I volunteered at a kid's race yesterday, and actually got to referee a parental fight when a woman came late (admittedly) and had to make room on the rack that corresponded to her kid's age. There was plenty of room on the rack - she was moving them over a smidge - and these two dads (neither of whom was a triathlete, based on their comments) went totally ape$%#^ on her, screaming that she should move her kid's stuff to the other rack - which was for a different age group. I tried to explain that she couldn't do that when they started going nuts on me (which is better than going nuts on her, but still not pleasant). I responded with hands up - "STOP - this is supposed to be fun, settle down" and motioned for our 6'4" burley tattooed volunteer (man) to come "assist."

We ended up explaining to these guys that stuff gets moved, that it's annoying, but it's part of the sport. Welcome to the club, pops. :) They seemed to think that all the kids deserved three feet of unimpeded space. The kids, frankly, didn't care. It was more than a little impressive how they handled stepping on each others' toes.

I guess the point of my post is that it's annoying to everyone, but it's not worth the mental energy. I guess we just have to roll with it, ladies!

Unfortunately I have noticed an increase in this behavior lately, but never before. I fell in love with tri's because everyone was so open and helpful. Perhaps, as another poster said, as it become chic to do the sport the attitude is changing. I have seen it in men and women, young, old, fast and slow. I just try to remember that in the end as long as you know where your stuff is, transition is transition. Keeping a good attitude wastes less energy!

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I think the issue is not moving the bikes a tiny bit to fit one more in the rack, esp if there are supposed to be X number of bikes per rack.

The issue is with someone coming late to set up transition and taking a prime spot at the end of a rack (yes, that is a better position than in between other bikes) by moving the bike of the person who made the effort to get to transition when it opened. And really, the only reason to get to transition that early is for the rack spot...no one needs 90 minutes to set up their gear.

Belly that is just sad!!!! Great examples for those kids - eye roll.

My first sprint had the women's bike rack so slow I couldn't get my seat under it without tilting it. Others saw this and complained for me and moved their stuff down so I would have an easier time getting my bike in and not hitting theirs - the organizers for some reason had a small rack for the women and only one while the men had plenty of racks and tons of room. My first oly had a packed rack - bikes touching each other because there was such limited space (spaces numbered though so no fights about space) and everyone was very nice except for a few former pros who huffed around and tried to push things around. Whatever. The extra space would be nice but it isn't the end of the world - and a good way to ruin your race to get upset about it.

That is crazy. Unfortunately our sport is filled with people who act like A-holes. It is really sad because it really ticks off the organizers and volunteers. I have stories of venues that have been cancelled because of behaviour like that.

Personally I would never touch another person's bike or gear. I would get either a vollie or a TO to come and do it for me. That way there can be no accusations. I love the big IM races where the racks are all numbered so everyone knows where they need to be. In OZ we have a code of conduct for parents of children involved in any sport - not that they always follow it, but most parents are pretty good.

Some people are just plain rude - if they are rude to you at a fun event like a tri you can only imagine how rude they are in their regular day to day business!!

I also would never touch another person's belongings at a race. What I am also amazed by...at a recent tri is the bragging and attitude in transition. I was at one race where a woman in my AG was bragging about winning her AG at races in another part of the country, etc., etc. qualifying for nationals and worlds and then later admitting she hadn't been training recently. After the race she was totally and completely disgusted (visibly angry and upset) that she didn't win (or even place top 5 in her AG) and stormed out of transition with her bike and gear. erThis was a person with a really high end bike and gear and looked like she had it all together....it was really amusing.....

Thanks for the early morning out loud giggle! :)

You should have punched her in the face after the race.