Gerlach back on the streets..
 

Sad. The guy appears to have a lot of talent, and a lot of demons.

http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/2229294.html

Terrible news!!

I hate to hear this about a dude with a ton of talent. Man, what is he thinking? Drugs are a terrible, terrible thing. I hope he can get himself straight again. I know nobody can help him, he will have to help himself because he is pretty hard headed.

AGAIN, I wish him and his family luck.

I have a few photos of him and I at races, but this one is pretty cool. Chad and I at Jr National Championships in the late 80s. He is in the all yellow behind me with the yellow Cal Fresh logo on his shorts. I am in the pink right in front of him. I have posted this before but thought I would share again.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2036/...35b06a9898.jpg

Yeah, it's tough when you've went deep into addiction not to spiral back. I've witnessed this first-hand too many times. I feel so bad because it's way beyond a HTFU situation to some.

My prayers are with him.

slightly unexpected and sad to hear.

Dang.

That sucks.

This is really disheartening.

I hope he can figure his life out, whether or not he races again...

I read this as Gerlach is back on the bike... on the streets... riding... But alas, I was mistaken.

At what point does sad become stupid?

Life's not that simple, Ze. Try not to judge the guy. It's sad but a lot of the time that's unfortunately how life works out. Hopefully he beats whatever addiction/other issues he has going on and gets his life back again.

That's how life works out? It's a decision. Everything in life is a decision. You make bad decisions, you pay the consequences. He's paying the consequences for a huge pile of awful decisions.

Don't get me wrong, I'm pulling for him. Like a lot of you I've seen what addiction can do first hand, and I know how horrible it is. But acting like this is something out of his control is ridiculous - maybe it is now, but it wasn't at the start, and that counts.

It was very depressing to hear about this. Not only is he flushing his cycling talent away, but apparently also his life. Perhaps the most depressing line in the article was, "[When] Asked about the recent birth of his daughter, he said, "I need to call and find out what color her eyes are, and what color her hair is." I hope he can turn his life around before we're reading a premature obituary. And for the record, I'm not judging him; I'm sure he's lived a life that many of us can't begin to fathom or comprehend.

Yeah, it is. You either put the pipe in your mouth or you don't. You choose between your kid or your favorite drug. Lot of stuff swirls around in there but in the end it comes down to that moment of clarity and choice of which one you love more. Anyone who's been there will tell you that.

And ain't no junkie goes back to the s*** not knowing what they are stepping back into.

For his family's sake I hope he walks back into rehab and it sticks. I've gotten the kind of phone call his Dad is dreading. Sympathize with the people who get to clean up the train wreck. Or that little girl who's as likely as not going to have some dirt bag "Dad" showing up loaded to borrow money or steal the microwave on her birthday. Or who gets to go to identify the body.

But don't judge him?

He walked out on his daughter to go get high.

No, it isn't. I'll spare you the soapbox diatribe of the differing perspective because you're not going to change your mind. If you own life has never included perdiods of serious addiction then more power to you, but it isn't so cut and dry. I'm not saying that what he's doing now isn't ruining other people's lives, but it's more complicated than "I'm stupid and made a bad choice."

We've been over this before, I think. I can see both sides of the issue. The one about making choices and HTFU and the one about being in too deep.

I've had to go to several NA meetings with someone real close to me. When you sit in and listen to the struggles that these people go through you get a better understanding of how hard it really is. Sometimes you can't just put things away and never look back. It's a battle, physically, mentally, spiritually.

Some of us can easily put these demons aside and move on. Others cannot - no matter how hard they try.

We all have things that we struggle with. Maybe it's food. Maybe it's drugs. Maybe it's a sexual addiction. We can't judge and say, "Just stop, stupid" until we have walked in that person shoes.

I'm watching someone close to me slowly die from years of abuse. And even though this person knows he's going to quicken the process he still cannot let go. And it's not because he really doesn't want to. He can't.

amen.

to add my own thoughts, chad gerlach has been provided ample opportunity to recover and repeatedly chose the wrong path. I root for him just like I would any other addict, but I'll reserve my prayers the innocent lives his selfish choices have impacted.

+1
I think leaving his daughter sucks big time but the "he should just stop" stuff is easier said than done especially if the guy has some psych issue to top it off.
It may not be addiction but some of the road hours guys put on their bikes here and aren't on a DS's payroll makes one wonder.

which is why gerlach's relapse is sadly unsurprising.

the fact that he dived back into cycling after sobering up was - to me - him replacing one addiction with another. i wondered what would happen during, and more importantly after the season. now i know.

Yep, people have addictive personalities. They just need to find the right things to be addicted to. For Gerlach it was cycling for a while. Unfortunately the cycling season slowed down and we see where the priorities lie in his life. Very sad.

I hope he bounces back from it. Coming from parents similar to this, I hate to think what his daughter is going to go through growing up.

:facepalm:

Drugs are bad, mmmk

The counselor in the article has it right. When Chad realizes that it's not all about himself, that he's just a guy who's behavior is destroying other people's lives, then he might man-up and change his ways. In essence Chad should open his eyes and grow up before his own family gives up on him.

I tend to just zone these people out as you really can't control them. Its sad to see him destroying lives around him, and 9 times out of 10 the best thing to do is walk away from that person.

Judge me if you will but I've been in that situation and it rarely turns out well. It usually turns into the junkee destroying those around him.

It has, both personal and shared, and it is (cut and dry). There's nothing theoretical in my take on this.

You don't split addiction between "serious" and "frivolous" BTW. That's called enablement. You don't do 6 steps for a little habit.

If you're an addict you use or you don't. If you're the friend or family of an addict it's go to treatment or go away*.

What it is is simple. What it isn't is easy. It's as hard as anything you'll do.

*The lack of funding for treatment when we spend billions on interdiction is another matter.

+1

Well geez, how can anyone argue with that?

I think there is a difference between being "addicted" to something like weed and being addicted to crack, but I'm no expert like others here.