merlinextraligh

that's ok, as long as he doesn't go CinZano on us.

e30jean

I wonder about folks that care if other riders shaves his legs...unless of course we are talking about ladies Yes, keep those legs shaved !

I have hairy legs and arms, I see fast guys on the trail with hairy legs...does it really bother anybody? Doesn't bother me or anybody else from what I've seen.

andr0id

The pants are not the reason. The pants are a symptom.

In our Quixotic quest to "not judge" we don't acknowledge the elephant in the room which is that the pants are a screaming evidence that the rider makes bad decisions and is not prepared in any way to race with others. Rather than accept that, we let it slide and then when he crashes out in the sprint, people say, "how were we to know?"

caloso

When I was lining up for my first ever race, my friend who introduced me to bike racing was giving me some last minute encouragement and instructions. Be up front but not at the front, stay out of the wind unless you have to, don't forget to drink, etc. Then he noticed a guy who was wearing long johns and my buddy said "Make sure you stay ahead of that guy."

e30jean

Funny!

woodcraft

You look up to people who ride poorly & crash?

Ice41000

Well said.

kbarch

Of course generally speaking, no, it doesn't bother anyone and nobody cares, especially "on the trail." But when it comes to serious racing, one is expected, in principle, to not be so carefree. If you listen to the pros reactions to the late "controversy," you'll hear frequent mention the difference it makes with the massages they always get (i.e., it's part of the extra care they take). I expect the champion went back to shaving because it was time to get back to business.

BillyD

No, not necessarily so. He could be your iconic "Fred", and despite his gear ride everybody's pants off.

OR he could just be a rebel, and refuse to conform to the "standard".

OR he could be hustling the group . . . you know, like trolling, just to get attention or to get everyone all upset.

Sure he definitely bears cautious watching at first, but there's no guarantee he can't ride just because he wears sweats.

grolby

Thing is, though, being willing to go hot into corners when surrounded by other racers is in fact a racing skill, and a crucial one, as important as being able to throw down the watts. So that's a real talent he's displaying. We all start somewhere, with beginner skills, and in a 4/5 race it gets a little silly to make a thing about who is experienced and who isn't. Pretty much no one at that level has much skill. The problem really is a racing category system that throws people into the deep end of high speed pack racing without requiring anyone to have taught them the skills they need to survive the experience. The brave, the lucky and the foolhardy keep at it long enough to figure things out, but it's not a great system.

goenrdoug

So, did Cap'n Sweatpants win? It sounds to me like everyone else was on the ground...

Adonis72

This Captain Sweat Pants is my hero and sounds like a biking icon in the making.

kbarch

Actually, in a 4/5 race, the total experience may not be very great, but the difference or breadth of it is as wide as you're ever likely to see. The learning curve is always steepest at the beginning. And there are no first-timers in the 1/2/3 field, over which others have infinitely greater experience at the start.

Locally, one thing that's nice is that CRCA (the club/super team that runs Central Park races) requires folks to complete a Racing Skills for New Members session before they can participate in one of their club races, and the C field is typically half the size of that open race Saturday. They have clinics, too, which are pretty good - experienced members of one of the sub-teams riding along for two or three of the six-mile loops of the park, giving pointers, encouraging, and so forth. It turns out, they had a little clinic for crits before the big open one they run early in the year, too. I've avoided crits, but if I'd known, I would have done that. Lord knows I should have.

kbarch

Nope.


In the results, there was one unaffiliated guy with a one-day license, who came in 39th. That may well have been him.

There were plenty of folks in front of the crash, and plenty who made it around, too - 53 recorded finishers. There were 75 entrants - not sure how many DNS (probably a full field anyhow, as there was a wait list), DNF (at least ten), or just poorly pinned numbers (at least a couple, maybe a half dozen).

merlinextraligh

Avoiding crits for fear of crashing is a bad dea imho. Road races can be more dangerous than crits. Crashes in road races can be more severe. Also, there's the cadre of people with poor bike handling skills doing 4/5 road races because they won't race crits. Thus self selecting the crash prOned.

And by not doing crits, you're missing opportunities to race an improve your handling and pack skills.

thump55

Sometimes people have pooping accidents on the way to bike races and need to wear whatever they happen to have in the truck.

Sometimes people need to sit up in the middle of a sprint in order to avoid having their second pooping accident of the day.

rmfnla

Hey, I have a frame mounted pump and I love The Rules.

You know what they say about assumptions...

caloso

Your early bird series has numbers and cameras? Fancy.