TrevA wrote:Is this down to there being more cyclists, or the new breed of cyclists whose enthusiasm exceeds their skills and experience?
The modern breed of sporting cyclist hasn't grown up in the club environment, where you learned how to ride in a group on club rides, before you started racing or doing big group rides.
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Sadly, many of the new clubs set up for the MAMILs and similar have no tradition of good cycling practice to refer to. Worse, some older clubs are now overrun with hordes of wannabees who eschew such club traditions as the old-fashioned blather of daft old gimmers. They prefer Strava-striving and will often do anything to get some foolish virtual prize.
Many will become very aerobically fit on their turbos, as they go a-zwifting-oh. Sadly this does not inculcate 99% of the other cycling skills required when cycling in the real world. But they can keep up with the club rides albeit they tend to dart of the front, in and out the crocodile and all over the road. No roadcraft. No sense, really. All the sprog sins X ten!
I know of a new cycling club without traditions, of either touring or racing (they do neither) whose members go about in an undisciplined mob, all over the road and committing every cycling sin known to club-kind. Many are Stava strivers desperate for status in the virtual lists. Some will just cheat but others will take desperate risks to climb the greasy prize pole. I know of one such who killed himself going far too fast in order to get back his kom or whatever they are for a well-known dangerous descent. He is an emblem for all the others of his ilk.
There's a lot to be said for old-fashioned club disciplines and the skills they eventually produce, including the skill of pushing one's envelope of ability - down descents, in traffic, in a bunch and in other dangerous places - without paying a high price. But wannabees want to be "a racer" toot sweet ... preferably overnight and by means of buying some expensive technology and clothing that will somehow automatically recreate them as the desired "racer" as they pull on the Sky jersey and cock a leg over the Dogmatic.
Cugel
“Practical men who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence are usually the slaves of some defunct economist”.
John Maynard Keynes
