lshaped

you're a legend in your own mind- congrats-

unterhausen

my observation is that the roadies that really are style-conscious disdain seat bags, but the traditional front rando style bag is not looked down upon at all. I've stopped trying to mind-read other people, I'm no good at it and for some reason my paranoid side seems to win out.

kjfitz

He was at the end of a 100 mile training ride. It was his first time back on a bike since chemotherapy. He was in his cool down and lives half way up the hill. That's why you never saw him at the top of the hill.

zzzwillzzz

you'd probably be even faster without that big chip on your shoulder that you seem to be carrying

abdon 

Nice of you to notice! Once I get the scanner going I'll PM you a print of my hand so you can high five me

Everybody should be a legend in their own minds, it makes for a more enjoyable life

Don't worry z, I'll drop the chip right after I die

Richard Cranium

Sounds like a great setup. And you sound like you don't like "real racing" in general.

Getting sucked into make believe races can be fun, but really - to be bothering to describe it all in public kind of makes you the jerk and the other guy sound normal.

lhbernhardt

+1 - I thought this was a good assessment of the OP's blatant self-promotion.

I really don't think the bike makes much difference. All this past summer I've been going on various group rides with various racing clubs in Victoria. They're on their carbon 11-speed bikes with carbon wheels; I'm on a steel Rodriguez track bike with couplers and a 42 or 44t chainring and 16t sprocket, fixed or free. On the freewheel, they can't drop me; I just can't get into the middle of the sprints, unless it's an older masters group. So the bike means nothing, and nobody (real bike racers) really cares if you show up with fenders or bags or in basketball shorts.

There seems to be a lot of animosity these days to "guys wearing lycra." Bike racers do tend to be solitary and self-absorbed; it's a sport that draws individuals, rather than team players.

You don't want to assume that anybody out there dressed like a bike racer is out to beat you. On my commutes or training rides, it usually takes me about 20 minutes at least to warm up. If somebody pushes it on a climb during this time, I'm not going to be stupid and chase them. On some of my training days, I would be going really slow, because every five minutes I would throw in a very hard 200-meter sprint. In the meantime, I'd get passed by all manner of riders. It depends on the ride's objectives. Only rarely was it the objective to waste my time blowing off guys who wanted to make fools out of guys wearing lycra. But if that was my intention, I would always succeed, although it always felt empty, like taking candy from a baby.

But if you're (OP) really concerned about showing everybody how good you are, why don't you do it on a level playing field, and enter a real race? (I think that was the intention of the post that noted that it's only a race when both people know it's a race.) When there's a prize on the line, you would be surprised at just how fast bike racers can go up the hills.

L. (about 35 years of bike racing, mostly on the track)

unterhausen

I don't see much good happening in this thread. Locked