| <\/th>\n | Cycling<\/th>\n | Squash<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n |
|---|---|---|
| Appearence<\/th>\n | Must shave legs and face, \nfit and defined leg muscles, usually white ankle socks, no cut-off jerseys \n(I’ve been to races where you can be penalized for breaking the sock and \njersey rule), tight, colourful spandex with lots of sponsor logos, sponsor \ntents and signs, clean bike, cool sunglasses<\/td>\n | Mostly shaved faces, nice \nskirts (see Girls). Men in all sorts: beer guts, old short shorts or long Adidas soccer kind, socks of black or white, old t-shirts (even old white tank \ntops), pastel candy-swirled grips, maybe one racquet sponsor on shirt, a \ncouple sponsor signs on court, cool big squash-specific gear bags for \nplayers, some cool shoes, very few safety glasses none of which looked great<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Beer<\/th>\n | At Christmas<\/td>\n | Between games<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Duration<\/th>\n | 2 days: 3-4 hr road race, \n20-40 min individual time trial, 1 hr criterium; show up 1 hour before race \nfor sign-on at 7:30am in the middle of some freezing mountains or parched farmer’s fields<\/td>\n | 3-4 days, 3-6 matches, \n30-60 min per match; show up 15 minutes before event, may have more matches \nscheduled for same day in a few hours, at a club in a city, bar and food on \nsite, matches could be in morning \/ afternoon \/ evening<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Etiquette<\/th>\n | Sorta, like congrats to \nwinner, but often yell at people, or get yelled at, to do more work or bridge \na gap or stay tight<\/td>\n | Fairly friendly: shake hands with ref after match (at least the juniors did), lots of \n"nice shot" and "good get" but get really pissed off and \nswear at yourself, get ticked off at the ref<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Fitness<\/th>\n | Like, super important, \nalways exhausting, medium to high heart rates with long painful and \npuke-inducing lengths of anaerobic attacks and breakaways, brutal hills, acid \nin legs, bonking, so exhausted that getting dropped or dropping out comes \nwith little immediate guilt<\/td>\n | pretty important, fairly \nexhausting, more dependent on how long match goes, soar muscles, stretching \nimportant, exhausted but must keep playing<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Food<\/th>\n | Yes, always eat during road \nrace, lots of water and energy bars and drinks, etc.<\/td>\n | Yes, lots of water, but no \nfood during match<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Gear<\/th>\n | Pretty expensive: at least \n$1,000-$2,000 bike, spandex ($200), shoes ($100-200), helmet ($60-$100), racing \nlicense (over $100\/year), race fees ($30-$70) and maybe get your entry fee back if \nyou place top 5<\/td>\n | A little expensive: playing \nat a club ($50\/month), racquet ($60-$120), shoes ($60-$120), license ($30), \ntournament fee ($55) but you get t-shirt, two dinners, some prizes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Girls<\/th>\n | If spectating, then is \ngirlfriend\/wife of a racer; not many racing, don’t look as great in spandex \nas you might think, minor fraternizing<\/td>\n | If spectating, then is \ngirlfriend\/wife of a player, quite a few playing and (bonus) they wear skirts, \ngood deal of fraternizing<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Injuries<\/th>\n | Road rash from crash, blood \nand scrapes, sore legs, blistered groin<\/td>\n | skin peeling off toes and arches, stiff and sore legs, ball in \nthe eye, or a bruise<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Refereeing<\/th>\n | Officials hired by race to \nwatch you and penalize and tally times, etc.<\/td>\n | Sorta self-governed, each \nplayer must take turns refereeing other matches<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Sights<\/th>\n | Pavement, the asses of other racers<\/td>\n | The ball and the walls<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Smells<\/th>\n | Chain grease, air from \nrubber inner tubes, tiger balm and vaseline, fresh outdoors and car exhaust, \npost-race protein shakes<\/td>\n | Humid indoors, sweaty men, \nwood from pencil for marking score, beer breath from spectators and players<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Sounds<\/th>\n | Metal scraping on pavement \nin a crash, crowd cheering every 1 hr lap, dogs barking, cars revving, wind \nin ears, racers swearing<\/td>\n | Loud whacking of balls on \nmultiple courts, clang of racquets on wall, crowd chatting, refs yelling, \nplayers swearing<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Spectators<\/th>\n | Sparse friends and family \nscattered on course, some more at finish line \/ larger events scattered \npublic on course cheering<\/td>\n | Somewhat strong showing of \nfriends and family in bleachers, minor clapping, occasional cheer, no general \npublic<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Sweat<\/th>\n | Yes when hot, lots dried \noff in wind, but esp. sweat on climbs, salt residue on face and helmet straps \nand bum of spandex shorts<\/td>\n | So much sweat, constant and \nembarrassing dripping on court, men with see-through shorts and shirts<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Tactics<\/th>\n | Somewhat important, make \nsure you get in break away, good placement for sprint, get pissed off if miss \nthe decisive move, skill on decents but not essential, but majority see \nFitness<\/td>\n | Yes, lots, don’t do stupid \nshots, trick opponent, set up shots inadvance, cool moves, so much regret for \nmissed opportunities<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Tactiles<\/th>\n | Smooth spandex, cork-tape \nhandlebars, rubber brake hoods, sharp edges of power gel on the edges of your \nmouth, scrape off skin on pavement and get gravel in wounds from a crash, \ngravel and crap from road in your teeth, sun and rain and hail and snow, spit \nand snot and even urine from you and other racers<\/td>\n | Rubber of grip and dusty \nrubber of ball, wipe grease and sweat from hand on wall, push other player’s \nsquishy sweaty back out of the way, someone’s sweat may get flung on you<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n |