patentcad

You're a friggin kid to Pcad. 7AM? I stay in bed until 7AM when there's a blizzard and I sleep in. That happens twice a eyar.

Catweazle

Responding to this whilst reading through the thread from the beginning, so please forgive if it's already been addressed.

I'm fairly new to cycling and have little working knowledge of the competitive cycling 'scene' here in Australia, but in a general sense it's relevent to consider the following. In general competitive sporting participation here in Australia the standard of 'grades' in competitive local and state/interstate levels can be lower than that found in countries we compete against as a nation, largely because of the often large differences in relative population levels. We do have a national 'culture' of promoting and and valuing sporting participation and achievement, but our rather low population level can mean that local 'representative' competing standards suffer a bit.

What we have to compensate that, though, in just about all sports, are a network of state-sponsored 'sporting institutes' which identify promising young athletes as early as reasonably possible, and ensure that they have access to the best in training and preparation which can be provided to them. There is heavy competition for entry into those institutes, and the products of them are athletes who are competitive with the elite from nations which have much larger populations, and thus a preparation pathway in competitive participation which is better than what we enjoy here.

Thus the rather high success rate we enjoy in sporting achievement at International competition, which seems at odds with the 'small' nation that we truly are


Edit:

By the way. We place such a high value on sport that we have, at all levels of government, 'Ministers for Sport' who oversee their respective portfolios and departments.

Catweazle

I bet he doesn't admit, either, that he gets pissed off at having to slow down for you. Doesn't want to hurt your feelings

rufvelo

Remember Senna in a Candy-Toleman in the wet? It was obvious he would in a couple of years land the best available car on the grid.

rufvelo

This success does not come without an entire nation's sacrifice, referring here to the decrease in the number of Australians skilled in the didgeridoo.

rufvelo

All true. The focus here has unfortunately changed over the 2 decades to the accumulation of bling....and of course Pcad.

BayernBiker

Hi Tequila Joe, long time lurker here. I live in Bavaria, Germany and have been road biking here for 8 years now. I think you will find that you will be fast enough, and as a Cat 3 you should be able to stay with the "A" group just fine on most days.

The state of Nordrhein-Westfalen, has alot of good biking country. It is pretty flat as it is part of the north german plain. Holland, which has a very rich biking tradition is not far away. I know that the area often has fairly large group rides in several locations. There are also several clubs in the area.

If you read german you can google ADFC Nordrhein-Westfalen and select the homepage that has much information about regional clubs and events.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions, or need a translation.

Sincerely,
BavariaBiker

Fat Boy

At Monaco, yep. If they wouldn't have shortened the race, Senna would have beaten Prost. That's not the whole story, though. If the race would have continued, Stephan Bellof would have beaten both of them. In the really soggy stuff he was 2 seconds a lap faster than Senna (who had 2 seconds on Prost). We lost Bellof early, but he was ready to shine very, very brightly. In terms of raw speed, he is on a short list.

Tequila Joe

Faboulous information on the Nordrhein-Westfalen site
Thank you Bayenbiker!!

El Diablo Rojo

[QUOTE=rufvelo;6623500]Remember Senna in a Candy-Toleman in the wet? It was obvious he would in a couple of years land the best available car on the grid.[/QUOTE

Schumacher in Jordon at Spa, first F1 race and he qualifies 7th. It's absurd to think that talent has nothing to do with it. In the same way that the majority (Fat Boy please not the word majority) of European drivers are better road racers, most American drivers are better dirt track racers and drag racers.

El Diablo Rojo

Sorry I miss read his quote. Otherwise this comment continues to show your cluelessness.

El Diablo Rojo

Considering you don't have clue to my racing resume this statement continues to prove your ignorance.

Fat Boy

I know what you told me of your resume. It is long, but not deep. Running 5 seconds off pace and winning clubby races for 30 years is only impressive if you don't know that you're 5 seconds off pace.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Look guy, you need to go spend some time in Europe or race with/against Europeans. There are good ones and there are bad ones. Just like every other aspect in life, there are no universal truths. If you take 2 guys that have similar backgrounds and one is from there and the other is from here, they'll be very close to each other. Because they have a more developed ladder system and support it to a greater extent monetarily, they may have more total drivers to choose from. With that I'll agree. The quality level of European drivers when on equal footing with anyone else in the world is about the same. Look in series that have a lot of both, right now Grand Am is a good example. American guys are Valiente(C), Fogarty, Gurney, Plumb, Frisselle(C), Hand, Auberlen, Pruett, Rojas, and James. Europeans are Angelelli, Van der Poole, Zonta, Goosens, Collard, and Dumas. Guys like Dalziel, Barbosa, and Jonsson are a mix. They all run together. Does it get any clearer than that?

Wonder in amazement from afar if you want and rattle on about how great they are. The truth is that they put their pants on one leg at a time and regardless of what the press releases say, their poo doesn't come out shrink-wrapped.

[/argument off]

logdrum

About the carheads debating, be more interesting if you posted pics of your cars, races, newspaper clippings of your races/circuits. Usually people ask for pictorial proof even of road rash and bikes. I myself dig WRC.

rufvelo

WRC is a special skill so I've often wondered when a Mika Hakkinnen wants to 'reduce risk' after an F1 career and go rallying. Lots of guys have died in every series, like Stefan Bellof mentioned above in WSC/Endurance (at LeMans I think) or Henri Toivonnen at Corsica when the Group B evolution got out of control.