There seems to be a dearth of 3's this year with the open class at Boss Cross being the larger field! Could it be the crazy ass 60 minute race time? Or could it be some of the 4's are big time baggin'??
This Cat3 dodgin bagger is off to an impressive start to the year: a 2nd at Manions and two wins last weekend in the porked out 4's (boy was that a fat boy course). With at least 18 points scored and 11+ starts, this dude is done in the 4's.
On a 'bagger scale of 1-10, he gets a 7. -1 for the tattoo. +1 for the wussy wrist warmers- damn it wasnt that cold! Shake the sand out of your vajay-jay Roger and CTFU!
Volker!
ReplyDeleteSucks! ;o)
ReplyDeleteRoger isn't a sandbagger. If he rages all year in the 4s, then comes back early next season and again wins as a 4, then he's a 'bagger.
ReplyDeleteIf you don't like that Roger is winning the 4s, beat him! Personally, I'd stay there. You might win a power washer, or race free next year. Nothing wrong with that!
Now, if you consider that USA Cycling says road category equals CX category, you might wonder why a great number of guys in the 4s at Boss Cross were racing there. You know why?
THEY'RE SANDBAGGERS!
__
P.S. You OPEN dudes rocked all weekend. How cool is it that we had big Open fields? Might make the courses work a bit better for the wrecking crew 4s, come to think of it. Nobody likes those stacked-up early corners ...
Great race. But I have a question? Is it normal to have such a tight set of turns so close to the start? If you weren't in the front 5 you were screwed. The front of the 4s were in the sandpits by the time I got over the hump.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to get ready for non-KC CX nationals, crazy-ass bottleneck tight first corners are standard.
ReplyDeleteWhy couldn't we go 20 across or something Sunday. Anyone?
ReplyDeletehttp://4.bp.blogspot.com/_JN6I2SNzLvM/TKoof1UUtSI/AAAAAAAAA_E/yrm69_18rOY/s1600/cat4start.jpg
Okay so, if you're a Cat 3, there are 6 options this weekend:
ReplyDeleteMasters (if you're old)
Juniors (if you're young)
Cat 1/2/3
Cat 2/3
Cat 3/4
Single Speed
How's that for diluting the Cat 3 field!
I can top that.
ReplyDeleteAssuming we go off last weekend's model, women can:
Masters 40+ 4 (if you're old and slow)
Cat 4 (if you're younger and slow)
Juniors (if you're really young)
Open (if you're whatever we're left with)
Single Speed
And there are like 20 women altogether!
Re: 20 across
ReplyDeleteThe convention/rule seems to be limiting the starting grid to 8 per row. Making it 20 wide might make any turn first turn a bottleneck.
Straight from USA Cycling...
ReplyDeleteRequirements for upgrading via points:
4-3: Experience in 10 races or 10 points in 12 months
3-2: 10 points in 12 months (two wins is an automatic upgrade)
2-1: 20 points in 12 months (two wins is an automatic upgrade)
Does'nt take a genius to figure this out
Also straight from USA Cycling ...
ReplyDeleteCX category based on road or XC category:
Pro/1 (road) or Pro (MTB XC): CX 1
2 (road) or 1 (MTB XC): CX 2
3 (road) or 2 (MTB XC): CX 3
4/5 (road) or 3 (MTB XC): CX 4
Roger racing Cat 4 Sunday after he upgraded via points after Saturday's ride does not make him a sandbagger.
A bunch of the people racing the various Cat 4 races both days who came in with higher road/MTB categories than Cat 4 is the issue here.
someone doth protest too much! i say BAGGER!
ReplyDeleteis our buddy jt hiding out in the masters still?
ReplyDeleteThere should be one category on race day... the human category.
ReplyDeleteGO!
I race Open as a Cat4 n00b. Eat it.
ReplyDeleteYo Winkler are you gonna compile KC cross rankings again?
ReplyDeleteData drift and field numbers around here make those rankings pointless.
ReplyDeleteOpen looked good last weekend, 3s were light because 4s are full of baggers. There's more than one way to bag ...
Women's Masters 40+ can and do smoke most of the Men's 4's...old, maybe but not slow.....
ReplyDeleteAgreed.
ReplyDeleteAnd last year's KC cross rankings pulled from crossresults put most of the Cat 4 women's field ahead of Women's Open, which may have been the first indication that the system makes no sense.
the women's 'open' filed in our area does not a have a field loarge enough for the points system and crossresults.com to be accurate. but most of the other categories, i.e. the 3's, the master's and the 'open' fields, the points and crossresults.com is pretty accurate. you dont need 40-50 plus racer fields for the system to be accurate. however, you need more thena the 5-10 racers, such as the womens' 'open' field for it to be accurate. crossresults.com work's quite well. at the very least it works well enough to create a 'call-up' system for our races here locally. if their are some people who are not happy with the crossresults.com website, they either don't race enough, they are getting their ass kicked by their contemporaries or they are just plain bitter cuz they 'suck ass'!!
ReplyDeletewhat about that worm guy thats killing the 3/4s?
ReplyDeleteCrossresults.com is great. As noted above, any "points anomalies" do not have to do with field size per se, crossresults.com just doesn't work so well for comparing riders who don't frequently race against each other or against common competitors.
ReplyDeleteI do not plan to resurrect the KC cross rankings.
In defense of my husband (Roger Dodger Bagger), this is his FIRST semi-solid season racing CX (he has less than 10 starts)!! He has never raced road and has not held a USA cycling license for over 10 yrs. He has been back and forth to Iraq for extended "visits" over the past 5 years and is currently traveling to Georgia for 1-2 weeks a month EVERY month. His "training" is highly UNSTRUCTURED so if you can't beat him in the 4's than either lose some weight or train harder. BTW: he gets put in his place when he races Masters 40+. And yes, he will CAT up when he feels ready!
ReplyDeleteoh geez...wives...seriously?
ReplyDeleteSome guys dont need to train as much to be competitve. Therefore, one should race in a category that is similar to one's skill level. No? So, Mrs. Williams, are proud of your husband dominating the 'old-man' 'beer-drinking' 'softball playing' category race? I mean, I am sure Roger himself is very proud to be beating and winning in such a competitive race. Gosh, he even has the celebration at the finish line down. Does he practice that in the mirror in the morning or evenings? Do you offer him tips?
ReplyDeleteTwo wins is an auto-upgrade from Cat 4. The USAC rules, under which the license Roger races, say so.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure that when Roger is off doing what he does when he's not racing bikes, he ignores the rules.
That said, when you win a series around here, you generally race free the next year in the category one up from the one you won, so I'm not sure how this whole thing works.
(But yeah, celebrating when you kill the Cat 4 field is a bit like a few things I won't bother bringing up here.)
Appropriately coming from the wife of Roger, who personally sandbagged her first year as a 4 all year long.
ReplyDeletewinning the cat 4 race is like being the smartest kid in a special ed class. LOL
ReplyDelete