Interesting article written on the other side of IM training. This article was written by a man that lives just of the IMWI course and his feelings and attitude towards the race. After reading the article I can honestly saw that he is not fabricating anything and just speaking what he sees and feels. I have seen a lot of what he writes about on the course and can agree with many points. That said it goes both ways and drivers have their fair share of fault too. I just hope that everyone represents triathletes well next year in training and send everyone a positive message about us.
Spot on from a local. I’d agree as a local that the IM course is a crowded venue during the summer, and as a local biker try to stay off those roads.
I think the majority of the older, local bikers are understanding of these issues and try to be as respectful of the property owners and vehicles. Now, talk about some of the college bikers and out-of-towners (I AM DIRECTING THIS AT YOU VISION-QUEST ATHLETES!) there is an attitude and etiquette adjustment needed on these roads. It is simply a Me-First, 4-Wide, I’ve got my own darn rights to be here, I don’t know how to handle a bike, The side of the road is my garbage dump, What (?) stopsign crowd.
I don’t believe it’s fair to expect the folks who live in the host communities to simple accept us - and “our” behavior.
If we want the situation to improve - we as the participants and the ones generally being the “source” rude - need to strike out and make the change first.
I agree. We, the cycling and triathlete community, need to be better citizens as a whole. Yes, we have rights and yes, we pay taxes, yada, yada, yada. But we are also part of the community as a whole and as such, should try to wend and weave ourselves into that community. That means not flipping off the motorist who may or may not know that honking is bad form. Think about it. What does flipping off a motorist (or anyone, for that matter) accomplish? What does it say about you? Now, that doesn’t mean the occasional knucklehead who intentionally zooms a cyclist doesn’t deserve some kind of wave, but at what cost?
Personally, I thanked a lot of delayed cars and drivers on Sunday when we passed through intersections. I don’t know if they heard or even understood what I was trying to say, but a few waved back. Maybe it’s a place to start…
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that what we have in this article is a local complaining about the locals, not about us in general, although he appears to be missing that point.
I think a large part of the problem is the large training groups that take over on the weekends, as the season progresses you’ll have packs of 100’s treating the course as their personal playground. I generally try and avoid coming up when I know the large groups will be present.
The stop signs are enforced at least in Cross Plaines, which helps with their frustration. At the same time, I doubt their police officer enjoys baby sitting a single stop sign all day.
There are great routes all over the area. I rarely ride the true loop anymore…lots of good roads (better condition/less traffic) than the loop. We spent a week in a rental house near Mt Horeb and had a blast exploring for a week only using the loop for gas stations/pit stops.
**Bicyclists in training for this event since April have been blowing through stop signs in front of moving vehicles. **
Motorists do this all the time. Not a justification for cyclist being inconsiderate, but it’s curious that I never hear motorist complain of other motorists blowing through stop signs.
Agreed, its the out of town “get out of our way because we’re training for Ironman” training groups that are the worst. I usually avoid the course like the plague, but in a rare moment that I actually found myself riding a few miles of the IM course a few weeks ago, a massive pack almost mowed me over from behind when I stopped at a stop sign, and they didn’t. I hate that shit.
A few weeks ago I was riding part of the loop backwards and yelled at a peloton that they were taking up half the road and to ride correctly and they yelled back that I was riding the course wrong…heh. I just shook my head and rode on.
For years I lived about 3/4mi from University of Michigan’s football stadium. From September through October, every other weekend I had to deal with road closures, a ridiculous amount of traffic, RV’s piling in for days ahead of time etc. Basically we couldn’t leave our house on game day. I generally put up with all of the inconveniences because I loved where I lived. If it was really that big of a deal I would have moved. I don’t understand people bitching about large events taking place close to where they live. Move if you don’t want to put up with it. There are millions of people who deal with things like this all of the time. Think about NASCAR races, almost every major sport event, hell now that I live in a tourist town in Colorado I have to deal with clueless tourists all summer long. End rant.
**…**and they yelled back that I was riding the course wrong…heh.
That is funny stuff, there. It kind of makes me feel sorry for all the folks who think cycling is merely a means to an end (their Ironman) and not a wonderfully great activity in its own right.
