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Saturday, June 5, 2010

Traditions.


All I can say is that I HOPE to dear God we have a pee break tomorrow around 80km into the race. 160km without peeing is NOT going to happen.

A lot of racers last weekend kept telling Marilyn she had her number on upside down. This was a little disappointing since it showed they haven't spent a significant portion of their lives watching European bike racing like I have ;) Here is a little condensed summary of some other cycling tradition from Wiki:

The riders temper their competitiveness with an elaborate but unwritten code of conduct and superstition. When possible, a rider is allowed to lead through his village or on his birthday. It is considered unsporting to attack a leading rider delayed by misfortune. Attacking a rider who is taking un besoin naturel ("a natural need", urinating) or attacking at all in the feed zone is not seen as sporting. Not sticking to these customs can lead to animosity. Unless the final stage is a time trial, or the gap between the top two is close, riders generally do not attack on the final stage, leaving the leader to bask in glory. Other numerous superstitions exist such as the rider who has to wear the race number 13 is allowed to wear one number 13 upside down to cancel the bad luck of having number 13 on his back. Riders will not shave on a day they expect to make a great effort though they will still shave their legs. Riding a green bike is considered unlucky.


1 comment:

Rick C said...

I would think not doing up all your safety pins would be unlucky. Especially in a time trial.

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