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Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Role Models?

Time for a rant...

... While the Highlander was a mint race, I left pretty pissed off after hearing some stories from fellow competitors about the conduct of other athletes who I would have thought would no better.

An athlete who was not just rude, but downright abusive to fellow competitors during the race. Swearing at and abusing riders who'd beaten her to the single track. Apparently they were f'ing useless. Shouldn't be racing a bike etc... When another rider told her to pull her head in, they were told that apparently they were just bitter cause she was faster than them. Wtf?

This from a very well known athlete, amongst the countries very best MTB riders. She knows who she is.

When a complaint was laid post race, the athlete denied it. Even in the face of multiple witnesses.

I don't care who you are. That is disgraceful behaviour. Leaving a very bitter taste in the mouths of other competitors it is a pretty successful way to sour an otherwise event experience. It is bad for the sport, for the event, and especially for that riders sponsors. What a great representative for our sport?

So lets all think about this for a minute. We all compete because we love to ride our bikes. And push our own limits. Sure, in the heat of battle we can get a bit fired up. But there is no place for abuse. It spoils the experience for everyone.

Think about it.

3 comments:

Sonia said...

Good on you for speaking up about it Cabin, there have been too many riders affected by it of late and it's just disappointing for all concerned. We all race hard - but don't we all race because we love it too? Therefore we want to share our love of the sport with everyone - not discourage them from participating. There is never too much at stake to justify ridiculing or forcing riders aside on account of your own agenda.
=] Hope the final XTERRA prep is going great you two!
=]
Sonia

m.j. said...

yeah, boo.

Nuttykiwi- AKA Raewyn Knight said...

That sucks!
I must say, on the other scale I was pretty impressed with the behaviour of riders at the 24hr N-duro, infact unlike some events I've attended I don't think there was one incident where I thought "that wasn't called for!"