Maybe we just weren't elitist enough for the ride?

[roadrash]

I really cant understand why people get irate about what SOMEONE ELSE is wearing, please someone explain it to me, I just don't get it

 

[petek]

I really cant understand why people get irate about what SOMEONE ELSE is wearing, please someone explain it to me, I just don't get it

Any bicyclist not wearing at least one woven-tweed item of clothing is unworthy of that name.

 

[Racing roadkill]

You wear full pro team kit do you not?

Only when it's on special offer at the outlet store. 30 quid for a set of bibs and a jersey with the mits and socks chucked in for free, isn't to be sniffed at. I'd not be seen dead in full price FPWK though.

 

[Racing roadkill]

Nope: Maillot Jeune for rr, and deep section carbon wheels. Goodness knows what the OP would have made of it/him when arriving to register.

I didn't pay for the Jersey, so that's okay ( I think ), according to the 'rules' Those aren't carbon rims either, and not 'that' deep.

 

[ianrauk]

Only when it's on special offer at the outlet store. 30 quid for a set of bibs and a jersey with the mits and socks chucked in for free, isn't to be sniffed at. I'd not be seen dead in full price FPWK though.

So how do you know these other guys didn't get for cheaper at the outlet store?

 

[Racing roadkill]

So how do you know these other guys didn't get for cheaper at the outlet store?

They still had the labels on them.

 

[PaulSB]

???

I don't see RR commenting on less experienced, amateurish or embarrassingly poor behaviour in his post, just reinforcing the snobbish, aloof, elitist connotations of the OP.

Straight off apologies if I failed to make myself clear.

In my view I thought my first two paragraphs addressed the assertion by RR all clubs and sportive behaviour is of the type the OP didn't enjoy. I described how my own club runs as an example.

My third paragraph refers to less experienced riders who, in my understanding of the OP, would be those in full pro kit on expensive bikes. My experience is some such riders do ride in this way. Some not all.

My fourth paragraph commented on a well known event up here in which many participants think they can do whatever they wish with no thought for others.

 

[Ajax Bay]

I didn't pay for the Jersey, so that's okay ( I think ), according to the 'rules' Those aren't carbon rims either, and not 'that' deep.

By the 'rules' that's fine. But what would the OP think if he saw you thus attired with lycra and apparently expensive bike/wheels?
"an absolute bunch of lycra clad cockwombles - all the £2k + bikes and branded attire"
I know: you're going to say that your bike cost less than a grand.
I agree with @roadrash - really not worth being concerned what other cyclists are wearing or riding, unless there are safety issues (and I'm NOT talking helmet/hi-viz/relective/black ninja issues here).

 

[mjr]

Nope: Maillot Jeune for rr,

Not sure he's trés jeune (young) by the looks of that pic

 

[Tim Hall]

Certainly isn't

Is this the secondhand shorts thread?

 

[jarlrmai]

Sooner or later all threads are the secondhand shorts thread.

 

[Bollo]

Sooner or later all threads are the secondhand shorts thread.

That is the Smiths lyric that never was.

 

[screenman]

I really cant understand why people get irate about what SOMEONE ELSE is wearing, please someone explain it to me, I just don't get it

I do think that it is the person imagining that people are getting irate, when nobody actually is.

 

[Donger]

At long last I'm about to do my first ever sportive next weekend ... the Cotswold Autumn Classic 100km. If I'm honest, it's something I may be guilty of putting off for a while, as I have a few preconceptions about sportives myself, being more of an audaxer by nature. Hopefully it won't be the alphamaleothon that I have built it up to be.

This year I have talked a few clubmates into doing their first audaxes (a couple of them in bitter winter weather), so when invited along by one of them to enter a sportive, I had to say yes. Hopefully I'll enjoy the experience, though I'm a bit nervous of the whole concept of a broom wagon and published finishing times. I'm not your typical sportive type. I may wear lycra, but I ride a heavy steel tourer and I have the body shape and size of a rugby second row forward. When it comes to hills I just winch myself up slowly and have to ignore how fast everyone else is going. I have the endurance but not the speed.

Whatever my upcoming experience may be, I can certainly recommend to the OP to give audaxing a try instead as a possible alternative to sportives. It is a whole lot cheaper (typically £5-7 per event instead of the £28 I've paid for this sportive) and it really does cater for all types ..... though you have to be more self sufficient as you are left to find your own way round the course and carry out your own repairs etc. I have found audaxes to be very friendly events, and have made some good friends out on audaxes while riding along with people who were content doing the same speed as me and taking in the scenery. Organised events don't have to be about racing around, nose to the bars and ass in the air. Hopefully my preconceptions will be wrong and we'll be able to appreciate the scenery on this sportive as well .... though I'm determined to stay ahead of the broom wagon and am rather fixating on that at the moment.

 

[Fab Foodie]

With regard to Sportives, I'm definately of the 'no hat, no ride' persuasion.