2/11/02 by Ted Ingraham
As many members are aware, the Club is making an effort this year to put together a strong, focused race team. There are questions about what we are doing and why we are doing it. Following is some explanation.
First, let me make clear—we are a bicycle-racing club. Members are interested in racing and are usually active racers. We support their activities by sponsoring local races and providing training and development opportunities. In my opinion (explained below), in order to be a viable race club, the Club must have a strong race team. Some of you may disagree with that and if so, I would like to hear from you since we are all members of the same Club.
Without a race team we are just a bunch or guys (and a girl or two) riding our bikes in matching silly-looking jerseys. In fact, that is what happened to the Club a few years ago. A group of strong racers that were the core of the Club left to form their own race team. All that was left were members who rode together and occasionally raced. Most remaining racers were not competitive enough to race as a "team." With limited talent and no focus, the Freewheelers were well on the way to becoming a ride-to-the-ice-cream-shop club!
We also learned that without strong racers, it's hard to attract strong racers! Think about it: If you are an up-and-coming young stud racer, do you want to join-up with a bunch of duds that are dangling off the back? Finally, last year a few riders developed into better racers and a few strong riders moved to the area and we got jerseys on them. All of a sudden we had a number of quality racers on the start line wearing SFW jerseys! We were a viable race club! We even had a super racer—Dave Cockley—who won his class in Tour of Ohio!
We thought we had developed into a viable race club, but 2001 taught us we still did not have a "race team." We had plenty of racers in every class participating in races—sometimes with great success. However, no one ever raced together as a team. There were lot of reasons for this; mostly it was because guys didn't know each other well, they were of greatly varying abilities, there was no effort to train or race together, and we found out it is impossible to just show up at a race and say "let's work together." The skill, strategy, and strength to race together take a lot more effort and organization than that. No one is at fault for the lack of "team" effort last year, we were just happy to have racers!
Unfortunately, as a result of our lack of team effort, once again some strong racers left to go to other teams. If our "race club" is going to have a "race team," we have to make more of an effort to develop a viable team. The loss of racers not only makes clear what we need to do, but is actually a blessing because the remaining racers are of similar ability, similar personality, and similar age. That will make it easier for them to race as a team. Most importantly, they have agreed to race and train together as a team. In return, the Club will do all it can to support and nurture the team. Specifically, we are providing them with the basic uniform (jersey and shorts) and paying some race fee entries when the "team" shows up and races together.
For now, the effort to organize a race team is focused at the Cat III and above level. It is more realistic for racers at that level to have the strength and ability to race together. If someone wants to organize a team at a different level, let me know and the Club will support your efforts. If you are Cat III and would like to be included on the team, also, let me know.
The Cat III team will be called Team Summit. The additional name helps recognize them as our race team. They are still part of the Freewheelers Club, and as a Freewheeler, you are a component of Team Summit. The team will be wearing the same Freewheeler uniform as all of us, and the name Team Summit will be on the uniform along with the Club name. The members of the 2002 Team Summit are:
There are more questions about how the team will work that will be addressed soon. In the meantime, I would like to hear your comments—either pro or con—about what we are doing. Everyone in the Club will be able to help make the team a success. The success of Team Summit will be the success of the entire Club!