I was riding a charity ride in the spring, about 67 miles, and had a rider look down his nose at me and take the p*** because I was riding it on the fixed, complete with mudguards and carrier, the fixed is my commuter and my winter bike, and I'm not a newbe at this I've been riding over 40 years.
My wife has done the Bedford sprint triathlon a few times and it seems to attract a lot of triathlon first-timers who do the bike bit on commuter bikes with panniers and even baskets attached. I go along to watch (cant swim) and from my vantage point just outside the transition zone when they were getting set up it was sad to see a group of guys with all the flash gear but also wobbly pie bellies were having a little chuckle at a group of noobs with panniers and flat pedals, no water bottles, baggy cargo style shorts etc . It was enormously pleasing to see the "noobs" do very respectably at the swimming and they got lots of support when they arrived back at transition on their trusty old bikes. My wife said she caught up with them on the bike ride and lots of the faster riders were giving them encouragement "only 2 miles to go!" etc on the road. Team Planet X Pie Belly gave up on the run halfway through and walked the finish. Team Noob then sprinted the finish with the crowd again shouting and cheering, they had the time time of their lives and looked pretty chuffed just simply to finish.
They set up in the transition zone next to my wife so we got chatting at the end, it turns out they do charity runs and bike rides together for years but it was all getting too serious, trying to shave 10s off your sprint tri PB was making it a chore instead of fun so they had worked out a complicated handicap system to make it more of a laugh. They had carefully calculated time-credit points that were allocated for all manner of things, bike with a basket, pannier with some tins of beans in it, under-inflated mountain bike tyres, do the swim bit in baggy shorts etc. They would then compete against each other on their "adjusted" time.
This was a couple of years ago, I can just imagine them now doing it in suits of armour or something and Team Greggs Sausage Roll scowling in the background because they're not taking it seriously. Hehe.
