plantrob

My post was a question, not an opinion. No criticism of OP intended, just genuine curiosity about the appeal of staying in after you've been lapped once or twice.

waterrockets 

Yeah, I had to knuckle brush our lapped junior earlier this season at the Driveway. The guy who was pushing me outside into him ended up crashing when I stopped giving him room. Our junior should have been about 15 feet to his right (at his current speed of 17mph). <sigh>

kindablue

And I love when the official calls them out at the start line for the next race. Then makes them go to the very back (happened at City Park Crit - I think you are in Boulder so you'd know that one.)

Psimet2001 

BWAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...I totally forgot I did that. Mother f';n pack was barreling down on a rag tag bunch of us that I had kind of put togehter as we went into the infamous "BK Stacker". The other 2 freaked and I reveled in listening to aham yell at them. As Arron mentioned I drilled it knowing there was no way for me to GTFO of the way until after the corner. I had seen aham on the front and knew if I f'd this up I was taking out my own friend and guy who could win. Good pull through the corner and when it was clear I pulled to the side and pointed the direction I wanted the field to go....then yelled at aham to go kick some ass.

Man I love bike racing.

Racer Ex 

I wish this would happen more often. I think it's absolute chicken stuff when lapped guys decide to contest the sprint or start trying to help a teammate in the break.

Gunsmoke, Episode 73.

My post was only half serious. I just always scratch my head when people who haven't done something or aren't very good at something start offering up advice. Once you threw in the "It seems to me" though, you are actually venturing an opinion, but couching it as a hypothesis.

I'm training my ass off right now and that makes me more curmudgeonly than usual.

VT Biker

Yes they did. It was the SM4 race, and the official saw a guy was warming up during I think an SM45+ race, and told him to get to the very back. I quite enjoyed that.

VT Biker

Completely agree with this one.

In terms of not pulling riders (or making it official policy)

A) In the rare case where a rider so strong laps the entire field....I think they want the option to let this one go.
B) I have a feeling these promoters are under pressure somewhat to not completely demoralize participants, and if riders are paying money, I imagine some feel somewhat let down if they are asked to leave the race.

Not saying this makes it right, but I know a few other guys who have given up on crits because they were getting pulled so quickly. So now these guys are no longer potential customers for the crits, and the promoters lose out.

roadwarrior

LOL...what's funny is that the ones that know the least about what they are doing are the ones that yell the most.

roadwarrior

Why that's the perfect description of the "expert buddy" who comes into the bike shop to "help his friend". Makes our job doubly difficult.

rbart4506

I've got experienced getting lapped in crits

When it does happen, I'm outta there....Even if the officials don't pull me...My thinking is I got lapped for a reason, so I have no business taking up precious asphalt for the guys that do...

If I'm worried that I only got a 30min ride in...Then I go back to the car, remove my numbers and then get my ass back on the bike and go ride!

Then I come back next time and see if I do better...

Crits just are not my cup of tea at this point...

plantrob

Heh, I'm an R&D guy. It's my job to come up with hypotheses for things I don't yet understand, and then to seek experimental evidence to prove them right or wrong. This forum, and all of your opinions/shared experiences, are as close as I'm gonna get to experimental evidence until I find myself lapped in a race

shovelhd

You're tellin' me brotha. I thanked the official afterwards for doing it. From what I understand more than a few riders were upset about it, because it was the last race of a points series and team money was on the line. I wasn't in contention for this but two riders in the break were.

As for riding through the field after lapping, that has always been my preference.

topflightpro

The main race official around here tends not to pull lapped riders. Her rationale is that we all payed to race, so she is going to let us stay in as long as possible and only pull riders if it becomes dangerous.

As to why not to pull lapped riders, well, I've been in races where one guy laps the field within the first 10 minutes - should the official then pull the entire field and let the one guy ride alone for another 35 minutes?

Additionally, if you get lapped, it is often a good learning experience to catch back on and try to hang in with the field the rest of the race. In my experience, most 4 and 5 crits tend to start really fast - and pop a few riders in the first ten minutes, then they slow down as riders settle in for the remaining 35 minutes. At this point, some of those dropped riders can still hang in.

Finally, I'm also one of the more vocal guys in the field, but I generally yell things like: "Let him have his prime" or "I'll give you a pair of socks" when I'm hurting and the field is going nuts for some stupid prime.

Homebrew01

In the other race that day, 7 of us lapped the field (leaving no points for the field), and the official told lapped riders to drop out, but either most didn't hear him, or didn't realize the entire field had been lapped, so the final sprint was a mess, with about half the field still "racing". I think the announcer could have been more clear.

shovelhd

Want a better learning experience? Don't let solo riders get away and lap the field.

Racer Ex 

I have pretty decent skills on a road bike and would try to be entertaining...wheelies, brakies, changing the lap cards myself, a humorous strip tease....

shovelhd

I would pay money for that video.

topflightpro

He was a teammate. We were sponsoring the race. I did everything I could to help him get around and keep anyone else from joining him.

mike868y

the officials weren't pulling lapped riders this past weekend at Naugatuck and it was downright dangerous.