Sunday 2 August 2009

How do you pick a team?

In Human Powered Vehicle racing, you only have 8 riding positions.
So how do you choose the riders from 10 fit, experienced and committed guys?

Our 2008 Australian International Pedal Prix Team. Pic from Pics08 Gallery

It's just not cricket...
It's not like footy or cricket where you can miss a week or a test and be back in the team for the next game.
We only race once or twice a year at best and we spend up to 10 months building our vehicles from scratch too. There's too much riding on it to sit one out. (pun intended)

We're not in the pro-peloton
It's not like a pro cycling squad either, who can pick their teams for the Classics, Tours or One-Day races based on riders strengths and race styles.
We are all HPV racers.

History Repeating?
In the past for Bendigo Youth Racing, we've rarely had an issue of too many riders.
In fact, Wonthaggi in '07 is the only time that we can recall where one rider elected to sit out.
In most cases our teams have come together in the final few weeks when the top 8 has become kinda obvious.
At other races, we have taken members to ride who were underdone fitness-wise because we simply didn't have a fully fit eight.

With 6 weeks to go, we've got 10 - 11 guys pushing for selection:
(in alphabetical order)
- Adam 'Gavin' King
- Cal Ridge
- Daryl 'Daz' King
- Dave Maud
- Deven Pearce
- Nige Preston
- Jarrod 'Chooka' Henderson)
- Troy Hutchins
- Charles (Mark Anson)
- Matt Anson

Here's some selection models we're looking at:
  • What do you think is the best method?
  • What experience have you had with your teams?
  1. Team Poll
    Each team member nominates their top 8 riders - either rated 1-8 or simply 8 names on a slip. The votes are tallied and the results announced. Daz suggests that people need to be "honest and ‘think of the victory" when selecting their preferred rider line-up. They should choose "the 8 quickest riders who will bring the vehicle home safely."

  2. Selectors Panel
    Similar to Cricket Australia I suppose, where a group of senior team members, ex-riders and neutral team friends choose the 8. "It's tough to do this way because you are choosing between friends and we're all deeply committed mates who have put in loads of work. It could be very personally scaring."

  3. Ride-Off
    Either in a vehicle, on a road bike or on a wind-trainer, each rider is subjected to individual tests. Best 8 times get the places.
    "I don't really want to have one hour time trials in the race vehicle, because it will just end up on it's lid."
    BYR President Jarrod Henderson explained.
  4. Self-Select
    We could simply wait until the final few weeks of our lead-up and those who are illness and injury free would either 'self-select' or 'self-omit'.
So, there's a few models we could use to pick our team.
  • What do you think is the best method?
  • What experience have you had with your teams?

5 comments:

  1. I can't say we've ever really been in that position before! Maybe one extra guy but never 3 or 4. I think the team poll is the fairest method there. Ride offs don't necessarily show who is going to perform the best at the race. Good luck with it!

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  2. A team poll would be the for you guys, as you are mature enough to not just pick the most popular people. Ride offs should be a definate no because thats how my team was picked last year and, to be honest, it didn't work........

    Good luck anyhoo:)

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  4. when we had a ride-off for my team last year, it came down to me, who got the trike/team together with mates, or this other lad, who played footy and was fit but had only been in the trike twice. He beat me by about 20seconds, meaning i was out. Then he rolled it the next day, bending the axle and nearly ruining our trike. I guess i might just be a bit jealous but it never really made sense to me :/

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  5. I think there's more to selecting a team than just the 8 fastest riders. General experience, race craft & handling, ability to back up for multiple stints etc are all traits that need to be taken into account. I've made the mistake of putting a rider in a team based on his speed, knowing he had the tendancy to take bad lines at times, and he cost a team a race when he had a major stack, dmamged the vehcile and couldn't ride again.

    My vote would be for the team poll taking all of the above into consideration. Speed alone won't win you the race.

    Still, it's a nice problem to have compared to the one we faced at Bridge last year ;-)

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