Negative Racing
Aren’t we all just amateur cyclists who enjoy getting out on the “open road” to push ourselves to the limit and fuel our competitive engines? So why do some cyclist participate in negative racing?
In a recent Training Race we had only had 3 guys in the peloton while one team had 10 riders, another team had 8 guys, and there were two more teams with at least a half dozen each. However, when 2 guys went off the front ½ way through Lap 1 of 4 no one in the pack showed any interest in racing for the win. My teammates and I were surfing the front waiting to help some of the bigger teams chase down the break, but none of them came up to work. It seemed like everyone just wanted to sit in and enjoy the ride and then race for a Top 10 place. So I attacked twice on Lap 3 to try and get away from the “freeloaders” and both times I had guys, from one particular team with no one up the road, sit on my wheel and refuse to come through. I thought, “Are you serious? This is a training race! We’re not even racing for money!” Looking back...no one in that race (other than the two that got away) can say they actually raced their bike that day.
Negative racing is not fun for anyone. We are not professionals and we race for the fun of it. Some of us are limited on the number of opportunities we have to get out and race...so please...don’t ruin it for everyone else. When you decide to show up and pin a number on don’t worry so much about whether you will finish 14th or 15th and just have fun and race your bike. Thank you.
- Thad 3/22/09