Scalped

[J4CKO]

I have had a couple of wierd ones recently,

Guy passes on the main road and I turn on behind him, looked serious, soon caught him up with little effort, then have to slow down, he is out of the saddle for the merest inclines at 13/14 mph, had to wait due to cars passing, then, due to his low speed I had plenty of energy and off I went up to about 22 mph.

Another was an even more serious looking roadie, coming down a gentle section of hills, aware of me but I was having to break, didnt want to overtake and then have him pull past, was just about to have had enough of him and he turned off, feeble !

Group of young lads on MTB's, all fit looking, let me through (in tunnel), comes to hil and expected them to romp past, a truly pathetic showing from 20 ish year olds, pushing the bikes up as the 17st lump on the road bike flies up (all relative)

Think there are a lot of newbies, recently emerged from hibernation roadies and all the gear no idea types about, like those flies that look like Wasps, i,e, I am going to get stung by the real deal soon !

 

[BSRU]

Think there are a lot of newbies, recently emerged from hibernation roadies and all the gear no idea types about, like those flies that look like Wasps, i,e, I am going to get stung by the real deal soon !

It's the "cycle to work" scheme time of year when people, like me get, their shiny new bikes, although I haven't finished setting up so I haven't been out on it yet.

 

[BSRU]

I've been riding my very shiny and fast-looking TT bike up and down the cycle path recently to get to a good place to practice riding the damn thing. I keep getting scalped on the path - trouble is my idea of an appropriate speed to ride on that path and some other cyclists' are not the same... and to start with I wasn't very confident with the bike... but the one time I was passed by a guy on a hybrid I had an awful job to catch him again...

I'm sure someone on here stated a while ago TT bikes where harder to ride than other bikes, especially at low speeds, I don't know if it's true though.

 

[cyberknight]

recently emerged from hibernation roadies and all the gear no idea types about, like those flies that look like Wasps, i,e, I am going to get stung by the real deal soon !

Lightweights a winter of slogging through frost , wind and rain does wonders for your base line stamina ....

 

[J4CKO]

Lightweights a winter of slogging through frost , wind and rain does wonders for your base line stamina ....

Yep, see the bike sheds fill up at work with shiny nice new bikes, inclusing a copuple of brightly coloured fixies that have popped up like Spring blooms, not to e seen when its even slightly wet though.

There are a lot of bikes you see only once as well.

 

[BSRU]

Lightweights a winter of slogging through frost , wind and rain does wonders for your base line stamina ....

You forgot the snow, ice and slush.

 

[cyberknight]

You forgot the snow, ice and slush.

No i did not i am a wimp and only run 23 mm slicks so those conditions are sit a box days , at least when it has settled

 

[Matthames]

Had a roadie filter up to the lights ahead of me. To me that was like a red rag to a bull So as soon as the lights went to green I shot off like a greyhound out of the traps. I accelerated up to 25mph, however there was a slight incline and having stupidly gone straight into a sprint I had lost the energy to keep a good speed going, so this roadie just overtakes me an leaves me for dust. Had I been a bit more conservative and used my sprint where it would have given me an advantage, he would have seen disappear off into the distance.

 

[monnet]

I've come across a new sort of scalping. As background, I'm a roadie, I race, I commute in lycra (occasionally club kit) with panniers. I know I'm sitting target for anyone who wants a scalp. I also work on a large site with good cycle facilities so there are plenty of people who ride in.

I often race/ train in the evenings I'm always in the little ring twiddling along, I'm not bothered about being scalped only if I can hang on in races or chaingang (though occasionally I do put my foot down but only ever if it's to keep other roadies feet on the ground!) Anyway, I understand why commuter racing happens, I like that it does, I just don't do it much so it doesn't impact my other aims.

So to the issue. When I arrive at work (all roadie lycra-ed up) I swipe onto the site and slowly ride round to the bike sheds. The commute is over, take it easy time. Not for about 50% of the other cyclists. They seem to think passing me at work counts as a scalp (maybe it does) but once on site why rush? I like to savour the last few moments of the ride before having to get my nose to the grindstone.

On a slight tangent, I got scalped by a guy in full Caisse d'Epargne kit one morning (to be fair he did say hello). That night he rolled up at chaingang. Having scalped my in the morning, the sight of me gave him a bit of confidence I think. He lasted 6 miles.

 

[BSRU]

I think the main difference between a roadie who commutes and someone like me who only commutes is stamina, I can go just as fast as a roadie just cannot keep it going to very long.
Roadies have the advantage of being able to put in long rides which make a huge difference, in my roadie and local CC days I rode hundreds of miles a week, ranging from short rides of 30 miles up to the long rides over a hundred miles. Now as a cyclist commuter my ride is only 15 miles, sometimes stretching to 20 if time allows.

 

[Hip Priest]

I passed a guy the other day. I'm a n00b on a crap bike but he was cycling in the wrong gear on the flat, legs going like the clappers, kneeing himself in the face, 3" from the kerb and listening to his iPod. Nice to know I'm not quite at the bottom of the food chain!

 

[400bhp]

Had a roadie filter up to the lights ahead of me. To me that was like a red rag to a bull So as soon as the lights went to green I shot off like a greyhound out of the traps. I accelerated up to 25mph, however there was a slight incline and having stupidly gone straight into a sprint I had lost the energy to keep a good speed going, so this roadie just overtakes me an leaves me for dust. Had I been a bit more conservative and used my sprint where it would have given me an advantage, he would have seen disappear off into the distance.

I'm sure the "roadie" in question will post soon:

I filtered past a bloke riding a BSO at a set of lights. To him that must have been like a red rag to a bull So as soon as the lights went to green he went past me peddaling for all he was worth. The guy clearly had no stamina (don't they all) and as soon as we hit a small upwards hump in the road he ran out of puff. I went past him at my normal pace whistling to myself.

 

[XmisterIS]

There are some riders out there who are like the Borg. A couple of years back I was much fitter than I am now; I have a 25 mile route that I would regularly blast round in just over an hour, several times a week (the other day I did it, and I came in, coughing and wheezing at 1 and a half hours!

).

Anyway, I would easily scalp 99% of other cyclists on that route ... except for the occasional man-machine! I remember once I was doing warp factor 9 along the seafront at Lee on Solent, and maintaining it, when all of a sudden ... whoosh! A couple of chaps on identical and very serious looking bikes, togged up in what looked like team colours, came blasting past me like I was standing still! I upped it a notch to keep up with them ... I suddenly realised I was in top gear, on the flat, pushing for all my legs were worth (i.e. sprinting), and those guys were still going faster than me without even trying!