What "community" is worse: Cyclists or Runners?

From my experiences, the running community is generally more accepting and less elitist than the road cycling community. On a group run, it is rare for anyone to try to race the final mile or break away from the group, but most road rides end in a brutal sprint. The mountain biking community is much more accepting, much more laid back than road biking, or even running.

Cycling by far. Runners don't buy team outfits and then think they are on that actual team.

SWAZ wrote:

From my experiences, the running community is generally more accepting and less elitist than the road cycling community. On a group run, it is rare for anyone to try to race the final mile or break away from the group, but most road rides end in a brutal sprint. The mountain biking community is much more accepting, much more laid back than road biking, or even running.

Cycling attacks and breakaways aren't people being "unacceptable." It is a huge part of racing and thus a huge part of training

I agree, a cyclist will try and pull away from the group at various segments of a given group ride. It's part of training, and race tactics. What I've experienced though in cycling is different teams will not talk to others, especially if the riders differ in categories. Running seems to be a lot more open to various abilities of runners, and not so caught up about who you run for, what school you ran for, etc. I never ran in school, so I don't know how HS or college events fair, and it might be similar to cycling. Maybe its the team, club, program, etc a person is a part of in either sport, I just seem to find that the cycling(road racing) community be more exclusive in how they act.

I was cyclist first, pro am after college. Have some great friends from those days but am a runner now because of time constraints and family. Running culture is Better mostly because your talent is more clear more quickly. Entry level cyclists used to know they sucked and tried to listen and get better by absorbing training info from the elders. Now everyone thinks they know, but are delusional and think next race or next season will show their value, where n reality they suck. In running you see very quickly where you stand. Harder to be delusional, so a community value is more quickly found as it's so hard to be competitive. In cycling you love up in levels and almost everyone is good in the beginning. My job has a subset of that running community so it's even better. More drinking after races and more comroddery in general than cycling.

It's also easier to train for running at non elite levels. Just get the miles in with a couple workouts so you suck a bit less.

Dial it up wrote:

SWAZ wrote:

From my experiences, the running community is generally more accepting and less elitist than the road cycling community. On a group run, it is rare for anyone to try to race the final mile or break away from the group, but most road rides end in a brutal sprint. The mountain biking community is much more accepting, much more laid back than road biking, or even running.

Cycling attacks and breakaways aren't people being "unacceptable." It is a huge part of racing and thus a huge part of training

But you could say exactly the same thing about running (breakaways and sprints are a part of the race) except that kind of crap almost never happens on group runs.

I was a runner for years and would find out on a run many times finding people and just joining up at least for a while and be social. In recent years I have taken up cycling and find everybody wants to race. If you happen to latch onto a group of cyclists they will try to drop you from their group - you were not invited.

daver wrote:

comroddery .

That sounds dirty.

I raced bikes for a few years, and I still enjoy riding. Outside of casual tourists who are really mellow and low key, I find that cyclists tend to be more tightly wound and intense than runners, and I enjoy the company of runners more.

One symptom of that is the tendency of some riders to intentionally try to drop people on group rides. Yes, I know that attacks are a major part of racing, but that doesn't mean you need to do that on *every* group ride. If you're out with a mixed level group rolling along at 18-20MPH you don't need to break up the paceline by cranking it up to 22-23MPH. That's not fast enough to do you any good as a racer and all it does is make you look like a douche.

I also find that level of cyclist to be obsessed with gear. Yes, I appreciate the engineering involved in wireless shifters and featherweight composite frames and aero wheels, but among certain groups this kicks off an arms race. There's a group of middle aged I ride with sometimes, and they're always throwing money at the newest expensive stuff to show it off. Why the f*ck does a guy who rarely races need $3000 ENVE composite wheels?

asdfasdf wrote:

Dial it up wrote:

Cycling attacks and breakaways aren't people being "unacceptable." It is a huge part of racing and thus a huge part of training

But you could say exactly the same thing about running (breakaways and sprints are a part of the race) except that kind of crap almost never happens on group runs.

Not even close

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well.... wrote:

I also find that level of cyclist to be obsessed with gear. Yes, I appreciate the engineering involved in wireless shifters and featherweight composite frames and aero wheels, but among certain groups this kicks off an arms race. There's a group of middle aged I ride with sometimes, and they're always throwing money at the newest expensive stuff to show it off. Why the f*ck does a guy who rarely races need $3000 ENVE composite wheels?

^^^this^^^

In running you cannot legally purchase faster times. Cycling has such a hierarchy around gear. I have never really felt welcome by the cycling group that I ride with.

Running groups are more accepting of people with different abilities. A typical long run with my group goes: everybody runs together an shoots BS for the first 10 min, we split into our natural groups for the rest of the run, then get together at the end for coffee/BS. When new people join up, they are quickly accepted.

I know a lot of cyclists, mostly good guys. Elites are elites in both sports, but the middle-of-the-pack, wannabe types in cycling are much more annoying than in running:

1. They are REALLY into the wearing the most screamingly loud spandex outfits they can find, covered with brand names, as if they are an endorsed pro (look at me!).

2. They spend thousands on their bikes to get attention and admiration from others that they can't get with their cycling, and talk about it all the time (look at me!!!!).

3. They ignore the rules of the road with cars, and flip you off (with your wife or kid in the car) if you let them know.

4. Are much less accepting of people of lesser ability, even though they are average

zbt wrote:

I know a lot of cyclists, mostly good guys. Elites are elites in both sports, but the middle-of-the-pack, wannabe types in cycling are much more annoying than in running:

1. They are REALLY into the wearing the most screamingly loud spandex outfits they can find, covered with brand names, as if they are an endorsed pro (look at me!).

2. They spend thousands on their bikes to get attention and admiration from others that they can't get with their cycling, and talk about it all the time (look at me!!!!).

3. They ignore the rules of the road with cars, and flip you off (with your wife or kid in the car) if you let them know.

4. Are much less accepting of people of lesser ability, even though they are average

Yes, and these cycling wannabes have many negative stereotypes about middle-of-the-pack runners. Its amazing the negative stuff they can list off of about runners (and they think its true).

They have a total lack of introspection.

Geez I forgot what I was gonna say.

There are definitely more psychopaths in the cycling "community," oblivious to or even relishing the physical harm they can do to the citizenry.

I subscribe to this theory. Especially about how high-strung road cyclists are.

was a runner for 25 years, now a cyclist for 7 years. You know how a possibly docile person gets behind the wheel of a car and becomes a road rage machine? Some people get on a bike and become just a slower version of that person.

However, like someone mentioned above, it's the wannabes who act this way. I don't think Chris Froome or Bradley Wiggins or Marianne Vos act like this.

Roadies definitely have an attitude, but their races do require an aggressive personality (at least criteriums do) it's like sprinters vs distance people,

I remember lots of problems with aggressive sprinters on the track (I even had Ben Johnson deliberately run into me on a track while I was helping to set up a track meet for kids)

So just like in running the really elite don't have to play those games, you don't see Genreselassie dissing his competitors, same in cycling.

When training and racing, cyclists are far more stressed, They need to pay attention not to fall, not to crash, and most of all not get dropped from the peloton. Runners always get dropped. Most get dropped as soon as the race starts. Cyclists have to remain as fast as the first rider or else all is lost. That's why they are more stressed.

Swimmers however, are by far the most laid back. Most don't use heart or distance monitors. Almost all are inevitably over the hill at 32. Most are over their peak at 18 or 21. The weight factor is far less of an issue so they tend to be chubbier than both runners and cyclists. Far more relaxed. In triathlon relays it is astounding to see sometimes orca fat swimmers out of the water long minutes before skinny and very fit triathletes.