Hangover July 30, 2012

UGH…

Races were won, races were lost this weekend. If you want more details, you can read on…

At Cap Region, Anders Newbury won the 1/2/3 men’s, Dan Crespo won the 3 race and David Brown won the 4/5. Kerrin Strevell won the 1/2/3 women’s field, just outsprinting Anneliese Haines and Emily Spence from the look of the times, and Megan Cea won the 4 women’s field (by about 7 mins, yowzer). Full results here. At the Green and Gold Crit, Manny Goguen won the Pro/1/2/3, Bill Yabroudy just got Al Barouh and others at the line in the 3 field, Robert Gorman got the win in the 4’s and Cheryl Wolf took the women’s 1-4 race. Full results here.

Intermission…

Locally, the Lucarelli & Castaldi Cup race on Sun took place with Elvi Garcia winning the 1/2/3, Alfonso Torres winning the 4 and Jun Sugai winning the 5. Full results are here. Results for the Liberty Crit are located here. I won the sprint and points competition, and consequently the "Green Napkin" (thx Ernie), at the wedding I attended by eating 4 pieces of cake.

50 Comments

Dino Liner

There are several Canadian riders who have been racing Cat 2 but are registered for the Cat 3 race. Charlie Gorman is a former professional and he just finished 2nd at the Canadian National Championship (Masters A race) last month. Andrew Lees raced P12 last season, P123 this season. Dominic Picard raced 2012 Battenkill as a Cat 2. Sebastien Cossette finished 12th in the Canadian National Championships (Masters A race). Mattieu Fortier finished 16th in the same race.
http://www.road-results.com/racer/8161
http://www.road-results.com/racer/23262
http://www.road-results.com/racer/34552
http://www.road-results.com/racer/23260 did only 1/2/3 races
Andrew Lees’s Race History at road-results.com

C’mon now!!

Forese Dropout

Nothing new, I recall back in 2008 racing the Cat3 Unionvale with some really strong guys (this year the 3s were really loaded and are all 1s now). Anyway, a bunch of junior aussies showed up from the Forklifts team and just blew the race apart on the first lap. I believe 2 of the Aussies soloed off the front for wins. Kind of lame because these kids would have been in contention for the Pro1-2 race and were kind of toying with the 3 field.

china

The American Hype machine has been flubbed, 15 year old Chinese woman swimmer swam her leg of the relay faster than American Brian Lockhte.

How do you explain that?

Sander Nipple

Shout out to Christopher Ballard for winning the 4s race (rather than the 4/5) at Cap Region.

WTF sports

So Mayor Bloomberg decides to ban 20oz sodas. Yet someone in his administration approved Snapple Ice Tea vending machines in Schools. Now Bloomberg is trying to ban ready made breast milk, and wants new mothers to breast feed. Pretty soon you will be limited to how many babies you can have.

I am watching the Olympics SPORTING EVENTS and I am bombarded with commercials from Coca Cola and Macdonalds….huh? Really healthy choices there I must say.

Are people really that stupid in the US to fall for this type of manipulation?

Kyllian Bushing

Rain and the 3 field was merged with the 1-2 field. Having your ass handed to you in the rain makes 5 hours of driving less attractive.

Blaise O'Glory

couldn’t those Canadian guys get screwed if they get a big result and someone protests that they’re racing in the wrong field?

I’m all for artful sandbagging, but if you’re racing 2s one month then 3s the next it seems you’re kind of asking for some ill-will. It’s category doping!!!

JJ

JJ is soon to become a World Champion this year in Track Cycling 500 meter time trial. He is already a US National Champion in this event.

Olympiam

National Champion

Criterium Champion

World Champion

Go JJ.

Simon Downtube

Here the deal, if you are a Cat3 and complaining you have to ask yourself this:

1. Am I about to upgrade? if so then these are the level racers you will see soon;

2. Am I a new Cat3? if so then you wont likely factor into the race or if you do…, then see no. 1.

3. Finally, if you are worried about upgrade points, I suspect any Cat 2 international racer placing above you will not count toward your upgrade points total (i.e. you place 6th and the top 5 are Cat2s from the maple leaf country then you get first for upgrade points). Really just go out and kick their sandbagging asses. It will make the win all the more enjoyable.

Titouan Gel

In Canada once you’re a Master you have to pick a category. You either stay with a Senior cat – 1, 2 etc – or you go into a Masters cat. Different provinces have different rules for Masters cats. In some cases it’s age and in others (Ont) it’s ability. The national Masters results are all age-related. So A’s at the Nationwls are the young guys etc. We aren’t allowed to move from age to ability and back more than once in a season. So if you take a Masters license at the start of the season you can petition to move to the 3’s or 2’s but once you do you’re stuck there and vice verse.

When we go to the States we race on a UCI license. If you’ve ever raced your bike in another country you’ll know what this looks like. UCI cats – assuming your CDN cat is a Masters one – is an age related Masters cat. Not a senior numbered cat. You then can register for either the appropriate Masters cat or the senior cat you best fit into. Sometimes promoters will specify.

Long story short no rules are being broken and these guys aren’t sandbagging. They are old and can probably turn the screws in the 3’s making for a good race or be pack fill in the 1’s & 2’s. I’d guess they aren’t doing Masters cats because the high variability of experience in age related cats – particularly when you’re racing with guys you don’t know makes them a bit sketchy.

Dumb biker

@simon downtube
You are a moron and have obviously never earned a single upgrade point.

If you get 6th you get 6th place points, doesn’t matter if the top 5 was Schleck,Contador, Wiggins, Landis, and DA.

You still get 6th place points.

Kinda funny that last week everyone was harping to get their results +1’d because of DA, but USADA only tool his results from May19th onwards. Not retroactive.

Cosimo Steerer

The promoter of the Catskills says that no one is complaining about the fact that there are several Cat 2s and a Cat 1 registered to race in the Cat 3 field. Send him an email if you think this is unfair, please. info@anthemsports.us

Simon Downtube

Wrong partially – if you are in a mixed field and the guys above you are 2s and you are a 3, the system works that you score against your Category racers. This is pretty common. Often in mixed field GC racers at the end the promoter will rank the cats separately. Again, if you are that desperate for upgrade points and there are say 3 Canadians in the race you are worried about, you should not do worse than 4th. If you finish well below that then these guys made no difference to your inspired quest to the wonderful world of Cat2 racing.

Finally, if you feel you are ready for Cat2 and are so close to the upgrade, you should be able to beat a few 40plus Cat2s,… eitherway, I suspect these guys will have very little impact on your search for spandex glory…

dumb biker

pulled DIRECTLY FROM THE USA CYCLING WEBSITE

“The placing is the rider’s placing across the line. In a mixed category field, the riders in a higher category are not subtracted out (i.e. in a combined cat 3-4 race, if a category 4 rider is 6th across the line but is the 2nd cat 4, that rider gets 6th place points and not 2nd place points.)”

https://www.usacycling.org/news/user/story.php?id=580

Cosimo Steerer

Catskills is a joke. Why not let anyone race in the Cat 3s? Who cares. Cat 1s, former professionals. Why not let some 25 year olds race in the 50+? Hell, I want to race in the women’s field. Why not? Just because they have a UCI license they can pick and choose which Cat they race? You’re always going to have to deal with sandbaggers but lets not make it so damn easy. I mean the one guy was racing P/1 less than a year ago. One guy raced Cat 2 Battenkill a few months ago. What a bunch of losers. I don’t mind racing against stronger rider and I do P123 races for the hell of it but this is being underhanded and dishonest whether or not it’s against the rules. It’s just unethical to race a lower cat for one race. The only thing we ask when we shell out our $170 is that they make it as fair as possible. All the promoter would have to do is put them in the p12 race and use their past race results as the reason why. USAC official said it’s up to the promoter and the foreign riders to be placed in the correct Cat. I’m not here for pathetic prize $$, upgrade point or even winning. I love to race. Having Cat 1 and 2s sneak into the race sucks the fun out of it.

Memory Lane

Seems like an easy fix…..why can’t Dieter just move these guys to their appropriate field. You can’t just pick and chose what category you feel like racing in. WTF!!

mega lol's

you guys are HILARIOUS

do you seriously get super pissed about EVERYTHING that happens in your life?

DA dopes, KILL HIM

some old dudes rides in the 3’s, KILL HIM

Andy Shen farts, KILL HIM

its amazing

and btw, Cesar Marte(Mini Pollo) has been racing P/1 all year, but then won Sommerville as a 2. Of course none of you complained because you are all a bunch of slow cat4’s and 5’s

joshs

have you ever smelled andy’s farts? you wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss the death sentence if you had…

Benjamin Wave Ring

I don’t think you fully understand the situation. Catskills doesn’t have a Master’s category that these guys could enter – they are all under 40. That leaves them having to race in a Elite category – 1, 2 , 3 or I guess 4.

You could argue that they are sandbagging or maybe they’ve picked the Elite category that best reflects their condition. Who knows maybe they’ve got jobs, families etc and aren’t so interested in training these days.

Plus look at their results…86th in the Battenkill 2’s isn’t exactly killing it. But yeah you’re probably all right. A bunch of Canadian pro’s are driving from Ontario/Quebec to steal the victory and all that loot from honest Cat 3’s….because it would be totally worth it. As opposed to some guys who like riding bikes heading down for a weekend of fun and providing some great competition.

Simon Downtube

I guess I care a whole bunch less about results and upgrade points than some people. Stressing over upgrades and sandbaggers is hopeless Mr. Dumb biker. If you are legit, these guys wont matter. If you suck, these guys wont matter. Either way, you dont matter. BTW – I am guessing you are relatively new to this “sport”. after about 5 years of racing or when you hit the Cat1-2s you stop caring because you realize its all a silly game.

EPNO!

So, DA did it to impress Andy and Schmalz according to that article. The article is also internally inconsistent, saying he won Battenkill while juicing on HGH but later describing it as a “clean” win. Nope. Seems like DA was an … ok 5.

Benjamin Wave Ring

“Seems like an easy fix…..why can’t Dieter just move these guys to their appropriate field. You can’t just pick and chose what category you feel like racing in. WTF!!”

You really don’t get it. They are in their appropriate field. They DO NOT have Elite licenses and thus Dieter moving them to appropriate fields would be him guessing as to what field that is. If you don’t like the system then blame the UCI, not the riders or the promoter. They don’t have a Master’s category that they can race, they don’t carry a license with an Elite category on it – only a Master’s.

Memory Lane

There is nothing in that article that would somehow deter someone from doping…..no lesson learned. Sounds like the only lesson is don’t do events where you know there will be testing. And DA was accused of cheating several times on this very site….he’s not doing any “soul searching” or giving back to cycling. He’s reaping more attention now than he did while racing.

Blunder Butt

this is very foolish… there is one young cat 3 complaining about these guys. To the Cat 3, if you are destined to be a 2 or 1, these guys will have no bearing on that conquest… If you are slow, then these guys will have no bearing on that either. So maybe you fall in the Top 15 camp and so do they. Well then you better pedal a bit faster this weekend…. In the end, we are all out there for fun and not upgrade points. Do not let this bring your race down because you sound silly.

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