Home Current News News Archive Shop/Advertise Ridecamp Classified Events Learn/AERC
Endurance.Net Home Ridecamp Archives
ridecamp@endurance.net
[Archives Index]   [Date Index]   [Thread Index]   [Author Index]   [Subject Index]

Re: [RC] Riding As A Team - Joe Long

On Thu, 27 Jan 2005 16:03:16 GMT, Ridecamp Guest <guest-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

Please Reply to: Kim kimfue@xxxxxxxxxxxx or ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
==========================================

I am certainly the last person that should be commenting on the 
strategy used by the US at the WEC but from everything I have 
read and heard they were training to ride this way for quite some 
time.  It looked like the strategy worked at Arabian Nights 100 
and I am sure it was refined in FL.  If you ride this way in practice 
and training with success there would be no reason not to expect 
success in competition.  

As someone who had a fair amount of experience competing in this fashion, when I
sponsored two Junior riders while competing for First Place myself, I think I
can comment on it.

When several horse/rider teams stay together throughout a ride, they gain some
advantages:  primarily, cameraderie and moral support for both horses and
riders.  However, there is a clear cost.  As Truman pointed out so well, even
horses whose optimum pacing would result in identical times get those times in
different ways.  Some are "get out in front and stay there" horses, others are
"come from behind" horses, some are "steady Eddie."  When you force them to all
run at the same pace all day, you prevent them from doing their best.  You end
up riding to the "lowest common denominator."  No amount of practice together is
going to change that.

As for what works in practice working in competition:  they are not the same.
You can give up a lot in practice.  At this level of competition, you can't
afford to give away anything.  You have to do your best or those competitors who
are doing their best will clean your clock.  IMO it is impossible for a team to
do their best when some of their members are held back by forcing everyone to
ride together.

It will be interesting to hear/read what 
did work and what didn't work with the revamped training and 
selection program the US Team used for this competition.  Was 
it just a case of bad luck that two team members DNF. Was the 
squad more successful this year then in the previous flat, desert, 
type high profile competitions abroad?  What can we learn 
(training, conditioning, strategy) or what will be shared (good 
or bad) with the general AERC membership from the US Team's 
experience both in their intense training schedule for this event 
and from this competition.

I'll go along with that.

-- 

Joe Long
jlong@xxxxxxxx
http://www.rnbw.com




=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp
Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp

Ride Long and Ride Safe!!

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=


Replies
[RC] Riding As A Team, Ridecamp Guest