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Thornaby48

What ever happened to team riding?

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One of the finest sights in speed way was to see two riders ,either home team or away , riding together as a team keeping the opposition out. One rider going wide the other riding the  white line. The late Jack Millen used to do it a lot whilst at Sunderland keeping close to a young Dave Gatenby  and provided exciting racing. It was always a rare sight ,something I have not seen in a long time. There have been occasions in a meeting when team riding could have been used only for the faster rider to power away leaving his partner behind turning what could have been a5-1into a4-2 or worse. Having never ridden a speed way bike I don't know what type of view a rider has of behind him, so perhaps or perhaps the team manager could from the centre green signal to his riders what is going on

Edited by Thornaby48
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Due to pressing a wrong button this has gone wrong. As I was trying to say------perhaps the team manager could from the centre green give riders a signal as to what is going on.

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Cant see how that will be easy to execute.  Many times one member of the team is having to slow down to help his mate, at the same time an opposition rider can well be snapping at his or his mate trying to get past.  By the time a rider has interpreted what his manager on centre green is "saying", the opposition could well have got past.  Of course not all team riding is like that but it could happen a lot.

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I saw Nathan stoneman team ride home Alex spooner at Kent last night. So the art is still alive, you just don't see it very often!

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There's no incentive to do so.

Why would a rider jeopardise getting paid for 3 points to help a team mate earn more?

Might sound cynical but who else would risk less pay so a colleague might be paid more?

Money trumps glory nowadays.

 

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15 hours ago, Thornaby48 said:

One of the finest sights in speed way was to see two riders ,either home team or away , riding together as a team keeping the opposition out. One rider going wide the other riding the  white line. The late Jack Millen used to do it a lot whilst at Sunderland keeping close to a young Dave Gatenby  and provided exciting racing. It was always a rare sight ,something I have not seen in a long time. There have been occasions in a meeting when team riding could have been used only for the faster rider to power away leaving his partner behind turning what could have been a5-1into a4-2 or worse. Having never ridden a speed way bike I don't know what type of view a rider has of behind him, so perhaps or perhaps the team manager could from the centre green signal to his riders what is going on

Saw many great riders who were able to team ride....Ronnie Moore, Ivan Mauger. Ole Olsen, Hans Nielsen, Ken McKinlay, Sam Ermolenko etc etc and dictate a race. Personally I felt that the advent of fixed gates limited opportunities and have read that the introduction of lay downs made it more difficult as they were somewhat unpredictable?

I always thought it was one of the spectacles of team racing and there was no finer sight in speedway. 

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Personally I hate team riding, would rather see my team take a safe 4-2 than risk a 3-3 by trying to team ride to a 5-1. You have to be bloody good at it and very few riders are.

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1 minute ago, Bagpuss said:

You have to be bloody good at it and very few riders are.

That is the case and the reason why we see so little of it nowadays. Modern bikes allow for full throttle on or throttle full off.

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6 minutes ago, Bagpuss said:

Personally I hate team riding, would rather see my team take a safe 4-2 than risk a 3-3 by trying to team ride to a 5-1. You have to be bloody good at it and very few riders are.

...Tony Rikardsson was a case in point. One reason I would never put him in the same class as Ivan Mauger despite his six World Championship wins.

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I saw a good example the other week when Charles Wright had a heavy crash at Sheffield, he (maybe foolishly) came out for his next race, and Ty Proctor practically carried him around to a 2nd place in a 3 - 3. 

As a Sheffield supporter who saw Alan Molyneux's disastrous year with the Tigers, I have no doubt as to Ole Olsen's team riding capabilities, even if I only ever saw the Bees once a year at Owlerton! 

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In the bygone years, riders could, and were excluded for looking back/behind. Team riding is a modern phenomenon.. But not a current one.. 

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8 minutes ago, Shale Searcher said:

In the bygone years, riders could, and were excluded for looking back/behind. Team riding is a modern phenomenon.. But not a current one.. 

I wish mauger had got excluded then  in 1969  at the world final ,  team riding with Sjosten ,to knock Boocock off the rostrum . in 50 years of speedway I have never heard of any rules against team riding 

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57 minutes ago, adonis said:

I wish mauger had got excluded then  in 1969  at the world final ,  team riding with Sjosten ,to knock Boocock off the rostrum . in 50 years of speedway I have never heard of any rules against team riding 

It was pre that incident.. 

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On 7/16/2018 at 4:14 AM, Shale Searcher said:

It was pre that incident.. 

That's an interesting definition of "modern phenomenon" then!

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On 7/10/2018 at 2:47 PM, Thornaby48 said:

perhaps the team manager could from the centre green give riders a signal as to what is going on.

That's actually against the rules.  I genuinely believe that modern-day riders do not understand the concept of team riding.  They need educating.

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