WSBK world champ and MotoGP rookie Ben Spies is spending a big part of his off-season riding and racing bicycles. image: thanks, ben spies

I've been doing a lot of bicycling since the WSBK season ended. About a week ago, some friends of mine in the Texas Tough team got me into this race and I ended up finishing third.

The race was cool. We did a ride on Saturday and we get there it was like 35-36 degrees. It was a 25-mile criterium. We started out, and one of my buddies, Johnny 'Big Cat' Crosby, who rode for the Kelly Benefit Strategies team last year, he went straight out of the gate when the gun went off. Full bore. I was like, "Man, this race is going to be not fun." I just sat in for the first ten minutes or so, and then the attacks started happening and I moved up to the front, so I could try to get into something. I was already going pretty hard when we came up to this one little hill, and a guy jumped off the front. Nick - one of my buddies - he jumped up to him. I got up on Nick's wheel, and as soon as I knew it, I pulled over the top of this crest and I was leading the pack. I wasn't trying to do anything. I looked over my shoulder and it was just me and Nick and two of his teammates. I was like, "Oh, man, this is it". There were only four of us, and it was only ten minutes in.

We stayed off the front from the big group for the whole race, and it was just me and three other guys working. I got to the end, and it came to the sprint, and I was able to get that and get third.

So it's been fun. I've been able to ride a lot this off-season, with some really good guys. It's amazing, when you ride with better people, how quick your rhythm changes, and how much better you get on the bike. I'll get to do one little race before I leave again. It's like a 90-mile road race. That'll be pretty fun. But it's been cool that I've been able to meet a lot of good people in that world, with the riding I do and not having a normal daytime job. It's been fun. For that crit, when we ran in the breakaway for 50 minutes, my heart rate never went under 180. I was tapped out the whole time. It was good when it was over.

Bicycling is a funny sport, because so many people have different strengths. I can climb well for my size and my weight, and I have a good sprint, which if you looked at me on a bicycle, for how thin my legs are, you wouldn't guess I have a sprint. That kind of helps me out, usually, at the end of races, because I'm able to be right there. And some guys can't out-sprint me, but if you put us on flat ground for an hour, they'll just crush me, because I don't have those big legs that can push all that power on flat ground, because of the power-to-weight ratio. But when the race goes extremely hard, I'm able to be there. So it's really funny how cycling - again, we can go to a road race, and a couple of my teammates can be way stronger in a different area from me. If it's got some hills in it, with a sprint finish, all of a sudden I would be the guy that they would work for, where if they put us all on flat ground, I would be suffering just to stay on their wheel, in the draft. It's pretty funny how different races suit different people. It's cool. For me, it's a fun deal. During the season, whenever I can catch a race, I'll come in, and whatever type of race it is, if it's something that suits me, the team will probably help me out. They're a great bunch of guys, and if it's one that won't suit me, I'll go there and I'll be one of the workhorses for somebody else. I enjoy it. But no way is it every going to get super-serious with anything. It's just fun to do for now.

This whole power trip could've cost four kids their future in racing, just because they missed that jump. It's pretty upsetting, just talking to people about it and seeing what's going on. I hate to say "I told you so," but there are a whole lot of people who were saying that if this kept going on like it's going, there wasn't going to be a series, or nobody racing. And right now, there's barely anybody racing.

Other than that, I've just been getting geared up. I'm just looking forward to it. This is the biggest jump I've ever done in anything. There's nothing above this. I'll be racing against the fastest guys I've ever raced against, and I'll also have the biggest ...I hate to call it a disadvantage, but I'll be facing the biggest learning curve I've ever had to come over. But I'm going to give it everything I've got. It's funny reading some websites, what people comment and stuff. I've got a lot of fans behind me who believe that I can do it. But right now, I've just got to take one race at a time, one weekend at a time. It's not going to happen overnight. I don't expect to go in there and do anything.

I was talking with one of my friends on the ride yesterday. We were in the back of the pack, and he was asking about the differences between World Superbike and MotoGP. I said, "It's just one of those things. If I can consistently get in the top ten, if I threw in a couple of top-fives for the first year, I would be super happy with it. Consistency is really something I want to get on one of those things." He was like, "It's a motorcycle, can't you just jump on it and do that thing?" I was like, "Man, those motorcycles are so different. If you have a guy that's raced GP for three or four years, and you get a guy that is arguably more talented, that comes in in his first year, the first year, the guy that doesn't have as much talent, but who has been on the bike for that much longer, will probably beat him nine out of ten times." And I said, "It's just one of those things, that he knows ... the limits are so far higher, he knows the limits. He knows the bikes. He knows all that stuff."

And I said, "It takes a bit. That's just how it is. If you put Rossi on a Superbike, the same one as me, I believe there's no doubt that he could jump on, and the first weekend, he could beat me, or he could be right there. But it would be a race. It would be a dogfight. Because the Superbikes are a different technique, and the limits are far lower." And I said, "If you put me on a GP bike, we know what's going to happen. He's going to beat me by 30 seconds." And I was like, "It's such a different animal, and it takes a long time. But it's something I'm really looking forward to."

For the fans, I want to do good. I'm pumped everybody's supporting me. But it's not something that's going to happen overnight. It's something that might not ever happen, because there's guys that - obviously, the four aliens, as they call them, could just simply have more talent, and you'll never get there. But that's something that I'm looking forward to trying. It's going to be a new goal.

I haven't even ridden a motorcycle since the last race. I've been keeping it low-key. I really haven't been doing much. I've traveled so much, and just been hanging out with friends. That's pretty much it. I've been trying to keep it as low-key as possible, and get ready, because there's going to be a lot of traveling again. It's been nice just having some off time and hanging around, seeing friends and family, and stuff like that.

House is off in the desert somewhere - I think. It's funny. He gives me crap about not responding to his text messages, but then it's been three weeks I've tried to call him and it didn't even ring, it went straight to voicemail. So he was out in the middle of nowhere.

What's happened with the American roadracing scene, I'm really disappointed to see for a lot of different reasons. For friends that are racing. There are so many talented people that don't have rides right now. The economy hasn't helped at all, but if rules would've stayed like they used to be, I believe every manufacturer would still be racing right now. It's just their budgets might be super minimal, and it wouldn't have the spark that it had, but everybody would still be racing. And now you've got guys with no jobs, guys with rides are probably riding for nothing, if anything. And what it really hurts in the end—who it's really affecting—are the young kids right now, that are coming up, that are right on the brink of doing something. This whole power trip could've cost four kids their future in racing, just because they missed that jump. It's pretty upsetting, just talking to people about it and seeing what's going on. I hate to say "I told you so," but there are a whole lot of people who were saying that if this kept going on like it's going, there wasn't going to be a series, or nobody racing. And right now, there's barely anybody racing. Unless anything changes, I don't know who's going to be really racing any more. It's a bad time right now, and I'm definitely not happy to see it, but what do you do? It's one of those things that happens, and hopefully it gets itself sorted out.