There is an excellent article about this in the back of Velonews this week. When I first joined a team, we had lots of tough love from the older guys about riding technique and what not to do in a race, frankly, what I see out there now would have gotten the sh*t kicked out of you after a race by older riders, they didn't tolerate this BS and course directors would ban riders.
The good news is that master's level is not like this, but the master's guys are a tougher bunch to beat.

That quote was not Steve McQueen, it was a fictional character in a movie. While I enjoy bike and auto racing, it's still just going in circles a little faster than someone else.
I've seen the other perspective: guys that ruled in U23 class, went to Europe, most failed, but at that point, they have no life, no training for a career, damaged health from doping, damaged bodies from crashes, lucky if they can get a job at a bike shop -hardly a big impact on the world or the lives of others, and any impact is done before you're 35 -then what? These days, that's not even half a life.

Many of these guys end up hating the bike. A few snap out of it and get involved in youth fitness and safety training, coach a team, lobbying governments to build one velodrome for every 1,000 baseball fields, etc.

Havn't read the article, however agree that there is certanly less emphasis on coaching and the club system today. Part of that I beleive is the recent trend towards new riders to be older, a lot of 5's in their 30's or 40's. They tend to either shun coaching or dont have the time due to other commitments in life.

In the past many more new riders were Jr's.

Another contributing trend has been the rise of masters racing. A lot of us who would have naturally gone into coaching are still selfishly training and racing into our 50's.

a few more random thoughts...

sorry...hit the return key.

I agree that training rides are the riskiest. Racing is dangerous but it's a controlled environment. Just this week a teammate suffered broken bones after being hit by a car on the way back from a training ride.

While anything can happen in a bike race, Masters races are indeed way safer. Also more interesting and tactical. Experience counts, and usually if something bad happens it is a freak accident like the earlier mention of a pothole in the dark in Central Park. (maybe racing in the dark is a bad idea?)

Racing seems to be the closest thing to a fountain of youth. Most of the good masters racers are incredible physical specimens for their age. Maybe some of that is genetic (they race because they are great athletes?) but anyone over 35 will tell you the kind of shape you're in is 95% what you do and 5% the way you were born. I would rather, as I get older, have lingering effects of a couple of injuries than high blood pressure, diabetes etc. from being out of shape. Yes you can stay in reasonable shape by riding around the park or going to the gym but it's not the same.

I've skimmed the thread, so my apologies if some of this is duplicative, but I had to chuckle at the law student's comment that once he got his JD he'd stop racing to enjoy the wine and women. I'm a 40 year-old lawyer and I spent the greater part of my 20s and 30s doing just that, enjoying the wine and women. Way too much of both, to be sure. Now I am faithfully married, a wildly happy dad of twin toddlers, and I no longer drink alchohol.

And I race bikes. Not well--the full time job and family makes it tough to get training miles and makes it doubly tough to justify driving 2 hours for a 45 minute race. But it's far more addictive and rush-making than booze and chicks ever were. I was in a two man break in yesterday's race and for 10 laps I was ALIVE, man. My whole universe was shrunk to the other guy's wheel, my bike, and the space of pavement between us the peleton.

That's where it is: the pain, the exhiliration, the wind and the whir of tires over pavement.

nice.

+1. If you have to spend money on women to keep them around you're chasing the wrong ones.

You got it: Never forfeit qualitative stuff for quantitative stuff.

That is certainly close to why I am hooked. There are a lot safer pursuits but after racing motocross from 16yo-20yo, jumping out of airplanes on uncle Sam's dime 20yo-25yo I got hooked on adrenaline early.

After a 20 year hiatus I have rediscovered the adrenaline rush, the quiet mind brought on by extreme physical exertion and the joy of a healthy body. It is all good and worth the calculated risk. However, I will not take unnecessary risks for the sake of a high. Maturity has given me the ability to better measure risk/reward. My focus is long term enjoyment. :)

+1

Ahh to be young and naive. I, too am a 40+ year old lawyer and I too chuckled when I read that. The idea that one's life's dreams would be fulfilled after you get your law degree and start making money, so that after that you have to just play defense and enjoy your cash is something no person who has practiced law or any other well-paying livelihood for 15 years would say....

Money is nice and all but it does not make you ALIVE. When you are young (and you don't realize it then) you almost always feel alive. As you get older, you have to take affirmative steps to remind yourself.....

I haven't seen any posts from women yet, so I'll throw in my two cents. . .

While women have the advantage of working with much smaller fields, we have disadvantages in the form of less races (generally, but not terribly), more open races where 4's and 1's stay packed up on a 1 mile crit course until the last three laps, and more women with less experience. Furthermore, there is never a rush to registration. You wanna race? You show up with a jersey and a bike. No problemo. In some instances the dedication, the experience, and the familiarity with racing techniques are just not there.

This by *no* means is a knock on women's racing, nor a "we don't have it as good" speech. I've seen a number of crashes that have made me modify the way I ride, have motivated me to become stronger and faster, and have made me consider whether this is a risk I really want to take. But the risk is always there no matter how good you, or those areound you, are when they're racing. If you really enjoy it, you balance the risk and the returns.

;)