Originally Posted by
rapwithtom
Tough emotions for me these last few days:
Perspective A:
- I love riding my bike. I always have, ever since I was a kid.
- I love competition. I always have. I played competitive sports when I was younger, and raced cars in mid-life. My professional life exhibits a similar spirit.
Perspective B:
- I'm 200 lbs and overwhelmingly fast twitch. As far as bike racing goes, I'm pretty squarely built for crits. (Or maybe for our about-to-open local velodrome?)
Perspective C:
- Crits are dangerous. I have in real life seen many serious injuries, and there is also a preponderance of them amongst the denizens of this forum.
- I've had plenty of surgery-inducing sports injuries, including work on both knees and both shoulders. I don't want any more. I'm ***-shy.
Perspective D:
- I'm OCD (like most bike racers); after each ass-whipping, I am compelled to work even harder and come back for more.
- I love love love the physical training and improvement that is bike racing.
Perspective E:
- More than actually enjoying the 40 minutes of a crit, it's more of something I put myself through as a goal and/or to get stronger. Getting stronger/leaner/faster certainly feels rewarding to me.
- The culture around crit racing, in my experience, suffers from a lack of collegiality. A day at the crit races is nowhere near as fun as a day at some of the other sports I've done.
Perspective F:
- After 10 years of riding (a lot), 2 years of crit racing, lots of training, and very expert coaching, I am a mid-pack cat 4. I am not a natural. While I never dreamt of bike racing fame, damn, a little sign of some improvement would have been nice.
I have always planned to end my season on yesterday's race. I've now got some summer travel, and then I will focus on a fall CX season. I am not sure I will return to crit racing...time will tell, but I am wondering if this will be a transitioning period for me, perhaps to focus exclusively on CX, or perhaps something else. Or, maybe I'll be back next year, full of determination and hope...
Does any of this resonate with anybody else?
Yes. Absolutely.
The parts about improvement and wanting to see more than just mid pack. Very well said.
I like racing crits, though, although it doesn't bother me one bit to look at the conditions at a race and say "meh, another time".
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Last edited by sarals; 06-09-14 at 06:15 PM.