Comments on Chasing 1:20: December Comes Early: It's Not the Title of an Adu...

Ugh, as someone about to start their first cx raci...

2011-10-19T17:07:45.977-04:00

Ugh, as someone about to start their first cx racing season...this doesn't make me that thrilled. Should be exciting, at least.

I race in TN and NC so this is not a problem, yet,...

2011-10-17T22:42:07.537-04:00

I race in TN and NC so this is not a problem, yet, but I have two criticisms.

First, the toilet is a bad analogy. Playing the Asshole drinking game and not being smart enough to cheat is better.

Second, I'd suggest the USAC is contributing to the problem, and should never be expected to fix it. If you did not have officials pulling lapped riders in the higher cats, and

There were only 90 in the GMCX 3 race, and only 37...

2011-10-17T07:17:11.492-04:00

There were only 90 in the GMCX 3 race, and only 37 signed up for Maine so far.

There isn't 1 rider in the cat 3's thats r...

2011-10-16T20:25:15.076-04:00

There isn't 1 rider in the cat 3's thats ready for the pro race. Not even close! In fact there are 10 or 15 guys in the pro race that have no business being there. It's the same as the description of a cat 3 riding around a cross course with a # pinned on, only it's way more expensive (both lisence and entry fee), and you get home way later.
The best suggestion I've heard

The main problem is that cross was not a sport des...

2011-10-15T20:37:46.536-04:00

The main problem is that cross was not a sport designed around 125 rider fields. Look at a cross course, look how it is designed, and you see that it cannot realistically accommodate more than 75 people without major traffic jams. The sad reality is, if you do not line up among the top 50 riders, you are fucked from the start. While I think it is great that the sport has gotten so popular, it&

There used to be a B-Masters (3/4) 35+ race in the...

2011-10-15T10:42:15.257-04:00

There used to be a B-Masters (3/4) 35+ race in the Verge Series. It was done away with to encourage the Cat 3s to race A-Masters (1-3). As suggested above, many of the Cat 3 masters chose to race the Cat 3 B-Men race. That's what I did. Most of the guys I was competitive with in B-Masters did the same thing.

Does USA Cycling ever force someone to upgrade? It...

2011-10-15T09:22:11.110-04:00

Does USA Cycling ever force someone to upgrade? It seems there should be some cap on the upgrade points (either for a season or lifetime) and once you hit it you get upgraded no matter what.

I just upgraded to cat 3 btw, but don't worry. I'll be getting my ass handed to me in the 35+ race. Killing myself to not get lapped looks like a lot more fun the having a group ride on a

As one of the ladies who reads this blog, I find t...

2011-10-15T07:40:13.325-04:00

As one of the ladies who reads this blog, I find this whole concept really intriguing. We have a similar situation in women's racing. At Series races, the top Cat 3/4/35+ women are racking up points that far exceed the legal limit that results in an automatic upgrade, and yet they don't upgrade. When I started racing cross in 2000, we had one race for women and it had around 20 people in

Look at the ages of the cat3 field and you'll ...

2011-10-14T23:03:28.035-04:00

Look at the ages of the cat3 field and you'll see that a large percentage are masters eligible racers. They race cat3 as to avoid getting pulled from a masters elite race that is almost as fast as the elite race. Everyone pays the same amount to race and you should put yourself in position to get as much value no matter how fast you are. It's not the fast jrs and the baggers that are

It's not that easy to upgrade to 2 if you are ...

2011-10-13T13:22:15.419-04:00

It's not that easy to upgrade to 2 if you are in the 6-10th place range @ a Verge B race, and those riders, IMO would be in the towards the rear of the Elite field, but not DFL. The upgrade point "purse" maxes out at 6 places for 50+ racers. I think getting 8,9,10 in a 140 person race should be worth a few points, but it's not. The super-sandbaggers are displacing the people who

Chan I still don't think - and I'm a bit o...

2011-10-11T09:54:56.424-04:00

Chan I still don't think - and I'm a bit of an idealist about this stuff, maybe to a fault - that this addresses the greater inequity issue we already have in the 4s. I think if there were a proper 5, more present-day 3s would come back to 4. This would leave the system with a well-defined, maybe more natural 3-2-1 progression to the elite level.

Good stuff. However, if there are only 80 Cat 4s,...

2011-10-11T07:39:29.944-04:00

Good stuff.

However, if there are only 80 Cat 4s, wouldn't it make sense to have 40 or so of the Cat 3s downgrade. Or maybe they shouldn't have upgraded yet? Then each field would have 120 or so riders, and there probably wouldn't be any lapped riders in the 3 race.

Everyone is in such a hurry to upgrade, but the truth of the matter is, a lot probably aren'

OK, I just watched the vid from last year. I died ...

2011-10-07T19:38:37.551-04:00

OK, I just watched the vid from last year. I died LOL on this line: "But in Cat 4, I can look like a homeless man on wheels." I can relate!