carpediemracing 

I think this is a good question, totally relevant right now.

My biggest concern with bike racing was spreading virus through racing in a pack. I fully expected massive outbreaks last year after the first big pro races, like the Tour etc, before the vaccine - so much so that I decided I would not enter a race until I was fully vaccinated. But nothing happened. It seems like it doesn't spread easily in that kind of context, even though to me a group of panting cyclists seems like it would be a bad thing.

My next biggest thing, for this trip especially, was trying to limit exposure during the drive. Normally it's a non-issue because my regular race haunts are 35 min away, but for a 4+ hour drive (due to traffic etc each way took 5 hours) it's relevant. I don't know the history for each town I'm driving through, the amount of people that pass through, likelihood of masks or vaccines etc. So, for example, our town is highly vaccinated, pretty isolated (no major highways or roads leading into town), is very aggressive with virus matters (we have a mask mandate for any public indoors setting regardless of vaccination status), and has a very low sick count, like 4 people or something. So I bought every normal trip thing in town, at my regular places (gas, snack/drive food, a stem believe it or not, and some magnets for my disc wheel which I promptly misplaced during my drive). I planned on zero stops during the 4 hour drive, except possibly to use a bathroom (not necessary on the drive out or back). Normally I never fill the gas tank (it holds like 38 gallons and I'd rather not carry around an extra 20 gallons for nothing) but I filled it thinking it might make it there and back (it did, and it handled differently due to the weight in the back).

Next, the venue/race, for TTown. It's outdoors. Mass start racing doesn't seem to spread the virus, and the layout was such that there was a natural social distancing. I think the closest occupied chair to me was 10 feet away. It seems like it's more an aerosol thing, not a touch thing, so I wasn't as concerned with touching things, although I didn't touch that much stuff (portapotty at TTown, 2 chairs). I did shake some hands.

Finally, what if I crash? That to me was the biggest risk, especially with me being so far away from home, and with the local hospitals being the ones that are fighting with Phil Gaimon for services rendered. My health insurance is in network. PA doesn't have a huge surge right now, so if I got critically hurt I'd (probably) be treated. And in a sense I rode a bit conservatively, which is my thing anyway.

And as far as exposure goes... I work in a setting where the vaccination rate is very low (the city is one of the worst in the area and half of our customers are from there), a significant number of coworkers are anti-vax... it's stupid. I do what I can but I figure if it's going to happen, it's going to happen from work. And I've been working from the very beginning of pandemic. We have a chain separating us from the customers so we speak (almost yell sometimes) across a 6-8 foot gap. The pods we stand at are about 6-8 feet apart. Massive vent fans in the break area that I never turn off. So I'm good with the mask, I don't go and hang out in the back, and I keep the fans blowing all the time to move air out of the indoor areas. There are some mitigation attempts, like a guy that comes in and fogs stuff. One coworker tested positive (his roommate's girlfriend works at a school, a parent sent their positive kid to school without letting anyone know, and a slew of people got sick). None of us got sick though, so it seems the steps in place at work are relatively effective.