Snuffleupagus

"I'm a great believer in luck and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it."

-Jefferson.

grolby

I've gotten 2nd place before, when I was easily the strongest guy in the race. That stings pretty bad. I've liked having consistent placings so far, but a win would be awesome. I could finish mid-pack in most of my important races this season, but still be ecstatically happy if I took a win at Longsjo or Hilltowns. It's still a hard call, though - like others have mentioned, there's a lot of other factors. I might have umd's problem, and be targeting the wrong types of races. I also suspect, though I can't verify, that my strength is in short-medium duration power, rather than threshold (which I already know sucks).

txvintage

I would take consistently. It means your training and effort are paying off and your making progress. Winning one and being back of the pack fodder for the rest of the year means you had one good day, which may have been a fluke.

bostongarden

All else being equal, I'd want the win...I love the rush of winning...for me, the response function of various emotions by place is not linear...do I still have fun, when I don't win? Sure!! But, I'd take the feeling of a win -- and all the other races would become forgotten -- over several top tens. Again, note, I said all else being equal.

I'd rather have an amazing Curt Schilling for one World Series and win it all than an entire staff of above average pitchers that win a lot of games, but, do not get you the ring. I'd rather have Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen with just a bit left in the tank, but still able to lay it down and win the Championship over a team with fine young talent that could make it to the Finals for 15 straight years, but always would come in second.

Harper Lee had one amazing book, To Kill A Mockingbird; arguably the greatest work of fiction of all time -- certainly the best selling book of all time. She never wrote another phenomenal book. Would she have wanted to write several well respected books rather than the best selling book of all time? I don't know. But, I suspect her career would have been less notable had it happened that way.

Creakyknees

I clicked the poll before reading the thread - and I am disapointed to see that the 2nd place / first loser crowd is in the lead.

In 2008 I had... 1 win. And my next best placing was 5th. But there's more to it - I only had a very few goal events that really suited my style and pref's.

I raced a lot of races but they were almost all for training. Like every Tuesday nighter, I had no intention of going for the win but I sure got a good workout in by messing with the other teams.

But yeah... W's are the best... to paraphrase Ferris Bueller - if you have the means, I recommend it.

edit: p.s. the point of racing is _not_ to collect upgrade points.

king-tony

Depends on the race. IF the one win was a district championship it would be a no brainer. If the win was in a small mediocre field crit I would go with the placings throughout the season.

Lithuania

^^^^

thats a very good point

waterrockets 

Win FTW

Lithuania

**** the world

merlinextraligh

I'm not sure it is. My last 4 races have all been top tens, but only one third place.

Each race I had a chance to make, stay, or go with a move that gave me a chance for a solo win, but each one at the likely cost of finishing at the back of th pack or worse.

Particularly if you're not a great sprinter, I think you may well have the choice of making a move that gives a shot at the win, but at the cost of flaming out, or otherwise a mid to high pack finish.

Duke of Kent

In a race this past season, I got 5th after lapping the field. It was a pretty good race; there were two breaks up the road ahead of the field, I was in the second one, and I shelled half of my break mates. I mean, just shattered them. Two kids got popped off the back and weren't able to reintegrate with the field. I'm not particularly fast; it was just a great day on the bike. Rare form, indeed.

The first group eventually got a lap up, we caught on to the back end with 5 or 6 laps to go. I go straight through the field, and attack. I get 100m pretty quickly, and am getting into TT mode. It sucks. I last a lap and a half, get reeled in. I go with a counter, get reeled in.

Eventually, I got 5th. It was a Cat1/2/3 race, and a 3 from my club, and a good friend of mine, attempted to lead me out. It didn't go as planned, but I was pissed off at myself more than any mistakes we'd made as a team. I did so much work in the break, just killing myself to drag some sorry SOBs across with me, one which eventually beat me. I was cursing and beating the crap out of my steering wheel for about 10min while waiting for the payout.

That was the closest I've come to winning a race as a 2. I think about that race at least once a week. So, yeah, I want to win a f***ing race. I slave for my team and roll in at the end of the field in 90% of the races I do. Coming home with a fist full of cash is nice, but it sucks to tell your mom that yeah, "We won" but "oh...no. i was somewhere in the 40s...".

merlinextraligh

actually what sucks is coming home and telling your mom, just saying.

jrennie

1 win . Podiums are nice but not a win. If I get to pick it then Downtown Reno crit at the Tour De Nez this year.

Duke of Kent

I'm 23, I've graduated from a top 25 university, I have a well paying job, and a new car. I race for one of the best amateur teams in the Midwest, if not the best.

I live at home because it is convenient and because I'm lazy, not because I can't afford to move out. At least I'm not some f-ing yuppie in Lincoln Park or Wrigleyville, packed into a 3 bedroom apartment, barely making rent and living on credit.

So, yeah, I live at home with my parents. It happens.

umd

DoK, living at home can be an especially effective way to save up money to buy your own property... instead of paying rent you can take that money and put it in the bank and it goes toward your own future, not your landlord's. That was going to be my plan but it ended up not being necessary.

Stallionforce

Depends on the race. Hell I don't like to get dropped at club races but if it happens, it happens. But at a sanctioned event, it's different -- I am there to win.

So if you're only talking sanctioned events, then, yeah, I race to win. Other races I look at as preparation -- as training. Placing doesn't matter to me, and sometimes placing high at the wrong time can actually be a bad thing, if it means you've mis-timed your peak.

Chucklehead

There's this guy here in SoCal who wasn't all that competitive last year. He won ONE STINKIN' RACE, and it just happened to be the state crit championship. Good for him, but he didn't have the same respect from everyone else that the perennial contenders did. He won, everyone said "wtf.." and went about the rest of the season watching out for the real dangerous riders. No disrespect to him, but everyone knew it was more or less a fluke. Right place. Right time.

I wouldn't want that. I like being one of the guys where, when the final laps start counting down, other riders say "Watch that guy!"

bitingduck

No.

DanielS

I'll take the win, thanks. Its very rare that a win is just a result of luck. Winning a bike race, in my opinion, usually represents a bit of luck, but requires a lot of completeness as a bike rider. You need to have enough endurance to survive, breakaway or position yourself, and enough of a sprint to outsprint somebody, and enough tactical astuteness to do it all at the right time and place.

YMCA

I like to see my team try to win, rather than place three guys in the top ten.

That's the way I race, that's the way sports are supposed to be played.

botto 

sounds about right.

yep.

substructure

He could have been training solely for this race. Unless he was in last and everyone else wiped out going into the last turn, it wasn't really a fluke. At least, I don't think so.

kensuf

The 2nd place guy lost.

And no, I've never won, but I've helped my team-mates win which is pretty gratifying.

Coyote2

I won't argue whether this is the "greatest work of fiction of all time" because that is a judgment call (though I have never seen it pop up on any critics' lists of "greatest works"). I will note that it is certainly NOT the "best selling book of all time."

I am continually amazed at people who so forcefully make assertions which are so easily refuted.

procrit

I'll take whatever as long as I'm in the money and I get some points. =)