you can't win unless you know it's a race: cat 6 triumphs against unwitting opponents

imagine runway modeling, in freeze frame
at the stoplight that's what they call vogueing

I'd post a trackstanding photo from the fix at this point, but I'm at work.

Did you do a trackstand for minutes at the lights? If not it's 1-1 at best.
― Mark C, Tuesday, May 24, 2011 9:27 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

nope, i had to clip in, so he def had the advantage on the early start

Bump.

Sorry I crushed you going up that long hill, but those pistons tattooed on your calves might as well be bulls-eyes.

That was so I could find this via the iPhone app.

Nipped down the shops, sans helmet & chamois shorts but avec gloves & Rapha handbag, for bottle of wine tonight. There's a 3/4 mile stretch of straight riverside cyclepath. Roadie dude in luminous gillet with arm warmers & 3/4 bibs is 1/4 mile ahead of me as I come off the bridge onto the path. I've just been to physio & told Friday is a rest day, no cycling. This guy is really hunching, elbows on his bars like he's time trialing or something but he's doing 18mph tops. I'm not allowed to come out of the saddle or into the drops because of my shoulder, but I've got to beat him because gillets are unacceptable, which means a 2-mile diversion. I catch him after 1.5 and leave him trailing way behind by the time i swing back to get to the supermarket. I'm sweatier than I expected by the end of it, but I deserve that bottle of wine.

I've become such a cycling twat.

gillets are unacceptable

?

i thought that was a kind of fish

xp was piston tattoo guy wearing a Ritte kit by any chance? They got a dude like that down here who is fast as balls on the track.

no, this was a bigger chap in street clothes in SF.

/gillets are unacceptable/

?

Yeah, where I live & work gillets are almost universally an accessory for a particular type of debauched junior Tory-boy student rah. I have real difficulty seeing them as a cycling essential!

is this some weird britisher term for vest?

Also known as a body-warmer over here. Gillet is a French term I think. Sleeveless thingamajig.

Might help if I could spell it.

http://www.rapha.cc/gilet/

Lightweight sleeveless top put on when it rains - a kind of early spring / autumn piece of clothing that you carry around and whip out when needed

Or a Gideon Osborne fan signifier.

oh, a vest. i don't wear mine too much, but there was a period in 2000 when a windstopper gilet was PRO

padded down gilets are definitely a thing in the UK among young men who will grow up to own land/wear sports jackets/follow the rugby world cup. cycling gilets are a totally different thing though.

piston bro vs gilet twat: fite

I own a gilet got from REI's bargain bin and I have to say it is the least used piece of cycling kit I have. This is probably because the change period between wanting a short sleeve jersey to wanting a windproof long sleeve is about a week long round here.

follow the rugby world cup

otm

they are somewhat useful here as temps change a lot during the day, and also 30 minute descents and such.

i dont often wear jackets when riding, they are too warm, often flappy, and take up lots of pocket space. typically i'll use armwarmers, and if i need more throw on a windproof vest.

what does usage panel say about sleeveless jersey people

I have this in grey - http://www.rapha.cc/wind-jacket/ - it is a godsend given that I live right by a very windy indeed stretch of estuary cycle path. Amazingly light.

robbie mcewen gets a pass on sleeveless, otherwise no dice

http://www.blahblahfreddie.com/wp_sys/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/the_peloton_041.jpg

lol actually he's just tucked the sleeves in i think

ha ha, I've got a rapha gilet and it's great (sample sale of course), perfect for taking the chill off on a late summer evening.

Aaanyway, this morning, waiting to cross the A4 just up from the Hogarth, heavy traffic. I'm at the front of the Asl and stood waiting (it's a long wait on those lights). Lady cyclist comes up and pulls up a metre directly in front of me (it's a 2 lane road, but filters to one). WTF but OK, maybe you're quick....... pedals like a demon over the 4 lane road, not a bad pace...... gets over and as soon as it gets dangerous to pass, slows down to around 10 mph. So I'm bimbling along until 4 cars pass before I can safely pull out and cruise easily away with hardly a glance.

Seriously though, if you're going to roadblock me, have the chops to carry it off.

i don't have any sleeveless jerseys, but i have a bunch of old team jerseys that are cutoff. i don't care how jortsy it looks, i'll wear them cause it gets hot as fuck here, like over 100 deg hot.

Sleeveless jersey is absolutely fine. It's just the gilet - worn over a sleeved base layer or jersey or arm warmers, which gives off the landed-gentry-twat vibe. Give it a name other than gilet and I'd be OK with it, too, I think.

No work today, wife at work, kid at nursery, flat in turmoil due to builders, rain forecast all weekend: did a 50-mile ride today. Put my gilet on when I stopped for lunch so I didn't get cold. Didn't see Nick.

Planning to head out in 35 minutes. Internet tells me it's raining heavily. Can't hear it against the bedroom window though. Humph.

Just looked out the window. 3/5 blue sky. The BBC are shit at weather.

The same thing in London: mostly blue sky, but the met office website insists it's pouring with rain. This kind of unpredictability makes a gilet your best friend.

My gilet travelled yesterday, but remained firmly in the carradice. Was a beautiful day for cycling in London yesterday, knobheads in vans apart. Actually, did have a few nice drivers letting me turn right to get me out of brutal streams of traffic, thanks drivers, thrivers.

Despite the forecast I've had blue skies for pretty much every mile of the 38 I've done this morning.

Am okay with gilets but must insist on pronouncing it 'gillit'.

I was late and trying to speed in to school as quickly as possible this morning, when a dude in Birkenstocks on a comfort bike passed me like it was nothing

fuck a giblet, it's 80F in SF. hotter than LA right now. gonna ride today after clocking out early.

I will be riding molto tranquilo today so guaranteed which means open season for the Cat6ers.

coffee shop ride today and on our run along the jail trail, normally good for some paceline riding. A tail wind broke everyone apart and I found myself on the wheel of a pretty blonde triathlete* who towed me up to some early escapees, I then hopped wheel to wheel and "won". Strave PB and onto the first page of strava riders and second place in the fatties category. This is truly the essence of Cat 6ing.

*Everyone wants the wheel of the pretty blonde triathlete in the coffee shop ride, some might say its because no one wants to ride in front of someone riding on unstable tri-bars, there may be other reasons but I couldn't possibly comment.

literally impossible

Is it cat6ing when I ride 15 yards behind some guy seemingly desperate to distance me, or just passive aggressive assholedom? I feel kinda bad now but it amused at the time.

well technically you were both cat6ing, so it's a push imo

It depends if you follow him all the way home and then outsprint him up his driveway

ha

Running errands on Market Street when I'm surprised to see a guy I already passed come up on my left. Oops, nope, different guy, much faster. Riding fixed with clipless pedals. I push a little harder, he keeps accelerating, I reach for my downtube and get a few more gear inches. We're side by side when we approach a stopped cab, with a curb on either side. I slow down, he's nervier and finds the gap on the left. Cab pulls away, I'm now in his draft and considering if and when to come around him (dangerous because of streetcar tracks) when I realize I'm about to pass my destination on the left and pull over. Probably for the best, I don't think he was working as hard as I was and riding that fast on that section of Market is fucking idiotic anyway.

He wasn't unwitting, but I got completely smoked by a middle-aged recumbent bro. I could tell he wasn't even trying hard!

It doesn't really count as cat 6ing as we were riding together and had, 10 minutes previously, done an across the road sprint. However I think I pulled off my finest bit of race craft yesterday evening, made all the sweeter my besting Dr Pinarello 'my buddy works at SRAM look at my SRAM Red, Qarq and ZIPP' Dogma.

I gapped my buddies at a stop sign, didn't really go that fast until I saw them over my shoulder so did a 1.5km breakaway until a little hill. They almost brought me back on the hill but I used my knowledge of the hill to spin up as it flattened out towards the top and pegging it down the descent and up the next hill. Cancellara besting Boonen on the Kapelmuur it wasn't but it felt like it.

Best of all at the top of the last hill I pulled left to do a couple of laps of the park but they tapped out and called for the pub.