We have draft legal and draft illegal triathlons, maybe it’s now time to try something entirely different.
A non-drafting road race. I’m sick and tired of seeing these teams protect their star riders from the wind with tactics. Or sand baggers hiding out from the breeze until the last 100 yards and pulling ahead for the wind. Any man or woman not pushing their own air is a coward.
Rules: Road course, no teams or team tactics, 3 bike length no-go zone, no intentional touching/elbowing or contact (this isn’t wrestling). May the best MOTOR win.
Couldn’t you come up with anything more original than that!? This is an amazing idea and needs a name that reflects that…let’s call it ‘Contre La Montre’.
yeah – this is an awesome idea. i have the perfect name!
how about we call it a “time trial”?
no, wait…it’s a good name. think about it.
That is an interesting idea. Imagine if it caught on. They could even have a world championship in that event. But the name sounds too weird to catch on.
I appreciate a good trolling every once in a while, but I see his point though. Time trials are really short compared to even a short TDF stage, and the TT stages are usually a good bit flatter/easier than regular TDF stages, for instance. I think it would be interesting to see what a non-draft 180km bike race looked like on mass-start legal bikes…
so…you basically want to see what pro riders’ high tempo pace is, with higher CdA than the aero position?
eliminate team tactics and strategy. what you describe is sort of like seeing your own personal best on your local 100-mile route.
i guess in that format i find it more interesting to watch a time trial where riders are at threshold and are all searching for the optimal power:aerodynamic ratio.
I want to see them take on a hard course as individuals, not as teams. I really don’t care how long it is. Could be 1 mile up a vertical incline (suck on that Pantani) or 120 miles through death valley. The high mountain stages in the TDF almost do it for me, but there’s still a team/drafting element before the climb, and on the descents…
Bottom line. I want to watch men break after suffering alone.
right…so…basically sub-maximal efforts. by definition, they can’t do threshold (no one can) for rides of that duration, so you want to see them “break” during what would essentially be a 3- or 4-hour paced effort. if they paced wrong they’d bonk on the last bit.
it would still be watching professionals do what they do…at 85% effort.
a time trial’s duration allows us to see a rider at his limit for the duration of that event (which may be tolerable to watch). same thing for the normal road races – strategy comes to play, and the breaks and attacks we do see are shorter and at or above threshold levels, which is where the pros shine.
the OP’s suggestion is kind of like watching an ironman, minus the swimming and biking and aerodynamic bikes. probably won’t be all that exciting to watch.
it seems like you guys are saying that large parts of road races are not terribly interesting (and i’d agree) – but what’s interesting really is the chess game that goes on. take that away and you then take away need to attack and such (it’s just going to be about minimizing time), and then you’ve got the one whose tempo level is the highest and pacing the best will win.
without the strategy, it’s not much of a game.
we could watch skills or fitness competitions instead of baseball, football and hockey, too.
Have you ever been in a breakaway? The best part of road races or crits is launching an attack and see who can follow. This happens (or doesn’t happen) at all levels!
I appreciate a good trolling every once in a while, but I see his point though. Time trials are really short compared to even a short TDF stage, and the TT stages are usually a good bit flatter/easier than regular TDF stages, for instance. I think it would be interesting to see what a non-draft 180km bike race looked like on mass-start legal bikes…
You think? I dont. What makes road racing so great is that it is a mix of strategy, strength and luck. Watching them ride 3 hours at tempo would make it about as dreadfully boring as watching the bike segment of a triathlon.
I want to see them take on a hard course as individuals, not as teams. I really don’t care how long it is. Could be 1 mile up a vertical incline (suck on that Pantani) or 120 miles through death valley. The high mountain stages in the TDF almost do it for me, but there’s still a team/drafting element before the climb, and on the descents…
Bottom line. I want to watch men break after suffering alone.
right…so…basically sub-maximal efforts. by definition, they can’t do threshold (no one can) for rides of that duration, so you want to see them “break” during what would essentially be a 3- or 4-hour paced effort. if they paced wrong they’d bonk on the last bit.
it would still be watching professionals do what they do…at 85% effort.
a time trial’s duration allows us to see a rider at his limit for the duration of that event (which may be tolerable to watch). same thing for the normal road races – strategy comes to play, and the breaks and attacks we do see are shorter and at or above threshold levels, which is where the pros shine.
the OP’s suggestion is kind of like watching an ironman, minus the swimming and biking and aerodynamic bikes. probably won’t be all that exciting to watch.
it seems like you guys are saying that large parts of road races are not terribly interesting (and i’d agree) – but what’s interesting really is the chess game that goes on. take that away and you then take away need to attack and such (it’s just going to be about minimizing time), and then you’ve got the one whose tempo level is the highest and pacing the best will win.
without the strategy, it’s not much of a game.
we could watch skills or fitness competitions instead of baseball, football and hockey, too.
nah, we just happen to like playing chess while the op and the other guy can only play checkers
I want to see them take on a hard course as individuals, not as teams. I really don’t care how long it is. Could be 1 mile up a vertical incline (suck on that Pantani) or 120 miles through death valley. The high mountain stages in the TDF almost do it for me, but there’s still a team/drafting element before the climb, and on the descents…
Bottom line. I want to watch men break after suffering alone.
They generally wouldn’t “break” before the finish with power meters and such pacing them. Maybe a few would at first trying to hang on to other riders, but since they would be alone the whole race, it would be relatively easy to pace any distance very quickly with a power meter and this would quickly become the most boring event in sports
Have you ever raced in a real road race or gone on a hard and fast group ride?
Why do you want this?
Who is it going to attract/serve?
As a few others have said, there already is a discipline within cycling that operates more or less this way - it’s called the *Individual Time Trial. *
The ITT is an odd event within cycling. Many triathletes are absolutely transfixed and fascinated by the event, yet few triathletes actually do them!! And real roadies, have a self loathing for the event, and it really is the preserve of a group of specialists in the road racing community - although it’s not unusual for the ones winning all the road races to also be winning the ITT’s. But this is not always the case.
There are a lot of misconceptions within the triathlon community about what real road racing is all about - chief among those being that it’s a bit of a laugher just drafting along in a group. My sense is that this misconception is as a result of having never actually having raced in a road race or ridden in a hard group ride. Sometimes it is a bit of a laugh, but other times you are riding harder than you have ever ridden in your life, just to keep up!! It’s no laughing matter!
I appreciate a good trolling every once in a while, but I see his point though. Time trials are really short compared to even a short TDF stage, and the TT stages are usually a good bit flatter/easier than regular TDF stages, for instance. I think it would be interesting to see what a non-draft 180km bike race looked like on mass-start legal bikes…
The results might be interesting. It would be a complete snoozer to watch it.
The only difference between doing such a thing on TT vs. mass start bikes is that it would take longer on mass start bikes, I don’t see how it would change the order of finish (this assumes that all TT setups are comparable).
