Alternative Format Cycling Races

[nooneline]

There's gotta be a bike forum version of Godwin's law and turning every damn thread that mentions professional racing into another silly conversation about doping.

[josephr]

plan it out and we'll race it! we're not picky....just don't pick out a lame charity run by junior league party-girls!

[fiamme red]

How about a riding-backwards-while-playing-the-violin race?

[shovelhd]

Athens Twilight has Computrainer races as a qualifier for remaining field slots. Tour de Grove has 200m street sprints for cash and betting is encouraged. They also have a drag race where you have to sprint looking fabulous.

[Louis]

Originally Posted by nooneline

There's gotta be a bike forum version of Godwin's law and turning every damn thread that mentions professional racing into another silly conversation about doping.

Only a jackbooted Nazi thug would say something like that.

[holliscx]

Originally Posted by jr59

Well if you believe that's fine by me. But I tend to think differently, b/c somebody that was raised where Jens was, (East Germany) and raced with who he did for the last 20 years to NEVER have done dope is a bit out there. Sorry for my non believing. For At least in my eyes, Pro cycling is a dirty sport! I have zero trouble with that. Pro cycling, like all pro sports, is entertainment. I like watching it, so I do.

But to try and think Jens is clean or has been clean thru out his career is IMO just plain silly!

I totally agree Jens is as dirty as they come. He claims to have ridden clean for Crédit Agricole.

[crankles]

Lets get more exposure for this....

[carpediemracing]

I've seen a number of crit races go to alternate formats (typically points races, sometimes miss-n-out, other track flavors) and then return to a normal scratch race (meaning first to the line wins). Some were bigger (Harlem Crit), some were small (training races mainly, some local crits).

I've taken part in two downtown sprints - head to head, 200m or so, neither had distinct lanes so you could draft if you felt it beneficial. I remember a $50k? flying mile. Jason Snow went at the start (it was led out by a motorcycle I think to the start point), he stayed away and it was over. I think he won $10k in less than 2 minutes of actual racing. It might have happened one more time but it's definitely gone now.

It seems that gimmicks take away from the actual race race, if you will, especially for larger fields of racers, meaning 100 or whatever racers.

Also, although it's interesting to match up racers head to head, a big part of the appeal of mass start racing is the "mass start" aspect. If you eliminate the mass start part then you eliminate much of the fluid tactics of such a race and you reduce it to something akin to a running race (if there are separate lanes) or a match sprint (no lanes). Match sprints can be so boring and take so long that they have a rule about minimum speed for the first part of the race.

Yes, there are minor variations to the theme - KOM, mid-race sprints, most aggressive, etc - but the big races stick with a standard type format.