Thom wrote:
Economist wrote:
First year of the MSU Gran Fondo was a joke. We had douche wagons in the middle of the pack with head phones on. Never mind the endless announcement saying no head phones. Rules of the road? Yeah right. Not a single road was closed for this 80 mile ride. Not a single fuck was given by any riders either. Cycling in West Michigan got a bad name that year.
I had a much different experience than you did in the first MSU Gran Fondo. Rode with the lead group (at least the first large group) on the way out. I was pleasantly surprised when the entire group stop and waited at a red light. Got dropped just after the turnaround and ended up in a second large group. We had police motorcycle escorts all the way back that would ride ahead and control intersections. No recollection of anyone wearing headphones either.
We must have been in same group heading back because we had police escort the whole way back. The police weren't suppose to do that but they did anyways. That sure was nice.
I was in the lead group year 1 as well. We did stop at red lights with the exception of a few intersections that police were at. The things I'm referring to are riding over the yellow line, riding 5-6 wide in the lane, not yielding right of way (stops signs), etc.
I can't believe you missed the people with head phones. There were for sure five that I saw but others said the count was much higher (they could also be counting back groups). I remember contacting Founders Brewery asking them to put a note out to their team about wearing headphones even though it could have just been somebody who bought their jersey. There were a few other kits that were called out on this as well. I came so very close to elbowing the guy in the Founders kit into a mailbox. This dick wad couldn't hold a straight line to save his life. He zig-zagged all over the place pissing everyone off.
I think the problem is that the Fondo's bring out riders with no group riding experience. They don't understand the dynamics of how a group works together.
For this year, I'm thinking of riding my tri bike and just doing a non-draft ride. I have my first IM (IMLOU) so I'm thinking this would be a nice ride to use as training. I'll just feel sorta odd about it even though I saw half dozen tri bikes out there.
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The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.