XTERRA is apparently changing its outside assistance rules to allow competitors to exchange "tools, tubes or any item that would be used to repair a faulty part or damaged bicycle or water, food, or first aid." The rule specifically prohibits exchanging bikes but the series director, Dave Nicholas, says the rules allow one athlete to give another a complete chain or complete wheel.
I'm ambivalent about the tools, parts and nutrition part of the rule. People should carry their own stuff but I have always thought it is kind of lame that people who want to help out racers in need are subject to penalty.
Allowing people to exchange wheels, chains, etc. is just wrong though. The person who takes the wheel with a flat, broken chain or whatever is going to have to fix it before they can continue. In my mind, that makes them a domestique, something Nicholas says the rules are (rightly, at least in my mind) designed to prohibit.
I'd be curious to hear what others think about all this.
This insidetri article is here:
http://www.insidetri.com/...articles/1923.0.html
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Anyone who tells you they're as fast now as they were when they were 18...
sure wasn't very fast when they were 18.
I'm ambivalent about the tools, parts and nutrition part of the rule. People should carry their own stuff but I have always thought it is kind of lame that people who want to help out racers in need are subject to penalty.
Allowing people to exchange wheels, chains, etc. is just wrong though. The person who takes the wheel with a flat, broken chain or whatever is going to have to fix it before they can continue. In my mind, that makes them a domestique, something Nicholas says the rules are (rightly, at least in my mind) designed to prohibit.
I'd be curious to hear what others think about all this.
This insidetri article is here:
http://www.insidetri.com/...articles/1923.0.html
________________________________________________
Anyone who tells you they're as fast now as they were when they were 18...
sure wasn't very fast when they were 18.