Do gravel race participants care about "lining up with the pros"?

[72gmc]

Originally Posted by KJMUNC

Here I thought this thread was about whether or not we cared about lining up with pros....yet here we are.

I'll line up with pros at the post-race feed, but I want to be in front. I bet they take all of the guacamole.

[reuben]

Originally Posted by spoonrobot

I'm a big mickey.d enthusiast, his red hot anger is mainly against Gravel. The gender dynamics are merely a side focus.

He's an elitist about bicycle racing, a sport that has largely rejected such attitudes. If you're the type of person to read his posts and become motivated to go road race or xc or cx you're a ghost going to haunt dead disciplines.

Ride the wave or stand on the beach raging that everyone else is having fun, dude.

[KJMUNC]

Post-script to OP’s question: I lined up at BWR Sunday never expecting to see anyone on course because I figured they’d be too far in front of me…until Valverde wrecked 5mi in on the first gravel section.

3mi later I’m leading a long line of riders trying to catch a bigger group before the Lake Hodges descent and Valverde materializes next to us shouting “Vamanos! Vamanos!” My only reaction was “dude I don’t get any faster!”, which I muttered about the time he took off and promptly left us all in the dust.

We laughed about that all the way to the finish. So that was a pretty cool memory.

[mstateglfr]

Originally Posted by mickey.d

Because gravel is such a sad late-capiltalist dead-end fad, a grotesque simulation of real bicycle racing, it’s hard for me to have an opinion about gravel.

I hope to one day be cool enough to understand what this sentence actually says and means.

[reuben]

Originally Posted by mstateglfr

I hope to one day be cool enough to understand what this sentence actually says and means.

It's a bit of a headscratcher. He's saying something to the effect that it's horrible and disgusting, but he doesn't have an opinion about it.

[sg8357]

Originally Posted by mstateglfr

I hope to one day be cool enough to understand what this sentence actually says and means.

You use semantic algebra and try to get the terms to cancel.
So you get something like this.....

"Early stage Hobbesian resource distribution enabling high social
equity flight responses to uninvited reallocation strategies."

[.RJ]

Originally Posted by mstateglfr

I hope to one day be cool enough to understand what this sentence actually says and means.

I hope I'm never so grouchy about something awesome like bike riding to understand.

[BRad704]

Originally Posted by KJMUNC

Post-script to OP’s question: I lined up at BWR Sunday never expecting to see anyone on course because I figured they’d be too far in front of me…until Valverde wrecked 5mi in on the first gravel section.

3mi later I’m leading a long line of riders trying to catch a bigger group before the Lake Hodges descent and Valverde materializes next to us shouting “Vamanos! Vamanos!” My only reaction was “dude I don’t get any faster!”, which I muttered about the time he took off and promptly left us all in the dust.

We laughed about that all the way to the finish. So that was a pretty cool memory.

That's an awesome memory to have!

For me it was stopping at Midsouth 2023 to help Paige Onweller (Trek Driftless Women's Team Pro) change a double flat. As soon as we were ready, she said "Jump on my wheel, I'll pull". AAaaand that lasted about 5 seconds before she dropped me.

[rice rocket]

Originally Posted by mickey.d

It’s great that riders are trying to advocate for something… but they should be advocating for(and REGISTERING for)their local road races and xc races and cross races instead

Nah.

Been there, done that. Road racing and cross are boring.