Surprise retirement party makes it official

What an awesome surprise I had on Saturday. My wife, Janet, threw me a surprise retirement party at the Jet Fuel coffee shop, taking me totally by surprise.

We live above the coffee shop and to get me downstairs she asked if we could go for a walk. Grudgingly I said “yes” (what if I had said no?). Opening our front door there was a ribbon tied to the handle, running around the corner of the building to the front door of the coffee shop. Innocently Janet said, what’s this? I didn’t know what to make of it, so followed along blindly as we walked into the Jet Fuel to a resounding SURPRISE!

At first I thought, for what? But then I saw all the faces in the crowd and figured it out. They all said that I looked very much like I had been taken unawares but the whole thing. Funnily, throughout the night people kept saying that they had almost spilled the beans. Crazily we had had a party for my two-year old niece that afternoon and no one in my family had let on at all about the second party that night. Stone cold, the lot of them.

Everyone had a good time, particularly when Janet coerced some folks to get up and talk about my career:

Dave Butler, who ran the Jet Fuel team through the years when we were a UCI Continental squad, spoke about our time in Europe in 2002 when I won stages in Norway and Ireland. It seemed to me like he was starting to tear up as he was talking. When I tell the same story, about how Joe led me out for a beautiful win in Norway, I cry too. What a trip that was!

Joe Giuliano, an ex-teammate, talked about racing in Montenegro on the same trip: it was cold and rainy everyday, with cold showers in the hotels, and cold food. And yet we loved it. Talking with him that night we wondered how we had managed to do so much racing on so little money.

Matt Hansen, who was the great white hope of Ontario racing when I started my career, reminded me of the day at my first Mirek Mazur training camp in California when we got dropped together. It was one of the first rides at the camp, Matt was a Provincial/National team member, one of the cool kids, and I was the new-kid outsider that had randomly joined the camp. He was embarrassed to be off-the-back with me, while I thought I wasn’t doing too badly to be coming adrift with Matt Hansen.

My Mom, who talked about my first race, a mountain bike race in Brantford. In the run up to the race I kept telling her how I was going to win, how I was going to give her the winner’s bouquet. And she kept trying to keep my expectations from getting too high so that I wouldn’t be disappointed. I remember how happy she was when I won that race.

Janet even organized some videos from ex-teammates that couldn’t make it to the party. Josh Hall, Andrew Pinfold, Jacob Erker, and Juan Sanchez (whom I raced and grew up riding with) all sent in clips.

Overall it was a wonderful night. Everyone that I have talked to since has said how much fun they had. I think it was because the vibe was so positive and upbeat. It really was a celebration.

So now it’s official, because it can’t get more official than having a retirement celebration. I’m retired. Maybe it is Janet’s way of keeping me truly retired and not tempted to try and have “another go at things”. But mostly I think she organized it because she loves me. Thanks babe.

Photos courtesy of Kimberly Arsenault

Recently retired from professional cycling, Andrew Randall  has taken up a management/rider development role with the Jet Fuel/La Bicicletta team for 2012 and opened up his coaching services to the public.