No Joy from Hola

if you are using hola, you are not well versed on VPNs. Google might be able to help

--- I'm lucky work has a london office, so I just plug into that.

Jules said:

No Joy from Hola

Tunnelbear.

UCI WTF are you doing. Where in the US is somebody broadcasting this? 

This is super stupid (actually straight up standard operating procedure for UCI), looking at the largest opportunity to grow audience for the sport and just block it. 

We may have gotten rid of our discount Sepp, but we have the same kinds of problems continuing, with reactionary decision making executed with straightup dumbassery. 

http://www.crossresults.com/racer/59271           Sand bag much? How come this guy hasn't been forced to upgrade?

Rick Perner said:

http://www.crossresults.com/racer/59271           Sand bag much? How come this guy hasn't been forced to upgrade?

Email your local USAC rep. People do that kind of shit all the time and it's really unsporting.

Jeremy Powers. The book of cross, Chapter 1.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-wCMpWbxHE

Jules said:

Rick Perner said:

http://www.crossresults.com/racer/59271           Sand bag much? How come this guy hasn't been forced to upgrade?

Email your local USAC rep. People do that kind of shit all the time and it's really unsporting.

You think that guy is bad, how about this dude who's been riding away from all the Cat 3/4 fields and winning by 30 seconds or more:

http://www.crossresults.com/racer/92574

This sort of thing, when I was a struggling to podium Cat 4 used to drive me insane. Now I've got other things that drive me batty.

Not big on sandbaggers, but to be fair the last 10 points were earned this weekend. He'll be full on sandbaggin' is he races 3/4 at Whirly. Should also be said, the MAC new rule: "cat 2s must race elite" is pretty much gonna end 3 to 2 voluntary upgrades in the region.

The jump from 3/4 to Elite is like whaaaaaaaat.

eloy said:

The jump from 3/4 to Elite is like whaaaaaaaat.

it gets to the issue of, why do we have 35+ 45+ 55+ fields, and can't have individual category races for each, rather than having this weird mis-mosh combined of 4/5, 3/4, Pro 1/2?

I would happily line up with the 3s if it wasn't at the end of the day, and it wasn't treated like Elite Lite (granted 35+ is like Elite Dry)*




*because 35+ riders would be old enough to know about the dry beer phenomenon from the 1990s.

Zima, the white guy rapping of the adult beverage world.

I cannot believe Zima did not pass the test of time.

Jeffrey White said:

I cannot believe Zima did not pass the test of time.

Neither did Vanilla Ice.

Neither did Alenis Morissette

1991 => 2007 ain't bad

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ar7afdfBHj4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPcyTyilmYY

All you Canucks stick up for each other.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCAiBmA_bK8

Dan Reiners said:

it gets to the issue of, why do we have 35+ 45+ 55+ fields, and can't have individual category races for each, rather than having this weird mis-mosh combined of 4/5, 3/4, Pro 1/2?

The category system should make it possible for people to race against those they're evenly matched against.  HPCX's relatively thin fields (well, most of them) demonstrate to me that they probably would have been better off with fewer races.  

I think that promoters go for ages because their key constituencies are over 35 years old.  

The aging cat 1/2...

58-year-old Cat 1 Al Blanchard can sure drive his bike, but he just doesn't have the strength anymore to compete in Elite fields.

Most appropriate field, Cat 4 40+

Cross posted on Supercross Volunteers thread:

Super Cross cup is fast approaching the weekend of November 21st. Newer members may not know that this is a premier cyclocross race in the region and that it is one of the ways that our members give back to the club.

This post is ask you to take a day off from work Friday the 20th to help with course setup. 

Setting up the course is rewarding, but we usually have fewer people wiling to take a day off from work. The past few years we have set up the course with as few as 3 people. This is not enough. We really need your help. 

I have been part of course set up for Supercross cup for the past several years and I find it gratifying to be part of transforming a park into a spectacular course. I encourage you to take the day off from work and come help out. 

Course setup is not a difficult job. In addition to taping the course, we hang sponsor barriers, move fencing, rake and blow leaves, etc. The challenge is that the sun sets at 4:30. We usually finish up using flashlights. 

If you cannot help Friday then PLEASE volunteer on Saturday and Sunday to help with registration, marshaling, take down, etc. Dan Reiners will be posting more details how you can help.

If you have difficulty due to transportation, etc. let me know as we might be able to help. Bring your friends :-)

Respond here or email me at livetoridebikes@gmail.com if interested or if you have questions.

cross posted on Supercross Volunteers thread:

Here is the Volunteers sign up sheet with various jobs for the whole weekend:

https://www.volunteersignup.org/Y8F4L

Please go ahead and start signing up. Feel free to share these links with friends outside the club as ALL VOLUNTEERS race for free!

Also, all volunteers MUST complete the volunteer waiver here.

Note that there is also a need to help with course setup on Thursday if you are available to do so. 

cross post from Group ride thread:

I'm going to ride the Stillwell Woods Mountain bike trails on the afternoon of Saturday the 24th on my Cross bike if anyone wants to join. The trails are a lot of fun and will improve your handling skills. Meet up location is at the end of the parking lot here.

I will start at 1:30. Respond on the group ride thread or email me if you are coming so I know to wait for you. Livetoridebikes@gmail.com 516-987-6404.

Bring TWO extra tubes and inflate your tires well. This is a mountain bike course with enough drops and roots to give you a pinch flat if you are running 20 lbs of pressure.

Marc Bertucco said:

The aging cat 1/2...

58-year-old Cat 1 Al Blanchard can sure drive his bike, but he just doesn't have the strength anymore to compete in Elite fields.

Then he can downgrade.  He probably should downgrade, as that's the point of categories.

It's also kind of odd the way it seems that we collectively accept that cat 5 racers should get their butt kicked in a 4/5 field, or cat 4 racers in a 3/4, but we're worried that an outlier like Al Blanchard won't be able to keep up if he races his category.

I looked at the 3/4 race from Sunday's HPCX.  the first cat 4 was 33rd of 38 finishers: Alyosha Smolarski.  

JP, basically off base -- probably pointless to argue, but here i go...

In a perfect world, yeah, all category 3 riders would be somewhat close to each others -- and maybe in many ways we are -- but the category system is not perfect. No one thinks it is.

Like Marc describes, a 22 year cat 2 is not the same than a 45, or 53 cat 2.

In the real world no one downgrades.

"under 35 cat 2s must race elite" is probably the most common critique of the 2015 MAC.

At HPCX, spent some time catching up with Michele Lee, I'll say this: which races and categories are hosted are well discussed and not taken lightly.

Ultimately, I agree with the last few decisions made for the MAC series, they all point in the same direction: you have to race up. 

It is racing, and it should be hard. Really hard.

The smaller fields could be a reflection of many things. For example: close by events, bigger CO race, and well, cx in the US is slowly becoming a warm weather event. People stay home when cold --- this board has examples of riders that appeared to choose not to race -- sidenote: these people should know I will never speak to them again.

Now let us go race our bikes, hard, really hard.

I really like the British version (or what's been described to me) where you have to continue to earn points to remain upgraded.

It has the dual advantage of solving for "long ago upgraded but no longer competitive" racers and it populates the lower categories with plenty of experience.

Eloy,

Doesn't seem off-base to me, but maybe I don't know what you're discussing.  I also don't think it's an argument, but a discussion.  but there, too, I might not understand.

I agree with this sentiment: "It is racing, and it should be hard. Really hard."

I think the questions are: what is competition?  what is fair? and probably most importantly, what motivates people to race?

I spoke briefly with MishMosh as well.  Seems that her better half needed the 35+ in order to feel it was worthwhile to compete in CX, even though he's a cat II on the road.  interestingly, I also spoke with Michael Zak, a strong local cat 2 who was parked next to us.  He was racing the 3/4 field because he likes racing and wants to feel in the mix.  He finished 27th.  

I like Jules' image of the British system.  It would prevent people from never downgrading (rules influence reality).  It incentivizes racing: people might increase their racing appearances just to make sure they don't get downgraded.  I also like the idea that it populates the lower categories with experienced riders.  That should make those races more dynamic, and that would be a benefit for everyone.

I have to get back to this: "Now let us go race our bikes, hard, really hard."  If only my chain had agreed.  

Congrats to HPCX competitors...thanks to your results, we finally cracked into the field of play. Came in 6th on day 2, with 215 total points to put us in 14th overall for the team MAC series standings. There are 128 different teams listed in the team competition!

Jim Feehan led the way with 75 points earned for his 4th place. Bertucco's 12th scored 52, Grehan in 26th earned 34, Anzola captured 33 points and finally even Partland's DNF (39th) picked up 21 points. Cruel irony, Phillip's excellent 42nd place out of nearly 60 racers wasn't worth any points (#hatethat).

Looking ahead, it seems like the minimum threshold for earning team points is around 169 points...which means, we're going to need more racers at Whirlybird and beyond if we want to compete in this category. For example, we were just 17 individual rider points shy of ranking amongst the top 10 teams during day 1 of HPCX.

So far, we've got Jim Feehan and Eloy Anzola signed up, Bertucco is going to register soon. Best case scenario, the three of us come up short for team points. But add in a few more guys racing and scoring*. How about it? Whirlybird has usually been a KCC favorite.


*Honestly, now that team points are auto-calculated on crossresults.com, I finally understand how this competition works. For years, the description in the race bible confused me. So let me share (in case I'm not the only one who was confused) how it works, basically...

1. Only the top 10 teams score team points on any given day.
2. Those top 10 teams are determined by the total number of points earned by individual riders across all categories of racing. However, all categories are not scored equally.
3. So, for example, in the Master's 35+ and 45+ categories, individual points go a generous 40 deep. 120 for the win, 20 for 40th place. 
4. Cat 4/5 men, Elites, 55+ and others make you place in the top 25 to earn any individual points. And while Elites and 55+ hand out 120 points for their wins, the 4/5 field winner only earns 60 points.
5. So once you've got your individual points, they are added up and if the sum of all individual points places your team among the top 10 at the race, you are scored a corresponding number of team points. (12 points for the "win" and 1 point for 10th place)
6. Finkraft, it may come as no surprise, with Aspholm scooping up 120 points for his frequent wins, and Blanchard doing almost as well, is winning the team competition with a total of 50 team points so far.
7. Kissena has 5 team points (all earned on Sunday). But 9th place in the team standings only has 9 points. So I think with a bit more participation in the MAC series, we could crack the top 10 by season's end.

Honestly, I'm not sure we care about the team competition, but there it is, something else to think about if you want.

This weekend will be a one race weekend. So far, it looks like I'll be at Marty's and not at Whirlybird.