Another SoCal Masters Racing Douchebaggery

[thedvlsh1]

[54ny77]

i've been on the giving and receiving end of hip or shoulder checks, but never done deliberately and so blatantly like that asshole did. sure, sometimes things get close and you mark your space (or others mark it for you on their own behalf), but what that guy did was the equivalent of sucker punching someone in the back of the head...without him even knowing it was coming.

[thedvlsh1]

[thedvlsh1]

[thedvlsh1]

[David Tollefson]

After getting closed off (safely, mind you), I can see how the person who caused the crash could get peeved and contemplate retaliation. The reaction, however, points to some one who clearly has anger and/or aggression issues. No place for that in racing.

[livingminimal]

These people are such ****ing assholes.

Grow the **** up.

[William]

Originally Posted by David Tollefson

After getting closed off (safely, mind you), I can see how the person who caused the crash could get peeved and contemplate retaliation. The reaction, however, points to some one who clearly has anger and/or aggression issues. No place for that in racing.

Agree.

In my opinion…

It looks like it could payback for a perceived slight. A moment before the rider in front of him closed the door (looks unintentional to me) on him toward the curb where he had to hold back for a split second. As it opened up again he moved up and shoulder bumped the guys arm. “Rubbin is racing” and intentionally taking a guy down are two different things and require two different responses.

If that were my teammate, chances are extremely high that he’d be getting a visit after the race.

I always found bike racing to be an interesting dichotomy in how people exhibit aggressive behavior on the course as compared to off the course. I have a thick skin and you can bust my balls and try to get into my head all you want on the course. We can even jockey for position, rub elbows, and shoulders and it’s all part of the game. You make it personal by intentionally try to take me or one of my teammates down we’ll be talkin’ after the race.

Amazing how fast guys would back pedal off the bike.





William

[hellvetica]

Is this the prick?

https://www.road-results.com/racer/39709

LOL. Bottom 50 percenter.

[GregL]

At the very least, the assailant should be given a long suspension by USA Cycling. If he has a history of violations, a lifetime ban may be appropriate. I would not be unhappy to have the district attorney's office review the video too. It's on the ragged edge between overly aggressive sporting behavior and assault.

Greg

[Clean39T]

Originally Posted by Jgrooms

Every time I consider a return to usac, I get a reminder.

Sucks bad someone had to learn the hard way...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

^^^ exactly

Between this and the rampant doping, why bother?

Find some friends to ride with, trade pulls, explore - rinse n repeat.

[ptourkin]

Originally Posted by hellvetica

Is this the prick?

https://www.road-results.com/racer/39709

LOL. Bottom 50 percenter.

yeah although AFAIK he wasn't really on MMR (kit least likely to wave or even nod or acknowledge you in any way on a casual ride) this year.

[mecse]

1. That was hard to watch.
2. It's a grown man, for goodness sakes.
3. Feels like criminal assault to me. Akin to, say, swinging a baseball bat into a catchers head deliberately.
4. ... and if it is criminal, that also entails liability for medical costs.

[chiasticon]

I have a theory... it's OK if it's wrong...

there's a thing I do where if I'm all the sudden being forced into a bad line and it's unexpected, I'll deliberately and massively shift my upper body weight to one side of the bike, in order to not crash. I'm not sure how to explain this accurately. if you've even seen euro cx pros ride though sand, you've seen it (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkxTR9vIUl0). basically, the bike is sort of trying to go one way and you counteract this by exaggeratedly leaning the other way.

anyway, it looks to me like dude takes way too thin of a line to pass the victim between him and the curb. then the victim goes left just slightly (most likely not realizing someone is even coming up on his left yet) and dude starts to go left into the curb. to counteract this, he leans his weight to the right, hitting the victim. he actually does the same thing 5-10 seconds before the crash on his own, when he's too close to the curb.

not sure if this analysis is right or whatever and it could be 100% intentional. I don't know. just offering up an alternative theory. either way, it's a lame move. he shouldn't have taken that line to begin with. and he d*mn sure shouldn't have leaned into the victim, even if not doing so means he would've crashed (or would they both have?).

[Hindmost]

There is something else going on here beyond what the video shows.