Originally Posted by
base2
In re-re-reading this thread a tought occured to me: What if "race" is a regional colliqualism?
When my spouse & I travelled to Arkansas for a century ride, everyone called it a race. "Y'all here for the race? "Good luck with the race." "Have a good time on your race." Y'all came all the way here for our little race?"
It got a little weird when I tried to say it was more of a ride, maybe an afternoon tour, or simply a fun event, so I quit trying to correct them & just rolled with the hospitality.
I'm wondering how much of that applies here.
When I say "race", I didn't want to mean "oficial races"; they are more like minor fun events. Normally with no more than 200-300 people. Sometimes there is no even podium rewards; so practically everyone goes there for fun. However, that doesn't mean we don't care about times; even if its not competition, we all like to do our best to keep improving, sometimes there are cut-off times. Obviously, profesional people come to ride with us, for training, fun or for some podium rewards.
Originally Posted by
63rickert
Where are these road races? In US road racing on non-crit courses is just about gone. The road race (not a time trial) where you race alone most of the time does not exist. Riding alone in a road race means either you are on a solo breakaway or you have been dropped. If you were doing solo breakaways we would know your name. If you have been dropped basically you are no longer racing.
I'm living in Europe, here we have lots of events. And the ones I enjoy doing the most are the hilly ones, most of the times there are no many people (around 200-300); everyone with different rhythms, you are likely to be riding alone.
Originally Posted by
63rickert
Just re-read top post. OP is talking 5 minutes per hour from equipment. And guesstimating a 180km road race takes 8 hours. Wrong. No equipment gives five minutes per hour. And a 180km race even over extreme terrain (paved) is five hours or less.
180km with huge elevation gain is not 5 hours or less. I dont know how skilled you are, but for most of the amateur players this is hardly achievable.
I'm talking about hilly races, and those 180km takes about 8 hours as average depending on the elevation gain, for example for me 180 km with 3000m takes me at least 8 hours.