OK, I’m in the UK and I am not a racer (might do some this year), but I have a background as a decent endurance runner. Recently a guy round by me has been getting many plaudits from the ignorant as a “Pro Rider”. The guy has a history of *** and is a narcissistic fantacist. The reality is he’s a 4th cat. He’s managed to ride in loads of races that he should not have been able to enter and blagged a spot on a UCI 2.2 event where he was 124th out of 127 on the TT then dropped by the entire field on stage one and DNF stage 2.
It shouldn’t annoy me as much as it does but the guy has a serious history of deceit. Should it bother me that he’s getting credit over others who have earned it. Should it bother me that he is stealing rides and support from the deserving? With the masses of ignorant newcomers to the sport this is likely going to be a bigger issue than ever before.
Just as an indication of his levels of ***, the other year he supposedly broke his 10m TT best by about 4 minutes in the first race of the season. 18:35. He was straight on social media begging up his coach and talking about how hard work pays off. But he’d actually cut the course. His time beat the record for that course by over a minute which aroused enough suspicion to get him diqaulified and his team to ask him to leave. With todays tech there is zero possibility that he did not know he had cut the course.
This last weekend his team put out that he was riding a Nat B event. But he isn’t eligible and wasn’t on the entry list or the entry list of the supporting regional B event. There are photos which I believe show him struggling to hold the regional event field, because thats what he really is, a low level cat 4.
It shouldn’t annoy me as much as it does but the guy has a serious history of deceit. Should it bother me that he’s getting credit over others who have earned it. Should it bother me that he is stealing rides and support from the deserving? With the masses of ignorant newcomers to the sport this is likely going to be a bigger issue than ever before.
Just as an indication of his levels of ***, the other year he supposedly broke his 10m TT best by about 4 minutes in the first race of the season. 18:35. He was straight on social media begging up his coach and talking about how hard work pays off. But he’d actually cut the course. His time beat the record for that course by over a minute which aroused enough suspicion to get him diqaulified and his team to ask him to leave. With todays tech there is zero possibility that he did not know he had cut the course.
This last weekend his team put out that he was riding a Nat B event. But he isn’t eligible and wasn’t on the entry list or the entry list of the supporting regional B event. There are photos which I believe show him struggling to hold the regional event field, because thats what he really is, a low level cat 4.