Teammates: can't race with them, can't kill them.
 

amateur racing,







serious business...

Making everyone else in the group nervous is a really great idea.

...THEIR contacts...

why is this so hard?

+1

is she cute?

Who says cat 5s have no tactics? Look here, psychological warfare starting before anyone even arrives at the race. Imagine if this "very strong rider" in question actually has no handling issues at all, and this is all just a tactical play. Spread rumors, act squirrel-ly at the start, then no one will follow your wheel when you attack before a corner...
I'd call the bluff.






Or maybe not.

The woman that lapped the field solo at the first Bethel was in her second race. She admits readily that she's not a great bike handler, at least in a pack. So she pulled as hard as she could until they let her go, lapped the field, then pulled at the way to the finish.

I have a teammate who is very, very strong, but not very comfortable in a pack. He comes from a Tri background. As a result, his MO has been to just ride away from the field. So far, he has done it in every race, though I suspect that might become more difficult when he cats up to a 2 later this year.

As for the original post, every race seems to have some sketchy riders in them. It's to be expected. To encourage people not to race because of that is just stupid.

I will cut and paste that link and start an urban myth about myself except I will change the name to ******

Without knowing the people in question, it's possible that the person sending the email has something of a point.
But it is an absolutely horrible way of dealing with the situation.

If the teammate really isn't ready to do her first crit, then her teammates should work with her to address any unsafe riding, and help her improve her skills. If the team really thinks the person is dangerous, and not willing to learn, then they don't have to be her teammate.

You don't go around throwing your teammate under the bus. I bet that email will haunt its author for a good while.

I actually don't know the author, or the person in question; I just know that's a horrible horrible way to treat your teammate. And what's worse is I'm not supposed to call these ******** out because the person in question is "the best customer ____ cycles has".

Sometimes I wish people had some self-respect.

Well put. Lack of self-respect is the root cause of not respecting others.

Sometimes?

Well, other times it doesn't bother me as much.

So did the strong sketchy girl race?

Yeah, she got away with that...once. She also made some of the other races very fast and hard, but once we knew who she was no one was letting her get anywhere.

that is all kinds of awesome. not doing a race because of 1 "sketchy" rider.

a fundamental element of being on a team is to assist in the development of team mates. this is clearly lost on the author of that email.

+1

We got a new girl this year who is very strong, but was pretty sketchy, to the point where girls from other teams (politely) mentioned it to us. We've been working with her on our team rides, have encouraged her to attend skills sessions (which she did--I went to one with her), and have discussed it with our team coach so that he can provide some extra attention. She's riding a whole lot better now. Win win.

Given that I know the team, just from the context, I really kind of look at most of them that way. Just sayin'

It won't keep me out of a race though.

Dra-ma.

"Im not racing tonight because I like my safety" -excellent.

apparently all the other cat5's in the race are "safe".

Drunken monkey on a fixie without brakes is safer then cat5s That goes for 4's too, they just go faster. :lol:

In the defense of Cat 5's I would say that all my races have seen quite good handling, nothing sketchy in my book. Maybe a lack of organization, and tactics. But the riding has not seemed bad at all.

highly doubtful.

here's my recollection of how people turn in different fields.

cat 5: people cutting the apex way too early and swings out and taking people on the outside

cat 4/5: serious slowing down in the corners, with a good dose of accordion afterwards

cat 3/4: pretty damn smooth most of the time. still a bit of accordion, but no one's touching the brakes

cat 1/2/3 (no personal experience): they take the same corners that the cat 3/4's take at about 1.5-2mph faster