Friend's Little Brother

[bikedude40k]

My friend has a 14 year old little brother, who, like us- we are both 17- has fallen in love with the sport of cycling. Great, right? Yeah, but we have run into a problem- his father will not let him ride alone. We, I am, anyhow, are/am more than happy to ride with him, but there is a problem-- he is reaaallly slow. I have to slow down, and I fear that if his father does not give way by spring, it may have an effect on my performance... And, unfortunately, he's just not worth it to me! How can we -'lil bro wants to ride alone, by the way, and he's gotten into three big arguments with his dad- convince the father.

 

[Dondare]

Get a tandem. Then he can't fall behind.

 

[frenchyge]

You are a 17 yr-old Cat 1, right? Is your friend also a Cat 1?

Shouldn't you be out training with your race team or the other local Cat 1's instead of riding with 14 yr-old beginners, anyway? Yes, I would imagine that will have an impact on your performance if it encompasses a significant part of your training time.

As far as how to convince the father, how about getting the little brother attached with an adult coach and some juniors riders of similar ability on one of the local teams?

 

[acoggan]

My friend has a 14 year old little brother, who, like us- we are both 17- has fallen in love with the sport of cycling. Great, right? Yeah, but we have run into a problem- his father will not let him ride alone. We, I am, anyhow, are/am more than happy to ride with him, but there is a problem-- he is reaaallly slow. I have to slow down, and I fear that if his father does not give way by spring, it may have an effect on my performance... And, unfortunately, he's just not worth it to me! How can we -'lil bro wants to ride alone, by the way, and he's gotten into three big arguments with his dad- convince the father.

Worst case scenario: find a place where you can do structured training together (e.g., hill repeats, intervals on a short loop) w/o actually having to ride at each others' pace. Use the time riding to/from the workout location to pass along tips on, e.g., tactics, bike maintenance, girls , etc.

 

[bikedude40k]

You are a 17 yr-old Cat 1, right? Is your friend also a Cat 1?

Shouldn't you be out training with your race team or the other local Cat 1's instead of riding with 14 yr-old beginners, anyway? Yes, I would imagine that will have an impact on your performance if it encompasses a significant part of your training time.

As far as how to convince the father, how about getting the little brother attached with an adult coach and some juniors riders of similar ability on one of the local teams?

Yeah, I over exaggerated a little bit... I would ride with my team, but unfortunately, it is based 60 miles out of my town, and frankly, it's just not worth the commute- especially when I don' have a car of my own- to get out there unless it is really important that I do so, well, now that I think about it-- an extra 120 miles per day-- not bad at all . It was over exagerated- I only ride with him once or twice a week, so I guess I could just use them as recovery rides. It's not really that bad. But I still want him to be able to ride alone, cause how is he gonna learn to time trial when all he does while training is sit in on my wheel- he never takes a turn, and always seems to be on the edge of a crack, to be expected as a beginner, I guess.