Inter-Cat Challenge

[bruce]

Okay,

 

So the debate rages, who are the better riders - licensed or open.  In time-honoured tradition, the only way to resolve such a dispute is to have a duel!!

 

I propose the following:

Event 1: Road Race - teams of 8 to race each other.

event 2: Individual Time Trial - best combined time.

 

Sometime over Dec/Jan when there is no racing.

 

Takers?

[bruce]

Hmmmnnn....  12 minutes and no takers - bunchof woosies.

[Gumpole]

Interesting idea, but I dont see it working because:

The racing teams wont want to participate (exception might be TCS!) as they have nothing to gain by whipping a bunch of open riders (which they will).

That means the A level elites will race against the A level open riders and these guys are basicly interchangable (eg Jason)

 

I reckon though if you look at the winning times of the A bunch (fastest of the open) who to some extent timetrial a 100k race VS the elites who dont give a toss about time, the elites are always a fair way quicker.

I may be wrong here I have never been at the front (or the rear) of the A bunch!!

[epoh]

I reckon the licensed riders are much better, the open riders are a bunch of wheel suckers With of course the exception of a few.

 

But generally the guys in the open groups just go with the flow where as the licensed riders are following dedicated training programs, diets, power meter kung-foo guru's .

 

I think you will have a better contest if you put the lic Vets up against the lic Elites.

 

[bruce]

How about taking the top 8 seeded hubbers in licensed and open, a mens contest and a womens contest.

[IanJ]

What about age categories as well (elite, 30-39, 40-49) or even 5 year gaps?

 

 

[bruce]

Don't know if we'd have enough takers for some many groups.

[Cocaine]

Umh, The best open riders race in A group at the big events. The best licenced riders race in the elite category with the likes of Barloworld, etc at the big events like giro, 94.7, etc.

 

simply no contest. If you look at all the races over the past 5 years or so... you will see elite simply always post the fastest time out of all the groups... except on the rare occasion where they race to tactically and get caught by SubVets or something. But the big difference between Licenced riders and open riders is that licenced riders race against each other to win and to a large degree open riders ride together to get a good time.

 

Licenced cyclist don't care about time and race simply to win. I cannot tell you what time I did at a single race in the last 2 years. Not even argus, cause it simply doesn't matter... i know where I placed though ;-)

[bruce]

exactly my point - so, we limit it to amateur cyclists then.

[butafly]

no contest - here in the Cape most of the Vets (40-49) and  Masters (50+) are A + B seeded riders. they ride faster when they need to (most of the time when its up a hill). its the nature of racing , when you ride fast , ride fast but when you ride slow, ride slow, the elastic eventually breaks.