the 3's and weekend people

[Bartow W. Riggs]

I don't know who to phrase this, to syntax this...

Every weekend, and I mean every weekend during the season. I take my son to
races Every weekend. I am a bloke who is nobody. He might be good.

Mag Gorilla, all those same every weekends, I see people racing without a
chance in hell to win, no matter what the category. Yet they
race....weekend after weekend. Every weekend. 4 years. I see the same
people. I don't think they have delusions of grandeur or whatever.

I am sorry but people like that don't deserve your scorn.

They "do it"

-Bartow

[DA74]

> Bartow W. Riggs wrote:
> Every weekend I see people racing without a
> chance in hell to win, no matter what the category. Yet they
> race....weekend after weekend.

You're right, Subway does have a full calendar. And again, you hit the
nail on the head, they don't have a chance in hell. But I will have to
disagree with you regarding the category argument. Someone compared
the Subway men at Redlands to the pro women's field and they would have
beaten a few of them. They're relentless, what else can I say?


> I don't think they have delusions of grandeur

Don't worry you're not alone here. They don't think they're delusional
either. That's why they made a $4500 "investment" to launch their new
career in bike racing instead of going to college or saving for their
children's college, or paying off their credit cards, or blowing it on
"black" in Vegas.

Oh wait, I misunderstood you. You're saying "I don't think they have
delusions, I KNOW they have delusions" - Yeah, you could argue that
with some success based on objective evidence over the last few
weekends of racing.


> I am sorry but people like that don't deserve your scorn.

Bartow, please don't apologize because you're right - They deserve
ridicule more than anything. But we've heaped it out in droves over the
last couple days and it's getting really old. I think we're stuck with
scorn unless you can come up with another suggestion in the next day or
so. Let me know.
-DA74

[Jet]

On Sat, 9 Apr 2005 00:58:50 -0700, "Bartow W. Riggs" >
wrote:

>I don't know who to phrase this, to syntax this...
>
>Every weekend, and I mean every weekend during the season. I take my son to
>races Every weekend. I am a bloke who is nobody. He might be good.
>
>Mag Gorilla, all those same every weekends, I see people racing without a
>chance in hell to win, no matter what the category. Yet they
>race....weekend after weekend. Every weekend. 4 years. I see the same
>people. I don't think they have delusions of grandeur or whatever.
>
>I am sorry but people like that don't deserve your scorn.
>
>They "do it"
>
>-Bartow

Good luck to your son!

What kind of times are your group Cat 3 riders getting to place on the
podium? WHere did you guys race last? Colorado-ans? ;-)

jj

[Ryan Cousineau]

In article om>,
"DA74" > wrote:

> > Bartow W. Riggs wrote:
> > Every weekend I see people racing without a
> > chance in hell to win, no matter what the category. Yet they
> > race....weekend after weekend.

Some people race just for fun, or for personal bests. Heck, I'm a fat
and useless Cat 4, but given my racing so far, I have a half-decent
chance of winning and upgrading this year. Who cares? The joke writes
itself: "what's better than winning a Cat 4 race? Not being fat and
slow."

But it's more fun than mowing the lawn.

> You're right, Subway does have a full calendar. And again, you hit the
> nail on the head, they don't have a chance in hell. But I will have to
> disagree with you regarding the category argument. Someone compared
> the Subway men at Redlands to the pro women's field and they would have
> beaten a few of them. They're relentless, what else can I say?

The women or the Subway racers?

[...]

> Don't worry you're not alone here. They don't think they're delusional
> either. That's why they made a $4500 "investment" to launch their new
> career in bike racing instead of going to college or saving for their
> children's college, or paying off their credit cards, or blowing it on
> "black" in Vegas.

I believe the Subway team's sad-sack racing and dubious financial
arrangements are part of a cunning plot to increase sponsor publicity. I
opened up the RBR newsgroup today, on the eve of the Paris-Roubaix, and
found 28 articles.

I count three articles talking about the ProTour or cobblestones; a
bunch of articles using the words "master" or "fat"; and at least 10
articles discussing Subway.

On the eve of the Paris-Roubaix, over a third of the posts in here
concern a terrible, low-budget American Div III team, known by their
title sponsor's name. Subway (the sandwich making ones) has probably
earned back their investment in publicity already.

Now that's marketing!

--
Ryan Cousineau, http://www.wiredcola.com
Verus de parvis; verus de magnis.

[stig]

It is just friggin' bike racing.

If you are a nose-picking bed-wetting amateur finishing 45th in some
butt-hole industrial park crit, "racing", is better than sitting at
home fiddling with some Gaming System and eating pork rinds.

If you are a "Pro" it is a job where you get paid to ride your stupid
bike. Most Pros are too sociopathic to hold a "real" (note: working in
a bike shop is not operationally defined as a "real" job) job or
pursue a career. Professional bike racing is an alternative to doing
jail time or being locked up in a mental institution. Oh, and to a
lesser degree so is working in the Bicycle Industry.

Bike racing just ain't that important.

[Mark Fennell]

"MagillaGorilla" wrote:
> Omer Kemp claims he puts out 6.3 watts/kg, yet he can't figure out why he
can't
> crack the phone-ins during an uphill NRC prologue that's over in 13
minutes.

Where did he say that? That's ludicrous if he says 6.3 W/kg is his
steady-state climbing power. But, I thought his response to earlier ridicule
was pretty reasonable...

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/rec.bicycles.racing/msg/4cc316c8bf4c933d

He's giving it a shot and will not look back in five or ten years and make
excuses about why he didn't try.

> All those amateurs you see who have no chance of winning, but yet still
> race...you have to ask yourself why they do that. If you're not good at
> racing, you need to stop loading your bike onto the top of a car at 5:00
a.m.
> every weekend in order to drive130 miles in driving rain just to get 45th
in a
> race that goes around in circles and then talk about it with your
teammates
> afterwards like you just beat Rebellin to the top of the hill in Liege.
Stay
> home and do some ****ing yardwork.

Just like you (or one of your bros) said about there being only 20 guys that
can win a classic or a GT, same is true with the 1/2's or 3's or 4's or 35+
in the US... But, if only those 20 guys showed up, all the races would look
like the Women's race, and grass-roots promoters would lose money and stop
promoting. You know that.

And you also know that the motivations of a masters or cat-4 lifer are not
the same as a pro. The Peter principle applies in bike racing. You rise to
the level where you can no longer win, be it the 3's, 4's, or D3 pros.

> But in this country, the sport has deluded itself with age-graded
categories
> that virtually guarantees that anyone with their own birthday is entitled
to
> their own personal category and "national championship" jersey (see Henry,
et
> al.)

No argument here.

> You got 47 year old washed up guys who couldn't even hold John Howard's
wheel
> in 1972 traveling to Manchester to claim some obscure "world championship"
> rainbow jersey in a track event where the 6 other guys who show up to race
have
> full-time jobs. And they actually think they're genuine world champions.
>
> So as you can see, there's quite a bit of work I have left to do if I
intend to
> implement all the reforms I've outlined in my manifesto by 2008.

Keep it up.