What does it mean to race?

To be sure the first thing that racing means is suffering, and not only physical – racing involves as much mental turmoil as it does physical anguish. Throughout races a battle is being waged in the mind: don’t let the wheel go, push a little harder, the heat isn’t that bad, and on and on ad infinitum. A crack in the mental armour is much more fatal than bad legs. 

In tandem with suffering racing means never giving up, what the Italians call grintas. You have to hang tough, push your limits and not be afraid to come apart. Each season it seems that one is able to plumb new depths of suffering. A racer can’t be afraid to put their nose into the wind and see what comes of it. 

To race also means that you are prepared, done the appropriate training, laid the base miles and put in some decent intervals. To come off in the early parts of a race means that you’re not really racing but just there for the ride. 

You are truly racing when your competitors are cracking under the pressure that you’re applying. You are dictating the pace and making everyone else suffer and come apart. There aren’t many days like that in racing, but they are definitely the best.

 

What is not racing?

Soft pedalling, weaselling, and not doing your share are all elements of not racing. They may be good strategy but it’s not racing. Racing involves strategy such as ambushing the stronger riders, covering the right breaks etc etc, none of which involves taking it easy. You don’t stop racing when stronger riders are present, that’s when you turn to tactics to take them out of the winning situation.

An awareness of these differences is sometimes lacking in cycling here in Canada. As a community we need to inspire more aggression in our races, take them to a new level and ensure that new comers to the sport understand that there is a staggering amount of work needed to become a real racer. We have many aspiring riders, but they need some guidance to get where they want to be.

 

 

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 9th, 2007 at 8:42 am and is filed under Andrew Randell. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.