2021 Races & Rides -- Go or No?

Eleven (11) months into the COVID era and record-breaking surges happening around the world, will racing and rides (at all levels) be happening in 2021 or will there be a repeat of the weird mishmash of 2020?

For those of either opinion – how are you approaching the 2021 season?

  • Go!
  • No!
  • Maybe so…?

0 voters

I’m not planning any racing/sportives/trips per se. I think anything requiring payment or extensive logistics will wait, the UK has another month lockdown and if I am being honest with some of our memebers of society being somewhat selfish I can see us having more/longer ones in the future. I’m really surprised that all 3 grand tours and Worlds have made it off without too much issue.

Anything requiring payment seems reckless, I’m saving a bunch of cash not putting diesel in the van very often why would I want to risk it this far in the future when most events have limited to no refunds? Plus with the risk to everyones jobs (and bloody Brexit) I think getting as much of a safety net right now is wise.

I’m happy to tool along building a monster base and aiming for solo bike packing trips, espiecially since my lack of longer group blasts has seen my weight creep up to 70 kilos!

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It’s going to depend on what region you reside in. Races and rides are happening in my region. Not as normal but I raced just about as much this year as I would in any given year. Group rides are back on right now. Not 100% normal but pretty close.

As for 2021 it’s probably going to be a transition year. I’m expecting pandemic vaccine hopes to peak, subside, and eventually fade. We don’t have a flu vaccine that’s very effective and we’ll never have a coronavirus vaccine that’s very effective. Treatments will continue to improve and IFR/CFR will continue to grind lower.

People ask me a lot of questions that start with ‘When this pandemic is over…’ This pandemic is never going to be over. The flu is never over. The common cold is never over. Coronavirus is never going to be over. It will no longer be novel but it’s never going to be over.

So the big change in 2021 will be psychological. As a society we’ll transition away from trying to defeat coronavirus and move toward how to coexist with it while minimizing risk and ameliorating fatality rate. Historically pandemics last 24 to 36 months. So we’re maybe just to not quite half way through.

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UK TTs started to go ahead at the end of year and I don’t think there was any influence on that c thing, so hopefully they’ll start up again next year.

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That is not exactly accurate…there are years where we have very effective flu vaccines. The problem, as has been noted multiple times upthread, is that there are multiple strains of the flu virus (same with cold viruses) and we never know which strain will be the dominant strain for any given year.

Due to the timing of when vaccines need to be produced, we use different models to “guess” which strains will be the dominant ones for any given year. Sometimes we are right, sometimes we aren’t…hence the varying effectiveness.

There is no evidence that COVID19 is producing different strains of the virus so there is no reason to believe (at this point) that an effective vaccine cannot be developed. While it may not be a one-shot-and-done type vaccination and may very well be a yearly or semi-yearly shot, there is no reason at this point to believe it won’t be effective.

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Yep…UK TT wasn’t affected by Covid once our lockdown finished…apart from no results board at races, starting with one foot down and a one way system for the loos…all easily coped with in the name of continuing our sport…no cake was a shock though!..I couldn’t cope without racing - it’s what I train for - if I didn’t compete I would just ride in the Sun at zone 2 and visit cafes! Oh yea and the young road racers need to do one back to road racing - they are showing us old vet TT rides up! :laughing:

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Here in the States, some cross races happened with heavy restrictions. If COVID is still a reality / danger, I won’t be participating in any races. That said, I’m hoping for a vaccine being pretty well distributed by May & getting to play with casual races during the summer (we’ve got a great local crit thing & some short track, plus maybe velodrome?), and ultimately cross racing happening as normal.

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This is the regression I fear! :scream: :laughing:

I’m serious. Got back into racing in 2018, had to take 2019 off, started training in 2020…for all that didn’t happen. If 2021 doesn’t happen, it’ll be 3 years since my last race I’m not sure I can (or will want to) rekindle my competitive fires. Training hard for nothing is…well, hard. And KOMs just don’t cut it. Actually what scares me the most is turning into a slow beer-bellied MAMIL who stays waaaay too long at the cafe, no one wants to see that kind of spandex show!

Hoping science > politics next year.

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UK TT. Is there a better domestic TT scene in the world? I don’t think so. There are a lot of riders that can just flat get after it.

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Be prepared to write off big name races with crowds and/or travel in 2021 through early 2022.

Show me someone who got sick with anything while riding outdoors. I’ve been group riding since 3 weeks after lockdown when I realized the odds of catching it outdoors, I was more likely to get hit by a car. I have ridden with at least a couple hundred different guys. My club still rides 3x’s a week. Have not heard of one guy getting sick.

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Uh…the current TT World Champion. :man_shrugging:t2:

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I mean, we don’t know where he picked it up. It was at a team camp, could have been a ton of places off the bike he caught it from.

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Yeah. He probably caught it doing a solo TT. Seriously? Come on.

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Didn’t realize he only rode TT’s. Weird because I coulda sworn he won a road stage in the Giro.

(Not taking a position on how he got the virus, just pointing out he does a lot more than TT’s)

And events are more than just riding in a group. Travel, registration, feed zones (depending on the event), etc. All of these things increase your risk of exposure.

I currently live in Canada, and it doesn’t look like mass start racing is coming back anytime soon (winter and COVID).

After missing the whole race season I will try to do some virtual racing.

I’m not going to worry about it anymore, planning for an awesome 2021. If races happen great, if not then I will be strong to explore the outside. If I get sick I will deal with it then. I would rather enjoy my life then sit at home and worry about something I can’t control.

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Had the very same conversation with a team mate only last week. If 2021 is a ‘no-go’, I will take a serious look at the type of training and riding I plan to do, moving forward. A total shift might be what’s needed in my case.

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Indoor track solo TT.

Fixed it.

Not to mention it was a team camp for Track racing, indoors in a closed space. So regardless of whether he’s doing solo TTs, he’d be indoors with other people.

Same. I might even end up becoming one of those hipstery bike-packing people.

Hopefully there will be more lead time and clarity with race calendars going into next year.

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