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Old 07-16-2004, 06:47 AM   #12 (permalink)
sailor
beauty in the breakdown
 
Location: Chapel Hill, NC
Ill post a few more things, a sort of question and anser type deal.

Why do bikers wear all that Spandex?
Several reasons. One is comfort. Excess fabric will rub the legs when you are pedalling, giving you some nasty chafing action. Not fun. You'll only make that mistake once--I did. Also, by being tight like that, they better wick the sweat away from you, keeping you drier and cooler. Muscles also perform better when under slight tension from tight clothing like spandex. Then there is the drag issue--loose clothing flaps in the wind, and will suck quite a bit of power out of you.

Why do bikers shave their legs?
Again, several reasons. One of the big ones is that when you crash and tear up your leg on the pavement, it makes scrubbing it out a lot easier when there arent little bits of hair all in the wound. It also leaves a smaller scar. In addition, no hair makes massaging the lactic acid out of your legs a lot less painful. Then there is the air drag, but this is a bit of a lesser reason than the others. A lot of it is just tradition, its what cyclists do.

Whats the deal with all the doping allegations?
Unfortunately, cycling has had more than its fair share of doping allegations. Being that it is one of, if not the, most difficult sports in the world, some of the athletes feel that they need to turn to artificial help to compete. Cycling and Track are probably the two sports with the most doping allegations, and both are incredibly difficult endurance sports. Its an unfortunate matter, compounded by the fact that most of the drugs cannot be tested for. If it were up to me, Id ban anyone caught doping from competition for life, but cycling's governing body, the UCI, doesnt take such a hardline stance

Why are there so many people on the roads while they are riding? Couldnt they interfere with the race?
They certainly could, and have. Part of cycling's lure is that spectators can get up close to the athletes, and go apeshit. Youll see guys running alongside the riders, yelling at them, cheering them, and being generally obnoxious. Its all part of the sport, and is deeply ingrained in it. The spectators would completely rebel if they took that out, and some of the riders probably would too. There have been many times when the spectators interfered--Lance fell last year when he caught his handlebar on a bag held by a spectator, and the great Eddie Merckx was punched in the stomach by a spectator while on a climb. Its just part of the sport. Imagine if you could run along the sideline of the stadium during the Superbowl--you'd be pretty excited about that. Besides, they cant do much about it anyways--you cant completely barricade over 100 miles of road a day. That would take upwards of *at least* 200 miles of fencing, and an obscene number of man-hours. Just isnt gonna happen.
__________________
"Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws."
--Plato

Last edited by sailor; 07-16-2004 at 06:49 AM..
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