Etiquette

[hilljockey]

Lifted from the web at http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/2008/04/sitting-in-and-bowing-out-art-of.html

Posted it on the old forum but thought it might be new to some on this one.  And it's kinda relevant to this thread...

Road racing is all about tactics. Unfortunately, the tactical advice you get from books and magazines is intended for winners or for people who aspire to be winners. As such, it doesn't apply to you. Using that stuff for pass/fail racing is like trying to assemble a piece of Ikea furniture by following Mapquest directions to Chuck E. Cheese. You’re not interested in winning, you’re interested in surviving. Here are three key pieces of advice for the survival of the pass/fail racer:

Go Where The Most People Are

If you see a group of people go up the road that has less people in it than the group you’re in, stay where you are! What’s happening is that a selection is being made, and trust me when I tell you don’t want to be a part of it. The first rule of pass/fail racing is to avoid breakaways. Being in a breakaway is like going from a cushy job at a big company with a regular paycheck to a really hard job at a tiny company where you have to work 16 hour days on commission only and people are always yelling at you. And trust me—someone will yell at you. Every break has a self-appointed driver who is really mean and constantly shouts stuff like, “Short pulls!” and “Rotate!” and “Pull off into the wind!” and then gets indignant when you say “But I don’t wanna rotate!” since just want to sit on the back crying because you miss those fun cubicle days when all your friends were around and you didn’t have to do any real work. I mean, seriously, if you want to suffer do a cyclocross race.

Conversely, if you’re in one group and you suddenly realize the group up the road has much more people than the one you’re in, that means you’re probably being dropped. If possible, get back to the group with more people in it. (Shouting at someone else to “Close the gap!” can be helpful here.)

Savor the Slowness

There are times in the race when the pace will slow for no apparent reason. This is a good thing for the pass/fail racer, as it is an opportunity to relax and enjoy. Occasionally though, you may be tempted to try to lift the pace or “make a move.” But it is absolutely essential to always remember the first rule of pass/fail racing and stay where the people are. Because if you do go off the front, nobody’s going to follow you since you’re a pass/fail racer and they are too and they know better than to get mixed up in some fool’s errand with you. Then you wind up alone in no-man’s land. If you don’t know what no-man’s land is, it’s kind of like that period after you learned what the cycling-related jokes on the Primal jerseys meant, but before you figured out that it was totally uncool to wear them, so you just rode around alone wearing a Primal jersey and looking ridiculous. And that’s what will happen if you go off the front. You’ll wind up alone, between the field and the break, looking ridiculous.

Work Only Out of Craven Self-Preservation

There is only one situation in which it is acceptable for the pass/fail racer to accelerate or attempt to move up through the field, and that’s at the beginning of any sort of incline. This is a widely-known rule, but it’s one of the few that’s actually designed for the pass/fail racer and so it bears repeating here. What you want to do is move to the front of the group at the start of the climb so that as you continue up it you can slowly drift back through the group instead of struggling to stay on. Hopefully, by the time you get to the top of the incline you haven’t already been spit out the back. This is the equivalent of periodically selling something you own for quick cash so you can enjoy a few months of easy living instead of simply working hard all the time.


Premature Withdrawal

Road racing isn’t like other types of racing. In a cyclocross race, you stay in the race until you finish or until you’re pulled, even if nobody’s near you. In a mountain bike race, you keep racing regardless of your position as well, unless you’ve got an irreparable mechanical problem, or unless you’re me and you just wanna go home. But in road racing, if you find yourself dropped and alone, you stop racing. This is perfectly acceptable, and it’s because, unlike other activities, road racing is not done for fun. It’s done out of obligation. So once your race is over there’s simply no point in carrying on.

Of course, there are times you may want to leave the race even before you’ve gotten dropped. Technically, this is unacceptable. However, there are a few ways to do it while saving face. They are:

Get a Flat

Be honest: who hasn’t prayed for a puncture during periods of extreme physical duress? If you simply want out, try to steer towards gravel or bits of broken glass. If possible, ride in the gutter, where these sorts of things accumulate. Also, if there’s any kind of neutral wheel service, be sure to start the race on a bicycle that is incompatible with modern-day drivetrains. There’s no way the mechanic’s going to be able to cram a 10-speed wheel with 130mm spacing into your 120mm-spaced frame quick enough for you to get back in the race. And even if he does, it's not going to work with your Huret rear derailleur. Best of all, you can blame not only bad luck but also bicycle marketing and gimmickry for your failure to finish.

Unfortunately, getting a flat on purpose isn’t always easy, but you’ll just have to try your best until I start selling my Deflat-O-Mat 3000, which will instantly induce double-flats via a discreet handlebar-mounted trigger disguised as a cycle computer.

Have a Mechanical

There are innumerable ways to feign component failure. My personal favorite is the Hincapie ‘06. Remember the moment his steerer tube broke in Paris-Roubaix and he sat there for a moment studying his disembodied handlebars in disbelief before he crashed spectacularly? You can easily replicate this yourself by simply carrying a multi-tool in your jersey and subtly unbolting your stem. When it’s time to throw in the towel, simply slide the stem off the steerer tube and you’ll be out of the race in no time. (You can also do a Hincapie ’08—wheel failures can be induced by opening a skewer with your foot.)

And of course this all leads to the best but most dangerous way to leave a race:

Have a Crash

A good crash requires no explanation. Of course, it might require hospitalization, so this method should be used sparingly. If possible, steer towards grass or haybales.

[Boostland]

Have a Crash

A good crash requires no explanation. Of course, it might require hospitalization, so this method should be used sparingly. If possible, steer towards grass or haybales.

This one has been my excuse now for quite some time, it works on so many levels at quite a few events following said crash, all you have to do is have some healing injuries and some mystery lower back pain caused by a bruised spine and pain from where your pump in your pocket attacked your back as you were flung onto the road at close to 50 km/h, and have the riders there that witnessed said crash and you can't be called a quitter or what ever else as your back on the bike at least trying to look like your competing

That said if I manage to start at Wootton this Saturday I have a sneaking suspicion that trying to drag my ~96 - 98 Kg BFA over those hills will be a big ask on a still recovering back, lets hope we get a good spread of rider ability there, then at least I might find a group I can keep up with.

So everyone come along to Wootton and don't let the hills scare you I need some company, if someone wants to ride up them fast I will be using HJ's quote of race tactics to the best of my ability, on the down hill run however I will not be applying brakes

Just getting my pre race excuses out there so it saves time when I get asked "what happened to you"

[Gai M]

There is only one situation in which it is acceptable for the pass/fail racer to accelerate or attempt to move up through the field, and that’s at the beginning of any sort of incline. This is a widely-known rule, but it’s one of the few that’s actually designed for the pass/fail racer and so it bears repeating here. What you want to do is move to the front of the group at the start of the climb so that as you continue up it you can slowly drift back through the group instead of struggling to stay on. Hopefully, by the time you get to the top of the incline you haven’t already been spit out the back.
   ..........


 if you find yourself dropped and alone, you stop racing.

2nd point first:

If I had been told that when I first started racing, I would not have finished a race for something like two or more years.




As for the hill tactic, I am aware of this but I didn't know that other riders would be willing to let me ride this way without misinterpreting my motives.


Question: when a hill is teamed up with a medium or worse head wind, what does the weaker rider do then?

If I move to the front at the bottom of the hill, the others may well choose to just sit behind me and draft.  Especially in F grade.

[Boostland]

You don't want to be right on the front just near the front, if somehow you do end up there you won't be there for long anyway as the bunch will come past if your slow on hills.

Also don't go using up energy to get up near the front just before the hill, use any opportunity to gain bunch position without using any energy, if the bunch slows don't put brakes on and slow down, roll around the riders and get bunch position in large bunches in opens this tactic can save you a lot of energy.

[Robbo]

Gai,

have a rummage around in the shed and see if you can locate your husband's old racing motorbike. take all the aero **** off it and strap it to the front of your helmet. that may help in the wind.

if not, eat a truck load of onions, beer and other wind greating tucker the night before the race. CREATE YOUR OWN WIND! All the old codgers will then have to work out how to ride through it and you could well be off the front and on your way to the glory you seek!

[Metro Commuter]

Inexperienced,

What is a "true sprinter"?  A difficult thing to answer. 

I think you can get bogged down in the science - lots of fast twitch muscles, etc etc.   Some have said I am a sprinter but I am not - I am just a powerful rider who sprints better than some other non-sprinters.  Compare me (non-sprinter) with Commando (pure sprinter).  In his PowerTap comp absolute peak outputs were measured - had nothing to do with ability to sustain.  If my hazy memory is correct, Commando put out the highest peak power (over 2000W) of all the participants, whereas I put out less than that (but I did beat Thor God of Thunder!!!), but my peak torque output was the highest of all including Commando.  But  compare the graph of how I put out my power to that of Commando and Thor and my profile was quite different in shape to theirs, and there were differences between the two of them.  The bottom line is the way they deliver their power, coupled to their superior pedalling action, means they will (if we were all of equal fitness levels) beat me, and beat me easily, every time in a proper sprint even if you could take out their vasty superior tactics.

I seriously doubt there are any pure sprinters in any grade below C grade, and if they are they are undiscovered.  The only time a pure sprinter is in C grade is if Masso gets dropped to C grade. 

I can think of only a handful of true pure sprinters, and even then you can get into semantics based on how they might go on the track.  My thoughts, and in no order - Commando, Weapon, Nige Perry, Rob Hadley, Thor, Paddy Kilmurray, the older Lewis not related to Joe (mental blank - was talking to Glenn last night) are the small number of pure sprinters, and it is perhaps no coincidence they all have track experience.  Others may like to add names, as I have in my haste no doubt missed a few.

[Boostland]

You might want to add some names from the earlier years as we have one of the best sprinters that came out of Australia here in Newcastle.



Ron Baensch who has 3 world professional sprint medals 2 silver and a bronze, and also was 4th in the 1960 Olympic sprint and 3rd in the 1962 amateur world sprints, as well as a heap of other victories around Europe for many years while he was competing there as a pro.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1300&dat=19631202&id=KUARAAAAIBAJ&sjid=npYDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4923,114803

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1300&dat=19620912&id=l4UQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=K5UDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3928,1681558

Here is a bit of a list of some of his world sprint results the translation is not so good.

He also raced 6 day races and did quite a lot of road racing as well, and he was a bit of a Aussie larrikin and has some great stories to tell, he also is a great guy who put lots of time into training the Weapon and other riders in the arts of track, I learned a lot from Ron when he was training me when I was younger.

There is also Bob Ryan who had a list as long as my arm of Australian pro sprint gold medals, and it looks like the sprint runs in the family as young Matt has the kind of explosive speed needed to be a great sprinter.

[Haddo]

Gai, if they all sit behind you that it is perfect. You can control the pace. Remember, you can only get dropped from the back of the bunch.

[Metro Commuter]

Boostie is, of course, correct - I was thinking of current riders, although to call Commando a current rider is perhaps like calling Commuter a fashionista

[Haddo]

So to be a pure sprinter, do you have to be able to come up with great calls like "Lets Dance Boys" moments before running 8th in an 8 up sprint???

Sorry Commando, that is still one of my favourite ever racing stories.

[THOR]

outpowered by Metro...?? say its not so commando? lets break that power tap out again I have a point to prove.... My best sprint result was a 2nd in A grade NSW road race:  a long time away from my form of late (1 lap of black Hill before a  full body meltdown   )

[Haddo]

I beat Thor in a sprint once, i think he must of had a puncture. The G, O ,D's, so long ago. Struggle to sprint my way out of a paper bag at present.

[Boostland]

1 lap of black Hill before a  full body meltdown  

I only lasted another lap and a 1/6 before pulling out, not from it being too fast back pain was getting too much, if you had of made it past the first lap the race slowed quite a lot after the selection was made with the main A grade group riding clear, once that happened a few guys from B grade were saying to not chase as there were not other B grade riders away, I thought that was a great idea at the time as that first lap was a fair bit harder with quite a few attacks.

[giantcfr1]

Thor - Was that 2nd behind me?

[giantcfr1]

oh and there was that one time you beat me in a sprint during an omnium Thor - i'll never forget that day -you wouldn't let me live it down for a while