This post is weird.

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Any run that doesn't include pooping in someone's front yard is a win.

pure scum. that's all it is. just pure rodie scum.

I'll second that

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Trisporter

"Do what needs to be done now. What you want to do later!"

maybe he doesn't want you on his wheel?

It used to be the roadies that got all the flack about being stuck up, un-friendly and arrogant. However, recently, in my travels, I seem to find that it's the triathletes that are more and more like this.

I consider myself a triathlete, albeit for the most part an inactive one from a competitive perspective. I ride a road bike and I ride with different groups of people and/or on my own. I always give a wave and a "hello" to any other cyclist that I see out on the road. Recently I would say that it's more triathletes or at least, cyclists riding tri-bikes, who seem to be the most un-friendly. They always seem to have their heads down, oblivious to what's going on around them and many do not return my "hello" and wave.

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Hehehehe. A bit of sarcasm!!

swimfan?

Where I live we don't have enough people to segregate. Everyone post their rides intended speed, distance ,starting time , place and route. Who ever wants shows up. The slow ones draft, get dropped or form a second group. The fast ones do their thing, the old ones try to stay with the college kids for bragging rights. Everyone gets along talks at the beginning and end. If we see another rider when we are out we almost always stop to invite each other along!
We probably only have 30-40 riders

The thing I love about triathlons (non-draft legal ones at least), and I've said this before, probably on another message board, is that it's all about you. No, no, not trying to be selfish. But if you do well in a race, it's because you worked hard and preformed well. If you don't do well, it's because you didn't work hard enough or you just had a bad day. There's nobody else to congratulate or blame for your performance. So point being, it's a little frustrating when there's somebody you don't know riding right behind you making it easy for themselves while you're out there working your ass off, and then putting their wheel dangerously close to yours. And on top of that, you don't know if they started riding 2 weeks ago and are even comfortable enough on their bike to handle riding that close. Just seems that a triathlete is more worried about accountability for their training rather than going as fast as possible even if it means drafting off of someone. Does that make any sense or am I just rambling? Exams just finished and my head hurts.

"What's the triathlete mindset?"

No fking way my FTP is that low!

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"I really wish you would post more often. You always have some good stuff to say. I copied it below just in case someone missed it." BarryP to Chainpin on 10/21/06

I would agree with what Fleck said. By and large, roadies are much friendlier than many of the self-absorbed triathletes out there, or in here for that matter. These two threads certainly lend credit to that opinion. The reason I became less enchanted with triathlon is that, by and large, it has become more about doing it than doing it well. Go to any race and you see hundreds of people, never willing to really suffer or give 100% effort, all dressed up and parading around. At a bike race you just don't see the same level of pretentious behavior, or peacocking. In addition, there are way less pretenders at a bike race than at a triathlon. I think the reason is that when the attacks start on a hill, there is no place to hide. You either can keep up or you get dropped. There is no 17 hour cut-off in a bike race just so the masses can feel good about themselves.

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"Why do they keep inventing new ways to celebrate mediocrity" -

"They always seem to have their heads down, oblivious to what's going on around them and many do not return my "hello" and wave. "

OMG, please don't steer this thread in that direction!!! : )

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"I really wish you would post more often. You always have some good stuff to say. I copied it below just in case someone missed it." BarryP to Chainpin on 10/21/06

A couple of things.

I agree that a wave is the nice thing to do but I can usually only manage a slight hand wave while down in my aerobars and it is only returned maybe 30% of the time. That's ok.

I think the true test of whose friendlier comes at the stop lights. My two tri friends who I ride with and I are usually trash talking each other at the lights and, if we come upon a roadie group, we usually try to engage them in some good natured banter. Fat chance that we get much of a response. They look at us in sort of a daze as if having fun on a ride is weird.

Too late, it's started!!!!

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"I really wish you would post more often. You always have some good stuff to say. I copied it below just in case someone missed it." BarryP to Chainpin on 10/21/06

Bob,

Have you cleared out your email in-box? I would suggest that you do it right now :)

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

I 100% agree with the spirit of your post. I have nothing to add.

Well put. I watched a friend at a local sprint that was sold out. On a 3 loop course, there was one tiny hill (maybe 20') right after a turn. I swear more than 30 people fell over on the hill because they were in the big ring and didn't/couldn't shift to the small ring. There were people falling on the second and third loop as well. Too many people in races, with too many of them brand new to riding just doing the event to notch their belt. How many roadies that race USCF (these triathletes were racers) would fall in the same manner? Zero, because absolutely all of the racers have to be competent on the bike and put in the time to learn the craft - E

cant we just get along after all we just ride bikes just some also run and swim.

And how is it that everyone is able to distinguish between triathletes and roadies, regardless of how you define those groups. When I raced triathlons, I did close to 1/2 of my bike training on a road bike. Now that I'm exclusively racing on my bike, I still train occasionally on my TT bike.

Roadies friendlier and less self-absorbed? I don't see that. There are A-holes and genuine nice guys in both camps.
Level of competition in bike races being higher than tris? You are spot on. You are either on or your pulled from the course. But not that there is anything wrong with that.

There are folks doing tris who don't come from athletic backgrounds, aren't really very fit, but see the triathlon communitty as much more welcoming than the bike racing communnitty. I think this really bugs some roadies and triathletes alike. But at the end of the day, they are out there, 12 minute mile pace and all.

The big "issue" (if you can call it that) in triathlon is that there are really 2 distinct groups: The triathlon as an event folks who need the 17 hour cut off and the racers, going for podiums, PR bike spits and trips to Hawaii. In general these groups get along, but as you may have noticed on this forum, even triathletes (racers) have issues with triathletes (event folks) sometimes.

So you really don't need to through roadies in the mix to get some good old fashion mud slinging going on.

Would the real sport please stand up, please stand up! On a whole, road racers are far more fit and take their sport seriously unlike triathletes who cherish the slogan, "we're all winners." Blah Blah Blah. It's a race, whoever gets to the finish line first, wins. That's it. There aren't many road races where you'll see a roadie crossing the finish line 9 hours after the first rider crossed then raise his arms in victory. You didn't win, what are you doing? Anyone can finish a triathlon, what's the point? If triathletes want a credible sport, they need to move the cutoff time to the middle of the pack. If you can't stay with the field then you need to train more. Simple. I think the real sport has stood up.

Dude. It's all recreation. Unless you are a pro (either tri or road), you are really a pretender. Not that there is anything wrong with this. It just seems more roadies are in denial in this regard.

Oh come on don't you know that "roadies" never use TT bikes or aerobars except in races and triathletes never ride regular road bikes?!?!?!

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Proud Founder of the Jamis Mafia- Daring to be different.

Crush your enemies.
See them driven before you.
Hear the lamentation of the women.

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If I don't, who will? -Me
It's like being bipolar in opinion is a requirement around here. -TripleThreat

"And how is it that everyone is able to distinguish between triathletes and roadies"

Exactly. I don't have a clue :) I used to race triathlons pretty seriously. Don't any more. I ride a road bike now exclusively - Mostly riding with strong road riders and/or triathletes. I jump into club road races and slap on the clip-on aero bars to do some local TT's and for the one or two triathlons that I do each year. To me it's all cycling.

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Do you think the rath will be for my opinion, or for saying "I agree with Fleck"

I, like you, was once a decent age group traithlete. I had several top 5 finishes, and even won a few races. While not great, I was good enough that I did not have to try to remind everyone that I was good, or walk around in my race clothes for hours after the race talking about how I could have gone faster if I had just tapered for the race.

I think if someone is a good triathlete or a good roadie, they respect each other and do not make ignorant posts, like these two threads. I have ridden with great triathletes and great roadies. That being said, nothing in triathlon is as hard as matching attacks on long steep climbs, or taking pulls in a break-away trying to put time on the chase group.

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"Why do they keep inventing new ways to celebrate mediocrity" -

I don't understand why there is this constant debate and has been for a long time. First it was 650 vs 700. That's done with and over with.

There is no good reason to be bashing the other group. We use the same roads and ride mainly the same gear. Tri bikes use aero bars and sit in a different position. So what? Anyone seen a TT bike? That's not tri. All tri train on the road, doesn't that make them roadies? Or are the tri riders all training off road or indoors to avoid meeting the 'evil' road riders lurking on the local roads?

I'm all for getting along. Maybe it's just who I am, but I wave or nod at every rider road or tri bike. I don't get offended if they don't wave/nod back, maybe they're zoned out or had a bad day. Life's too short to add more fuel to the fire. I however will not ride beside someone on aero bars, tri or TT bike. It's just dangerous. There are good and bad in both groups. No one group is ever better.

The way I see it. Roadies are focused on the bike so they should be darn good at it, triatheles are focused on swim,bike and run. Simply logic tells me they shouldn't be AMAZING on the bike. Triathlons aren't won on the bike, IMHO they are won on the run.

We're different, I'd rather we learn from that then squabble about it.

my 2 cents

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