“We were racing and then I stopped and the other guys kept racing!”
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I’m wondering what Stetina would have done if Swenson had a puncture or dropped a chain.
In amateur racing, you’re usually shelled. If it was a road race with neutral support, you’d still have to chase back on.
Edit: I just got one in my feed
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i feel like stetina is nearly vangarderen levels of whiny which is to say A LOT
I think there’s some discrepancies in the story being told. Swenson’s account says he attacked on his own after Stetina declared the race “over” and McElveen and others later joined him to catch the breakfaway. Also McElveen is who is featured in @yonderboy 's meme above.
In the commonwealth games previous to this year, Anton Cooper and Sam Gaze, and someone else (not a kiwi) were all together (top 3). Sam got a slow flat and stopped to get some air. The others kept on riding. Sam saw this as unsportsman like, flicked Anton the bird, Sam got so angry he caught them, passed them, got the gold medal and slagged Anton in the post race interview. Rediculous.
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Guess there’s no way to yellow flag a whole race course when it’s point a to point b
i am trying to parse this in any way that makes sense
so guy A was content not winning and wanted to chillax a cruise towards the finish, but guy B riding near him was in it to win it, and guy A is mad that guy B rode and pushed the pace in a way that, in fact, allowed guy B to win?
ok i am going to admit that i do not follow professional bike racing at all but are “time outs” really a thing in bike racing. can you just “call a time out” and expect that your competitors will just stop and chill while you sort your shit out?
The front group continued to pull away and they were going fast enough that riders were being dropped from their group. This was definitely faster than before we’d entered the feed zone and these riders had taken advantage of the purposeful stop by others to create the gap.
In my mind, that was unsportsmanlike.
breaking news: going faster than your competitors in order to win a race is considered unsportsmanlike!
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To top it all off, the dudes that pushed the pace had been carrying more water the whole way, hadn’t they? I. e. they were carrying extra weight specifically so that they wouldn’t have to stop. And then you expect them to wait for you when you stop because you decided to go light?
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So the drama is one guy said, “we’re never going to catch the break, let’s all quit”, and another guy said, “nah, I’m gonna catch the break” and then he did and won? Is that it?
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yeah next time i do a mountain bike race i’m bringing a road bike to make me faster up the smooth climb, and then i’ll just ask everyone to wait for me as i walk down the rock garden
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“I also want to categorically deny the report of having told riders the race was over and to ride for fourth. I never believed that to be the case.”
“At this point all I can do is tip my hat because their tactic was a better one. I guess you could say I got caught with my pants down and stumbled trying to pull them back up.”
The Velonews article was free yesterday… Here it is archive.ph
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It’s unfair to demand that seasoned professional racers put up with this much variability when their careers are on the line. They should move gravel races to a closed track to level the playing field, maybe have a pit lane for hydration top-ups and mechanicals.
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I know you’re talking about cx, but I agree with this. The tip of the spear was never racing the same race
Cyclocross? I was thinking about NASCAR!
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I love this philosophical thread about the spirit of gravel. I feel strongly that racing is a race and unless rules state otherwise, one can attack anywhere they choose.
Can we split some attention into my rear wheel? It’s an a wtb I29 and turns out I have at least 12 spoke, mostly drive side, that need to be replaced.
The shop that cut me new spokes eyeballed the length and they seem too short. They don’t reach the rim…?
So I trued the wheel with the damaged spokes, got it straight and round but the tension is wildly inconsistent.
I’m looking at roughly $80 for a proper rebuild that I do myself.
Or I can order this and move on.
wwtbd?
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$98 rim laced into a $185 wheel is how you get 12 broken spokes on the drive side. 
Sorry I don’t understand
The spokes are messed up because the wheel ate the dangle and the chain wedged between the cassette full 360 and shredded and bent a bunch of things
"…at Aid 2 these discussions never took place beforehand and there happened to be a jeep track with a rough descent just before. I went to the front here and pushed the pace before, and through the feed. I never considered this to be a fill point for the majority. "
lol
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I think he’s saying that rim is a $98 dollar retail so the other $85 bucks has to cover the hub, spokes, nipples, build etc so you’re liable to have more wheel woes
But that’s actually like a $60 rim and that wheel is probably totally fine. If the wheel you’re rebuilding is the stock thing that came on your roll I think that wtb is probably a great way to go. I don’t know if I’d put that much energy in to the Roll one.
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