Bandera

An affirmation that in the early '80's took American cycling from "nowhere" on the International stage to the TDF and Olympic victory/contention.
Thank Eddie B., Dr. Burke and the "new generation" of cyclists back when who led the way.

-Bandera

chasm54

More insecure than most. I'd say that all highly competitive people are insecure. Their sense of self-worth is externalized, it depends to a large extent on comparing themselves with others. That's pretty much a definition of insecurity, they live constantly with the fear of failure.

shovelhd

If I did not believe this, down to the very depths of my soul, I never would have accomplished anything in this sport. It drove me.

Not to diminish the rest of your reply. This part is very special. Those wins mean the most to me.

Cleave

Speaking of unbeatable...

Just your average group of Masters racers in SoCal who like to hang out and occasionally race their bikes:



BTW, there are fewer stripes on jersey sleeves than I thought for that team. Oh, and just your typical club sag vehicle.

Why do I even bother entering races around here?

Racer Ex 

You race because respect is different than fear. As good as they look on paper, or in the photos, you've seen their carcasses rotting in the sun. Flesh and bone, nothing more.

shovelhd

One race that means a lot to me, I did not win. The Champ (27 or 28 jerseys, I lost count) was there with his minions who are quite adept at marking me and preventing me from escaping the field. So we roll off on a warm and breezy day, on an open and non technical course (Ninigret), minions at the front keeping the pace down. I attack full tilt on the downwind backstretch. The minions chase me, closing the gap but not making contact. I go through the S turns above threshold, through the long, wide sweeper, and settled into threshold on the long front stretch into the headwind. At the end of the front stretch is a 180 around an island which dumps you on the back stretch. Once you get around 20 seconds up you will pass the field going the other way on the front stretch. As I get on to the back stretch I see the back of the field, so it's close. I look back at the end of the backstretch and I see a solo rider bridging. I ease just a little to let him catch by the end of the front stretch. Turns out this guy was some kind of European champion, bostongarden knows him. Anyway, we start to put time on the field. After a few laps, we are passing the front of the field going the other way, and each time we do that, I put my best Cancellara face on and stare right at The Champ. Show no pain, no suffering, just dominance. We put over half a lap on them so I got to do this many times. The other guy beat me in the sprint by a length, which was disappointing at the time. Looking back, though, that race had its own, special reward. Everyone is beatable on any given day. I would end up beating him several times throughout my career, but that is the one I remember best.

Heathpack 

@shovelhd, that is a great story.

Most of my cycling friends think "competition" is a dirty word. They don't compete and therefore imagine that bike racers are cutthroat Lance Armstrong types who will do anything to win, including wrecking their own health and screwing their friends. I was explaining that it's nothing like that and how competition changes your physiology- with the adrenaline etc you are offer capable of more in a race than on any other day, it has the potential to bring out your best.

Your story is the perfect example of this. It illustrates what racing and cycling is about for me- really it's about finding out what's possible. Winning is nice but it's just a yardstick. The race is the thing and when you discover something you didn't know was possible, it's just such a total pleasant surprise. Way better than winning against an easy field.

Hermes

As most of us do these days, I see a lot of pics on Facebook and elsewhere and they range from cool to snapshots. The pic below by Heidi Rentz struct me as exceptional. I met Heidi at a Cycling House camp in Tuscon. She was one of the tour guides.

Tuscon, AZ Sunset...

Racer Ex 

Wishing the folks from the Giant team a full and speedy recovery. Bad stuff. Raced against Chad Haga and his brother when they were coming up and they are good people.

chasm54

Yes, that was ****. Some stupid compatriot of mine driving on the wrong side of the road, apparently.

Dalai

Stunning!

valygrl

I'm getting on a plane to Tucson in a couple of hours!!!

Hermes

Have a great time!

happybday29475

Have fun! It's remarkable riding, very different feeling than what you and I are used to. Make time for hanging out at that coffee shop at the bottom of Mt Lemmon - yum!

YogaKat

Enjoy!

sarals 

Shovel, you've told that story before, but not quite like that! What a great explanation of the competitive spirit.

Heathie hit on it. The biggest reason, IMHO, women's fields are as small as they are is that most women equate being competitive as being "mean". It's also not something they care to discuss or delve into in any way. It's not ingrained, part of the DNA, it's just what we're taught. I had to learnj to step away from that notion when I was going through flight school, if I wanted to graduate, that is. I had to learn that being competitive wasn't personal, there was a time and a place to express that, that you could like someone but still want to better them in something competitive - like a class, or a check ride. It was a matter of personal achievement, and they represented a goal or a benchmark. Do the deed on the playing field, it's all business, and then chat and be friends at the end. Racing is like that, it's not about being a "mean person", at all. How do you get that through to people? That's the quandary.

Hermes

In the NCNCA district licensed men outnumber women 10/1. That has been pretty constant over time. I always thought that the women were just smarter. Boy was I wrong.

Having said that...In 2012, a local promoter organized a Hellyer Women's Team Pursuit program with the objective of competing at Elite Track Nationals in Carson, CA. My wife wanted to do this program and I volunteered. We ran 54 women through the program and sent 5 teams (15 women) to compete in the nationals. We got 2nd, 4th and 5th in team pursuit plus numerous medals in other time trial and mass start events. The women had a great time.

I did sponsorship and photography so that after a training session, the women got video of their efforts. Plus I got sponsors one of which was a wheel sponsor so all the racers had fast wheels for the competition.

In fact, that year, it was the first time in elite track nationals history that the women outnumbered the men at the event.

sarals 

Hermes, what was your secret?

Bandera

A couple of seasons ago I was out on a usual route on Father's Day when a svelte young local Cat 2 easily overtook me.
He politely announced "On your left", glanced at my weathered countenance and said "Happy Father's Day Dad!"
I responded: "That's Grand Dad to You!"

This weekend was not very pleasant cycling weather, but it was better than just staying home (maybe).
I was just this side of miserable and dogging it when the same young fellow zipped up along side to announce "Hey, it's just us Grandpa, all the losers are at home." Yep, do the work, or not: Same, same.

-Bandera (Retired)

Hermes

Not much different from a startup. We had a promoter with a clear goal and a vision how to get there. And he truly believed in the women's ability to be successful. Not withstanding that, his girl friend and now wife, was a pro track racer interested in racing at nationals. That was clearly motivation but if that was all then it would have been a lot easier to put together one team versus 5 teams and run a program.

He was a master at the use of social media and word of mouth. Everyone in the racing community of road and track knew of the program and he did not put a lot of emphasis on the track riding experience per se. Sure, one has to be able to ride fixed gear no brakes but at Hellyer, that comes very quickly and for timed events in teams or riding individually on the track is very much like road time trials.

The program was about team pursuit and I think that makes racing a lot more fun and there is a social component that I think women like.

We ran the program much like Andy Sparks runs the national women's team. We held training sessions and provided immediate feedback and then followed up with photos, videos and results. We had structured training session and practice racing sessions. For example, we had them do standing starts 50 meters. He kept track of each racers time and sent out results the next day plus they had their times at the session. If they did flying kilos or whatever, he had rider names and times.

Initially, our focus was on doing versus perfection i.e. less criticism more riding.

Sponsors showed up with free stuff. Everyone likes free stuff even if it is a tee shirt and water bottle. We had a chiropractor doing ART for racers between efforts - no charge. At the racing in Carson, we had >$20,000 of wheels available for use plus Carson donated the track time. All the racers attending nationals received a free skinsuit.

As I remember, we collected $5 for riding the track per session and $10 for practice races. The extra $5 went to a pool for expense reimbursement for those that attended nationals.

The program was a lot of work and all the time was uncompensated and in fact, was an expense for the promoter and volunteers and sponsors.

My question is: which woman racer would not want to do the program?

I think the Early Bird series comes close to this but there is no specific goal other than prepping racers for the upcoming season.

sarals 

Hermes, that was terrific, thank you! I have a few people I need to share that with.

Hermes

Keep in mind that the program is very tough to execute and requires a lot of unpaid resources. That is what makes the Early Bird series so special and hard to replicate for other districts and for our guys that do it each year. The team pursuit program was done twice. Once for just women and then for both men and women.

And the track is a different venue than the road making certain aspects easier to manage.

And there are always haters of programs no matter how successful because they do not like the guy who thought of the idea and made it happen and / or they prefer the status quo.

So be careful promoting any idea and know that you can run into a buzz saw.

chasm54

I just made a quick estimate of how much I've spent on bicycles in the past three months. Two new bikes - a tourer for me and a road bike as a gift - two new wheelsets, various consumables (tyres, tubes, cassettes). I'm embarrassed by the sum, people live on less...

Heathpack 

I have not even been cycling for 3 years. In that time, I've purchased 4 bikes, two wheelsets, a disc wheel, three power meters, six bike computers, 4 sets of bars and every piece of cycling paraphernalia (shorts, shoes, jerseys, helmets, jackets, skin suits, gloves, lights, water bottles, trainer, etc) that I currently own. Plus I have a coach and an elite fitter.

Then beyond the monetary outlay, there's the time investment. Riding. Talking about riding. Thinking about riding. Getting ready to ride. Researching equipment. Troubleshooting equipment. Building bikes. Rebuilding bikes. Revamping diet. Traveling to races and events. It's unbelievable really, the time involved.

Surprisingly no threats of divorce yet from my incredibly tolerant spouse.

chasm54

And speaking of spending money on bikes, here's an item I haven't yet got round to purchasing. I knew there was a reason I didn't race 'cross...

Seriously, we're getting to the point at which every bike will have to be minutely scrutinised before every race.