The Crankies
The Crankies this year are beginning to become work. Which I despise, so we are going to keep up with our passing of the buck. We are going to put up nominees, and see who you vote for as winners – that way we won’t get sued. Genius!
Firstly, let me poach the best stuff from the comments section. Honorary Crankies for Justin and Evil, not that they get anything…
From our British Correspondent, Justin:
Rider most deserving of an upgrade yet constantly denied: Tie between Ken Harris and Olsen
Rider who got the fishiest upgrade: Blake’s rise to Cat 1 status.
The Ken Livingstone Award (regional humour) awarded to the rider you freely admit you completely misjudged and is actually a very witty and nice person when previously you assumed he was a corporate lawyer uptight type: Jeff King
The Laugh Out Loud Post of the Year: (the one where you did actually do just that whilst sat at your desk) – Again a tie between Matt Howard recent ode to JT on CRCANet about the weather – ” have you called the weather promoter” etc. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crcanet/message/14877- and JT’s reply to Lee3 about the “oh yeah, to make it appealing to non fact-freak
From the lovely Evil One:
Wish You Weren’t Here” Award: John Loehner – when he’s on the start line, you’re in for a hard day.
“Greta Garbo” Award: Justin Lubeley, who makes sure there are no cameras around when he wins, to maintain his privacy.
“Express Train” Award: Anthony Alessio, who sprinted to the first win of the year and then was never seen again.
“Subteam? I Don’t Need No Stinking Subteam” Award: Tie: Doug O’Neill (July 30 points race), ADM (Christiana Cat 3 RR).
“Needs a New Nickname” Award: Harlem a “skinscraper” no more?
“Spice of Life” Award: Tie between whoever came up with the Maltese team format and whoever first suggested putting the finish line behind the Met.
“That’ll Show Them” Award: Team NYVelocity, who won a bunch of races and the B team challenge.
“Now That’s More Like It” Award: Central Park, where in 2006 the pavement was (mostly) good, races didn’t get snowed or rained out (OK, one of each), there were no political conventions, fatal accidents, massive crashes, or riders assaulting each other, and there were not one but two excellent open races (Mengoni and Maltese) with strong fields.
And now, the first categories
Rider of the Year@##=#<1,r>@##=#
Roger Aspholm
Ken Harris
Will Riffelmacher
Dan Schmalz
Woman Rider of the Year
Caryl Gale
Heather LaBance
Sarah Sauvayre
Dan Schmalz
So, vote away. No login, but we’re deleting anything flame-y. So sez Mr. Former Mullet.
dlwg jyokd ozvugdq szrnocy udobmsn ertzfb oqdvt
dlwg jyokd ozvugdq szrnocy udobmsn ertzfb oqdvt
dlwg jyokd ozvugdq szrnocy udobmsn ertzfb oqdvt
Number is the sh-t. Case in point? Throw yourself against cat 1 and cat 2 in the Housatonic Race see if how many times you can make it through the KOM climb. Soon you realize they are just faster and have better endurance. In short, their FT is higher than yours. I seriously doubt you can have a FT profile of a cat4 and racing as a cat2 or cat1.
Thanks guys. In retrospect, I have to agree that my game plan last fall at Harriman was, well, not so smart. But sometimes crazy moves work. I tried, failed and learned. So it goes. Mainly I was pissed off after breaking my rib the week before at GMSR and was a little too eager to make up for a lackluster showing.
I hope you guys are staying warm out there this week,
Will
I read that the guys threshold is close to 400w!
Rifflemacher and Emma Nelson for most improved. What a coincidence, they both left CRCA. Racing beyond the bowling league in lycra as Schmalz puts it, for them. Is Blake headed for a breakout year now that he’s left CRCA?
who cares what his threshold is. pay attention to results not meaningless training data.
In training with Dr. Ferrari, Lance knew if he was ready for Le Tour when his power was a set percentage of his weight. I forget the number but they worked it out that you had to have this wt/watts ratio and they were right on target. Preparation was geared to meet the number by increasing power and losing weight. With his power and with more racing experience Will will do great. The numbers matter.
I vote Riffelmacher for rider of the year. He may not yet be quite the best rider in the area, but his ascent through the ranks this past year was amazing and even if it was somewhat foolhardy, he gets bonus points for that incredible ride at fall Harriman.
Yeah, I agree. Calling Blake a scammer is flamey in my opinion.
if this thread isn’t riddled with personal insults I’d hate to see what "flame-y" is all about. You guys might want to look up "flame bait" in Wikipedia. This method for increasing readership of your site is getting rather tired.
Legit discussion, no personal insults, equal parts defenders and detractors. Not flame-y in my book.
except all the insults of blake. good policy.
who is blake?
Yeah, stop being so….cranky.
"why bother nominating riders over 28?…What is wrong with you people?"
They’re called, "The Crankys". They’re not real awards.
bunch of yentas
hey, why bother nominating riders over 28? KEN Harris is an old fart, and so is Roger. At least Roger knows it. What is wrong with you people? We have bunch of rider under 25, like Devin, Gavi, Peter, etc…
I needed a bone marrow transplant and Blake was the only one who would submit to the grueling scrape of a surgeon’s scalpel so that I could stay on this earth. You all can say what you want, but Longacre is a humanitarian and a donor.
"Let’s hear Blake’s side"
Let’s use the Landis FFF as a trial for Blake! We could all look down our noses at him, and he could flip us the bird while pounding a brew.
Blake very good CAT 1.
(Pause)
NOT!!!!
Parts of the gwb are iced over. I fishtailed and needed to walk my bike over the last patch. I felt stupid enough until who comes flying up behind me? Blake. Yells for me to get out of the way. I do so, no probs. As he passes, he nods his head disapprovingly. It pissed me off.
Cat 1 legs? 0 class.
No one’s blaming Blake for taking the upgrade. USCF is violating their own policies in giving it. If Blake shows to hear floyd, I’d want to hear what he has to say in person. I have no problem in telling him to his face that according to his results he doesn’t have the points to upgrade and that getting the upgrade is against USCF policy. i’m very interested to hear how this went down. Maybe there’s a good reason. Please tell.
quick, someone call the WAAAHHHHHMMBULLLANNCCE!
you all would have been happy to have gotten that upgrade. suck it up.
To all those taking trash about Blake. Can we move on from this subject? You are all starting to sound like a bunch of jealous teen-age girls, that’s right a bunch of pansies. Non of you have the guts to say that to him directly let alone post your real name on this site. Keep riding in your endurance zones and keep reading your velo news – may be someday you may have the oppty to suck Blake’s wheel.
S
No one has suggested putting all riders in one field, except some guy using that as a rhetorial argument. What I’ve suggested is that it’s not a bad thing if riders can upgrade themselves. That would not result in begininers flying out the back as you did in the skate races, unless you choose to ride a higher level race.
This is funny. Couple of things IMHO (I learned that acronym from Jeff King who think he’s Awesome):
Tony is a dick.
lee3 is misunderstood.
JT is awesome.
Starting a hard race doesn’t mean shit. Finishing with results does. I speak from experience. I’ve started plenty of hard races and stopped before finishing because I lost interest or felt like crap. No glory in that.
USCF is what it is. Don’t fight it. Beat it. The rules are written in black and white. If you want to upgrade, go do it. If you can’t, enjoy where you are. Bike racing is fun regardless of your category.
And someone said something like "Finishing midpack in a 1/2 race isn’t really indicative of anything because once people don’t make the decisive break they throw in the towel to save it for another day." There is SOME truth in that. We all know it.
End.
Maybe someone can explain how Blake got his upgrade?
Not raggin on him, just want to know why USCF thinks he is special.
More special than Riffelmacher, Sherry and Aspholm who all beat him. Is his upgrade fair to them?
here’s your 2 cents back
i agree with chris m. toni doesn’t know what the hell he/she is talking about. toni, have you ever done a race as hard as the pro 1 2 at housatonic? i don’t think so. blake was in the top 30 there. that’s a lot better than winning some crap shoot local park race field sprint. face it, sprinting is mostly luck. anybody can win a field sprint if they’re in the right place at the right time. what blake is doing is hard.
love the bathrobe
..and buy a name to flame with.;)
Slamming a rider in the media from shadows….how original.
not even park sprints.
Getting top 10 or top 8 is not that big a deal — balls and luck might be enough. But winning is a diff story.
That said, while top 30 in Prospect is no big deal, Housatonic is. GMSR even more so
and all the local riders who try their best at a high level
Having a variety of categories including lower one gives everyone a chance to compete. I tried inline skate racing for a few years where there are no categories. It’s no fun getting dropped in the first minute of a race. Inline races are races for pros and top amateurs. For everyone else, they’re an organized group ride.
I’m just a Cat 5, but its alot more fun suffering when you have a shot at a result at the end.
Toni, I think were more or less all on the same page here – Im not advocating a Tri-rule approach – I was just really pointing out that all races are not equal, even if the rules treat them the same (which is kinda fair as long as they meet the criteria). There is no doubt that some races attract a deeper field, which is demonstrable quite easily, and that a top quartile finish with a select group at GMSR on a long road race aint the same thing as 20th at Branchbrook in a sprint pack (please, lets not debate this…). Props worthy at a minimum.
Clearly though USCF does appreciate these differences, as Im told points in "hard" regional races are counted vs sometimes flat local races not all counting in an upgrade submission if its all you have. Im not 100% sure of this, btw, but am going on the word of others on this.
I cant believe so many people hate on this guy. He’s by far one of the coolest local riders we have and I for one am glad we have’em up there racing pro 1 fields. Lets face it we don’t have many to cheer for. He does hard races and I cheer’em on when he’s mixin it up. Who cares how he got up there – I’m just glad there’s a local guy representing and having fun doin it.
But not a race that’s just a bunch of 3s with a few good guys thrown in. A race where guys who are competive in regional were getting dropped.
The course was only medium-hard, but the smack was on from the get-go. For three hours, and I was amazed to be there at the end.
ITS JUDY!!!!
I’m not dissing it. Nice work. All I am saying it that it is not worth upgrade points for finishing a hard race.
Of course, some races aer harder than others but that doesn’t mean a better riders win long hilly races and lessor riders win short fast races.
but MADLY hard?
come on now
And somewhat, but not completely, agree with him. It depends on the race. Fighting for 30th in some park race where everyone who wants to can finish (even if winning is hard) is no big whoop.
But there is value to finishing (and even starting) some more difficult events. How many local guys even line up for p-1-2 GMSR?
I’m not saying stuff like that is worth an upgrade, but it’s worth props.
One of my best rides was as a 3 in a madly hard 1-2-3 in New Hampshire. Guys from all over New England and Quebec. I survived to what was left of the "field" and sprinted for tenth. Damn proud. I thought was was the first 3 also, but one guy (who later made it to 1) was ahead of me.
And finishing the p-1-2 at Fitchburg a couple times (in about 100th place). But I finished! Don’t diss that.
have trouble understanding Toni’s post?
"At least the last place guy was probably using his brain a little."
if you were using your brain you wouldn’t be in last place
Chris M:
It sounds like you are trying to make road racing into tri-geek-a-thons. Rankings inside of races, just does not fly in road racing. One race, if you get top 6 you get points, otherwise you don’t. This "I was the top cat 3, so it doesn’t matter that I got 30th place, I won" is total BS and makes me want to scream.
One more thing that makes me want to scream. " I would hope would count for something in a race that doesn’t finish in a pack sprint like GMSR Road Race but a trickle-in according to pure fitness "
Chris, this is not a tri even, this is bike racing. Sprinting is part of bike racing. Results are results. You don’t get extra credit for hilly races.
discretionary upgrades aren’t necessarily bad. wish the USCF used them more rationally. I don’t know if Tom Auth is still racing but he should be at least a 3. If he was a few years younger, there should be no question about making him a 2 without doing anymore Cat 4 races.
Too many sticklers for enforcing rules with no flexiibility or sense, upgrades , dq’s etc. and then they do a 180 and give blake an upgrade.
Why does this guy being a 1 bother you? Does it "devalue" your own ranking? How about this: compare your results to his and use that to see who’s "better" Do the hard races he does and use that for your ego, not some piece of paper.
the rep who gave it to him is the president of USCF. All Cat 1 upgrades go through colorado and are approved by the president. All other upgrades are done by the local rep, Judy Miller.
Riffelmacher, Aspholm and Sherry beat Blake at Fitchburg and Green Mtn. They are all still 2’s.
There is no argument with blake, just with USCF being so inconsistent. Deny the winner of one of the hardest Cat 3 races a Cat 3 upgrade and give a Cat 2 mid-packer with 0 points a Cat 1 upgrade.
Blake’s Cat 1 should be rescinded and the rep who gave it to him should be questioned about why he got it in the first place. Its total BS. There was not 1 result in that list that warrants the upgrade, let alone the points or demonstration of talent that a Cat 1 should have. At best, the results show that he deserves to be a Cat 2, though 30’s and 40’s placings are never anything to write home about since guys that race a lot tend to bag when they find themselves out of contention for places or money – saving it for the next race. In some ways, 30’s and 40’s are more pathetic than last place. At least the last place guy was probably using his brain a little.
Look, I guess I know the answer to this, but it would seem to count for something that Blake enters races with several dozen pros in them and still holds his own – do you really have to beat all the pros as a Cat 2 just to get upgraded to Cat 1? What if he’s top 3 in the Cat 2’s in the race in question, and beats most of the Cat 1s? This could have been the case…and I would hope would count for something in a race that doesn’t finish in a pack sprint like GMSR Road Race but a trickle-in according to pure fitness – it aint Prospect Park. Whatev – Im outta my league here as a lowly cat 4, but just thought Id mention…
"training and resting hard".
I like that. "Resting hard" is such a great way to say it.
We do have a dozen or so cats when you take juniors and masters into account. Frankly, it’s the only way you can get 1,000 racers on one course safely at one time. Plus it’s a lot more fun to race in a field where you can be competitive or finish with the field. This is supposed to be fun at the end of the day.
petty, but JFT annoys the hell out of me.
Mr Adm:
If that’s your real name. "We do have a dozen or so cats ". i stopped reading your post right there. That is just creepy. Dogs are better
"I respect your view but I would argue that if cats don’t matter, lets just have one men’s race like they do in other countries. No lower cat races."
You’re taking what I said (too much emphasis on catergories) to an extreme to knock it down. I can play that game too if you want: if categories are so important, please tell me why do we only have five categories? (Or six if you include pros.) Shouldn’t we have at least two dozen categories to really differentiate riders? Right?
Do you like that type of rhetorical game?
More seriously, I do think we take categories too seriously. Unless races are filling, I don’t see why having riders being able to upgrade themselves should matter. In fact, when I was on the board of CRCA I wanted riders to be able to upgrade themselves within our club, but couldn’t get agreement on that.
"Also, ambition? Most of the cat 4s I see have lots of ambition. Should they all race whatever cat they want?"
People talk ambition. I mean ambition put in practice. Going to the big races. Training and resting hard.
Upgrades from Cat 2 to Cat 1 must be approved by the president of USCF. All other upgrades are handled by the local rep, Judy Miller.
The upgrade does matter since there are races you can enter as a 1 and not a 2. And you have to be a 1 to be on some teams.
As for the Green Mtn. race, Mike Sherry finished 30th, ahead of Blake and Will was top 20.
After the bullshit with Olsen and Ken it’s hard to understand this exception. Again, it’s not about Blake, it’sabout the USCF.
This must be Blake defending himself, LaCorte style.
1. Blake got an upgrade because someone in the higher ups at USA Cycling did him a favor. We all ride hard races and often finish midpack. That’s really not that impressive. It’s certainly not upgradable.
2 Floyd tested postitive because he took banned substances.
3. Ken Harris had trouble with his upgrade because he didn’t race enough qualifynig races. The rules are pretty clear. He’s still a great rider, but the rules are what they are.
His bad ass result is 41st in a regional, non-nrc, mostly amateur riders race? Wow, that is a reach man. I didn’t realize that pack fill was so impressive.
Why bother with a yellow line rule in races? Because you’ll die.
Why a dangerous riding rule? See above.
Why bother with rules about performance enhancing drugs? I’m appealing so my lawyer advises me not to comments.
Anything else?
I’ve only met him once, but I know that Blake races some bad ass out of town races.
Please refer to:
09/01/2006 – Green Mountain Stage Race – Road Race – Pro/Cat 1/2
41 Blake Longacre 180972 77 CRCA/Merrill Lynch – Hincapie Sportwear
That stage was a bitch and that’s a great result.
They upgraded him and he deserves to be there.
That should be the end of it, right?
It is one thing to criticize the uscf for not GIVING upgrades, but calling out a kid that got one?
And he’s not outclassed.
I agree with Justin. And I will add that Blake should be ashamed to scam his way into a cat. 1. And the district rep that gave it to him should be fired.
JT:
I respect your view but I would argue that if cats don’t matter, lets just have one men’s race like they do in other countries. No lower cat races. Also, ambition? Most of the cat 4s I see have lots of ambition. Should they all race whatever cat they want?
To me, Cat 1 shouild be a sign that you are a top amature racer in the country, not just something that you can BS your way into so you can try to impress people who don’t know better.
"I view this more as a dig at the USCF (or whoever it is) that can show such blatent double standards"
Well I was torn to shreds by your rapier-like wit and repartie there Mr Anon. By your reasoning 90% of people who pin a number on and throw their leg over a bike should be a Cat 1 because they ARE FASTER THAN ME !
To me the point is – rules are there for a reason. If the USCF (or whoever) can’t upgrade Ken or Olsen for following the rules and then upgrade someone else who doesn’t follow the rules then it makes for a mockery of the whole system. If these rules aren’t going to be followed then why bother with a yellow line rule in races, or a dangerous riding rule or why bother with rules about performance enhancing drugs. And if the rules don’t apply why bother with categories at all – let the chips lie where they fall and everyone can race in whatever category they choose.
Enough with the "No offense to him, but he’s a sandbagging ass,"
Blake is a Cat 1 because HE’S FASTER THAN YOU
or smarter, or a nicer guy
But there is no point in being a cat 1 unless you have ambition to ride big races, which Blake does. I barely no the guy, but know he has ambition, which should be applauded.
Frankly I don’t see why people make such a big deal about categories. Let’s make a big deal about riding, and about trying.
Its not that Blake isn’t strong enough to be a Cat 2 – though I’ve no idea how you from bring a Cat2 with no top 10’s to a Cat 1 – but how did Blake even get to Cat 2 status. Again not saying hes not strong enough (he is) but if Ken can consistently place and win in regional Cat 3 and local cat 1/2/3/ races and get denied how can Blake jump the queue whilst dealing with the same due process.
By the way – sorry to hound Blake – I view this more as a dig at the USCF (or whoever it is) that can show such blatent double standards in regards to upgrades.
Anyway Crankies – Roger A and Heather.
eugene and phyx
kidpantyhose
No results worthy of upgrade on USCF site.
09/03/2006 – Green Mountain Stage Race – Road Race – Pro/Cat 1/2
46 Blake Longacre 180972 77 CRCA/Merrill Lynch – Hincapie Sportwear
09/01/2006 – Green Mountain Stage Race – Road Race – Pro/Cat 1/2
41 Blake Longacre 180972 77 CRCA/Merrill Lynch – Hincapie Sportwear
07/16/2006 – Unionvale Road Race – Road Race – Pro/Cat 1/2
16 Blake Longacre 180972 0:10:28 19 CRCA/Merrill Lynch – Hincapie Sportwear
07/08/2006 – Lou Maltese Memorial – Road Race – Cat 1/2/3
DNF Blake Longacre 180972 96 CRCA/Merrill Lynch – Hincapie
07/02/2006 – 47th Annual Fitchburg Longsjo Classic – Stage Race – Cat 2
21 Blake Longacre 180972 8:06:51 612 CRCA/Merrill Lynch –
07/02/2006 – 47th Annual Fitchburg Longsjo Classic – Criterium – Cat 2
54 Blake Longacre 180972 1:26:34 612 CRCA/Merrill Lynch –
07/01/2006 – 47th Annual Fitchburg Longsjo Classic – Road Race – Cat 2
27 Blake Longacre 180972 04:07:32 612 CRCA/Merrill Lynch –
06/30/2006 – 47th Annual Fitchburg Longsjo Classic – Road Race – Cat 2
28 Blake Longacre 180972 02:17:17 612 CRCA/Merrill Lynch –
06/29/2006 – 47th Annual Fitchburg Longsjo Classic – Individual Time Trial – Cat 2
24 Blake Longacre 180972 00:15:28.47 612 CRCA/Merrill Lynch –
06/18/2006 – Housatonic Hills Road Race – Road Race – Pro/Cat 1/2
26 Blake Longacre 180972 0:07:26 53 CRCA/Merrill Lynch – Hincapie Sportwear
06/10/2006 – Balloon Festival Classic/NYS RR Championships – Road Race – Cat 1/2/3
DNF Blake Longacre 180972 144 CRCA/Merrill Lynch – Hincapie Sportwear
04/15/2006 – Battenkill-Roubaix – Road Race – Cat 1/2/3
24 Blake Longacre 180972 2:24:51 34 CRCA / Merrill Lynch-Hincapie
05/25/2002 – Snake Alley Criterium – Criterium – Cat 3
DNP Blake Longacre 180972 24 Northwestern-Grosso Sport
"Barbaro (you mean the racehorse?) critiquing the intellectual viabilty of jelly beans" mmmm — even when I switch the order of the words around that still doesn’t make any sense
Seriously, how did Blake get his upgrade? This is no flame- I’m just curious about results. Does anyone know of any?
oh no, did I just start a man-crush?
next week there’ll be a thread on who deserved a Cranky but didn’t get one.
named KIDPANTYHOSE criticizing the seriousness of the crankies
is like Barbaro critiquing the intellectual viability of jelly beans
You forgot the Team Adler award.
i love it — its the crankies awards thread here– so let me tell you about my jock itch or some inanity about the weather
syc
1st CRCA in Spring Bear
1st CRCA in Nancy Morgenstern Fall Bear
1st CRCA Housatonic Hills
4th CRCA Jiminy Peak
There’s probably much more.
Maybe the nod goes to Heather but she’s followed by Katie Lambden, Emma Nelson and Mara Miller.
Katie gets points on most challenging schedule. Emma gets most improved.
Schmalz gets honorable mention for best legs.
65 tops
Men: Ken was CRCA rider of the year, and Roger is perennially great, but Will R. (like David Wiswell) had the real breakout year. Women: As dominant as Caryl and Sarah were locally, Heather L. had big results out of town (Fitchburg, etc).
schmalz is of course the most deserving of all, but like Marlon Brando he’d probably boycott the award ceremony and retreat to his remote island paradise.
what’s the coldest temp everyone will ride in…
A)in the park
B)out on the open road
but in my case there’s no chafing just pressure. it’s also harder to get out of the saddle on a trainer for any length of time.
winter sucks, that’s all.
Road vibration moves you and the bike together and your muscles bend and compress. On the rollers or the trainer you are on a fixed object with nothing to make your muscles get bouncy. Shave higher, rub anti-chafe lotion pre-ride and shower ASAP and use more lotion or talc afterwards.
why is that one can ride on the road for a few hours, no problem but one hour on a trainer is excruciating down there – same bike/saddle?
I liked Chris more as a sycophant.
Honestly, Im bored of this whole topic. Isnt this like the 4th thread for a single discussion? Sigh. Winter is soooo long. All I care about right now is avoiding the dreaded trainer-chafe. 2006 is so ’87…
Harris and Sauvayre