Originally Posted by
Flatballer
Right, I get that.
And I think my point is that bike racing is different. That's part of why I like it. It's not basically an ITT with lots of other people at the same time, it doesn't have huge bottlenecks at the start.
Others can disagree, and I know these mass rides with a combined category race are the only thing that's going to save the sport (because the "just here to have a good time and finish and challenge myself" crowd outnumbers the "if I don't win I don't care" crowd by 100 to 1 and their entry fees support the whole thing), but that doesn't mean I have to like it or think something is being lost.
The world's fondo where the stripes are awarded has starts for 5 year age groups every 5 minutes. The age group fields are larger than a local 35+ 123 race, but you're racing against your competition. The local guys that have won the world's fondo are high quality racers that have won multiple nat'l championships.