Originally Posted by
SpankZEbadger
It looks like the majority of you would say to refrain from contact if at all possible. Thanks for the advice everyone I'll take that into account at my next race which will hopefully be the ice sports wear crit this coming up weekend if I can afford it!
I'm another one that thinks "offensive" contact is an indication of weak tactical position. I can't remember pushing someone to get them out of the day; I'm pretty sure I've never done it.
(I have given helpful shoves to close gaps etc, but these are pretty steady/gentle contacts.)
I have taken wheels from people, meaning get on a wheel they were on. Done right the only way to defend is to initiate pretty aggressive contact with the wheel taker. Usually taking a wheel isn't a huge deal, even toward the end of a race, because being one wheel further back is rarely a huge problem. Plus an experienced racer can take the wheel back quickly. It's always hard to defend a position, it's really easy to take a wheel.
I didn't realize how significantly I felt about this until a guy moved up and slammed into me in a race. I checked down/back, moved to the side and up, and a few seconds later he slammed into me from behind/side. He claimed that he thought I wasn't moving since I looked, but he clearly moved up after I was already in the spot. I don't know how he justified the move when I was already in the spot (I even checked my helmet cam to make sure I wasn't off base - I wasn't). When he came up to me after the race I laid into him. After my tirade he said meekly, "I was only coming up to you to apologize." Oops.
One particularly dirty rider would do a lot of stuff to intimidate me - brake checks at high speeds (most memorable while we were attacking on a downhill at close to 50 mph, but normally in high speed bits of a race like 30-35-40 mph), kicking his rear wheel sideways into my front wheel, pushing me, slapping my helmet, all while swearing obscenities at me. In one race this went on for a solid 15-20 minutes, so much so that all the other racers gave us room in case something happened. He literally scares me, even now, so I just took it. I rode dirty back whenever he was on my wheel, for maybe the next year or so. Not proud of it now but I did it. No contact - I never initiated contact with him - but it involved riding in such a way that he couldn't stay on my wheel. I learned all the tricks I did from him because that's how he rode. He screamed at me at one race where I was doing that. I pointed out that I was just doing stuff he did to everyone else. He didn't like that. I still end up in races with this guy but he's mellowed out over the years, I haven't seen any dirty racing from him in maybe 7 or 8 years.