One of the things I enjoy about biking (and running) is that it's mostly pretty quiet. There's the noise of the occasional car, and the whir of my tires on the road surface, but mostly, it's pretty quiet.
I was watching the stage of the Tour today, and it struck me how loud it must be: there are the occasional crowds (or more than occasional, depending on the area and such), but more than that, the motorcycles filming, the helicopter, the team and other cars. And the whir of a hundred tires, even, must be fairly loud.
I'm guessing that most of the riding that pro riders do must be fairly quiet (unless they're being motorpaced). My guess is that mostly they go out with another or a couple other pros and ride their 4-7 hours. (I'm sure they also do other stuff, but mostly, I think they ride a lot and a lot of it alone.)
So I wonder, when a rider starts riding races, if the noise feels overwhelming? Or when they move up from relatively smaller races to bigger races?
I guess it's just as well that I'm not a pro rider, eh? I'll just enjoy myself.
Most of my races are quiet because we don't have tons of spectators, but that means the spectators that are there are really important -- I really hear what they are saying, my husband cheering me on or whatever. That's for criteriums. In the long road races, I can spend a lot of time hearing nothing at all. It's nice, except for the race fatigue :)
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