little wear and tear on a spare bike and garners buckets of good will for letting a 13 year old borrow a Cannondale bike for just 30 minutes. Letting her borrow a bike for free. Free!!! Good thinking. I suspect KK, her family and her team may be partial to Cannondale in the future?
Congratulations to KK and to the Cannondale mechanic.
Nice.
JMM
6 replies on “Ask and you shall receive… The importance of asking…”
Reminds me of when my mentor, Dr. John Kirklin went to a clinic put on by the only American to win the Three Day Equestrian Event. The rider picked a horse ridden by a 13 yo girl to demonstrate technique. Not any of the bigwig horses, just some pony. Similar results!
John
I have an aquaintance who is sponsored by Cannondale, and is tight with those higher up in the org. I am passing this blog post on to them. Smart move by the Cannondale wrench, and an even smarter move by that little KK!
Be bold…it rarely hurts!
Marcia Seiler
Dr.Mandrola,Thank you for writing me in your blog.I was really sad when I had to give that bike back it was awesome. I can't wait to beg my Dad for that bike for Christmas. You were right that was really great of that mechanic to let a kid use that bike. KK
I suspect you are referring to Troy who was the Cannondale mechanic on site. He took care of my Scalpel a couple of years ago at the Mohican 100 MTB race. Completely unsolicited, he washed my very muddy bike for me and fixed a couple of problems I was having. Needless to say, I'm a big fan of his and of Cannondale as well.
That is not just any cross bike, that is Tim Johnson National championship bike! Wow.
even more heartwarming than when Ray let me borrow his new cross bike so I could try a cx race only to drag and bounce it off the barriers at Fisherman's Park.