Does your club / team have a set of ground rules?
 

I'm looking for examples of "best practices" ... for example, our team has a rule that when we do a team training ride, we always roll out / warm up in standard 2-up, until it's time to start hammering. At that point it's every man for himself, we attack each other etc. But we always re-group at the end and the last few miles we roll in "as a team" in 2-up.

We also have informal "code of conduct" rules - not written on a contract or anything like that, but basic understandings of how to act in order to best support the sponsors and the team.

I'm looking for ideas along those lines. They could be off the bike rules, training ride rules, racing rules, etc.

Anyone?

My team has a few rules regarding new members - we have a very strict new member policy to assure we don't have to kick anyone off for any reason - and we have a rule that any race winnings must be shared among everyone who lined up to start a race. That's basically to avoid any fights about whether someone worked hard enough for the team win. Still, you do not have to take the winnings if you don't feel that you deserve a share.

Beyond that, not really. One guy keeps bringing up the idea of a "Rider Contract" but everyone else pretty much says no.

I think our team probably has rules. I don't care to read them.

A few rules: If you're on a ride wearing the team kit, wear your helmet, keep an ear clear (meaning no earbuds in both ears), and above all, don't be a dick.

Not that I know of. Since our club ranges from complete newbie to domestic pro (people are in the club, but race for a real team) there should be some but then it wouldn't give our veterans something to passive aggressively complain about.

way back in the day (when we were Sony and had pro riders) we had a riders agreement. It was generally looked upon with derision.

From the team email | NY Velocity - New York bike racing culture, news and events

Basically just don't make the team look bad (don't run stop signs while yelling out the team name and pointing to the logo on your back).

There is a list of rules, but that's really the main one.

Basically this except for the regroup part. I kinda wish we'd do that. There'd be more beer for everyone at the parking lot.

my only rule is that if I'm doing something wrong the rule is wrong!

That's pretty intense. You have to produce a receipt proving that you purchased your non-sponsored gear before joining the team? Cease and desist orders to photographers?

With new team, the rules seem few, but reasonable. Don't be an *******, represent the team in a good manner when kitted up, don't screw eachother over in races.

that's a satire site.

From the team email pre-Battenkill | NY Velocity - New York bike racing culture, news and events

From the team email post-Battenkill | NY Velocity - New York bike racing culture, news and events

Ahh...got it. That'd be a rough team experience otherwise.

While the post was meant as satire, there are still teams out there that do this kind of stuff mainly cat 4 masters teams

that's what makes it satire.

One thing that the club has are club rides. They're for club members and invitees (typically potential future members).

Also the club requires members to train and race in the kit. In the past it's been a bit lax, with riders using prior years' non-matching kits in training races and such (and wearing something totally different on Vintage Jersey Day at the local Tues Night Crit, for example), but this year the team will be enforcing the kit rule a bit more. This will prevent riders from representing a different team in a race.

This stemmed from some riders expressing the desire to race for a different team (with different and conflicting sponsor etc) but still pay dues to be able to do our club's rides/events.

There are exceptions, like the Canadian M35+ Cross National Champ who signed for a different team for cross season. He races in the club kit for crits but represents someone else in cross season. There were one or two other people like that, racing for a higher level sponsor in cross season due to their performances in cross, but only the Canadian guy has stayed with the club/team.

:lol: Heaven forbid you piss off people giving you a 5% discount! Not replacing perfectly fine stuff is a 95% discount...

"This is incredibly risky behavior! We run the risk of a sponsor coming across a picture of one of us and seeing us wearing a set of shoe covers from a COMPETITOR! I know that if I was shelling out a 5% discount on clothing purchases, I would be offended by that sort of lax attention to branding. This situation needs to be remedied immediately before any of our sponsors see these pictures. We're just one Google image search away from disaster."

we don't really have any rules other than don't be a ****** bag in the team kit... it's sponsored by a local pub so we do not want to give them a bad name

You can ear what ever you want but if you don't have jersey for Thursday night you get no free pints at the pub

If that isn't an incentive to buy the team kit, im not sure what is!

Skipping a team ride to hook up with a another team member's wife is typically frowned upon.

Unless it is cross season, then anything goes.

This is interesting. It's never been an issue for anyone to wear older versions of the kit on team training rides or the weekly race rides. I always appreciated seeing long-standing members showing the old school jerseys. Races are a different matter of course.

My take on developing your squad into competitors, not just club mates

---all prize money goes back into the kitty as even split (it's a few bucks each, so really this should never be an issue for any team, barring hungry cat1's)
---wear kits at races that are that years edition only
---win or go down in flames trying, nobody gets to be happy they were in the break, who cares about 4th, try to win no matter who you are, otherwise next time we won't open those gaps that allowed your chance; that said, if you lose, have excuses ready
---act like a bike racer, not a bike rider; it's not about improving ones self, it's about beating others
---know your role within the squad and be that role