FLCC> The Boorish Side of Bike Racing

[Darren Zanon]

Dan's right on here: local races are for the enjoyment of the riders, not 
because the promoters are making money -- and if they do make money, you 
probably see it the next year in the form of primes and pizza or a bigger 
event. Regardless, the people out there are volunteers...if you think it's 
strange to pay $30 to ride in a race, try paying $10 for gas just to sit in a 
support vehicle for 3 hours.

This is not meant to excuse everything the race director does, but if the road 
has been cleared, the major intersections are staffed, and you get a free 
bottle of water at the feed zone, there's not much to complain about during 
the race. After all, anybody who gets that upset over a missed a turn 
obviously didn't prepare properly by pre-riding the course and making up a 
handy map -- even after all those months sleeping with the trainer and 
working up to the Biggest Race in Human History. 

Incidentally -- Sara, don't hold this against me if I volunteer for 
Hollenbeck's next year -- if I were driving a wheel van and the riders 
started swearing at me because they buggered a turn, you'd find a cache of 
wheels being sold by an unnamed upstate NY vendor on eBay the next day. 

-Darren Z

=========================|**Text**|=========================

Dan Timmerman, Tuesday 25 July 2006 12:15:
| While OCC goes off on a debate about whether bike racers are bigger jerks
| than football players, I'll get back to the real point.
|
| I'll be the first to admit that Owasco Stage Race has some real issues with
| instruction to volunteers or lack of experienced volunteers or something
| along those lines. Yeah, it pisses me off too but you can't yell at
| volunteers. You can't yell at the promoter either really. He's putting on a
| race for you and probably not getting much back. It needs to be discussed
| with him so he can fix the problems. You just have to keep in mind the fact
| that most of these people are doing you a favor before you start yelling at
| them.
|
| Let me clear something else up everyone. For some reason there is a some
| sort of hidden notion that there is someone going around picking up all
| your garbage, because your in a bike race. It's not the case, especially at
| a local race like Owasco. I know you all do it. Even the unsuspecting, nice
| guy who normally is opposed to littering will, for some reason do it in a
| bike race. Just put it back in your pocket. You reached back there to get
| it out, you can reach back and put it back in. Yeah, it gets a little gel
| on your jersey, so what. Your hopefully going to wash it after doing a race
| in it anyway. Just don't do it.
|
| Dan Timmerman
|
| From: "Eddie Luban" <eluban at verizon.net>
|
| >To: occ at lists.upstate.edu, fLCC at icycle.org
| >Subject: FLCC> The Boorish Side of Bike Racing
| >Date: Mon, 24 Jul 2006 17:03:45 -0400
| >
| >seen/heard from the wheel van during yesterday's Oswasco Stage Race
| >Cat.4/5 road race:
| >
| >1.  persistent and repeated riding on the wrong side of the yellow line
| >
| >2.  littering, and I'm not talking about banana peels
| >
| >3.  yelling and cursing at the WHEEL VAN, which was behind the riders,
| >after the marshals and pace car led the field the wrong way
| >
| >4.  friends/family driving behind the field (that in itself is a no-no),
| >pulling
| >out across the yellow line, driving on the wrong side of the road, cutting
| >back in between the field and the wheel van
| >
| >5.  cursing at the driver and official in the wheel van when a rider
| >couldn't
| >get the wheel he needed
| >
| >While it was only a small minority of the riders who were responsible for
| >this stuff, I could see how their actions could taint the whole race.  No
| >wonder the civilian population finds us annoying, to say the least.
| >
| >Eddie Luban
| >
| >
| >_______________________________________________
| >FLCC mailing list
| >FLCC at icycle.org
| >http://icycle.org/mailman/listinfo/flcc_icycle.org
|
| _______________________________________________
| FLCC mailing list
| FLCC at icycle.org
| http://icycle.org/mailman/listinfo/flcc_icycle.org

-- 

=========================|**Text**|=========================