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Team Riding A Lost Art? Riders Fault? Bikes Fault? Tracks Fault? Or All Three?


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Team riding, you remember, 2 riders from the same team, riding together in close proximity, bossing the lines, race speed to gain that all important 5-1 or in some cases a 3-3 by keeping the opposition behind them.... Don't see a lot of it these days, what are the main reasons? Is it mostly lost forever?

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I dont think a lot of riders are interested, this was brought home when on a SKY interview about how close the meeting was did not even know the score.

 

Could also be a part of riders mental tools not to think about the score. Only to go out and give his best every time. It doesnt matter what the score is. If you start to think about how close things are, you could get nervous. Different tools for every guy. Some guys get better with more pressure. Others dont like to think about the big picture.

 

About team riding if you arent paid from bonus points why bother. Also, riding close is dangerous these days. You could jump and take your mate with you.

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Could also be a part of riders mental tools not to think about the score. Only to go out and give his best every time. It doesnt matter what the score is. If you start to think about how close things are, you could get nervous. Different tools for every guy. Some guys get better with more pressure. Others dont like to think about the big picture.

 

About team riding if you arent paid from bonus points why bother. Also, riding close is dangerous these days. You could jump and take your mate with you.

Should of seen Gomolski and Newman "team riding" against Kings Lynn last week....Gomolski nearly fenced Newman about 5 times!!!!

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Should of seen Gomolski and Newman "team riding" against Kings Lynn last week....Gomolski nearly fenced Newman about 5 times!!!!

Gomolski and Newman are still working out their kinks. I've seen them nearly trip over each other before. Kacper was definitely in win-at-all-costs mode in that meeting. He's improving his own race pace, team riding can come later. Best pairing we have at Poole for team riding IMO is Janowski and North. Magic is the best we have at team riding. As much as I like Holder, he tends to just focus on his own race.

 

At the risk of repeating myself ( I suspect this topic is a follow on from one we started in the EL section) Darcy is one of the best team riders I've ever seen. It's almost habit for him to look along the line as soon as he's made the start to see what he can do to help his teammate.

 

Big rides win races, but solid team riding wins meetings.

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I believe it's only in the PL that bonus points are not paid.

As for team riding, we've sadly just lost the best rider in recent years for team riding, Darcy Ward. It was almost as if it was his way of showing off, "I'm so good I can even make my team mate win too. Ha!"

 

There's a few riders who can sit behind a team mate, Garrity will do it if he can for a start. But proper actually helping your team mate is a lost art.

 

Nicholls and Janniro were brilliant when they were at 1 and 2 for Coventry. Many a rider was shoved around by one or the other on the 1st bend for the other :D

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Sam Ermolenko was the best I've seen at team riding..it was a sight to be seen, especially on a small track like Wolves..

 

If they really did stop paying bonus points then I'm not surprised riders stopped team riding...the minute bonus points stop being paid then speedway ceases to be a true team sport..why would any rider be prepared to sit behind his partner if it costs him money,,,madness.....is that still the case ?

Edited by Bruiser McHuge
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I'm not disputing the decision to stop paying bonus points has had a big impact on the dearth of team riding, but what about the fact that bikes are now faster and seemingly more volatile, while the tracks haven't grown in size to accommodate the more powerful bikes. Are these aspects causing the lack of team riding too?

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