Your trivial pro-rider pet hates

24

Comments

  • heavy_rat
    heavy_rat Posts: 264
    White socks and black shoes. I just don't like it

    White socks and white shoes is OK

    Black socks and white shoes is OK.
  • Pokerface
    Pokerface Posts: 7,960
    Awesome thread.

    My biggest pet hate: the Magic Spanner.


    It winds me up to great effect when a rider suffers a mechanical/crash/puncture, etc - and as soon as the team cars services them and they set off again, the mechanic has to lean out the window of the team car to service the brakes on the bike for 5 minutes whilst dragging the rider back up to the peloton.

    All tweaks to the bike should be made at the side of the road and there is never any excuse for a free ride. Plus as anyone who has ever ridden a bike knows - you simply don't need to adjust the brakes to this extent after a wheel change.
  • The_Boy
    The_Boy Posts: 3,099
    Pokerface wrote:
    Awesome thread.

    My biggest pet hate: the Magic Spanner.


    It winds me up to great effect when a rider suffers a mechanical/crash/puncture, etc - and as soon as the team cars services them and they set off again, the mechanic has to lean out the window of the team car to service the brakes on the bike for 5 minutes whilst dragging the rider back up to the peloton.

    All tweaks to the bike should be made at the side of the road and there is never any excuse for a free ride. Plus as anyone who has ever ridden a bike knows - you simply don't need to adjust the brakes to this extent after a wheel change.

    UCI have changed the rules to prevent this, haven't they? There was an article on INRNG and everything.
    Team My Man 2018: David gaudu, Pierre Latour, Romain Bardet, Thibaut pinot, Alexandre Geniez, Florian Senechal, Warren Barguil, Benoit Cosnefroy
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 75,661
    Pokerface wrote:
    Awesome thread.

    My biggest pet hate: the Magic Spanner.


    It winds me up to great effect when a rider suffers a mechanical/crash/puncture, etc - and as soon as the team cars services them and they set off again, the mechanic has to lean out the window of the team car to service the brakes on the bike for 5 minutes whilst dragging the rider back up to the peloton.

    All tweaks to the bike should be made at the side of the road and there is never any excuse for a free ride. Plus as anyone who has ever ridden a bike knows - you simply don't need to adjust the brakes to this extent after a wheel change.

    Disagree.

    Don't mind a bit of assistance after a bad luck mechanical. As long as they don't take the p!ss, and they usually don't.
    _
  • markhewitt1978
    markhewitt1978 Posts: 7,614
    The same as them turning a blind eye to pacing them back up to the field. This isn't Formula 1 a mechanical problem should not end your race.
  • DeVlaeminck
    DeVlaeminck Posts: 9,104
    The pre and post race moaning about the weather when as already said 90% of the time it's because they didn't pack a pair of gloves and some overshoes. Similarly about the course being "dangerous" - a case in point being the Sarenne descent the other year. OK sometimes they have a point - metal posts on a sprint finish - but if it's just a sinuous descent (albeit with massive drop offs!) get on with it.

    Riders who ride for second rather than risk it for the win - Movistar on the descent of the Sarenne the other year.
    [Castle Donington Ladies FC - going up in '22]
  • jimmythecuckoo
    jimmythecuckoo Posts: 4,718
    I think they had a point about the Sarenne though...

    images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTRSOg3Ou4SQm4gO1OEo0mWTDfiyjGMqegylmK5KuOdMRUR3aT9SQ

    Col-de-Sarenne1-659x440.jpg
    http://fendrieneu.home.blog
    My blog and pod...
    Beers of Belgium Cycling Club UK
  • ratsbeyfus
    ratsbeyfus Posts: 2,841
    1. Sticking your tongue out when the going gets hard.

    2. Everything else that TV Tommy does/says/thinks.

    I had one of them red bikes but I don't any more. Sad face.

    @ratsbey
  • chrisday
    chrisday Posts: 300
    ratsbeyfus wrote:
    1. Sticking your tongue out when the going gets hard.

    2. Everything else that TV Tommy does/says/thinks.

    *stands*
    *applauds*
    @shraap | My Men 2016: G, Yogi, Cav, Boonen, Degenkolb, Martin, J-Rod, Kudus, Chaves
  • thomthom
    thomthom Posts: 3,574
    Nah, Tommy is funny and unpredictable.
  • Pokerface
    Pokerface Posts: 7,960
    markhewitt1978 wrote:
    The same as them turning a blind eye to pacing them back up to the field. This isn't Formula 1 a mechanical problem should not end your race.


    Disagree. Otherwise you might as well hold up the entire field to wait for any rider that has a mechanical issue. Luck is as part of racing as talent is. If you have a problem, tough sh@@t.
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 75,661
    Pokerface wrote:
    markhewitt1978 wrote:
    The same as them turning a blind eye to pacing them back up to the field. This isn't Formula 1 a mechanical problem should not end your race.


    Disagree. Otherwise you might as well hold up the entire field to wait for any rider that has a mechanical issue..

    Don't see how the two follow necessarily.

    Meh. Sounds a bit non-trival to me ;).
    _
  • RichN95.
    RichN95. Posts: 27,253
    Pokerface wrote:
    markhewitt1978 wrote:
    The same as them turning a blind eye to pacing them back up to the field. This isn't Formula 1 a mechanical problem should not end your race.
    Disagree. Otherwise you might as well hold up the entire field to wait for any rider that has a mechanical issue. Luck is as part of racing as talent is. If you have a problem, tough sh@@t.
    If I wanted to watch sport to see who is the luckiest I'd go down to the local bingo hall. I watch to see who is the best. Reducing (but not eliminating) the influence of luck is fine by me
    Twitter: @RichN95
  • Pokerface
    Pokerface Posts: 7,960
    RichN95 wrote:
    Pokerface wrote:
    markhewitt1978 wrote:
    The same as them turning a blind eye to pacing them back up to the field. This isn't Formula 1 a mechanical problem should not end your race.
    Disagree. Otherwise you might as well hold up the entire field to wait for any rider that has a mechanical issue. Luck is as part of racing as talent is. If you have a problem, tough sh@@t.
    If I wanted to watch sport to see who is the luckiest I'd go down to the local bingo hall. I watch to see who is the best. Reducing (but not eliminating) the influence of luck is fine by me



    If this were the accepted view, it would be perfectly permitted for team cars to simply drag the riders back into the peloton.

    As it is, this is not allowed. Although (obviously) largely overlooked.
  • thomthom
    thomthom Posts: 3,574
    It's absolutely acceptable 9/10 times when riders are having mechanical. We just don't see it/care about it.

    In what way does the race benefit from a rider getting dropped due to a flat?

    Getting dropped and then paced back is obviously a different matter but I'm not really sure there's a problem here either bar the odd occasion now and then..
  • ridgerider
    ridgerider Posts: 2,852
    How about a rider spending 200k in amongst the team cars getting pulled along nicely, before charging to the front of the race with 50k to go and winning...

    At the Volta Limburg at the weekend, I watched the first three on the Gulpenberg grind their way up the hill whilst the fourth placed rider was pulled up by his team car during a prolonged cape transfer manoeuvre. Glad he did not go onto win.
    Half man, Half bike
  • disgruntledgoat
    disgruntledgoat Posts: 8,957
    The utter thickosity of people who race bikes for a living when faced with a situation that requires the decision between 'may not win' and 'definitely won't win' to be made.

    The paucity of imagination of teams strategies these days. Andy Schleck was the last guy to pull of a heist in a grand tour.

    Riders who have won the square root of sod all banging about how the numbers tell them they're better than last year.

    Alejandro Valverde.
    "In many ways, my story was that of a raging, Christ-like figure who hauled himself off the cross, looked up at the Romans with blood in his eyes and said 'My turn, sock cookers'"

    @gietvangent
  • Pokerface
    Pokerface Posts: 7,960
    I thought this was a thread about things that bother you. Not a thread about things that bother and hey - let's all jump on the guy for voicing an opinion.
  • RichN95.
    RichN95. Posts: 27,253
    disgruntledgoat wrote:
    The paucity of imagination of teams strategies these days. Andy Schleck was the last guy to pull of a heist in a grand tour.
    And he still didn't win the GC. Teams can probably think up plenty of strategies which will be unsuccessful. The big GC teams are too strong these days and control the races to suit, so that they can repeatedly utilise the strategy they have trained for.

    It's not imaginative, but in the long run it is successful. Blame the game not the players.
    Twitter: @RichN95
  • disgruntledgoat
    disgruntledgoat Posts: 8,957
    Pokerface wrote:
    I thought this was a thread about things that bother you. Not a thread about things that bother and hey - let's all jump on the guy for voicing an opinion.

    This. If we have sock length and short colour and this is the one you pick up on then I despair
    "In many ways, my story was that of a raging, Christ-like figure who hauled himself off the cross, looked up at the Romans with blood in his eyes and said 'My turn, sock cookers'"

    @gietvangent
  • frisbee
    frisbee Posts: 691
    That stupid pistols victory celebration Contador does.
  • thomthom
    thomthom Posts: 3,574
    Pokerface wrote:
    I thought this was a thread about things that bother you. Not a thread about things that bother and hey - let's all jump on the guy for voicing an opinion.

    I mean.. You were kind of the guy who started disagreeing with someone's pet hate?
  • Pokerface
    Pokerface Posts: 7,960
    ThomThom wrote:
    Pokerface wrote:
    I thought this was a thread about things that bother you. Not a thread about things that bother and hey - let's all jump on the guy for voicing an opinion.

    I mean.. You were kind of the guy who started disagreeing with someone's pet hate?

    It was MY pet hate!!
  • above_the_cows
    above_the_cows Posts: 11,406
    The magic spanner was funny/is funny when someone does it with a Trek bike where the rear break is below the bottom bracket. That always makes me laugh.
    Correlation is not causation.
  • hammerite
    hammerite Posts: 3,408
    Not picking on anyone's pet hate here... But with the magic spanner thing. Where do you stand on the magic spanner being used to adjust the saddle height because riders have swapped bikes?

    And why is it called a magic spanner? How many bike parts (that are easily accessible) rely on the use of a spanner over an Allen key?
  • hammerite
    hammerite Posts: 3,408
    Riders picking up a musette, checking to see what they were given in their pack up, then throwing everything away bar an energy gel and a new bottle.

    If they weren't hungry surely they could have just not bothered with the musette and just gone back to the team car? The checking through stuff makes it look like they were hungry, but didn't fancy the marmite and cheese sandwiches Mum sent them to school with.
  • RichN95.
    RichN95. Posts: 27,253
    hammerite wrote:
    And why is it called a magic spanner? How many bike parts (that are easily accessible) rely on the use of a spanner over an Allen key?
    It's called the 'magic spanner' because it makes the bike go at 50kph without the rider turning the pedals.
    Twitter: @RichN95
  • Rigga
    Rigga Posts: 939
    Doping.
  • hammerite
    hammerite Posts: 3,408
    RichN95 wrote:
    hammerite wrote:
    And why is it called a magic spanner? How many bike parts (that are easily accessible) rely on the use of a spanner over an Allen key?
    It's called the 'magic spanner' because it makes the bike go at 50kph without the rider turning the pedals.

    But surely it should be renamed the 'magic allen key' 8)
  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 43,463
    Ah, it was only a matter of time and I'm amazed it took so long :roll:

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