Originally Posted by
spectastic
i still find it exciting. i just don't see the rewards to be very worthwhile anymore, especially racing p/1/2. you have to sacrifice quite a lot to be able to hang with guys who more or less do it for a living. I've been doing more gravel events, and find those pretty fun. But overall, I've realized that I enjoy riding my bike and being fit more than paying hundreds of dollars and dedicating several months of preparation for a few events. I'm sure i'll be doing more USAC events in the future, maybe next year. but not this year. I need to figure some things out.
Yeah... just to hang. To be competitive you need genes. I think that's one of the things... like if I thought there was a good chance that I could do everything absolutely perfect for a season and be competitive it would be an easy choice. Do it. Did you ever get cat 1? Your sig says 31/35 and that's way too close to call it quits.
Originally Posted by
spectastic
as for being boring and ridiculous, that has more to do with seeing the same people, having the same conversations after the races, doing the same poses. it's gotten old for me. on top of that, I don't like the attitude of some of these roadies, thinking the world is all about them. that's probably the one thing that drives me up the wall the most, people and their egos, taking the sport too seriously, like they've got some kind of future in the world tour. nope, bye.
Yeah I understand. I mean, most of the guys are pretty friendly actually, but it seems there's absolutely zero way to connect with any of them lol. Unless I wanna talk about more bike racing, which is fine for a while but not enough to actually make friends over.
Originally Posted by
mike868y
i hear comments like this all the time and honestly...don't get it. the friends i've made from cycling are some of the kindest most down to earth people I know who are all just trying to have fun and push ourselves. sure there's the occasional bad apple but by and large the cycling community i've surrounded myself with is made up of pretty incredible people all around.
Originally Posted by
topflightpro
I can say I've experienced both. For many years, my cycling friends were my only friends. But things change. People move, have kids, or stop riding or racing. At the same time, I've found the emergence of Zwift and Strava means we get to extend the discussion about the training ride for three days. Yay, so much fun! (I'm being sarcastic.) I don't want to only talk about rides. There is more to life than what happened on the local hammer ride.
Again, I'd probably not feel like quitting so much if I could make friends with racing cyclists like you guys. I mean it is likely me, I have hard time making friends, in part perhaps cuz I grew up with 5 brothers and so no one ever really feels like a friend when you are used to talking about everything til 4 am with people lol. Yeah, talking racing and training can be fun, it's still fun, but I can talk one topic til I'm blue in the face but not really feel a connection with the person the next day, ya know? Hobbies and goal-oriented activities are very personal for me I think. Individual-oriented and directed. Even on a team, the goal of getting the team the win still feels like a very personal goal. I feel like to really connect with anyone we hang out, no goals, nowhere to be, just shooting **** for a while. Idk, just rambling.