superdex

Okay, so I really appreciate support I get from coworkers and friends when I tell them about the organized ride(s) I've signed up for. But for all I can do to describe the events, almost without fail, everyone calls it a race. "Good luck in the race!" "You'll be in first!" ARGH. People, it's not a fricken race. But thank you for your support.

Thanks, just had to get that out.

Cypress

My mom keeps asking me if I still plan on coming down for "the race in August"...That being the Denver Livestrong ride.

timmhaan

dude, i KNOW!! i thought i was the only one having an issue with this. it didn't bother me at first, but then, after about a dozen times it gets really annoying.

one time i came back from an officially sanctioned race and had someone ask "how was the ride?".

55/Rad

Do what I do - say thanks and come back afterwards and tell them you won.

rgerve

Be honest, every time you're on a group ride, racing is involved.

superdex

Smooth. I'll try that on Monday

Cypress

Touché.

botto 

group ride yes.

charity rides? only Fred's consider it a race.

Gran Fondos & Cyclosportifs? The elite/invited riders race it, but that's something like 100 riders out of 8-9,000

slowandsteady

Or, keep your discussions limited to the weather. Less aggravating that way.

You: "Boy, it sure has been hot lately!"
Them: Yep.

Much better.

KevinF

I have the same thing amoungst my colleagues -- they assume any organized ride I'm doing is a race. I correct them, but I guess it just doesn't bother me.

khuon

Itzah race! Am I weening?

hi565

Speaking of this... I ahve about two hours till I leave for the Pan Mass challenge and I was talking to my sis on IM and this is the convo...


hi565: 2 hours
hi565: bum bum bum
sis: until the race?
hi565: ride
hi565: not race

hi565

oh and it will be a race,

I will devoure all the other riders!

Its all for cancer right?

DrPete 

I blame the runners. All of the big "races" are full of people just running to finish, so running culture has equated races with running for the hell of it.

If century rides had mass starts we could do the same thing... OMG, I just envisioned 7,000 riders mass-starting for the Seagull Century and the carnage that would ensue. Scary.

Psimet2001 

+1 - I took a lifelong runner on an organized ride a couple of years back and when we started out he looked lost. He said, "uhh...were's the start line?"

After my explanation he kind of smiled and said, "hmmm. That's kind of a cool idea. It wouldn't work in running though becasue we all hate each other and can't really talk. Might as well race."

I see his logic.

gurana

i've got goose pimples...

ovoleg

Racing might lead to losing which might lead to dissapointment. I dont race.

zimbo

The Bridge-to-Bridge and the Assault on Mount Mitchell rides held here in North Carolina are sort of in between a ride and a race. They are officially NOT races--but they are mass start rides with an official start clock, you have an ankle chip, your time is visible on a big clock when you approach the finish line, the results are posted in time-to-finish order, and teams come in from all around the country to participate. Best of both worlds.

--Steve

Lucky07

My 5 & 7 yr old kids are never satisfied with 'it's just a ride, not a race.' I finally started telling them that 'my team won'. That seemed to satisfy them...

caloso

All you need for a bike race is two guys on bikes.

(I get the same thing though. And when I mentioned how I was going to take time off in February for the Tour of California, my receptionist said "I bet you'll win!" (Not without a shot of testosterone, I won't....))

KevinF

As oppossed to the carnage that always seems to occur during the first 20 miles of the Seagull Century anyway? They tried to alleviate it in the late-90s by sending the metric century riders off in a different direction right from the start -- i.e., the decision point for 100k vs 100miles was mile 0. Do they still do that?

Back in the mid-90s when the Seagull Century first got popular (it got written up in Bicycling Magazine as one of the 10 best centuries in the country or some such, and it instantly went from a quiet little known ride to madness) they did do a mass-start of 4,000 some riders. It was carnage. They -- not surprisingly -- never mass-started the ride again.

RoadToNowhere

. . . "You hafto pace yourselves. . . carbohydrates is important. Pasta is good. Breathing (in, out, in, out) . . . "

B

khuon

Bleh... external reference limits break the spirit of the web.

Let's try this one...

RoadToNowhere

"Looook, a dreefter - let's keel him!"

grahny

My coworkers always say that too... I just nod and smile... thanks.. I plan to win too.. shouldn't be too hard.. everyone else I hear thinks it's just a bike ride.... suckers.