So I know I've written a few times about things that get to me about triathlon, training and other things of the sort, but I've been doing some more thinking, and so I have few more things to add to my list. I'm not trying to be super cynical or rub people the wrong way, but this is just a few things that really bug me about what goes on in the daily life of what I do.
1.) Racking your bike. This became so apparent at the last race I did that I absolutely had to write about it. When you rack your bike, you use your saddle, seat, butt pad, whatever you want to call it. NOT your handlebars. When you use your handlebars, you take up 2-3x more room than you would with your seat. It also really messes up trying to do the every/other side for mouting bikes. Just put your damn bike up on the rack using your saddle.
2.) Learn the course. Okay, this one can be a bit two-sided. It's one thing to do an overview of the course and have a basic understanding. It's another to just completely be oblivious to where you are going when you show up on race day. When I see athletes out on the course, confused and complaining about directions that are clearly given in the information you are handed when signing up.
3.) Poor on-course direction. This one has come up recently, too. At the last race, the bike and run course slightly overlap at the beginning. Clearly going out with the sprint elite group, I wasn't worried about overlapping anyone running, but the course crew made sure I was riding on the left side of the road. To go along with that, they were yelling at me to move all the way to the left, but that didn't make sense to me either. So I stuck inside right of the left lane... if that makes sense. But this reminds me of a race recently. I think it was Rev3 Quassy, where I volunteer lead a pro-woman off course and it ended up costing her the race. So I know you're volunteers, but PLEASE, know what's going on. I do thank you so much for your time, but in the heat of the moment, sometimes we really need to rely on those giving up their time to be there.
4.) Not knowing your bike. Okay, so you've gone out and spent a few thousand or more on a race bike. But, you don't have a damn clue how to fix anything on it. You need new brake pads? Don't know how to or which to replace with? Come on! At least learn the little things. When I see five thousand dollar bikes being rolled over for a tech adjustment of using the barrel adjuster on the brake to tighten it, it kind of makes me sick.
Alright, that's it. I'm done. I don't mean to push my luck making people out there mad, but that's just a few things that have been bugging me lately about the sport I care so deeply about.
-Dave
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