Are Master Cyclists Faster than you?

Submitted by Kris Thompson on

Sundays "A" field results look like a 40+ masters field, right? A fluke maybe, well look at the last "A" field results and it looks pretty similar.



I apologize for not doing this story justice by not going into great depth but isn't it amazing that many of the fast guys in Colorado are over 35 years of age?

Let's name drop here for a moment

  • Tim Faia
  • Chuck Coyle
  • Scott Moninger
  • Dirk Friel
  • Coby Pearce
  • Nico Toutenhofd
  • Kevin Nicol
  • Jeffrey Hartman
  • Jonathan Baker
  • Brandon Dwight
  • Peter Webber
  • Jon Cariveau
  • Dan Schmatz

There are probably at least 10 more names that could be added

News Item: 

11 Comments

Masters

Submitted by Dirk (not verified) on

One reason the avg age is so high on the podium is because of how many juniors we had racing back in the 80's. The Coors Classic was a huge reason we could recruit so many juniors. We also had more road races and the fields were huge so talent was easy to spot and nurture. We would regularly have 60+ juniors on the start line. I've been racing against Sheehan, Harper, Nico, (Bobby Julich, etc.) for 25+yrs now. Junior development directly relates to future results. The larger the talent pool the higher the results later on.

We learned to race against the local pros (7-eleven, Coors Light, Lowenbrau, AC Pinarello) and honed our bike racing skills as well as our fitness. Our fitness may be lower now, but the older guys make up for it with experience, bike skills and tactics.

Let's try to get he youth more involved. The local indoor track is certainly going to help with this as well.

Dirk Friel

NCAA $$!!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

I think another factor is that lots of the endurance talent gets absorbed by NCAA scholarship-offering sports (running, swimming, soccer). The cost of tuition makes that scholarship look pretty enticing, even if the sport is not as much fun as riding.

Masters/Juniors

Submitted by Matt Gibble (not verified) on

A very good point by Dirk. I was a junior in '82 and '82 living in Pennsylvania. I came out to Boulder to ride the Red Zinger Mini Classic which at that time was bigger than the Nationals. The race was 10 stages, 400 miles and included two rest days. I'm not sure there are many NRC races today that are that long with that many stages. Many of us have kept riding and racing on and off for the last two to three decades.

The demographics of Colorado racing are not necessarily a good thing in my opinion. The junior fields are small in size and make it difficult for young riders to learn how to read a race, hone bike handling skills and develop. Hence it's necessary for them to race in Senior races to make the jump to a national level. There are no easy solutions as there are so many options and activities for young people to be involved in today. I have a 14-yr-old and soccer is his passion; He lives for it just like I lived for cycling when I was his age.

Pages