I've never quite "gotten" it either. There especially seems to be a lot of hate from cyclists at triathletes. I do all three. I enjoy all three. Not sure why the animosity. I guess in all sports someone has to have their nose in the air.

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Pete Githens
Reading, PA

Maybe it is all the M-Dot tattoo's........;-)


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Maybe it has something to do with showing up at a group ride with aero bars and not being able handle the bike in a pace line.

I see both sides of this...I came from a running background, got into Triathlon and now am mostly a cyclist. IMO the biggest issue is in cycling. My weekly group ride allows TT bikes but the expectation is that you do not ride aero in the paceline- they will call out anyone who does (and quite rightly). I think that a lot of roadies assume that triathletes are a bit arrogant with their M dot tattoos, IM logos, power meters and aerobars, I think that concern for safety and the idea that Tri bikes are "sketchy" in group rides is pretty legitimate. Roadies have their own set of quirks and issues, LOL, that probably drive triathletes crazy too.
Loudly stating that you are off to do a "30 min transition run" at the end of the group ride doesn't really get you any kudos from the roadies either, it just makes them think you weren't working hard enough or taking your pulls during the group ride ;-)

I think alot of it is that you can see a *typical* triathlete a mile away when going to a swim, bike or run. The avg. tri "douche" sticks out like a sore thumb, and I think at *times*, just rubs the "single sport" guys the wrong way. Showing up to a swim with a 20 pound bag of "toys" that half the time the athlete doesnt even really know why they are using them, it just looks good to be using it. We've all seen them, it's easy as hell to pick out on rides or at the pool when I'm there for workouts. It's even the really simple small things that I think annoy the single sport guys the most. Like showing up to a track workout in tri shorts, screams out that "i'm the triathlete of the group", all the while I'm guessing that same athlete has to get out all his GPS gadgets and wait for all the stars to align before he begins his workout. That's I think alot of why triathletes get alot of shit, not to say that they should or that's good justification as to why.

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@brooksdoughtie
USAT-L2,Y&J; USAC-L2
http://www.aomultisport.com

with cycling its the aero bars in group rides which is unsafe

For all three its triathletes thinking they are great in the sport when in fact a single sport athlete kicks our ass all day every day.........but then again if you ask a cyclist to come run with you after the ride you will teach them a lesson or two....

I think its best to understand that while we do cycle, run and swim... those aren't our sports... our sport is triathlon and claiming otherwise makes us look stronger than we actually are.

Just my opinion

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COROS Sports Science

If anything it comes from a very small portion of cyclists, generally the hard core racing type guys. And frankly they hate everything that isn't up to their speed. Triathlon is filled to the brim with people just getting by with minimal trainign only on good days, happy to just finish etc... which is great.

I raced bikes for a few years as a Masters A racer. Eventually I got tired of the snobbery and was really grateful to find duathlons / triathlons. I still love to train good and hard but have problem showing up to events with those that are just happy to get by.

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Ian

Fortunately for us that were at the top of all those sports, this dynamic did not and does not exist. It is only once you get down to posers that you see a lot of this animosity towards each other. So for me i have never had or have issues, so i will leave it to the others that do to figure out why we don't, and maybe get rid of the attitudes.

They're just jealous of our nice bikes and great bike handling skills. Plus, we get super big biceps from all the swimming which just is extra weight for a cyclist.

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speedySTATES

It's akin to the love between triathletes and Crossfitters.

I see a lot of good natured kidding. For actual animosity its not the hard core races cyclists its the wanna be hard core racer cyclists. The cyclists I've met that have been at the top level are pretty much uniformly nice. The guys that are pack fodder tend to have a much higher % of jerks.

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Styrrell

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Bingo!!!!

....and that is pretty funny considering that there are more than a few similarities between the attitude of Tri-geeks and the Crossfitters..

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That's the same in any sport, when I played hockey the majority of the people who played travel (try-out), were pretty cool, it was a lot more of the "good" house league players that thought they were the shit cause they played hockey.

Not really any good at any of the three sports but I do know which side of a bike to mount from and walk beside, unlike a number of Triathletes.

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BC Don
Pain is temporary, not giving it your all lasts all Winter.

You can always tell when a triathlete shows up to the pool. They wear massive goggles, equally massive watches that their eyes are glued to even though there's a pace clock on the wall, jammers instead of a speedo and dragsuit, use kick board and other pool toys excessively despite their low training volume, can't do flip turns, and have a horrible stroke.

Or maybe the aloofness triathletes demonstrate towards others, including triathletes. Not that some cyclists don't act like tools, but at least there's a pecking order and degree of respect for other cyclists.

I'm a cyclist only and I think the rift is overblown on the internets. It does exist but it's not as bad as it's made out to be. I think the cycling part gets the most attention because it's the most dangerous, but a dangerous rider is dangerous if they are a cyclist only or a triathlete.

Yes, a good triathlete could destroy me in a run or swim but I don't run or swim, so...

I think the main thing is when a tri person shows up on a group ride which happens on about every one I do. It is the erratic riding and the fear they cause when riding in aero bars. We basically tell them not to come back on their tri bike again.

Small community around these parts for hard core cyclists. I would take good natured kidding. Instead I got cold shoulder. That got boring pretty fast.

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Ian

My feeling is that most of this stuff is imagined and not real. Triathletes tend to worry too much about stuff that just doesn't matter if ST is a representative saddle. This is just another one of those things that doesn't matter. If someone has issues, that's their problem not mine. Why worry about such nonsense anyway? I have a life to live and training to do.

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You will remain the same person, before, during and after the race. So the result, no matter how important, will not define you. The journey is what matters. ~ Chrissie W.

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Find out what it is in life that you don't do well, then don't
do that thing.

As others have mentioned, a person on a tri bike showing up for a group ride seems to make cyclists nervous. A friend of mine invited me to a group ride a few years ago. Not only did I do it on my tri bike, it was my first group ride ever. I did some research prior to the ride about the courtesies involved in a group ride, and the group also made sure to let me know about not riding in aero unless I was out front. I was nervous and on my best behavior, and the guys were good about reaffirming the rules before we rode. We had a nice ride, I took my turns at the front, used hand signals, yelled "car back" if I was in the back and a car was approaching from behind, etc. I just kind of paid close attention to the other guys in the group and followed suit - I was definitely not the Alpha male that day. Even when I was at the front, I didn't go aero. Afterwards, they thanked me for being a good participant and I got invited back again. It was helpful that they were a really good group of guys, happy to help me learn the rules of the road.

The second time, another triathlete showed up. My buddy actually groaned out loud when he saw him approach. He proudly displayed his M-dot tattoo, had his bike number from his last race still on the bike, and talked about how this would be a short ride for him since he was used to going 112+ miles on a given Sunday. He was pretty much the "holier than thou" douche. He was even a jerk to me because, at that time, I had only done a handful of sprints and one Oly. It's really hard to describe how he rode, other than to say that he just did his own thing - pretty erratic, not really drafting, etc. The guys decided to get a pace line going early and dropped him. I stayed with them, and they thanked me again for being a good citizen.

Coincidentally, I never did ride with them again. I started to feel like my time was better served by not riding in a pace line, since I can't do it in a race. It sure was fun experiencing the draft, but I figure I need to suffer a bit more. So, I pretty much go solo now, and mostly on the trainer. I suppose that might be somewhat stereotypical triathlete behavior as a reaction to triathlon rules. I do know quite a few triathletes who do group rides in which they are all triathletes, though.

Anyway, that was my n=1 anecdotal evidence that we're all horrible people. Or something. :)

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Travis Rassat
Vector Cycle Works
Noblesville, IN
BikeFit Instructor | FMS | F.I.S.T. | IBFI
Toughman Triathlon Series Ambassador

Just my thoughts... I was and will always be a cyclist. More of a grunge type Crit racer. Did some CAT 3 for a few years, however now spend just as much time running, with swimming for Traithlons. "Most" of the time a Triathlete seems to think they can hang with either group ( except we seem to know we are not swimmers). Most often Triatheltes tend to not know all the etiquette or unsaid rules of cyclist. They can't hold a line well or surge off the front and then can sustain because, what we are are built for endurance not short burst. Almost every triathlete I know in my running group act like it they are more superior than the runner because be a runner is only a part-time job compared to a triathlete.

And finally why do so many triatheletes need every electronic tool available. I have raced evey distance triathlons, I have nice equipment, but not 5k worth of bike, 2k wheels, 1k PowerTap & an aero lid for my local sprint. Then they show up to a group ride all Freded out and can't hang with the group.
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Please forgive typo's and poor grammer. Most posting performed on my not so smart phone.

I think it's overblown. I find most of the hate is from middle of the pack age groupers and middle of the pack racers. Basically guys who are trying to be more than they are. These racers like to criticize tri-guys for poor bike handling and tri-guys are always blabbing about how epicly hard their training is or how many miles they did before they caught you/you caught them on a ride. On the top part of the performance triangle, everyone seems to be really cool and more interested in sharing information about aerodynamics, nutrition, recovery and improving than an endurance pissing match.